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[toulouse]

Hiya gang,

Having been a lurker (and questioner) on this form, I detect that many other forum members would not recommend Norton Security products. Just a quick question for those of you who would like to comment : What (aside from the fact that you have to pay for them) is wrong with Norton Security products ?

TIA

toulouse

[tuftedduck]

The concensus of opinion seems to be:-

It is expensive.
It is a resource hog........very heavy on RAM etc.
It is very intrusive.
It is the very devil to get rid of.
It does not have a particularly good detection rate.

Some people love Norton................I tried it once and had endless trouble with failed updates and a lack of decent response from their techelp when things went wrong.
Never again.

[toulouse]

@tuftedduck

Ok, thanks for that. I too have been a Norton user for a couple of years now. After upgrading NIS last year I had no end of problems with the One Button Checkup which kept reporting that it had found problems, and on attempting to fix them, reporting exactly the same problems again. A lengthy exchange with Tech Support got me nowhere, until one day I discovered a LOT of files which seemed to have been left around after a failed upgrade. When I removed them manually (not an easy task), the problem or as they call it 'issue' went away.

Sadly, I've just upgraded to Norton 360 because it seemed to offer an all in one package, which had the effect of removing NIS, and they have just tried to bill my credit card for a renewal of NIS, although it wasn't due for renewal until 12 July.

I have seen many (mainly positive) comments about AVG. What are you using now ?

TTFN

Mick

 

[Yorkie]

I ran it for the 3 months trial period that seems to be on every new PC and had no trouble with it whatsoever.
But for personal use there are plenty of free applications with a proven record, and being from Yorkshire that's our favourite price.

If you are running a business, that's a different matter and you would be a fool not to purchase something with enhanced features and better tech support than the freebies.

[tuftedduck]

I have AVG version 8.0.101, the freebie one.

Some people have had probs. with this, but if you read the installation/users guide and work it properly there are bo problems to be had in it's operation.

There is an issue at the moment in that AVG is conflicting with spywareblaster and the immunisation feature of spybot search and destroy in that AVG is reporting as "warnings" the defences that these progs have put in the registry.
AVG appear unwilling to change their prog to accomodate this issue, but the conflict is easily avoided (if you have either or both of the progs installed) by disabling the spywareblaster protection and the spybot immunisation for the duration of the AVG scan, then switch them back on.

AVG version 8 now includes anti-spyware as well as anti-virus resident protection, as well as mail scanning, link scanners etc.
It does use a bit of resource, about 40mgbs of ram whilst working in the background and about 26mgbs of HDD space.

If you go to http://freeforum.avg.com/read.php?13,122766,backpage=,sv= and follow the link therein, you can download an AVG user manual as a pdf of about 3mgbs.

I like AVG and have had no problems with it, and reckon it is as good as any other freebie, better than some and better than some of the paid for jobs.
Others detest it and would recommend Avast.........which I think is every bit as good as AVG in detection rates and is currently without the spyware conflicts mentioned above.

I think it is a case of trying and seeing which you get along with.

[Floydoid]

It's a resource hog, pure and simple.

[dave.m]

TL,
Following comments on other forums, the Norton 360 is about the best that Norton have turned out and does not use as much resources as the previous Internet Security programs that they sold.
As you have experience with Norton pre 360 you will probably notice a vast improvement.
The main problem, apart from the list that TD pointed out is that for some one to try it and not like it, they have paid a full years subscription to Norton.
If the 360 came on a free 1 month or three month trial then OK some would start recommending it, but not at the moment for me.
dave

[toulouse]

@dave.m,

Yes, thanks for that dave. I somehow have the feeling that I've been HAD

TTFN

[kitz]

I quiet happily ran NAV for many years on several years without any problems.  It was only the NIS that I considered to be a resource hog.
Then a couple of years ago Norton seemed to change their NAV product quite a lot and I found that it seemed to become a bit of a resource hog.

I then switched to AVG which I used for quite a while without any problems.  Unfort I was one of those that the latest AVG seemed to annoy.  For me the final straw was the false postive for my FTP server..  and many valid progs that I had coded/written myself from my college days.
In all fairness these aren't things that the average user is likely to come across, but AVGs lack of easily being able to classify these progs as safe was a turnoff for me.

I'm now using Avast and although I had a few niggles at first, Ive been able to overcome them.



---------------
Bit off-topic in a way but I was doing some research the other night into routers and ended up from google at a page that was really very naughty and was trying to install unwanted software on my PC.
I was later on the phone to mr_chris (who uses AVG) and I sent him to the site to have a look at just how naughty the page was (by naughty I dont mean pr0n lol). 
Anyhow whilst "playing with the page" my Avast was going crazy warning me that the page was trying to install malware.. yet AVG didnt doing anything and he ended up in a bit of a loop and having to close down IE to make sure it didnt install.


BTW I reported said page to relevant authorities. - particularly google since it was top of their page on a search for something to do with dsl router commands.  I notice google's now removed it.

[toulouse]

@kitz,

Thanks for your interesting comments. I assume that when you refer to AVG, you mean the FREE version ? Maybe the paid for one is a little more flexible - just my 2p worth. I suppose, as with a lot of things these days, it's a case of either you pays your money and you takes your choice or try out all the freebies and see which one suits. I'm a little annoyed about the thing I mentioned earlier about automatic renewal, especially as it wasn't due to be renewed until 12 July. You gotta keep your eyes on these b*ggers.

TTFN

Mick

[tuftedduck]

@ Kitz On the question of the "dodgy" site, it would be interesting to know which browsers yourself and mr_chris ae using as the "link scanner" thingy in AVG works only with IE and Firefox............us Opera types are out in the cold again  

[kitz]

I assume that when you refer to AVG, you mean the FREE version ? Maybe the paid for one is a little more flexible - just my 2p worth.

Yes the free edition - and yes I believe the paid for version does have lot more flexibility.

[kitz]

@ TD -

I mostly use Firefox.  I do like Opera, but tend to use it less these days than I used to :/

I tried said site in all 3 browsers actually though because I was interested in what it was doing (Ive always had a bit of an interest in viruses/virii /malware or whatever since my dissertation days).

The link scanner came up zilch on all of them on that particular day.  It is interesting to note that google appear to have acted on my report, but I also advised to McAffee site content adviser.. who have done absolute zilch about it and its still showing as being queued for testing 6 days after I reported it.  I notice someone else has also reported it and has left manual comments though.


I dont want to link to said site for obvious reasons.. as I'd hate anyone to go there.
But since I first reported it theres articles that have since been written about the full extent of scam on a couple of security related sites. 
It appears said company has also bought several domains that are very similar to some big names ie MSN  to mislead users. 

I really cant believe that McAfee has done naff all about it 6 days later. 

[oldfogy]

I also used to be a avid fan of Symantec "Norton Works" and liked the idea of being able to run Cleanup, Fix registry problems, Defrag etc and Security protection from within one program instead of having half a dozen programs installed to do the same functions. And I must say I never really had any problems with it, until about 2 years ago.

Then, after starting to take notice of other peoples comments with regards how slow their systems seemed to be running I decided to remove Norton and try for myself, and it was like having a new faster PC without the added expense.

[roseway]

>> viruses/virii

Viruses please! I could give you a lecture on Latin declensions, but I'll spare you that, just so long as you never use that horrible non-word "virii".