Had it with Norton - Recommendations for Replacement
 

Number #1 son opened an attachment to an email sent to him by a friend this afternoon. You guessed it, the email was not knowingly sent by a friend, and the attachment of course was a virus. Here's the rub, the virus (W32.Beagle.BH@mm) is 6 months old. Norton Antivirus, with current definitions on the PC did not detect it, and the built in Norton on Yahoo did not detect it! :mad:

After spending almost 2 hours tonight fighting the virus (and winning!), I'm ready to toss Norton on its ....

Does anyone have any antivirus/firewall recommendations?

I'm not a huge McAfee fan

I've heard good things about Avast Antivirus . I tested Avast on the offending email (which is still in his yahoo email), it did catch it. Does anyone use Avast? Happy with it?

Thanks!

I use Trend Micro's PC-cillin, and so far I like it. It does everything that Norton does, but does not annyo me as much as Norton (such as no subcription fees). The 2002 version I have is regullarly updated which is a plus, and it always caught whatever virus came my way. I like the fact that you can send a report to Trend Micro about a quartined virus, and they will email you back rather quickly about how you can remove it.

Ive cant say much about McAffee, since ive always have had issues with their products. There is also AVG Antivirus, which is the best free antivirus available (I think updates are every other day).

Long time AVG fan.

I don't use a firewall as I trust my Linksys with Sveasoft to do that for me. I do run Microsoft spyware scanner.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/Get+AVG+FREE/lng/us/tpl/v5

Norton is way too bloated anyway, major resource hog.

I just dumped Norton AntiVirus and Firewall on my desktop yesterday for AVG antivirus and firewall. Norton was causing problems, difficult to configure, and for some reason the LiveUpdate wouldn't complete.

I use free AVG on my kids computer and once all the licenses for Norton are over everymachine in the house will be changed to AVG.

second
 

second that.

AVG has been working great, like the newer intereface, easier to use than the previous version.

I've been subscribed to McAfee for over three years. Never been infected.

Radical Solution
 

Dump your PC. Get yourself a Mac!
Cheers
A.
PS Ready to be flamed!:D

I use Norton 2002. I bought updated CDs twice but was unable to get them to work with my computer. Evidently there is some sort of incompatibility with their more recent versions and Compac/Millenium. Or at least with MY computer and Norton 2004, etc.

But I was considerably more displeased with McAfee, which I bought after the dysfunctional Norton, about a year ago (think it was about a year? not sure). Problem was updating virus definitions with McAfee. In order to update virus definitions, I had to accept cookies from advertisers, including Doubleclick. That really annoyed me, since I use virus/firewall/spyware protection to avoid that sort of tracking. :mad:

May give AVG a try. Interesting information on ability to detect viruses. Thanks.

I dumbed Norton for Zone Alarm -- it takes a bit of work to set it up and seems to update it's virus definitions daily, but it's worked fine for me.

I've kept the Norton Utilities part on my PC

Bob H

I hate Norton, with its pop-ups and reminders and the way it blocks certain legit downloads, etc.

Based upon the recs here, I think I'll completely uninstall Norton and try AVG.

I have been very happy with Anti-Vir

Free for personal use.

It has caught things that Mcafee/Norton didn't.

http://www.free-av.com/

Another happy AVG user.

As all my Norton licenses expire at home and at the office, I switch over. Just too much agravation with Norton.

My corporate laptop has Norton. My desktops at home have AVG & Avast, along with Zone Alarm. Can't complain about any of them.

If you do plan to use Zone Alarm, do not update it whenever it bugs you to. I'd wait for a week or so to make sure it doesn't break anything. Zone Alarm has been known to cause an occasional crash while updating :eek:

I tried McAfee and will never, ever use it again.

I've used products from Trend Micro, McAfee, and Norton. I definitely like Trend Micro the best for a personal computer (or any computer that you will perform a manual install on). My problem with Trend Micro (2003 version) was that network installation support was lacking.

McAfee (in general) bugs me too much. It likes to tell me everything that it is doing. Personally, I don't like to know what its doing - so long as it is doing it :)

Norton is my choice between McAfee & Norton. I'm surprised you had the issue with detection (especially since the bug is so old!)

I'd suggest giving the Trend Micro product a try.

Hope that helps a little,
Chris

Yes! Avast! is better than AVG in my opinion. However, both are better than Norton. I use zone alarm for a firewall and, despite the earlier comments, always update it within a day of prompting. Never had any trouble. ZA is much better than Norton's firewall.

I have been a norton hater since back in the 90's when I personally witnessed installations of their crap programs crash machines running windows. Earlier in this thread it was called bloatware, that is being too kind.

I use Mcafee and Trend Micro and love them both, but use AVG for all computers that I build for friends. AVG is great and haven't had anyone bugging me with their virus problems since I have been installing this and Microsofts Antispyware software, and adding a Linksys router in the mix.

It's nice to be able to spend your free time doing what you like instead of fixing once a year phone call friends computers all of the time.

Another AVG supporter here :)

Use Linux ;)

On my Windows XP computer, I combine the free Zone Alarm firewall with a free virus scanner called Avast!
Avast! has gotten great reviews and it hasn't let me down (yet).

www.avast.com
www.zonelabs.com

Me too
 

Given the comments and the OP regarding Norton, I think I will follow the lead.

Do you guys use the Windows Firewall as well?

I use ZoneAlarm Security Suite and because it's a integrated firewall and antivirus, there aren't too many compatibility issues. But definitely wait a week before updating, it killed my MSN Messenger for about a fortnight due to some bug.

I also use Spybot S&D and Spyware Blaster to keep my computer 'clean'. What do people think of the Microsoft Anti-Spyware application?

I've dumped Norton for a couple of years now. Using a triple play of Avast (it's free), Sygate Firewall (free for personal version), and Spybot (also free).

Avast has been excellent at catching viruses or any form of malware that has tried to gain entry to my laptop. The engine automatically updates the definitions almost every other day and also tells you if there is a new version of the engine out there. What's not to like?!

I second or third the endorsement of AVG.

Fduvall

At the same time as another firewall? No way!

By itself? No way! (well I am temporarily using it on one computer.)

NO. If you have another firewall running the Windows Firewall should be disabled.

Windows Firewall is designed as an interim solution whilst you sorce a more robust solution, the best of which have been mentioned already. Once you have sourced this proper firewall, Windows suggests you turn off Windows Firewall, to eliminate the possibly of a software clash.

The Windows Firewall is really intended to protect the computer during the installation phase, as it does ask if you want to connect to the internet to download the latest install files.

What about EZ Antivirus by Computer Associates?

I took advantage of their free 1-year offer through Microsoft in the spring. I am happy with it so far. I also have the ZA free firewall running.

Another vote for Avast. Norton failed to detect a few things with a fairly recent virus definition. Avast detected all of them.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 works great for me...6 months and no problems. It replaced McAfee on my machine.

It is a CNET editors' choice:
http://reviews.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm_In...-31447702.html

ok just dumped NAV and installed AVG 7.1. One problem. When I now go to Windows update, I get a blank page. It goes nowhere. is there a script or activex blocker on AVG?

Which has now been taken over by Symantec and you're being offered a "special" upgrade to Norton...

I had a good experience with Sygate as well. Oh well - looks like ZA instead.

After reading this thread and other comments on Amazon, I am abandoning my plan to purchase upgrades for NIS (I'm currently using NIS 2003 successfully on two computers). In this thread, I saw one person advocate PC-cillin and several praising either AVG and Avast!. In addition to NAV, NIS also includes the internet security and firewall functions. Do these other products cover those functions as well or just the anti-virus functions?

Add'l background in case it impacts anything: running XP SP2 on 2 computers, one a Dell Latitude and the other a Dell Desktop. Using with a Linksys router but no additional firewall installed for the router. Both computers are also running NSW (one 2003 and the other 2005) without problems (at least not since I de-installed Norton Anti-spam). The 2005 I will probably renew, not upgrade or replace. Uncertain about the 2003, since I don't think I can renew it, but with NSW, the primary reason to keep it may be Norton Utilities. From an earlier experience, I don't have any interest in McAfee (and probably not Zone Alarm either).

Thanks for your thoughts.

AVG has a combination product that has both Anti-virus and firewall. It is not free. I've just had 2 subscriptions to NSW expire and so I dumped it for the AVG combo. I now how AVG firewall/AV running on 4 computers and am very pleased with it. I found the NSW was incredibly bloated and rather cumbersome to use.

Put me into the " I love AVG " camp.

I just dumped Norton and Macafee off of 7 different computers. I tried the AVG virus/firewall program on my 2 home computers and liked it so much that I bought a 2 user license. I'm very, very happy with the results. AVG does what it advertises it will do! ...without being bloated and resource intensive.

I just installed AVG on 5 computers at my church this morning, dumping Macafee. Their subscription process used to be so easy, but now they want you to buy a whole upgrade (for $39.99)

Figuring that I've bought 7 licenses of AVG for $229.00 total, that works out to about $32 per machine. But AVG license is good for 2 years, which brings it down to $16/machine. I think that is a really good deal :D And, they don't make you jump through hoops with the rebate crap.

My thanks to the poster who turned me on to AVG.

Another vote for pc-cillin. I combine it wiht MS spyware and spybot

I've been happy with the free AVG, and utilize TuneUp Utilities 2006, for the computer, pretty cheap and a great trial period to fix your computer. Zone Alarm keeps me protected as well.

All three of these are now my choice over Norton... I miss Norton but, will move forward.

I've installed AVG and everything seems to be working well. One difference I notice with not having NIS is the ad blocker. I am seeing more ads than I used to. As far as I can tell, there is not a comparable function in AVG to that one in NIS.

The comments in this thread were quite helpful. Thanks to all!

We are pleased with the PC-Cillin also and another small local company has authorized it a month ago. Even bough a 10-pack for our personal computers.

MisterNice