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View Full Version : Norton antivirus re-new or try AVG ?



Kent Parker
04-05-2006, 9:03 AM
The Norton anti-virus is telling me that my year is up tomorrow and time to renew.

I had hear that AVG is as good and works without slowing your computor down.

Anyone had experience with AVG??

Cheers,

Kent

tod evans
04-05-2006, 9:10 AM
kent, if by avg you mean kaspersky? i`ve been using it for several years with no problems..02 tod

George Sanders
04-05-2006, 9:17 AM
I've been using AVG free home edition for about 2 years now and I'm quite happy with it. You can set it to scan on boot up or at a specific time of day. It will slow down you computer somewhat but it really depends on what type processor you have and how much memory is installed.
I had Norton in the past and I don't like buying something every year so I tried AVG and have used it ever since.
You can find out more information at PC World.com They have online reviews and tutorials.

Kent Parker
04-05-2006, 9:22 AM
kent, if by avg you mean kaspersky? i`ve been using it for several years with no problems..02 tod

Tod, I only know it as AVG. see here http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1

Cheers,

KP

tod evans
04-05-2006, 9:25 AM
Tod, I only know it as AVG. see here http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1

Cheers,

KP

kent, here`s what i`ve been using with good luck;
http://www.kaspersky.com/
.02 tod

Ron Jones near Indy
04-05-2006, 10:47 AM
I am very pleased with AVG. My computer guru recommended it over Norton.

Larry Browning
04-05-2006, 11:04 AM
Another free option is www.avast.com (http://www.avast.com) I have been using it for over a year after I got fed up with NAV performance issues and extreme cost especially when it is installed on all 3 computer I have!
The only thing I wish I could do with avast is to schedule it to run a full scan on a periodic basis.(pro version does this) It scans email and downloads as the come in, and new definition files are downloaded automatically almost every day.
When I was researching my options last year to replace NAV, AVG and Avast were about equal in functionally, so I flipped coin and avast won. The one thing that I learned in doing my research was that even though NAV and McAfee are the most popular, they are probably the WORST choices for anti-virus software due to performance issues and useless features designed to get you to upgrade. Do yourself a favor and do a little Google research on the subject. It sure opened my eyes.

Joe Pelonio
04-05-2006, 11:10 AM
I had Norton and dumped it for AVG, I also run Spyware Doctor, Noadware, and Spybot. No problems with them running as far as slowdowns, and haven't gotten any infections for close to a year
now.

Steve Clardy
04-05-2006, 11:16 AM
Becker put me on to AVG. I like it, does a fine job.

Vaughn McMillan
04-05-2006, 1:01 PM
AVG works well for for me...no Norton products on my machine, and I doubt there ever will be.

- Vaughn

Rob Russell
04-05-2006, 1:18 PM
...no Norton products on my machine, and I doubt there ever will be.

- Vaughn

I'm curious - why?

Frank Pellow
04-05-2006, 1:25 PM
We (my wife and I) have used the free version of AVG for a little over two years and it has worked very well for us.

Anthony Anderson
04-05-2006, 1:29 PM
Kent, I have been using AVG Free edition for a little over a year now, and it works great. The techs at my internet provider recommended it and said it is one that definitely works. My computer was running slow, installed this, ran a system check and found 2 or 3 viruses, it fixed them (however that happens) and the computer works great again. HTH, Bill

Joe Pelonio
04-05-2006, 1:32 PM
I'm curious - why?

In the past on various machines I noticed that Norton would miss things, but when I added other products to the PC the Norton product was not compatible with the others, so they couldn't run at the same time. It's almost like Norton didn't want people to use something else.

Larry Browning
04-05-2006, 2:13 PM
I'm curious - why? Rob,
I really HATE Norton(Symantic) because of their lack of decent customer support and their ever rising cost. They will charge you to talk to tech support about issues with their software. If anything they should pay me (well not me anymore!) for helping debug their products. They are worse than Microsoft (well maybe) about program bloat and adding useless "features" that bring no real value to their product. When Norton anti-virus first came out many years ago the virus definition files were free "forever", then after Symantic bought them they started charging a "nominal" fee (something like $3.95 per year). Each year it has gone up, $5.95, then $9.95 to whatever it is now ($39.95 the last time I checked) Multiply that times the number of computers you have around the house, and that's a pretty sizable chunck of change. That is very hard to justify especially when there is BETTER software out there to protect your PC that is FREE. I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would want something like that. Advertising I guess, or maybe they just don't know any better.

Sorry for the rant!!!! But I just can't stand Norton Anti-virus.

Matt Meiser
04-05-2006, 2:39 PM
I too am fed up with Norton. The product seems to be getting slower and slower, and their new activation scheme has caused me all kinds of trouble this past year. Right now, I'm trying Computer Associates AV product on one computer with a 1 year free trial and it seems to work well so far. I've also heard AVG is good. For those of you using it, does it block malicious scripts in IE well? Or is it just scan files in the filesystem?

If you have Windows XP and Service Pack 2 and uninstall any existing virus scanning software, you will get a warning from the OS that you are unprotected. Through a series of prompts, you can get to a web site where you can download the 1 year free trial.

Larry Browning
04-05-2006, 2:50 PM
I highly recommend doing a google search on anti-virus software. There is a plethora of great info there. In depth reviews, links to various vendors, etc, etc.... Lots and lots of stuff telling you how bad Norton really is. Good stuff:D the problem is deciding on which one to start using.

Russ Filtz
04-05-2006, 3:05 PM
Also look at NOD32 by www.eset.com. Highly rated and it seems I get auto updates to the Virus database daily if not more often. download online as I have never seen them in stores.

Cliff Rohrabacher
04-05-2006, 4:29 PM
I'd renew the Norton. But then I have buyer's loyalty. I have been running norton for years and years and years. Back in the dark old DOS days I had PC tools and bought the Peter Norton's Waite Group books.

Larry Browning
04-05-2006, 5:04 PM
I'd renew the Norton. But then I have buyer's loyalty. I have been running norton for years and years and years. Back in the dark old DOS days I had PC tools and bought the Peter Norton's Waite Group books.
Ya Know Cliff, I was also a long time loyal Norton customer. But even a loyal dog will turn on you when you kick him enough times. And they just kicked me one too many times. So far I am a now a loyal Avast customer, but if they start kicking me I'll turn on them too.

Kent Parker
04-05-2006, 6:30 PM
Thanks to all that have given positive recommendations, that's really what I was looking for.

I have Norton and have used over many years with no problems, that I am aware of. Always seems to work and I am very aware that this statement could be in direct proportion to my understanding of whats going on in my computer. ;)

From additional searching on the web at various review sites, two programs keep getting high marks, Kaspersky and AVG.

Arrrgggg....what a waste of time....."How was your day honey?"....."We'll I spent a hour or so looking for an anti-virus program".....Jezzz....I would have much rather said "I went fishing and brought back dinner!", or "I've been out in the shop cutting wood", or "been climbing and got my butt kicked"....

Funny how life changes;)

Cheers,

Kent

Cliff Rohrabacher
04-05-2006, 6:36 PM
Ya Know Cliff, I was also a long time loyal Norton customer. But even a loyal dog will turn on you when you kick him enough times. And they just kicked me one too many times. So far I am a now a loyal Avast customer, but if they start kicking me I'll turn on them too.

What did they do to you?

Vaughn McMillan
04-05-2006, 7:11 PM
I'm curious - why?
In my case, it's similar to the problems others mentioned...reliability, stability and compatibility issues. I used to love and use Peter Norton's products, but over the years and through the various acquisitions, I became less and less enamored with the Norton/Symantec products. Also, the company I work for makes a product that competes directly with one of the the tools in the Symantec suite, so it'd be like a Cadillac employee showing up at work driving a Yugo. ;)

As an aside, seems like we won the competition...Symantec has essentially stopped development of their version of the tool (disk defragmenter), and we are the undisputed leader in that market. Now Symantec tech support folks recommend our product when theirs can't get the job done...as does Microsoft.

- Vaughn

Larry Browning
04-05-2006, 7:53 PM
What did they do to you?
Well, they slowed my computer down, and then wanted me to pay them more money each year to slow it down even more. It seemed that the more they charged, the slower my computer got. But I think what really pushed me over the edge was after I had purchased the latest version of NAV with a license for 2 computers for something like $75. The next year when I went to renew the license they wanted me to buy 2 separate licenses which were going to cost me more than I paid for the whole program. After I dumped them Avast immediately found a couple of viruses that had been missed by Norton and the computer started running much faster, mostly due to Norton being gone and I saved myself 80 bucks a year. I think I will buy me a new tool!:D

Matt Meiser
04-05-2006, 9:12 PM
Also, the company I work for makes a product that competes directly with one of the the tools in the Symantec suite, so it'd be like a Cadillac employee showing up at work driving a Yugo. ;)

They'd make you park your computer in a far out parking lot and when you returned you'd find it flipped and burned????? :D

Frank Hagan
04-06-2006, 12:51 AM
I've been a fairly happy Norton Anti-Virus user for my home machines, and use McAfee at work, which also seems to do a fine job. I was running Norton 2002, and paying nearly as much for updates as a new program. Last year, I tried to buy just the AntiVirus software, but didn't see where I could buy it without a "suite" of other programs I don't need.

This year I noted they had just plain old Norton AntiVirus again. So I upgraded, buying two years of it because I was so happy they went back to not bundling everything in the world with it, only to find it came with "Norton Protection Center". Horrible piece of software. I couldn't find a way to separate the two with a configuration item ... you know, a "Turn this bloated, useless, system-slowing slug of a piece of software that would never sell on its own off" button.

I have it "unselected" in msconfig to keep that particular POC from loading.

Jim Becker
04-06-2006, 2:03 AM
I switched to AVG over a year ago and wouldn't go back to Norton or McAfee... I do use the paid version of AVG as it is my policy to do so when I commit to a product.

Boyd Gathwright
04-06-2006, 10:48 AM
.... I use AVG on all my test machines. I also use NORTON'S SYSTEM WORKS in conjunction with SYSTEM MECHINIC PRO. My ISP provides me with a suite of programs which take care of all the essentials; Anti-virus, Firewall, Parental Control, Anti-Spyware, Pop-up Blocker, Privacy Manager and Form Filler. All of these are included in the package my ISP offers at NO extra cost :).



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