Norton antivirus re-new or try AVG ?

[Matt Meiser]

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]

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 the problem is deciding on which one to start using.

[Russ Filtz]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

[Matt Meiser]

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?????

[Frank Hagan]

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]

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]

.... 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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