Fed up with Norton Antivirus, what else should I use?

[jefemeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PinkFloyd It's actually extremely good and it doesn't infest your system like the Symantec programs do (Norton) It's unobtrusive, it detects viruses and It's free...... what more can you say? AVG rocks!

Yeah, Norton is just about the biggest resource hog I've ever seen. If you use it, do yourself a favor and make the switch.

An intergrated Windows solution...now that sounds like a good idea

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01 I would much rather lose a few resources and memory and have peace of mind than a day or a week's worth of work fixing my computer. To each his own.

This statement reassures me the concept I have in my book of becomeming an "smarter user"...browse all you want, open all you want, complete freedom baby!!!...and having the peace of mind of not getting anything wrong....

BTW for those who complain about paying for a given software, you can get all of the above mentioned programs including the obtrusive NAV also free (that is what the hackers are for on the net)...if you are willing to spent some time online of course...

 

[james__bean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01 I used to say the exact same thing, until I found out that you could get a virus just by going to a web site. All it takes is clicking in the wrong place or clicking the wrong link.

When I said don't go to sleezy sights, thats actually what I was referring to. Of course that was just a generalization but if you're on google looking up windows hax you deserve what you get.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller I receive emails with viruses every single day by email, from people that I do not know who the hell are, if I do not have an antivirus would be infected every single day. I do not visit any other site than head-fi, eBay, Paypal, Amazon, and the software site looking for updates once in a while, and maybe once month my bank pages. I have all my system up to the date, and I have never been infected by any virus in my entire life, you say you got infected twice, well if you have an antivirus software running you would be absolutelly none...period, the antivirus software is a precaution, and a need nowdays...limiting the span of sites that you may visit is IMO not being smart at all, you never know where you will get good information on the web.

First of all, if you're receiving emails from people you don't know why are you opening them in the first place? Like I said, using a program like Outlook Express where all your emails are downloaded to your computer is taking a big risk. Use gmail or some other online option, that way you have a choice whether the contents of an email are downloaded to your computer. If you get an email from someone you don't know, 99/100 times its going to be spam. Second, years ago when I got those viruses I was using anti-virus software. (BTW, it was only one instance of getting a virus but I believe that I actually got two at the same time.) It didn't stop anything. I still had the virus, the only thing Norton did was tell me it couldn't safely remove it. I had to wait for the next update.

You say you have ease of mind but you're more likely to get a virus than I am with the way you handle your emails. Plus, any virus that can be spread like the msblaster worm is a threat to all users. Thats because Norton and the rest of the AV software won't know what to look for until they encounter it. But with how quickly these types of worms spread, they could disable your AV software before you even have a chance to download an update.

 

[meat01]

Quote:

When I said don't go to sleezy sights, thats actually what I was referring to. Of course that was just a generalization but if you're on google looking up windows hax you deserve what you get.

I don't think anyone deserves a virus. I was trying to see how real or how lame the "you must refresh your Paypal account" website looked. I knew it was a spoof, but I did not know I would get a virus just clicking on their link. Luckily my antivirus blocked it.

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by james__bean First of all, if you're receiving emails from people you don't know why are you opening them in the first place? Like I said, using a program like Outlook Express where all your emails are downloaded to your computer is taking a big risk. Use gmail or some other online option, that way you have a choice whether the contents of an email are downloaded to your computer. If you get an email from someone you don't know, 99/100 times its going to be spam. Second, years ago when I got those viruses I was using anti-virus software. (BTW, it was only one instance of getting a virus but I believe that I actually got two at the same time.) It didn't stop anything. I still had the virus, the only thing Norton did was tell me it couldn't safely remove it. I had to wait for the next update. You say you have ease of mind but you're more likely to get a virus than I am with the way you handle your emails. Plus, any virus that can be spread like the msblaster worm is a threat to all users. Thats because Norton and the rest of the AV software won't know what to look for until they encounter it. But with how quickly these types of worms spread, they could disable your AV software before you even have a chance to download an update.

First of all I have seven (or more) active email accounts right now, all for different uses, and some of them are business related, do you really think that I will log in, in all the web-mail services I'm using, to see what's going on, how many hours a day do you think I will spend on that? Thanks but I need to take the chance any day anyway. OTOH I do not have a really useful information saved in my PC, that I will miss, so if it got infected I format it and period. I have a decent backup to fix it, later on......and the info is on removable media saved....

Second, OTOH I never said that I opened them, I don't know if you are aware that Outlook has a preview option, yes they download the emails, but using that preview option, I can see what the mail is about before I open them, or the attachments, and I never open any attachment from an email that I do not recognize as reliable, and all my friends know that....most fo the times the emails are just junk and not virus related, but once in a while i got some with viruses that are imediatelly removed, so indeed I never received them just the Symantec notification....

But sometimes I need to handle those emails anyway, as are business related, and you never know what an email will bring you an opportunity of getting a customer or not, unless you preview it, and a new customer will have a new email address, that you will not know off....if it result in being one from not a trusty source, and if it has a virus attached, till now, Norton had efficiently and quickly remove it, I have not gotten any single one till now in "my entire life" (using your same words).....

Of course I can't convince you to use an anti-virus software, but you will not convince me of not using it neither, both ways has "pros" and "contras"....

 

[traficante]

Kaspersky

Not only is it a good AV its also a pretty good AT(anti trojan).

 

[Ozric]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rauer Well, I could say that in the test I linked to above AVG caught 54.07% of the viruses when for example Kaspersky Personal Pro version 5.0.20 got 99.28% and F-Secure 2005 version 5.10.450 got 97.55%.

Only problem is that Kaspersky refuses to allow me to install the free version now saying that I need to get a new key because I have installed and uninstalled in the past. Just ridiculous. So, I'm stuck with AVG for now....however, as someone mentioned, I don't ever have virus problems, usually it's only spyware which needs regular cleaning on my machine.

 

[james__bean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller First of all I have seven (or more) active email accounts right now, all for different uses, and some of them are business related, do you really think that I will log in, in all the web-mail services I'm using, to see what's going on, how many hours a day do you think I will spend on that? Thanks but I need to take the chance any day anyway. OTOH I do not have a really useful information saved in my PC, that I will miss, so if it got infected I format it and period. I have a decent backup to fix it, later on......and the info is on removable media saved.... Second, OTOH I never said that I opened them, I don't know if you are aware that Outlook has a preview option, yes they download the emails, but using that preview option, I can see what the mail is about before I open them, or the attachments, and I never open any attachment from an email that I do not recognize as reliable, and all my friends know that....most fo the times the emails are just junk and not virus related, but once in a while i got some with viruses that are imediatelly removed, so indeed I never received them just the Symantec notification.... But sometimes I need to handle those emails anyway, as are business related, and you never know what an email will bring you an opportunity of getting a customer or not, unless you preview it, and a new customer will have a new email address, that you will not know off....if it result in being one from not a trusty source, and if it has a virus attached, till now, Norton had efficiently and quickly remove it, I have not gotten any single one till now in "my entire life" (using your same words)..... Of course I can't convince you to use an anti-virus software, but you will not convince me of not using it neither, both ways has "pros" and "contras"....

Just to clarify my position here, I wasn't actually refering to someone using a computer for business purposes or a computer environment where there are multiple users. In these instances of use it would be impossible to eliminate all of the threats that I listed previously. If you have to actually deal with requests from customers or unknown people in email on a daily basis, then what I've said here wouldn't apply to you at all. I wouldn't try to convince you that anti-virus software is unnecessary because for someone in your position that just isn't true. But for an individual user, on their own personal computer, I don't believe anti-virus software is necessary provided you're an experienced user. Especially someone that is concerned about how much system resources an anti-virus program is using.

 

[averydonovan]

Try using software like Thunderbird or PocoMail for email and don't open attachments from unknown people, Opera or Firefox for browsing, avoid P2P sharing programs, ditch bloated official IM clients and use something like Gaim, put yourself behind a hardware firewall, and run occasional virus scans with HouseCall and you'll likely be fine. Warez is a big no-no. Of course turn on automatic updates.

Antivirus software that costs anything is a ripoff and a scam as far as I'm concerned. Changing what software you use and your online habits will do far more to prevent viruses than any antivirus software will do. I ran various versions of Windows for over 5-years on the Internet without a single virus infection. Actually, I have never had a worm or virus infection on any of my computers. I didn't do anything really special, I just tried to take a few measures to keep malware off my system that nearly any computer user can do.

 

[rauer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donovansmith Try using software like Thunderbird or PocoMail for email and ...

I've been using a software called MailWasher Pro for a long time. I find it very comforting that most of the questionable email never enters my PC at all. This software recognizes spam based on listings from certain servers. I can also setup my own filters. If I wish, all those emails will be automatically deleted on the POP server (if you want to be sure not to delete anything important, you don't have to choose deletion). The software then downloads ASCII previews of the emails considered "good" and if some of that is still clearly spam, I can still delete it before it enters my system. Sounds complicated but is actually far from it.

 

[daba]

I've used Norton/Symantec, McAfee, AVG, and Kaspersky.

Needless to say, I have Kapsersky running on all my computers now.

 

[bixby]

The operative word is free and it works well. Bit Defender Free edition.

 

[Skipinder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01 I would much rather lose a few resources and memory and have peace of mind than a day or a week's worth of work fixing my computer. To each his own.

But fixing your computer is half the fun to owning one

I guess we all don't find tech problems fun

Back on topic, I currently use Symantec Norton Antivirus Corp 10. I find it catches more stuff than AVG (which is better than the normal Norton Antivirus., Mcfee, etc) but takes a lot more resources, especially a scan. I still have to try kaspersky, I will give that a try next

 

[Sovkiller]

Here is a comparison of ten of the more known antivirus software....

http://anti-virus-software-review.to...y=bit+defender

 

[dj_mocok]

Sorry, but what's wrong with using Norton?
Is there something I need to know about them?

Please don't tell me I just made a mistake.
This is the second year I'm using Norton Internet security (the whole package, not just NAV).

Currently using Norton Internet Security 2005 with 1 year subscription...