Dump Norton and McAfee Anti-Virus? - Comments Page 4

I used McAfee for years, usually getting the yearly upgrade free after rebate. Used AVG for a couple of years but found Avast was less trouble to update. Then I decided a combination of AV and Firewall was preferable, so tried Comodo then finally switched to MSE. I'm satisfied with MSE except for sometimes having to try several times to update the program. Using it with xp-mce and xp.

I work in the computer field and gave up on Norton and McAfee 15 years ago. I've used a half-dozen other programs with varying success. Curently, I use Vipre and Prevx. We use Norton at work - unfortunately. It's almost like the old adage "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" Yet we get many infections in the 1800 machines we have. For cleaning those that Norton don't catch, I usually just use combofix.

Back in the 80's when Peter Norton first came out with it, Norton Anti-Virus was a good program - then he sold the company and it went to hell quickly. My problem with Norton is that to completely uninstall it from the registry, they charge you $39.95 for a 'Norton Uninstaller', adding insult to injury.

As for McAfee, hope you have a separate hard drive and backup your files - nasty surprise is just around the corner.

For clients, I use Avast or AVG. Both have "live" updated, they run in the background and block your system's backdoor when new nasties including worms come calling.

They do exactly what they are supposed to do, protect your system from what virus/worms/trojans programmers throw at you.

I've run both Norton and McAfee but I am using AVG right now. No reason to look back!!! I would rather pay nothing to have my computer run faster. Haven't had a virus since installing AVG. Free version.

I am old Norton user, no doubt it is costly, it is heavy and it interferes with other software. I am in Japan, its customer support is from China I guess. I still do not know how to use some features.

In Japan Norton is loosing market there are more new Anti virus software other than Norton and McAffe.
There are people they think paying yearly is not good.
Very interesting thing I want to share(may be I am wrong)My Norton is yearly renewed. Just one or two months before renewal I get a lot of virus email which Norton find and delete as I renew no more virus email. How come? something fishy!

I think is time to switch from Norton to ?

To: Mr Bob Rankin

Many thanks for your excellent EZ.

I dont think we should dump anything

straight away. Instead install Eset Nod 32

in some of the M/C:s you have

and compare the performance with Norton

installed previously. Norton is huge

and definitely effective. Eset is small

and improved the speed of a M/C enormously.

Best Regards

Andy

I haven't used Norton or McAfee for years.
Bloat and systems slowdowns were my main concerns.
Now I use several free anti-malware apps.
I prefer something that does one thing and does it damned good over something that does multiple things, none very good.
Running one at a time, one after the other, to eliminate the specific crap is actually faster than running one bloated POS that takes forever, pops up a lot of false-positives and has a lot of useless garbage.
Just my nickles worth.

i find it difficult to believ that Norton is active at all. since 've been using Avast, i have never had a concern to switch.

Be careful with Comodo (or other Russian owned software), it's owners are ex-KGB and they may be adding 'sneak' software that you'd NEVER be aware of or can detect with today's antivirus programs. Our Russian (ex-Moscow University trained) programmer/ex-Russian Army/special forces knows full well of their special capabilities. Just passing along his unsolicited comments....

EDITOR'S NOTE: Do you have any proof that Comodo is owned by a Russian company? I searched but found nothing to validate this claim.

I just started using Vipre anti-virus/spyware/malware/firewall, and it seems to get the job done with very little drain in resources. It automatically updates itself several times a day. And it was pretty cost effective.

I use Avast. The UI is nice and easy to use, updates are automatic and don't require restart, and it does what its supposed to do quite effectively. I have no reason to switch to another AV program. Here is a poll on a forum I visit: http://www.computerforum.com/185963-antivirus-program-poll.html

@Tony
Comodo is NOT from Russia. You're confusing it with Kaspersky. But this talk about KGB backdoors is ridiculous. If you believe that, then you should believe that every US antivirus company has NSA backdoors in it too, so don't go with Symantec or McAfee or Microsoft either. Maybe the freeware guys AVG and Avast (Czech) or Avira (German) are your best bet!

Only problem with free Anti programs like AVG and ect is that they are given to third party companies when virus are found . iyogi is a company out of India that work for all third party Anti virus companies they are some of the best hackers in the world and stole 60gb of photos from me look out you get what you pay for free may sound good.

Whenever I get a new computer or when friends ask me to speed theirs up, both Norton & McAfee are usually the first to go. They both are a bit difficult to remove as they have tentacles in everything, which is why they slow things down. Avast & AVG are usually the ones that go back in as they are very behind the scenes and don't ask you so many stupid questions while running. Why run only one, when you can run many free ones at once and they usually never interfere with each other.

I dumped Norton a few years ago, and ran AVG for some time, but have now switched to Avast which I have recommended to family and friends.

I've always detested McAfee's, I guess because I tried it early and it was ok at best and the problems set in when I went to renew. Lots of hoops to jump through. It was also very resource hoggish.
Norton 360 has worked brilliantly and many stores offer rebates so I get 3 computers covered for less than 30 bucks per year (14.95 for the one I just bought.
If it was only me, I'd consider one of the freebies, but I have a son who isn't as religious about updates and upgrades and with 360 its on auto-pilot. As you know, no antivirus is iron clad if your surfing habits take you to bad places, or if you download a lot of music you put yourself at risk, and it's stealing on top of all that. Don't ask too much of your anti-virus programs.

You mention pricing, but many ISPs offer AV software such as Norton for no extra charge. Having said that, I had to buy and install more RAM on my mother in law's computer when she switched from one of the big vendor's software to another. Her ISP switched their 'included' package or she never would have switched.

Back several years ago, I caught Norton putting out a virus scare to have their users renew their subscriptions. As it turned out, one of my clients called me and we founf the only place the virus was, was in the Norton subdirectory. Sophos anti-virus found the problem and when confronted with the information, the Norton represenative hung up on my client. A very wrong answer since he was and still is a lawyer. He sued them for faking a virus and in doing so found out that it was the same virus they'd used the previous year as well. He won.
Personally, I've been using the paid, not free, AVG Internet Security with a 2 year subscription and have had no problems with any virus worm or trojan trying to get onto my four computer systems.
I mentioned Sophos Anti-virus earlier and they are very good, but not free. They are very expensive and work well for small and medium sized businesses.

I dumped both Norton and McAfee long time ago. I now use exclusively Microsoft Security Essentials. Free, robust, and unintrusive... and very safe and well behaved.

I've been using Prevx for several years. Very happy with it. I uninstall Norton and McAfee with new computer purchases.