Advice Needed

[jeff75]

Hi

I have just bought a new Dell Desktop. I am not all that familiar with Antivirus, firewall and related items. Someone has suggested that I buy Norton Internet Security 2006 (on sale at best buy). I Just want to know if this is sufficient for all antivirus, spyware, firewall etc concerns that I may have.

Is this a good choice for an all in one security system or would I need anything else to go with it?

Thanks

Jeff

[Gagaman]

Concerning antivirus programs: antivirus compared

I would never install norton on my system. It seems to ask alot of resource from your pc...

My preference goes to the free antivirus programs like:

AVG

Avast

Antivir

There are also very good free alternatives as firewall:

Zonealarm free

Kerio

[Rebel=UK=]

You can now get Kaspersky Antivirus free under the AOL (yes I know AOL but this is good) Anti-Virus Shield name, the Anti Virus Shield uses the Kaspersky engine (so its Kaspersky under the hood with an AOL logo) which has been voted the best Anti Virus as it has the best detection rate.

This firewall is free and its ment to be good and does very well against leak tests.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ind...rNumber=1088711

Or if you want a all in one like Norton Internet Security try Kaspersky Internet security 6.0

http://www.kaspersky.com/kis6

[-pops-]

No Norton product ever gets anywhere near any of my computers.

[jeff75]

I am curious if someone can tell me what is so bad about Norton? Is it that it is not effective compated to other systems. Or does it drastically slow down the operation of the computer? My intended uses for this computer are quite basic so no heavy gaming or anything will occur.

Thanks for any additional advice

[cozofdeath]

Many people dislike Norton for many reasons but I'd have to say the most popular would be the strain it puts on your resources. An easy way to answer your question is to direct you to here, that way you can read some peoples own experiences. I remember way back when I used it that it was slow and bogged my resources. Many programs then had compatibility problems with it also, but it does seem to do its job according to http://www.av-comparatives.org/, maybe just not as efficient. I do think there are better options though. I have to say I'm happy with Zone Alarms security suite and I have used F-Secure in the past and have liked it A LOT.

[-pops-]

Norton is a resource hog - despite what people claim to the contrary.

It has caused one of my systems to crash so drastically that I had to completely reformat and re-install.

It has missed viruses that it should have picked up.

It has been responsible for unnecessary incompatibility problems with other programs.

It is difficult to remove from a computer when you finally see the light and ditch it.

It may have improved but I am not prepared to try it again because I don't want the hassle of rectifying things if it does mess up.

[Gagaman]

Some time ago, all our school pc's had norton as antivir... They became extremely slow... So we decided to remove it... It was really a pain in the ass to remove everthing of Norton (involved even some registry editing...).

Now our schoolpc's are protected with AVG. I like it alot! Good protection, automatic update.

Also why pay for an antivir if there are good free alternatives :)

[-pops-]

For interest and edification have a look at:

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/wha..._windows_down/5

[Gagaman]

For interest and edification have a look at:

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/wha..._windows_down/5

interesting link

[Rebel=UK=]

I had norton on and removed it, for 7 months i still had a folder called Nprotect i didnt know until i seen my new AV scaning it and it took ageeees so i looked into it and had to run a command line in dos to remove it. When i did it freeded up 7 gig of sapce

Looking from a link off that site it has a AV detection rate chart:

1. Kaspersky version 6.0.0.303 - 99.62%

2. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.299 - 99.62%

3. F-Secure 2006 version 6.12.90 - 96.86%

4. BitDefender Professional version 9 - 96.63%

5. CyberScrub version 1.0 - 95.98%

6. eScan version 8.0.671.1 - 95.82%

7. BitDefender freeware version 8.0.202 - 95.57%

8. BullGuard version 6.1 - 95.57%

9. AntiVir Premium version 7.01.01.02 - 95.45%

10. Nod32 version 2.51.30 - 95.14%

11. AntiVir Classic version 7.01.01.02 - 94.26%

12. ViruScape 2006 version 1.02.0935.0137 - 93.87%

13. McAfee version 10.0.27 - 93.03%

14. McAfee Enterprise version 8.0.0 - 91.76%

15. F-Prot version 6.0.4.3 beta - 87.88%

16. Avast Professional version 4.7.871 - 87.46%

17. Avast freeware version 4.7.871 - 87.46%

18. Dr. Web version 4.33.2 - 86.03%

19. Norman version 5.90.23 - 85.65%

20. F-Prot version 3.16f - 85.14%

21. ArcaVir 2006 - 83.44%

22. Norton Professional 2006 - 83.18%

23. AVG Professional version 7.1.405 - 82.82%

24. AVG freeware version 7.1.405 - 82.82%

25. Panda 2007 version 2.00.01 - 82.23%

26. Virus Chaser version 5.0a - 81.47%

27. PC-Cillin 2006 version 14.10.1051 - 80.90%

28. VBA32 version 3.11.0 - 79.12%

29. ViRobot Expert version 4.0 - 76.22%

30. UNA version 1.83 - 75.44%

[andsome]

To remove Norton I eventually had a special engineer assigned to help me. It took me several hours, and needed several tools to be downloaded, and required me to edit the registry. By all means go ahead with Norton if you enjoy a real challenge. :D

[nellie2]

Norton now have a removal tool which works well... I've used it on my laptop that came with one of those 90 day trials

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgen...005033108162039

[andsome]

They can supply a hundred free tools, and I still would not use them again. I am more than happy with Nod 32.