Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: bj229r on February 13, 2008, 06:20:15 AM
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Paid $49 for Norton year and change ago, was allowed to plunk it on all 3 pc's in the house, NOW they want $69 for the renewal/upgrade...too frikkin much, esp considering they run like 7 processes on my pc---can anyone recommend a decent virus/firewall product which doesn't cost $70 and evokes memories of Skynet?:)
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Do a forum search. One name pops up on a regular basis and I believe there's a freeware version of it.
Wait till you try and remove Norton from your system...it's like a cockroach that won't die.
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http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=212837&highlight=anti+virus+software
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you can get a "free" version of AVG and AD-aware. Both have been good for me.
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I've been recommending AVG Free, Spybot search & Destroy, along with Ad-adware free and spywareblaster to my clients for the better part of 15 years.
My clients and myself have been more then happy with how these programs work, and not one has ever been compromised, while using them.
You don't need all these programs. Currently I only install AVG Free and Spybot for malware. If the customer wants more backup protection then add ad-adware free and spywareblaster. I've found that Avg Free and Spybot do the job just fine, and you don't really need the others, but it doesn't hurt to have backup protection either.
For firewall protection , I don't recommend windows firewall. It isn't very good as stopping out-going connections. I recommend using Comodo. It works rather well, especially if you disable the 'defense' portion which will drive you to drink heavily, and really isn't needed as you already covered by AVG Free and Spybot.
If you have to you can use Zonealarm free, but since ZA has a nasty habit of loading stuff along with Zonealarm WITHOUT informing you, I no longer trust them.
Spybot: (make sure you use teatimer which comes with it)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
AVG Free: (they also have free rootkit and spyware programs but haven't tested them much so can't say how good they are yet)
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/products/us/frt/0
Ad-adware:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Spywareblaster:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Comodo:
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
Zonealarm Free: (Look all the way to the right for the link)
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/trial_zaFamily/trial_zaFamily.jsp;jsessionid=Hz2dsbwK1c0W2gNIlrajhzYsP40kdm5XEHDICG0wZhH3oagAZrh7!-1199446515!-1062696904!7551!7552!NONE?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en&lid=db_trial
Wabbit
Rolling Thunder
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Originally posted by Max
Do a forum search. One name pops up on a regular basis and I believe there's a freeware version of it.
Wait till you try and remove Norton from your system...it's like a cockroach that won't die.
Absolutely right! You need to call Norton itself to get directions on removing it.
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Norton and McAfee both have gotten to be worse than the viruses they claim to stop.
You cannot completely get rid of either as they patch the Windows kernel upon installation. When you go to remove them, they will not undo the patch.
Pretty much no way to get the system completely back to normal without reformatting and reinstalling the operating system.
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
Pretty much no way to get the system completely back to normal without reformatting and reinstalling the operating system.
...thus the definition of a virus...
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
Norton and McAfee both have gotten to be worse than the viruses they claim to stop.
You cannot completely get rid of either as they patch the Windows kernel upon installation. When you go to remove them, they will not undo the patch.
Pretty much no way to get the system completely back to normal without reformatting and reinstalling the operating system.
Yah, I've dealt with it before...."Norton"...."Symantec"...etc, read like a scourge across the registry...AFTER the 'uninstall. (Thanks for replies, btw:aok )
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Personally I use Avast Antivirus (http://www.avast.com).. free for personal use, and doesn't seem to use up many resources.
I've heard it may not be the best.. but then again far from the worst also. It's always worked fine for me.
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It is not the registry that is the issue. It is the fact they patch the operating system kernel when they install and that patch cannot be undone without a re-install of the operating system.
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
It is not the registry that is the issue. It is the fact they patch the operating system kernel when they install and that patch cannot be undone without a re-install of the operating system.
Ahh, cc....good reason for making a mirror and tucking it away
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Symantec has a tool for download called SymRNT.exe which has removed Norton completely from my machines in the past - try this before you do a reformat and reinstall. :)
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Originally posted by Max
Do a forum search. One name pops up on a regular basis and I believe there's a freeware version of it.
Wait till you try and remove Norton from your system...it's like a cockroach that won't die.
LOLOLOL Max!
I use Avast, very popular among the college crowd and it's free.
I think AVG is free too. Never used it though.
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Originally posted by Getback
LOLOLOL Max!
I use Avast, very popular among the college crowd and it's free.
I think AVG is free too. Never used it though.
I tried both this am...neither has free introductorys any more (I know the Shrew's laptop has one of these two as freebie)---not sure if I wanna give credit card # for product sight unseen---need study further
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I use Avira. Its a free anti virus. Updates daily, and opens an advertisement window for the Professional version. Other than that it works great, and has caught a couple minor things in attachments.
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Bj229r, your post seems to say that avast and AVG don't have free versions.
Don't know about avast, but AVG does have a free version. see my post for the link.
Wabbit
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Originally posted by bj229r
I tried both this am...neither has free introductorys any more (I know the Shrew's laptop has one of these two as freebie)---not sure if I wanna give credit card # for product sight unseen---need study further
AVg does.. You just have to know where to look :) AVG Free (http://free.grisoft.com/) Just installed it 2 weeks ago on a friends new PC..
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And so does Avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html)
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I review AV software for a major computer magazine. I have a test zoo with thousands of viruses, both current and old.
My current preferred AV product is ESET's NOD32, which will set you back about $35 a year. It is extremely lightweight, very fast, doesn't slow down AH to any significant degree, and it has a nice interface too. It is currently what I recommend to my paying clients.
Despite what is said here, I have no problem with Norton Antivirus 2008. It is also fast and lean, but not as much so as NOD32. I recommend avoiding things like Norton Internet Security, Norton 360, or anything other than the basic Norton AV 2008 package. Norton's Kernel Patch is symantec's attempt at helping detect and remove rootkits, and it actually does an effective job.
Kaspersky is also excellent, but I haven't tested it in more than a year.
For free products, Avria's Antivirus Free is pretty good too, though it has an annoying nag screen that you can disable by googling it. I'm sorry, it says it is free to use for noncommercial purposes - it doesn't say it is adware, which is what I consider the annoying popup to be.
AVG is only fair. I have personally seen two rootkits and one virus get by it when the user was still using IE6 in 2007, and one of them is someone I consider pretty good at technology. I consider it minimally acceptable if you only use Firefox or Opera to surf, but since Avira is also free, I say get it.
-Llama
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Except for AVG's 'fair' rating I can agree with Llama. I've heard good things about NOD32, although I think even $35.00 a year is too much to pay.
I spend a fair portion of my calls removing 'pay' protection programs and replacing them with AVG Free, Spybot Search & Destroy, and the others I mentioned in my earlier post. Remember some of the free programs do the same thing and are only to be installed if you want double/backup protection.
Currently I install AVG Free, Comodo, and Spybot search & destroy. Adaware is a good backup to Spybot, but it's slower and spybot seems to find everything adaware finds in most cases. Same thing with spywareblaster and spybot's tea timer.
In Fifteen+ years I've never seen Avg let anything get past it, old or new. That's something I can't say for many of the 'pay' versions.
Do a search for:
"are free anti-virus programs better then pay anti-virus programs"
You should find enough info to help you make your own decision. Here's one to get you started, posted for August 2007:
http://askbobrankin.com/free_antivirus_programs.html
If you're doing regular backups, and using an image backup program like Acronis True Image, (which I recommend), or ghost, (not so user friendly, but good too), then give the free programs a try and see how they work before paying for your protection.
Almost forgot. I never use Internet Explorer, which I refer to as 'internet Enema'. I use Firefox. Opera is another nice one.
Good Luck,
Wabbit
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Originally posted by wabbit
Except for AVG's 'fair' rating I can agree with Llama. I've heard good things about NOD32, although I think even $35.00 a year is too much to pay.
Keeping your computer safe and fast = $35 a year
Playing AH: $149.50-$179.40 a year
Realizing just how much we dish for pixel wars: Priceless.
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Originally posted by Scca
AVg does.. You just have to know where to look :) AVG Free (http://free.grisoft.com/) Just installed it 2 weeks ago on a friends new PC..
Yup---thanks guys, plunked it on there, it found a buncha tracking cookies and one worm that Norton seemed to be unaware of:huh At least now I feel a bit more secure
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Those are spyware...and I never noticed Norton catching any spyware back when I used it in 2006, I think.
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This past year, I've personally cleaned off two infections and one rootkit from computers with fully updated AVG Free setups that had been installed for more than 6 months. All of these users went against my browser recommendation, and still used IE6 or IE7 as their daily browser, BTW.
Based on this, I no longer recommend AVG Free (or any AVG product) to my clients. I consider it better than nothing, but certainly, definitely, unequivocally NOT equivalent to Kaspersky, NOD32, or Norton AV 2008. It *might* be OK if you only use Firefox for browsing and you insist on not paying anything, but only OK.
-Llama
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I have far too many problems with people using anything from Norton. It is just too intrusive and problematic.
I have had players who finally had to remove the software before our game could save settings for them. And the overhead is insane.