Norton Antivirus

[kkengvibul]

my Norton Antivirus has just expired....i'm not planning to renew it..

so i was wondering which antivirus programs are reliable and free? (that i can download online)

[udon]

AVG.

[kkengvibul]

which is better...AVG or Avast?

[Crossy]

which is better...AVG or Avast?

Both are free, both detect things the other misses, both occasionally give false triggers.

Which to use, Up-2-U

Personally I use Avast, seems to give me less conflicts.

I ALSO scan once a week using Trend Housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ free, online scan from the makers of PC-Cillin.

Works for me, as always YMMV

[Rimmer]

which is better...AVG or Avast?

Both are free both are good and both work well.

If you have two computers put one on each, works for me

[PeaceBlondie]

If I may jump in: my Norton FIREWALL package expired around March, and I bought a big new one, for $39.95. Thai technician disconnected it and the Norton Virus, installing only MOD32. Technician says that I don't need no stinkin' firewall. I still have about 9 months left on the firewall subscription. Should I reinstall it when I get to Chiang Mai next week? Thanks.

Oh, I have a H-P Pavilion a422d with 2.7 GHZ celeron, I use internet a lot, and my fragzabynr is a DMZ8598690 special from Uzbekistan....just kidding about the fragzabynr.

[astral]

Get a good firewall up as soon as possible, PeaceBlondie!!

[Lannig]

As written earlier, AVG and Avast work equally well, but I really think Avast errs a bit too much on the fancy user interface side whereas AVG really focuses on its main job: catching viruses.

Downloading updates from AVG can be painfully slow sometimes.

Norton is evil. There's an excellent paper about this in this week's Bangkok Post Database in the Helpdesk section. I shall be forever asking myself why it's so popular.

The actual usefulness of firewalls is debatable indeed but it depends so much on the actual environment of the concerned user that I find statements like "you don't need no stinking firewall" arrogant and laughable. As I have noticed quite often, the main issue is not having a firewall or not, it's being ready to spend enough time to configure it properly. Not many people want to do this, many even say that they can't (that's not always true - it's often just being too lazy to actually read the directions). In the end firewalls are configured so wide open that they've become useless.

Antivirus, firewalls are nice things to have, but they come after the essential step: keeping your installation up-to-date. How many people have I seen buying expensive a-v software, spending quite some time installing it and running daily disk scans, while at the same time completely neglecting to properly set up Windows automatic updates and making sure that it works. MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser - a free program) should be run at least as often as one does a-v disk scans, to make sure that your PC actually receives Windows updates in a timely fashion.

My favourite analogy is: antivirus (and firewalls to some amount) are medicine, proper updates are vaccine. Better not get sick at all.

Just my two satangs.

[PeaceBlondie]

Thanks for the advice, sincerely. I guess I'll reinstall the Norton firewall next week, and hope it works well with my MOD32 antivirus.

Lannig, thanks for your advice, too, most of which I probably understood. That's my problem: I don't understand enough about computers, to operate one properly. I think 90% of customers are like me. It's far too complex. Even computerized automobiles with fuel injection are easy enough to use. It's just too confusing. Does that make me stupid or stubborn? Not really.

[francois]

hi'

for free sure avg or avast ...

for less than 20€, Bit Defender 9.5 home edition

I'll never turn back to another one

fully satisfied

francois

[kkengvibul]

thanks everyone!

[JAS21]

I have Norton Internet Security 2005. Anyway it was about 9 months old and PC World had a half price offer on for 2006 so I bought it for later.

Had to reinstall windows..computer very slow..and the rest of the software. When I re-installed NIS 2005 it gave me another 12 months subscription and I'm into that now...worth a try

[ronz28]

I use both free AVG and free from my ISP McAfee virus protection. They run at the same time and don't conflict. I had Norton free with my new computer before these two and when I switched to McAfee it found several trojan horses. I just don't trust Norton now.

I also use a router with a firewall and free zonealarm software firewall and now use free versions of Adaware, Microsoft Defender and a free ISP program to kill spyware. No computer problems with this setup.

Edited July 3, 2006 by ronz28

[tutsiwarrior]

whatever the OP selects as a replacement for Norton make sure that you can update conveniently...I've found that with some anti-virus software presently available you need to be an IT PhD to handle updates...ideally it is automatic and hands free...

I presently have a company (employer's) package installed and it does the works...if the OP has that option then take it...

[Gary A]

I agree with Francois. Since I have Bit Defender I haven't had any problems at all. I paid $24.95 US for it and I'm also 100 percent satisfied.

hi'

for free sure avg or avast ...

for less than 20€, Bit Defender 9.5 home edition

I'll never turn back to another one

fully satisfied

francois