Internet security for my new m17x?????

Hi folks...

I am getting my new M17x sometime today and was wondering if any of you out there would recommend an internet security package to partner it with.

As its intended use is as a desktop replacement, I need to be fully protected for web/internet access and have used many different suites/products before.

My latest suite was Norton 360 v4.0 which seemed good enough but I would greatly appreciate any advice/info on anything better available or if anyone has any experience of using Norton on their M17x....

Obviously , dont want a suite that leaves a massive footprint and as i have 8 months of subscription to the above product left, I intend to use it....unless anyone has info about issues / conflicts / better products.

Thanks in advance guys/girls.
Stevie.

 

I use Norton and have never had any problems with it whatsoever... It's always blocked any incoming malicious software thrown at it and its very light on system resources. I also like the way 360 maintains peak performance by defraging and cleaning out automatically.
Don't think i'll ever change now as i'm pretty satisfied.

 

I use eset Smart Security 4. It not bloated as the other antivirus programs.

 

I only had experience with northon, bitdefender and kaspersky.
Northon blocked too much and made my pc slow, but...I was pretty young when I was using it so, perhaps it was just me who couldn't work decently with it.
Bitdefender actually killed a computer, I had northon on my desktop, and when I installed bitdefender it found a trojan and when I blocked it...my entire system just got blocked in return. But, on my laptop with vista, bitdefender worked just fine.
Kaspersky has given me no problems whatsoever, but I do get a windows warning ocasionaly that my firewall is turned off, while kaspersky says its not. But aside from that warning, I don't see any problems.

So, from my eprsonal experience, I vote for kaspersky.

 

I used Microsoft Security Essentials but my laptop was infected with a virus in 2 days. I switched back to Norton and have been fine since.

 

I hated Norton back in the day (10 years ago), but they really have worked on it since. I have had zero problems and no hit on my system speed either.

 

Its looking promising for me re-installing the version of Norton 360 i have left then......just wasnt sure how it performed on the m17x and i would have considered alternates should there have been probs but looking good so far! thanks and keep the advice comin!

 

Norton used to be very performance hungry, but the new 2009/2010 editions are very good. I've never had any problems with these.

 

I use Norton Internet Security 2010, and do not have any problems at all. I fully recommend it all the time. Thing is, as has also already been mentioned in this thread, the old versions of Norton were horrible, and would bring a system to it's knees. They have really fixed all of that now, and the ccsvchst.exe (the main Symantec executable) is currently running at )% CPU and using 3.1 megs of RAM, out of a possible 8GB. So, as you can see, my system is not even aware of this software running. I was a Norton hater for a logn time, but (and that is a big BUT, because things can change with each new release of the software), but for right now Norton is the best I have found, and I have used them all. Hope this helps,

 

Norton user also here also! Was worried at first but gave them another shot since Comcast started offering Norton for free to customers. I have to say Norton stepped their game up, it has excellent protection and it's super light on your system resources now.

 

I find it is best to use Microsoft security essentials and then use a seperate firewall program like comodo or something. Why pay if there is decent free programs and you dont need a specific thing from a software.

 

True, but i have already paid for and have 8mths of Norton 360 left....if it made a detrimntal difference, i would have ditched it in a heartbeat for something better, but as its paid up.....may as well use it if others arent having issues/complaints with it!

 

Yes well if you paid already you need to use it even if you have problems lol, thats why we have NBR.

 

Hahaha, well said! - dont wanna spoil things tho.....£30-40 isnt much to get the best internet security option for the m17x...whatever that might be....just dont wanna slow down my £2500+ laptop!! (which is still sitting here in its black cardboard box giving me the odd cheeky look for me to open it.....i am resisting temptation at the moment but i will have a glass of wine later and unbox the little beast!! - let the fun commence!

 

MSE is awful. It let in the simplest viruses into my system. I would rather spend $70 on Norton than reformat my HDD every month because of infections.

 

Im running it for months now and checked it with other anti-virus and no problems whatsoever. I say its better then AVG no doubt. Everything that says microsoft is good, everything that says windows is crap on the other hand

 

I think i will probably stick with Norton for the next 8 mths or so.....may as well get what ive paid for but thanks for your input people....much appreciated.!

 

Just to let you know about some issues that i came across upon my installation of Norton 360......

Firstly, after install, the most apparent thing that happened was that my windows 7 starup music totally disappeared.....it was showing as checked in hardware/sounds...played about with it to try and get it back with no joy......

Secondy, I began to get an message about 5-10 mins after boot that said "Error - Bluetooth stack error BTT Tray couldnt start it".....which really started to do my head in.....I phoned AW tech and the guy was extremely helpful....i explained the problem and he took 30 mins to guide me thru various things and we found that by uninstalling the bluetooth and reinstalling it, this error message disappeared.

So, that was fine, apart from no startup sound - which i thought, well not too bad and i can live with that.

I then ran Norton tasks (all) and after reboot, had the bluetooth error message back!

Did the uninstall/reinstall again and it went ok again!

I think that the Norton Registry cleaner had something to do with it as i isolated it down to whenever this was run, the error returned.

Consequently, I have since restored from the partition WITHOUT Norton, downloaded MSE and everything is working as it should.....i have the windows start up sound back upon boot before login screen and i dont have any bluetooth error messages!!!

 

You may want to purchase Norton AntiVirus. I have seen too many postings about PC problems anytime someone uses an all-in-one security from vendors like Norton or McAfee. Just a thought.

 

Hi Stevie

Glad to hear that you were able to reinstall from the partition. Registry cleaners should be used as a last resort when you have no other options left. They work by looking at each setting for installed software, hardware and user settings and trying to determine if it's a valid setting. If it can’t find reason for it to exist, the registry cleaner erases it. This is where you can run into horrendous problems and a total mess up with registry cleaners. It is near impossible that one software company can track all the possible changes sometimes in multiple areas and determine whether these changes are good or bad. On the other hand the registry is not designed to be altered by hand except for someone very knowledgeable due to the complexity of thousands of settings. Each software update may make 100’s of routine changes for that software in the registry. It is hard for one vendor to keep track off all these changes. If the registry cleaner is too aggressive you will end up with some necessary entries being removed. Depending on what settings are changed some hardware or software may not work. The worse case you computer will not even boot. If you do a registry cleaning make sure you back up the registry. Often you don’t find problems until weeks later as you are routinely trying to open a piece of software that had essential registry enteries removed. This is why I don’t put junk software, Indie games, and software with poor reviews on my system. A registry cleaner is not meant for general house cleaning but rather a last ditch effort before a complete reinstall.

Keep in mind that Dell writes custom drivers, and purchases custom hardware for it laptops. Some of this information is not privy to 3rd party utilities and that is why they mess up so often.

 

2010 Norton is extremely good. ESET rates slightly better, but that's often a tug of war for top place.

A good site for getting some info:
AV-Comparatives - Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software - Welcome to AV-Comparatives.org

Norton has been much better on resources in 2009 and 2010 versions, imo.

 

If you paid me cash I would not put a Norton product on my computer. FYI Norton 2010 is selling for as low as $11.95 NEW from a reseller on Amazon.com. I wonder why Norton is being so heavily discounted these days.

 

Thanks for your link. Norton scored below MSE (no surprise here) and McAffee had one of the lowest scores. Why is Alienware pushing McAffee and why are people buying Norton when MSE is LIGHTER, SCORES HIGHER, and is FREE?

 

Well. MSE is working fine for me now...glad i ditched norton altogether although it did work fine on my previous laptop. Like you said, custom drivers and no way on earth that any vendor can ensure that they wont delete something vital in a registry sweep.

I have used CCleaner and noticed it has a registry tool also....not knowing too much, i take it its not wise to just run this registry tool on a regular basis but only to run it when you get into difficultied huh?

 

MSE is awful. Norton 2010 is the best antivirus out there right now. The price is low now because Norton 2011 is coming out in about a month or so.

 

It cant be that awful if cnet gave it a good review.....

http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Security-Essentials/3000-2239_4-10969260.html

 

Actually I have seen Norton on sale since MSE was released last FALL so don't blame vapourware. Norton received one of the lowest overall scores compared to all other AV on this review:

AV-Comparatives - Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software - Welcome to AV-Comparatives.org

 

I was just basing it on the fact that I installed MSE on my laptop and within two days I had about 5 viruses. With Norton I haven't had a single virus.

I also looked at pcmag and pcworld for reviews.

 

Have used MSE since December and have not had a single problem. One of the problems with Norton is false positives. Norton AntiVirus and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition use Bloodhound heuristics to detect virus-like activity. This generates loads of false positives. Examples of such are writing to the master boot record of the hard disk, making changes to a system file, or running a custom macro in a program such as Microsoft Word. I find it hard to believe that your system was hit by 5 viruses in two days. What is more likely is that Norton had 5 nonesense alarms that were moot.

 

Personally, I avoid all registry cleaners due to they remove valid entries, which causes many problems for software and the OS stability. In short, just do not use them.

 

I didn't have Norton installed then. I installed it after a fresh install of windows.

 

After all your MSE post's, I am convinced you work for microsoft Everything you keep saying is good information, but why blast other products that many of us use with not one problem. If you noticed, I have not said a negitive word about MSE, becuase I have not used it. Have you used the latest Norton? If not that's ok, no need to fear the unknown

Side note: no false alarms from Norton here, ever, really

 

I second that.

 

Ive never had problems from norton. I just bought a new subscription to their internet security package the other day.

 

Well, as my machine is brand new and only 6 days old i can clearly disagree.....

After installing norton 360 on a clean machine, it messed up my bluetooth drivers resulting in stack errors and also disabled my windows start up sounds....that was all that i was aware of as it could have done so much more......

After realising that norton was causing these problems by process of elimination (basically every time norton ran, it deleted important registry entries) i started getting errors left right and centre.

Since i have reinstalled from the partition and installed MSE , i have had NO PROBLEMS whatsoever.....

What does that say for norton?

 

It says Norton 360 sucks and Norton Internet Security is better. Norton 360 has a built in registry cleaner and other horrid tools that don't help anything.

 

Definitely agree. 360 is the "jack-of-all-trades-master-of none" with so many tools in it's arsenal. I go for just the plain-Jane Norton AntiVirus/AntiSpyware 2010. Like the 2009 version, it's been great.

I will, though, check out the Microsoft Essentials software (since it is free). I'm always looking for something my customers (who are on the "tight" side of things) can use.

 

I would agree also, we are talking Anti-Virus. When it comes to System tool programs, steer clear, there is no need to use them, Win 7 is a great os, I guess the "7th" time is the charm

 

Hmm I use the Norton provided by Comcast for free. I think it might be 360 but renamed differently. I haven't had any issues with it but I don't use their System Tool programs.

 

My In-laws use that, before they had that I was getting tons of calls from them (tech support) now lest calls

 

Ten years ago XP was a 2 GB operating system. Today Windows 7 is ten times the size that XP was. Today hardware, firmware, drivers, and software are also far more complex. Simply open device driver and take a look at how enormous it is. Combine that with a laptop built around custom boards, custom firmware, custom software, and custom drivers an you have huge potentials for conflicts with AV, operating systems, and hardware. As a case and point read the posts by T3Vince today about his AV and Blue ray drive.

The problem with the Comcast solution is that they have customers running a dozen different operating systems using 32 bit, and 64 bit architecture. One AV can't be all things to all operating systems. As someone said a jack of all trades and master of none. I checked out Comcast and they are offering a $146 Suite free to customers. Talk about guilding the lily, the same suite(single licence) under a slightly different name is available to anyone on Amazon.com for $26. Windows also offers comparative features for free with windows 7+MSE+Windows live mail.

 

I looked at T3Vince's post, while the problem started after a AV scan, it may not be the proven cause, I have not seen this issue happen due to a AV, maybe a corrupt driver file. I still do not understand your XP point, are we to assume all the AV companies do not invest in S&D on there products to stay updated with the prime OS for most consumers? I would think not, they would not be in business anymore. Look at your point the other way, Microsoft has has and continues to have many well known security problems in which 3rd party company's have came up with good solutions to handle them while Microsoft just puts out patch's. Now 10+ years later Microsoft decides to come up with a solution that they charged for now give out for free to there own sort comings. All I keep trying to say, don't knock products that work good for many people just because you used it years ago and did not like it yourself. I did not like Norton a few years ago myself, I think Nod32 is better than Norton, but I use what I have, maybe when Microsoft works on a full AV solution, I'll try it.

I have Norton Internet Security running on all 6 computers in my house. Two teen aged boys on two of them, and my not so techy wife on two. I seem to always find issues, or they find me, Norton has never been the cause.

Falcon, I do like our discussion on this, thank you for your thoughts

 

HAHA. Nice.

 

T3Vinces spells it out in plane jane english. He ran a virus scan on the disk in his drive and he could not eject the disk immediately afterwords. The AV deleted or corrupted, or quarantied essential files. Any other explanation is patently unbelievable.

I don't think AV companies have the foggiest idea what Dell puts in their boards as that information is highly proprietary and kept secret by Dell. That is why Catlayst drivers work on some systems and not others and that is why AMD can't tell you which ones. That is also why there are so many problems on this forum caused by driver and software conflicts.

No I don't think Windows contacts AV companies and suckles them information every time they release a new update. Nor do I think AV companies keep up to date with hardware, firmware, and software releases as that would be next to impossible considering their is an infinite amount of information to process. I think what they do is over market and over engineer their products and they have a high degree of failure. When that failure occurs they point the finger at Dell and Windows.

 

Oh bother, if you want to go there then here it is again. If Microsoft had it's ish together in the first place we would not be having this conversation. And T3Vinces problem has not had a proven cause nor do we see one, it sounds like a corrupt file, and just for kicks lets say it was caused by his AV, how many people have had this happen due to many other reasons, my DVD player still works in all 6 computers as does anyone with a AV on there computer, one case does not prove a connection between the two. I just do not get why you are so fixed on slamming anything that does not come out of Microsoft's castle. If they know all like you think, why do they themselves have compatibility issues all of the time? As for these AV needing to know everything about every company's business, they don't, code is code. I am a car guy also, do you think GM thought of everything I need and want in my 2010 Camaro? That's why there are tons of third party vendors ( who do not "suckles" information from GM, it's the other way around" with tons of after market parts that improve on what GM built. Look at Shelby and the Mustang, I point is just because Microsoft built it does not make them a expert on their own OS, for proof of this wait until the second Tuesday of every month for "Security" patch after patch. MSE should just be part of Win 7, now it looks like a bandage after the fact.

Really, MSE is not the one answer for everyone. I have not seen this tread blowup like most when a crappy product is brought up to be great when it's not.

 

Everything Microsoft does is scrutinized and they could not include MSE in Windows 7 otherwise they would be in violation of anti competition laws. Microsoft claims that 50% of users use nothing and this is the market they are targeting with MSE. You on the other hand are in that other market, the special market, for special people with special needs. If it works for you keep doing doing it.

Groklaw - ECIS Provides A History of Microsoft's AntiCompetitive Behavior

 

My point with including MSE in the OS was to make a OS that does not need AV in the first place, which would be almost imposable, unless your Apple and no one bothers to make viruses for them. The second thing you said is perfect, that is what we both have been saying in our own ways the whole time.

 

I was reading a review of MSE and the person mentioned that it worked great, for them, but they were a cautious user and didn't go all over the net downloading things and checking out every single site they found.

I suppose I would also classify myself into the "cautious user" group, since I hate even getting a notification that a virus tried to get at my computer.

I have used Kaspersky 2009 thus far and it actual did not pick up everything. There was a pesky fake XP security thing that I had to get Malwarebytes to remove off my system because Kaspersky couldn't tell it was there (although it was really obvious).

I'm curious because a lot of the features Norton has I've never had before at all (and if I've got 'em perhaps Kaspersky is too hard to navigate), so how often do they come in handy, Flynn?

 

I've only use AVG, Norton and McAfee. I remember Norton used to take up a lot of resources back in like 2007. But i currently have Norton 360 2010 and haven't had any issues. So Norton 360 2010 is probably the best bet. Doesn't take up much resources. But it depends on what your price range is i guess.

 

I like Norton Internet Security, because it covers all the bases for me with my teens, web, IM, email. I use the Cards & Logins part of the Norton Tool Bar too for Fire Fox and IE, I wish they had a Chrome App ( The best browser ever ) . That feature remembers your logins to web sites and will fill in information automatically too, very handy if your like me and are one 100's of sites daily.. I was using AVG and Avast before that, both with no problems. I got into a bid discussion on this forum about Norton, and how it sucked up system resources on my systems in years past (sounds familiar ) Anyway, I decided it give Norton a chance, I did not want to talk bad about a program I know nothing about. Well, after loading it up on my Vista (Beta) machine, I was impressed on how much better it ran, less system resources than AVG, which being a gamer I thought was imposable. Back in the day I would turn off my AV, now Norton has the option to automatically do that, I do not use that feature, mine is on always, while playing WOW, COD4, Steam Games, MS Office, and even watching a movie being streamed through my M17X R2 to my 50" Plasma. All of this with not one issue.

I forgot, Norton is really good at telling you if you goto a phony web site, like the emails you get with links you click on to check a account, Norton will through up a page stating that the web link is BS, not in those exact works.