Norton or Avast security?

Q:can I catch a virus using my neighbours' wireless router?
(I don't have a broadband provider...)

My two week old W3v came with the 90 days free Norton security software.
I'm not sure I like "Norton". Seems like boot-ups are getting longer after a live update. Is 10 minutes normal?
Anyway, my question was: do anybody use the free for personal use Avast security software ( www.avast.com) ?
Is it any good?
Should I remove Norton and then load Avast?
thanks in advance.

 

No, but your neighbour can log all your action and activities.

Norton is a RAM-hog, uninstall and get Avast, its free and works just as well, if not better!

 

my vote is for avast, norton seems to just suck the life out of a computer. Been using avast for about 3 years now, not a single virus yet =P

 

I use Avast also

 

to me its more of a question of avast or kaspersky. i cant decide.

 

I also use Avast... great program with many updates weekly. I prefer it over Norton...

 

Glad this post came up! I've been looking for a good replacement for my Norton for a while - it certainly kills your boot up time. I haven't been able to make any decisions, but seeing how Avast is free, it can't hurt to give it a try. I'll let you know what i think

 

Is a firewall included in Avast?

 

From reading their website it doesnt seem to have a true firewall per-se however does seem to have some filtering/blocking capabilities.

Anyone with more extensive knowledge of Avast please feel free to comment or correct me

 

Sorry for stealing the thread, but does anyone have any comments on ZoneAlarm Security Suite. Is it like Norton? Does is hog resources? I'm currently using Avast and the free ZoneAlarm firewall, but i'm planning on using the ZoneAlarm Security Suite for my W3J.

 

I've used Zone Alarm (Firewall) in the past and had so many issues - resource hogging and constant messages to name a few - that I just gave up on it. I personally found it to be more trouble than it was worth.

 

I have Zonealarm security suit on my laptop and avast on my desktop. Zonealarm has better virus scanner than avast (i used the laptop to scan my desktop sometimes and caught one or two that avast didn't). Zonealarm DOES NOT give u a ton of pop up messages. It only does that the first day! If you set it up properly, it won't bug you ever again until you install a new program. It also doesn't slow down my computer. Norton does though. I would have stick with Zonealarm but they don't have a 64bit out yet :-(.
Avast is ok i suppose :-/.

 

many thanks.

I'll be uninstallig Norton...and putting on Avast.

 

Am moving this to software as I think its better suited there.
I personally use AVGfree, its done well for me over the past 6months, so glad to be finally free of norton. It updates daily, does a daily scan, and doesnt slow down the pc at all. It also did a great job of filtering email virus's, something norton does poorly IMHO.
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I was expecting more than just one AVG user.

Anyway, I got Avast because I read many good comments (before even knowing about AVG) by users of this forum and I've been using it for two months.

It uses less resources than Norton, gives you automatic updates (or you can update when you wish to do so), and although it doesn't have a real firewall, it scans mail and news coming and leaving your computer.

I got a warning before a trojan attacked my computer and then Avast stopped it. I'm very pleased with it, otherwise I'd had already tried AVG.

I don't use Zone Alarm becase when I installed it, the program asked me to turn off one of Avast's settings. Some people have told me they haven't had any issues with Avast-ZA but I don't need another firewall right away.

 

AVG is awsome! I hardly notice it running as t uses few cpu resources. It updates daily and I have never had a virus! Never tried Avast but a lot of people like it. I would definately recommend AVG though!

 

But how can I gete rid of Norton...

Just from add and remove program? And how about the registies left behind the uninstallation...how can I delete these unwanted files...

Thanks for your help!!

 

yeah add and remove will pratically remove norton!

To all,
i have tried norton, avg, avast, panda, and pccillin. some of them take too much of resources while others (though not great resources eater) are not really good when it comes to detecting viruses. they got one thing in common, they are SO SLOW executing thorough scan.

Now i'm using bitdefender 9 pro plus and it's excellent and can execute thorough scan faster than any of the antivirus mention above. you need, however, to spend some cash on bitdefender 9 pro plus.

the good news is bitdefender 8 is free.! try it!
http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html

here's a link that i found ranking bitdfender as no. 1 antivirus:
http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

 

Norton was pre-installed on my laptop the day it was delivered, and it turned itself on.

It was "protecting" my laptop from day one.

I decided after three or four weeks to give Avast a try. Downloaded Avast, and Avast asked if I'd like to do a pre-boot scan. I answered yes, rebooted my laptop, and Avast began it's scan.

Well, Avast found a virus that Norton had apparently missed! I did a search online for the virus, and apparently it's caused numerous people total havic!

I've since removed Norton, left Avast on my laptop, and also installed Zone Alarms. Both programs are free.

Not to say that maybe Norton might find a virus that Avast might have missed, but it IS upsetting to be using a program that costs something like $45/year, and have a free option find the virus the commercial program missed!

 

Hi all, few words from me.
As a matter of fact, Norton( latest one) is not a resource hog in my experience. I used Norton internet security on my laptop for few months and found no problems or slow down. It is just a bit of bashing practice on forums against Norton, like against MS. If u are happy with it, u can keep keep it but u have to pay for it and I will say if u are going to pay there are better products out there( Kaspersky, NOD32). BTW, 10 min boot time mentioned in post #1 is unbelieveable and how can u say it is just due to Norton?

In free AV, I recommend Avast and Antivir. I have used Avast. Its really good, install and forget. It updates automatically and protects well. However to m, its GUI is bad, so I changed it to simple one with no skinning and it looks nice.

I used Antivir also and it,s my first choice in free ones but two things. First has no mail scanner but no problem as I don,t use outlook. Secondly its updates settings etc are not easy to modify for beginners. Also it gives a pop up off and on but I will still prefer it as I can manage it and its detection is better than Avast.

AVG- much populr on internet in free AVs. I used it but updates are headache as u have to do manually. So I don,t like it. Also not a good GUI. Avast and Antivir rae better.

In paid AVs- best are Kaspersky and NOD 32 in my opinion. Kaspersky has best signature based detection and NOD 32 has best heuristics.

In security suites, best is ZA suite( though its spyware scannner and AV are weaker but still overall it is best). The best thing in it is OS firewall. It does give popups but after sometimes they decrease eo the extent that u don,t bother. It does used a bit resources but not to much and no much slow down. U get all in one package.

About Firewalls, best in the free ones is Kerion( but don,t use latest version- it has BSOD issue- just use one version older).

If u want to pay- LooknStop, ZA Pro and OutPost pro are good- See firewalltester.com
Jetico free is best but only for experts.

BTW, u need an anti-apyware as well. If u want to pay, use spysweeper( or Online Armor if u like to play more).
Free real time spyware scanner-----? I am afraid, none can be recommended, I use MS antispyware Beta 2 but it is now replaced by Defender and I have no much experience of it.

At the end I will say, these software behave differently on different systems. If one has got an issue with one software, it is not must that others will get the same issue- and vice versa.

The best way is to download a trial and try it yourself but don,t forget to protect ur system with a recovey software like RollbackRx or FD-ISR.

I hope all this suffice. If u still need more information, go to wilderssecurity.com.
Thanks.

 

zonealarm suite is very good. Mcafee is at the top of my list with norton falling in the "average" or 5 out of ten area. AVG is towards the bottom of my list. It does a terrible job of finding and stopping things but for free its fine.

 

Another one for AVG. Been using it for over three years .... never a problem.

My laptop came with the free trial for Norton ... I took it off within 30 minutes of first boot up. Norton is like an accident waiting to happen. You never know when it will not play nice with a new piece of software you install or because of Norton's own update.

It has been a poor piece of software ever since Symantec bought it.

 

My laptop also came with norton 2005 which I wiped it out and installed Avast a week ago.

Reading thr this thread, I am glad that it was a right decision.

I was pondering between Avast and AVG which are both free.

After googling, it seems that AVG runs faster but sometimes there are little issues with auto updates.

Btw, are there problems with running Avast and Zone Alarm firewall together ?
Some say so and some don't.

 

well i just got rid of nortons and just installed Avast. I shall see how it works. Hopefully after reading the reviews it should be as good as or better than nortons.

 

Haven't had any issues. I've been running Avast and Zone Alarm for a couple of weeks now, without issue.

 

Just a quick note regarding uninstalling Norton; some users have had difficulty removing all the components from previous versions entirely. There are a couple of uninstall tools available, if you poke around in Symantec support.

I had problems with uninstalling Internet Security 2005, particularly because it was picking up traces of the old versions of Norton software or some nonsense. Even after I had removed (what I thought was) all of it, I still found a few annoying traces almost a year later. The uninstall tool ultimately got rid of it, I think.

Switched to AVG Free, haven't had any major problems yet. Updating does have a few quirks for me, but nothing that is really a pain (so far).

 

I'm continuing to use the Norton the came with my computer, even though I don't particularly like it. It's done good things some of the times I've gotten infected over the years; other times, it did absolutely nothing. But, well, I found a $5 off subscription coupon that I couldn't resist once the 90 day one expired.

I'd just like to point out that there are worse things out there than Norton. Most of my bootup and general performance slowdown is caused by excessive fragmentation - 50% file fragmentation AFTER defragmenting. And short of "borrowing" a 40GB drive from work to move all my stuff, format everything, and put everything back, and keep doing that whenever stuff gets really fragmented, I don't really think there's a solution.

So, with that in perspective, to me anyway, Norton is just a minor annoyance...

Malia

 

There's a credible chart on the net that pretty much concludes that BitDefender is the winner whilst Norton blows suck off of your system. Best free a-v solution is the AntiVir and it's the one I use currently. Norton is worse than McAfee and is very unstable piece of activation-ware!

 

Bitdefender is the best for me... it's very easy to use and very effective removing virus... updates after 2-3 hours. doesn't use much of my resources! Rank no. 1 by top ten review.

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

 

Crawfish, if you're using the automatic update feature of AVG, switch to manual and do the updates yourself every 3 or 4 days.

Malia, you have been lucky so far ... just wait ..

As long as there is a viable alternative, which happens to be free, I don't see why anyone would use Norton. And the only way they get people to use it is to PUSH it at them by having a free 1-year trial pre-installed on new systems.

 

Is it possible to install both AVG and Avast w/o a confilct? I have AVG already, and i want to install avast for extra protection.

 

hmm i've used norton, avast, avg, mcafee, and zone alarm security AND bit defender.

Although its a resource hog, norton is all that bad to me.It seems to be doing its job ok.Hasnt caused me any problems yet.It hasnt found any viruses either.

AVG since its free its ok...but i wouldnt rely on it.When i had it(free version) it would sometimes find the virus afta i'd already been infected and then its unable to clean or delete or do anything about it.

Mcafee is wat im currently using on my desktop.Same thing as norton.Might take up a bit of resources and slow down start up a little, but it seems to be protecting fine with no software issues.

Zone alarm...i didnt really try the anti-virus feature just coz reviews said that it wasnt so strong in that field, but the firewall is tops(very strong).THe prob with zone alarm is that it can cause quite a few software conflicts.For me personally, wheneer i tried to install CS(counterstrike) from cd, it would let the auto run start up and it would end up freezing the installation untill i close zone alarm and then try to install again it works fine.I also find that with zone alarm, afta leaving it on overnight(my computer) the internet will b locked the next morning(cant browse/no internet access) and this is without the auto lock setting on.

Bitdefenders antivirus seemed to b alright.The firewall seemed abit dodgy tho.Not too many options.To me its comparable to the normal win xp sp2 firewall.The antivirus works well though.

Oh i forgot avast.I used the free version which was quite good.I did have a prob with getting it to scan files just recieved from msn.Also it might slow down ur IE load just a small bit coz it has to run its script blocking feature.

Anyways thats my rundown on things.hope it helps

 

* Bump *

I did a live update and "scanned" the files with the Norton 2005 and now my Outlook express doesn't work anymore.
If I disable the "spamming" function, I can receive emails but not send. To send emails I have to to dis-enable the antivirus.
To make a long story short, I'm fed-up with Norton and want to switch.

Is it correct to:
#1 - Load Avast & make sure everything is working
#2 - Load some kind of firewall
#3 - I don't care about spam, so I don't need a tool for that
#4 - uninstall Norton. Do I need the Symantec tool or just uninstall it?

as an aside, my W3j is great

 

If u want free, Avast( install and forget) or Antivir( there is a pop up off and on - like a nag screen but better protection than Avast).
If paid, Kaspersky( best signature based protection) or NOD32( best heuristics but settings are not very easy I heard).
Put a trial of any one and see urself.

 

This "Extra protection" will spoil ur system. Never use two AV at a time-- its, the rule.
Go ahead with one only.

 

I have used Avg on my old IBM notebook. Never had a problem with anything. Tried Avast on the first notebook that Dell sent me, but now use AVG on my replacement e1705. No problems, fast updates, small footprint. Install and forget basically.

 

I used to use both programs, AVG and Avast. And indeed, both programs are great free antivirus programs. Until, I wanted something all-in-one program. So I bought ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

JC