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Anyone use Norton AV?


sonsie

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Not a real important comment/question - just curious...

 

I use Norton AV 2005 and just happened to be looking at the activity log a bit ago. I've been using it for several months and under 'worm protection' it's always said "Internet Worm Protection is monitoring 3 signatures."

 

Today it's monitoring 573 ! I see that the date of the last revision was 12/8 and the new one is 3/15 and 3/17, so that explains it, but still....my god - who was watching out for those 570 signatures all this time?! :o

 

sonsie

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Not a real important comment/question - just curious...

 

I use Norton AV 2005 and just happened to be looking at the activity log a bit ago. I've been using it for several months and under 'worm protection' it's always said "Internet Worm Protection is monitoring 3 signatures."

 

Today it's monitoring 573 ! I see that the date of the last revision was 12/8 and the new one is 3/15 and 3/17, so that explains it, but still....my god - who was watching out for those 570 signatures all this time?! :o

 

sonsie

 

Did you pay for Norton?

Windows Pro Media 8.1 x64  |  8GB Ram  |  500G HDD 7200 RPM  |  All  that I know about my graphics is that it's Intel  :)

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Today it's monitoring 573 ! I see that the date of the last revision was 12/8 and the new one is 3/15 and 3/17, so that explains it, but still....my god - who was watching out for those 570 signatures all this time?! :o

 

sonsie

 

You're funny. If Norton is your only protection then no one was watching. :)

 

As Andavari says: Get layered security. (At least I think that it was him)

 

Also, not any one piece of software protects against all definitions. Personally I use 8 programs + hardware firewall. There is a really good list that you can check out in the HJT thread. Look in the malware removal guide.

 

K

Windows Pro Media 8.1 x64  |  8GB Ram  |  500G HDD 7200 RPM  |  All  that I know about my graphics is that it's Intel  :)

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"Anyone using Norton AV?"

 

Yes, loads of people. Although it's often only until they learn they can get something about as good for free, or better for less. No disrespect intended to anyone, just seems to be the case.

 

Edit: "better" is, of course, subjective...

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"Anyone using Norton AV?"

 

Yes, loads of people. Although it's often only until they learn they can get something about as good for free, or better for less. No disrespect intended to anyone, just seems to be the case.

 

Edit: "better" is, of course, subjective...

 

Agreed. I didn't have the nerve to be the first to say it.

 

@Sonsie - That's why I asked if you paid for it. Finish out the terms of your contract before you worry about switching. I'm sure that between your 4 HD's you can handle some the resource load. ;)

Windows Pro Media 8.1 x64  |  8GB Ram  |  500G HDD 7200 RPM  |  All  that I know about my graphics is that it's Intel  :)

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Yeah, I won't pay for security anymore. But I was naive. I never had anything other than an antivirus for 10 or so years. By the time I got this new computer in December, I had gotten a tiny bit of education regarding security. I'd had Norton before and was ok with it, so, not knowing what great products were available for free, I got it again.

 

my god - who was watching out for those 570 signatures all this time?!

 

I was being a bit facetious here. Seriously, I was wondering if anyone knew why Norton had 3 sigs being monitored in the morning, and that afternoon after an update I had 573. Why such a drastic difference? Why weren't at least some of those 573 configured into the application when I got it? Anyone know? Just kind of curious.

 

For security I have Ad-Aware, MS antispyware, ewido antimalware, Norton, Kerio personal firewall, and an broadband router with firewall.

 

I'm sure that between your 4 HD's you can handle some the resource load

 

nooo, I wasn't clear or something. I've had 4 (or 3) HDs go bad on me in 4 months. I don't have 4 HDs! Now that would be a waste of space! Wouldn't have a clue what to use all of that for. I'm just a lil general computer user. ^_^

 

sonsie (pssst...Symantec has, imo, the all-time worst customer support. That alone will keep me from using any product of theirs again.)

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Norton keeps computer techs in business. It can mangle your system to the point that you can't do anything but play with Norton. Got rid of mine last year. Lost money, but got my computer back.

If it isn't broke, tweak it.

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lol, I was wondering about those 4 HDs! Had to replace mine about six months ago - guy in the shop eventually reckoned that was the problem, replaced it, then gave my old one back to me and said it might be alright! Last week I had the mobo and cpu replaced - still not really sure anyone's got it figured out (least of all me).

 

Yeah, I used to use Norton. Didn't really have a beef with the program, but I also found their customer support sucks. So I found a 'better' program (much, IMO) and better support!

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Go get your refund! :D

 

Norton sucks, it is a resource hog.

 

Not with 4 HD's. lol

 

Why don't you like AntiVirus's E?

Windows Pro Media 8.1 x64  |  8GB Ram  |  500G HDD 7200 RPM  |  All  that I know about my graphics is that it's Intel  :)

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Norton keeps computer techs in business. It can mangle your system to the point that you can't do anything but play with Norton. Got rid of mine last year. Lost money, but got my computer back.

 

Heh, it is really funny you say that, cause I just fixed a computer this morning, and guess where the problem lied? Yes, it was Norton.

 

You see, this lady uses dial-up (AOL; yuck!) and her antivirus is Norton (double-yuck! the worst of both worlds!). So she had just recently gotten an update for Norton, and suddenly, Norton started preventing her from accessing the Internet! She would dial on, and as soon as AOL tried to check her username/password to let her on the net, Norton would pop on and consider that exchange a "threat"! No joke!

 

So, I just disabled Norton, got her on-line, and then used LiveUpdate to get the newest Norton update. Sure enough, that fixed the problem. Stupid Norton.

 

 

Also, even with 4 HDs, Norton still consumes plenty of RAM and CPU resources, as well as HD, so to keep Norton happy, sonsie better get a few more terabytes of RAM and weld on about a dozen or so more cores to his/her CPU. Or, just get a different antivirus solution. :P

Save a tree, eat a beaver.

Save a tree, wipe with an owl.

 

Every time a bell rings, a thread gets hijacked!

ding, ding!

 

Give Andavari lots of money and maybe even consider getting K a DVD-RW drive.

 

If it's not Scottish, IT'S CRAP!!!

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gunner, cww, Eldmannen, loko - thanks. I'm convinced. I think I'll go ahead and ditch Norton AV now and read the antivirus threads to look for something else. I'm looking for something easy to operate - very little, if any, hands on. No confusing logs that make me panic - Norton did that in spades! I couldn't interpret the logs and couldn't find a manual or customer service that could/would explain it. Turns out they were nothing to panic about - pretty normal. But being a newbie in this security stuff I was reading every security log I had several times a day. Finally figured out that was the problem. LOL

 

Now that we've gotten that taken care of - how do people feel about Norton GoBack? :P Seriously, a tech said that he could never make it and Windows get along and play nice. As far as I know, I don't/haven't had any problems, and there have been quite a few times when GoBack has saved my butt..well, actually my files. ;) On the other hand, it could be causing invisible problems. IF I were to get rid of it, is there anything comparable to take the place of it? Windows system restore is pathetic.

 

cww & gunner - I'm jealous. Greece is my first choice for a country to visit someday. B)

 

btw, Symantec and I had several email interchanges in which I was trying to get some questions answered - I swear, if they'd been taped we could have sold it as a comedy routine! They were giving me directions to configure an application I didn't have, telling me to click on buttons that didn't exist, and answering questions I didn't ask. "Who's on first...."

 

btw#2 - I apologize if I post excessively or ask too many questions - bad combination of little knowledge and much curiosity

 

sonsie ---> is a girl - need more mascara on those smilies.

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btw, Symantec and I had several email interchanges in which I was trying to get some questions answered - I swear, if they'd been taped we could have sold it as a comedy routine! They were giving me directions to configure an application I didn't have, telling me to click on buttons that didn't exist, and answering questions I didn't ask. "Who's on first...."

LOL, Abbot and Costello FTW!

btw#2 - I apologize if I post excessively or ask too many questions - bad combination of little knowledge and much curiosity

No need to apologize. We thrive on questions. Without them, all of us here at the CCleaner forum would shrivel up into tiny imploded prunes, which makes it extremely difficult to type.

sonsie ---> is a girl - need more mascara on those smilies.

 

Ok, I thunk so, but I just wanted to make sure. You see, I have this really bad habit of calling girls guys and visa versa... Maybe some hair to go along with that mascara? :D

 

Anyways, I personally like Grisoft's AVG Free for an antivirus and Zone Alarm for a firewall, but for the most part, what antivirus and firewall you get is mostly according to your personal preferences.

Save a tree, eat a beaver.

Save a tree, wipe with an owl.

 

Every time a bell rings, a thread gets hijacked!

ding, ding!

 

Give Andavari lots of money and maybe even consider getting K a DVD-RW drive.

 

If it's not Scottish, IT'S CRAP!!!

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Anyways, I personally like Grisoft's AVG Free for an antivirus and Zone Alarm for a firewall, but for the most part, what antivirus and firewall you get is mostly according to your personal preferences.

 

Oh gosh, that's too funny! I HAD AVG and loved it but gave it up for Norton because that tech said he liked Norton better! I had ZA for a couple of weeks too, but I never felt like I really had it set up correctly and that made me more nervous than not having anything. Uninstalled it, kept Norton, added Kerio. I'd forgotten all about AVG and am going back to it asap. Still have it in fact.

 

LOL, Abbot and Costello FTW!

 

That was unreal. I still have the emails. He was from another country so I think language played a part in it, plus I write too much and probably confused the issues. He was very polite, and as frustrated as I was and as angry as I was with Symantec in general, I couldn't get mad at him. So I just never responded. No way could we have cleared anything up. We were like 2 ships in the night - passing and waving but unable to communicate.

 

I have the same problem guessing the sex of the person I'm talking to. I usually assume it's a guy. Last week on another forum, I kept referring to someone with the nick 'taz-(plus some numbers) as a 'he'. Heck, I'd dated a taz and he was a he! But in this forum it was a she. LOL

 

ok, gotta go do an msn or symantec scan. Don't know what this file is off by itself, but when I just googled it I got everything from the "Seventh Annual Rice Environmental Conference Press Release" to Magistr virus to celeric soup. And as I was reading about the Magistr virus and they were talking about initializing it, I thought jeeez sonsie! use your brain! don't go clicking on files that you know nothing about, even if it does say it opens in notepad!

 

EDIT: I'm so proud. I found out what that strange file was. It's a WMP history. sheesh! I've never seen one like that nor in that location!

 

good window's tips site btw: http://libertyboy.free.fr

 

Sonsie - trying to picture imploded prunes

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what antivirus and firewall you get is mostly according to your personal preferences.

 

Yup. Apart from a couple of fairly little-known exceptions (which are basically good but perhaps a bit lacking at present), all the 'main' anti-virus and firewalls apps are pretty competent and using a 'simple' one you can understand is quite possibly safer than using a super-duper (but complicated) one you can't understand - and we all had to start off somewhere, sometime. A hardware firewall might be worth considering.

 

Last time I checked it out, GoBack was about the best - but that was a while ago. I've forgotten what else was available, but I'm sure there are alternatives. Got a feeling there might be a half decent freebie alternative, but not sure.

 

Still trying to imagine tiny imploded prunes trying to type :blink:

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Eldmannen is correct Norton sucks! It not only sucks system resources, hdd space, it also sucks allot of money out of your wallet.

 

As for the free av's I'm going to flip a coin as to what I'll choose which will either be AVG Free or Avira AntiVir. I really like the new AntiVir, however I'm hoping it still isn't a false positive whore as it used to be!

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Wow! I've never seen someone convert so quickly and painlessly. :P Impressive. :D

Windows Pro Media 8.1 x64  |  8GB Ram  |  500G HDD 7200 RPM  |  All  that I know about my graphics is that it's Intel  :)

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The only people who have Norton are people who are new to computers and because its the most advertised and readily available in shops, they get it. A few weeks into having it they will realize the got ripped off and more then likely either live with it because they don't know what other are available of Google around and switch to one of the others, and because Norton is so crap they will 99% of the time get a better one.

 

Please don't ask how i know this :lol:;)

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One way of being introduced to Norton is via a new PC purchase since allot of manufacturers have it pre-installed with allot of other nonsense s**tware. I seriously think PC manufacturers would be better off just cutting a licensing/approval deal to have one of the freeware av's pre-installed instead - because people wouldn't have to worry about some 90 day trial crap av running out.

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Wow! I've never seen someone convert so quickly and painlessly

 

LOL it's pretty easy to listen to other people when you know little yourself!

 

The only people who have Norton are people who are new to computers ...

 

See above. LOL Seriously, I've used a computer for close to 10 years, but it's just been the last few months that I knew anything but antivirus programs (or anything except viruses) existed. You might be surprised how many people are out there just like I was - no clue, not much interest in getting a clue - they just want to log on and do what they do. I'm not knocking them, it's just a different approach to their computer. I had no idea security was such a large area of interest. I went to a forum to ask about something and wow! malware, spyware, firewalls, antispyware and on and on. Scared the hell out of me the first month or so that I looked at my logs. Seemed like everyone in the world was knocking on my computer door or trying to break in through the windows. I was doing full scans with 4 programs 3-4 times/day cuz I didn't trust the software to catch anything. Now a couple of days go by before I view them. The reason I first turned to Norton as antivirus a couple of years ago is that I was so ignorant about what existed that I didn't even know to look anything up. How can you search for something you don't know exists? LOL McAfee and Norton were the two biggies. I've never had any problems with Norton antivirus or GoBack that I know of, but I really like AVG - simple and effective.

 

btw, one thing, maybe the main thing, that keeps many people from learning more is that they feel intimidated. I used a computer for almost 10 years before I posted to a forum. I was scared to death that all of these knowledgeable, intelligent people would make me feel like a fool, whether intentionally or not, for knowing so little that I couldn't even use the correct terminology to describe my problem. Instead, I found some of the most patient, caring, helpful people on earth willing to take time from their personal lives to assist others who need them. Now, I not only get help, I have fun, too! Who'd a thunk it?! Very cool. Kudos to all of you who volunteer your time and help. :D

 

I seriously think PC manufacturers would be better off just cutting a licensing/approval deal to have one of the freeware av's pre-installed instead - because people wouldn't have to worry about some 90 day trial crap av running out.

 

If they're going to install anything, I agree. Personally, I don't think they should install a thing. What's worse is when the customer specifically says don't install anything, they say ok, but do it anyway. A tech at castlecops had that happen and it took her a day and a half to get rid of the crap they'd installed, some of it containing spyware. I never used to read the user agreements, just clicked "I accept." Now I at least browse to make sure there's no notices of 'third party agreements'.

 

sonsie

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If they're going to install anything, I agree. Personally, I don't think they should install a thing. What's worse is when the customer specifically says don't install anything, they say ok, but do it anyway. A tech at castlecops had that happen and it took her a day and a half to get rid of the crap they'd installed, some of it containing spyware. I never used to read the user agreements, just clicked "I accept." Now I at least browse to make sure there's no notices of 'third party agreements'.

 

When I was ordering my WinXP system which is going on 2 1/2 years ago I asked the nice lady at Dell if this and that could be left off the installation, and she told the truth and said no. Therefore I ended up just formatting it within an hour of setting it up and playing around with it a bit because it had McAfee Online 90 day trial (or whatever it's called), AOL 90 day or 6 month trial, and a plethora of other stuff that I wouldn't install in a million years.

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Raw nerve time: twice I've had mine in for hardware probs and it's come back with added programs. First time it was Norton Professional, second time it included McAfee (among other stuff). OK, first time it didn't have an AV prog on but's only because I was going to install AVG when it came back. I ended up using Norton for a while, only when their 'customer service' failed me (again) that I removed it. This time (few weeks ago) I had a damn good AV prog on there when it went in! Spoke to the guy on the phone and he said, "I'm going to put McAfee on for you" - I don't think we needed to be connected by phone, I'm sure he would've heard me anyway... "NOooooooooooooo!" Of course, it came back with bits of McAfee littering it up, guess he'd already done it and then tried to uninstall it.

 

I can't figure out if they make money from it (they usually install 'free' copies) or if they think they're doing you a favour. Just makes me wonder how knowledgable they really are, installing Norton / McAfee. Jeez, if they want to 'give' me something free, install AVG.

 

"How can you search for something you don't know exists?" Absolutely true. I think there's quite a lot of people un-aware of the dangers and sometimes when I try to inform friends it's like I've just stepped off planet paranoid. Maybe part of the problem is that malware is often referred to in the media as 'viruses' so people think, "oh, I've got an AV so I'm OK". ?

 

Jeez, I had one friend who kept getting pop-up warnings from their AV program - so they got a pop-up blocker! Of course, they'd never up-dated it since they got it anyway.

 

Oh my, end of rant. :(

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