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I'm finally back on the net after having my computer in the shop for a week. It seems that my anti-virus program, Norton, exploded and took a number of my files with it. My computer tech says it's fairly common and I know the problems Timmy had in the past with them. Anyway, he loaded in a freeware anti-virus program called BitDefender and he swears by it. Now I just need to get a firewall that will handle Vista. Know of any excellent ones that also happen to be free? (I'm not cheap, just broke.):-/
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Hey.... You're right about norton.... It does suck!!!!
Let me know if the freeware you got is any good?????
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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John..
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: March 2008
Messages: 56
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Hi paul,
i run vista and have a freeware firewall from pc tools, it works well and i have no problems.
I also run pc toopls spyware doctor with anti virus, works well on my pc and does not cause it to hang.(paid version)
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Im sorry guys, I have been running Norton and Norton works for 8 years and I have yet to have a problem with it. As far as freeware, remember, you get what you pay for. Did you talk to Norton? I dont listen to what some shade tree tech says about someones product, I go to the source. Norton absolutely will respond if you make an inquiry. Are you sure it wasnt Vista? Microsoft still provides QEM software for XP and I have a copy. I stripped Vista off my computer and installed XP. Norton runs flawless.
If you stand for Freedom, but you wont stand for war, then you dont stand for anything worth fighting for.
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I ran Norton for years under XP without a problem. But my new computer has Vista on it an I can't afford to switch to XP - although I would love to. And yeah, the problem seems to be in Norton trying to run under Vista. But when the tech stripped Norton off my computer it increased the speed of program loading by 100%. It seems Norton is a pretty big resource hog.
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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Roger,
If Norton works for you then you should feel very lucky -- you're one of the few people I have come across who hasn't had problems of one sort or another!
At work we used to provide our customers with the slightly more upmarket corporate version of Norton, Symantec Antivirus, and it caused no end of problems -- it's slow, it had various security vulnerabilities (yes, a antivirus product infected by viruses, literally -- they would render it inoperable) -- and it installs itself so thoroughly that uninstalling it has been known to render a machine entirely unbootable (I still shudder to think of the time that happened to me...). We've since moved to ESET NOD32, which is generally pretty good. It's reliable, discreet and uses far fewer resources. (You could have a look at it, Paul, though I don't think it's free.)
My main problem with Norton is that it uses so many resources -- by default it scans absolutely everything before it loads, making a computer much, much slower. You might not notice it if you've always had it, but it's alarming the difference it makes to an otherwise well-tuned computer.
In software terms, Roger, 'you get what you pay for' doesn't really hold true. You get what you pay for in terms of support, yes (by which I mean that you can get a real human on the line, hopefully, if you pay lots of money) but in terms of the software itself -- which can be duplicated effectively for free -- you'll often find a free alternative that does just as much much more efficiently than the expensive market-leader. That includes updates and patches as well -- anything from the level of trivial utilities up to the entire operating system. (This site runs on entirely free software, for instance -- correct me if I'm wrong, Timmy!). Companies will generally pay a great deal for support, so it's often in the interests of software suppliers to give away versions of their products to home/hobbyist for free, to increase market-share.
Personally, I run an online virus-scanner periodically, take a lot of backups, take a great deal of care about what I download and what sites I visit, and I've not had any problems with viruses. I work with a lot of experienced professional sysadmins (several of whom know Windows to a much greater depth than I do) and they would also agree that this is a perfectly acceptable way of maintaining a machine.
David
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Paul -- I've heard good things about AVG Anti-Virus (http://free.grisoft.com/) and also Avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html) though I've never used them personally.
Under Linux I use ClamAV, which works very well as a server-side scanner -- there is a Windows version, though I'd have no idea what it's like. (http://www.clamwin.com/) That one's not just free, but also open source.
If you're happy to go light (and are very careful) then you can probably get away with running an online virus scanner periodically. This ensures that your precious CPU cycles aren't wasted when you don't want them to be. I use Trend Micro HouseCall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/). I've never used their offline products, though.
David
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I tend to agree and I have been building computers for five years now or so. For those who cannot afford the steep prices and often resource hungry Nortons of this world I always recommend AVG antivirus and Zonealarm firewall Another usefuseful tool is Spybot S&D it looks for trojans spyware and stuff and is also free also.
ZoneZonealarm free can be found at
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/zonealarm_free_firewall.jsp
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Norton so sucks. I use a combination of a hardware firewall in my router and the native M$ firewall. SO far no intrusions.
I also run Spybot search and destroy, Adaware, and Avast! antivirus.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Dear Paul,
I use AVG (Anti-Virus-Grisoft). I think it comes from Czechoslovakia. It's highly thought of and recommended in PCW and by "Ask Jack" in the Guardian.
It's free for private use and downloadable. Google it and read about it.
Love,
Anthony
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Yes, Paul J,
I forgot I also use Spybot occasionally and I used to use Zonealarm before I got a router that changes addresses as a firewall. They are both free too.
Love,
Anthony
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I used AVG version 7 on my elderly laptop until a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, AVG version 8 won't run under Win2K SP3 (and I can't update to SP4 'cos it slows down to the point of un-usability with a lot of stuff that is to "protect" stuff that I don't want to have install in the first place ... like Internet Explorer!)
As a result, I switched to Avast! for anti-virus, and I've seen a considerable decrease in boot-up time and increase in speed and usability. Whoopee!
I use Zonealarm as a free fire firewall, and have never had any kind of problem in the several years I've been using it.
As for Norton ... apparently the current version is less of a pig than previous ones, though a mate of mine has recently had to completely re-install windows XP because of Norton's misbehaviour. It is definitely risky if there's anything at all odd about one's personal hardware or software setup, and when work converts to PC's rather than macs I'll be using Kaspersky (AVG etc are only free to private individuals.)
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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Thanks guys, lots of useful information there.
I installed both Adaware and Spybot a long time ago and use them religiously. They are both excellent programs. For a registry cleaner, take a look at CCleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com/download . Some registry cleaners can go overboard and delete important stuff but this one has been dependable for me for a number of years.
I had forgotten all about ZoneAlarm. I had it on my other machine and it worked just fine. Thanks, Paul. I'll download it again. I hope it handles Vista okay.
I'm going to retain the BitDefender anti-virus software my tech put on my machine. I researched it and it's won quit a few awards. It doesn't hog resources yet it downloads updates hourly. If I get flush with money again I'll purchase the pro model of BitDefender. My editor uses Avast and thinks it's better than having sex with a sheep. (You'll have to excuse him, he's a farm boy.) 
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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Hello Paul,
Glad you recall good old ZoneAlarm. I used it for many years till I went entirely router supplied.
I have had a look at BitDefender and I think you are right. The paid for version has some excellent reviews and I guess the free one's simply a scaled down to basics protection?
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/software/s525.htm
for those interested here is some info.
Paul. J.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I was selective with Norton. I kept it on one machine because Norton Ghost was useful. I just used that and some ordinary utilities. I liked the Ghost backup. I've had to use it on more than one occasion.
But I've just bought and tested a pair of terabyte drives from Western Digital that sit and do nothing except automatic backup all the time. if I save a file they back it up! And I can restore.
So I am just completing the full removal of Norton, including using the Norton removal tool. And I also hope my machine will run faster with that crap gone.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Norton sucks (and not in the good way) 
Re: Norton sucks (and not in the good way) 
Re: Norton sucks (and not in the good way) 
