Anti-Virus Software.

[miles]

Weird Harold is right. Norton is a memory hog. I bought it and scrapped it within a week. I switched to AVG for virus and it works great. It updates daily with the settings I made. Norton Internet Security also sucked memory, and I replaced it with Zone Alarm (freeware). The best thing I ever did was buy a router which does away with the need for Internet security software. You can get one for less than $100.

 

[mokum13]

Zone Alarm is good and free. For Anti-virus i use AVG from grisoft. It's pretty good and free too!!

 

[alexandraaah]

I was using Zone Alarm on my old hard drive (per miles) and still had a lot of trouble with my system resources, though that hard drive was going downhill..so that may have been the problem.

I've heard of routers, but don't know the first thing about them. It does sound like the best idea.

I think I'm having trouble scrapping the Norton just yet, cause I dropped $70 on it just a couple days ago.

However, it is making things awfully slow...

 

[Ice Princess]

Wonder if you could skip the firewall except when you're file-sharing or something.

The protection Norton gives you on the incoming and outgoing email and on the virus updates will still be really helpful to you, even if some of the other features are just too memory and resource intensive for you to use. What's it like if you just leave the antivirus stuff on and turn all the other whistles and bells that came with Norton? Still too much?

 

[alexandraaah]

What's it like if you just leave the antivirus stuff on and turn all the other whistles and bells that came with Norton? Still too much?

Hrm...I'm one of those 'jamitinwithoutreadinginstructionsfirst' kinda gals, so I'm still figuring out how to disable some of the other features. So far, I have disabled the "auto protect" which doesn't seem to change how much slower my system is running. It still caught a backdoor trojan thingie, but that was the firewall.

I thought I read earlier in the thread that even if you disable the other features, it's still running all the applications or something?

I know I sound very remedial about this whole gig...it's cause...well, I am.

 

[ArtifexLignorum]

Antivurus tuning

Being a "read and follow labeled instructions" kinda guy I realize this suggestion may fall on deaf ears. Yet, one can get around the resources drain imposed by Antivirus software, if one takes the time to muck about in the mildly complex software options offered. The suggestion is to learn what the various features actually do, and turn on just those components when one feels there is a risk afoot. This afords a reasonable balance between protection and performance.

Also, it is important to keep your virus signatures fresh. Older programs cannot provide much help with the newest crop of nasties out there.

Good luck.

 

[alexandraaah]

Re: Antivurus tuning

Being a "read and follow labeled instructions" kinda guy I realize this suggestion may fall on deaf ears. Yet, one can get around the resources drain imposed by Antivirus software, if one takes the time to muck about in the mildly complex software options offered. The suggestion is to learn what the various features actually do, and turn on just those components when one feels there is a risk afoot. This afords a reasonable balance between protection and performance.

Also, it is important to keep your virus signatures fresh. Older programs cannot provide much help with the newest crop of nasties out there.

Good luck.

Thanks, and you're absolutely right. I'm going to see if I can tackle that manual today. As for your other point, the software I bought does live updates more than once a week...is that what you're talking about or do I need to pay attention to something else?

I'm interested because I'm fairly certain that it was one or more nasty virii that killed my last hard drive.

Thanks again!

 

[ArtifexLignorum]

Re: Re: Antivurus tuning

Yes the live updates run every now and then are precisely what i was referrring to.

I find the Norton manuals very informative and reliable. Good luck.

Thanks, and you're absolutely right. I'm going to see if I can tackle that manual today. As for your other point, the software I bought does live updates more than once a week...is that what you're talking about or do I need to pay attention to something else?

I'm interested because I'm fairly certain that it was one or more nasty virii that killed my last hard drive.

Thanks again!

 

[Overdrivenat40]

I bought the Norton package that includes the anti-virus and the firewall protection and just installed it.

So far so good.

Thanks for all the info., folks!

Just absolutely make sure you update the definitions at a minimum of weekly...................Norton seems to have updates every few days anymore.

That's the biggest problem people have with virus protection - they install the program and don't realize there are new viruses found every day and updates/fixes published for them.

 

[Jaded1]

Alexandraaah........

Hi, pretty lady. Sorry, I didn't ask you first your hardware configuration..... If you are running slow you maybe experiencing low memory resources. Yes, with all the new protection you just installed it will take up more space. Probably the best answer to your problem is to increase the memory in your machine. Most machines more than three years old ran 133 mhz sdram. I bought my Dell with 128 meg of memory. It didn't take long to realize that what I wanted to do would require more memory. I took my machine to a PC shop and had memory expanded out to 512 meg. All for a total cost of $114.00 (that included tax, tip, and a dozen donuts). Today the older sdram memory is even cheaper now. Again I apologize for not asking..........

Jaded1, CT

 

[fgarvb1]

fgarvb1 dropping my 5-3=2 cents in here.

I'm running Zone alarm pro which claims to help protect from email trouble and norton systems works 2002 and i don't have to do anything.
Oh i look for trojans and virus every so many months just to be on the safe side, but i have yet to find one.

These two programs along with ad-aware take care of everything.

Yes they are memory hogs, but keeping my computer cleaned out and windows working right allows me to run my system resources down into the 40% range before i need to restart.

I have had them down to 13%before. Normaly they run from 64-74% after start up. I can live with that.

win98se..550mhz...320Mb ram

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

http://gamehippo.com/free_util/avg.shtml Free Virus Scanner I been using for over a year

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp Free Fire wall I been using for over 2 years

Norton, Failed me. MacAffee Faillen me, PcCillian was to much for my Ram.

AVG antivirus and zone alarm very minimal systems resourrce waste

and once a month I run
http://www.antivirus.com/free_tools/
disk defrag
scan disk

No problems for a year now

 

[koalabear]

Any new comments....getting ready to switch from McCaffee?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Any new comments....getting ready to switch from McCaffee?

I've used both McCaffee and Norton. Being the untrusting soul I am, I then went to other software sites to try them and they would find things both McC and Norton missed. Of all the fifty or so I've tried, I like then latest verson of Panda the best, although it can be a little unstable. It's also not well known.

In truth, I think all of them have a limited life span. They are great for a while, then the internet demonds find a way around them. 90% of the world is on Norton and McC so they seem to have sort of short lives. The best one I found was PC Tools. It had a fairly long life, but now it's being violated too.

I change once a year and go to something new. The updates you get are only virus definitions, not new ways of looking for viruses. I think that's where the problem lies. When a true update comes out for any of the antivirus software, it costs $60 to upgrade.

 

[wally2450]

Anti-Virus: AVG 7.5 (free)
Firewall: Comodo (free) Two way protection. Well reviewed.
Have used them both for over six months.
A good site to visit and bookmark:
www.techsupportforum.com
I have got answers there within hours and these topics are discussed regularly along with many others.

 

[rydia57]

I use AVG too, it's good. Just don't get Viruscan ok? Glitches galore. I think viruses actually bond with it.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I use AVG too, it's good. Just don't get Viruscan ok? Glitches galore. I think viruses actually bond with it.

Yeah. AVG is ok for the common viruses as long as you have a good firewall, a good spyware scanner and stay the hell out of certain websites.

 

[StonetheCrow077]

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Trend Microhouse's PC Cillin that's out there. I scan mine on occasion with their free scan cuz I dont fully trust Norton that I'm running.

here's the site for it. I find it catches everythign, including spyware that Norton will overlook.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/


I would suggest mcafee, but that one caused me a lot more problems than it should have. for some reason when I went to update it kept telling me the license expired even though it hadnt.

PCcillin is very good...

being in the IT industry, I would not really suggest, either, Norton or McAfee...

I would go with Kaspersky or NOD32... as far as Firewall, I'd go with Outpost... I personally run NOD32 and Outpost together... they rock...

 

[StonetheCrow077]

Wonder if you could skip the firewall except when you're file-sharing or something.

The protection Norton gives you on the incoming and outgoing email and on the virus updates will still be really helpful to you, even if some of the other features are just too memory and resource intensive for you to use. What's it like if you just leave the antivirus stuff on and turn all the other whistles and bells that came with Norton? Still too much?

If you have any internet besides dial up, it matters not if your file sharing or not... without a fire wall, your internet port is always open and communicating with the rest of the world... you could have spy ware on your computer sending out pings to servers and stripping info off of your PC... all it takes is turning it on...

 

[koalabear]

Thanks to all that have replied so far.....people here usually know what is what about computers and software..

 

[yoshimitsu]

I ditched norton a few months ago and tried AVG + Zone alarm.
My computer (Which has never had serious performance issues) became more retarded than a can of soda pop.
Zone alarm would sometimes let my wireless connect to the internet but sometimes not.
AVG needed more manual pampering than I would want installing updates and stuff.
If I didn't shut down my computer for a few days I went from having 700 mb ram to 0 ram and when I started up the computer it took about 5 minutes for everything to load and explorer to come online.
Maybe it didn't install right or something but I switched back to Norton. It seems like the performance issues are more on some comps than others. I don't notice any performance loss unless Norton is running a scan or activly doing something I know about. My ex had the exact same computer as me with more ram and norton was always doing stuff that bogged it down.

I might try NOD32 at some point in the future but for now I am happy to have something that just works.