Anti-virus

[Liz]

At present I have Norton Anti-Virus 2002 along with Zone Alarm.

The NAV expires soon and I don't know whether to upgrade or change to another AV.
I have been told that AVG andd Trend Micro PC-Cillan are two of the best?

I'd much appreciate any advice.

Liz

[Zael]

definately recommend AVG, it finds more than norton and causes less system problems.

[Liz]

Thanks Zael! I was thinking about them.

I use Internet Explorer but changed to Firefox but when I did this I lost all my 'favourites' etc so went back to IE.

What do you recommend?

Liz

[Zael]

I use both IE and Firefox, firefox has nice features but atm IE supports more of the lazy scripting out there on the net. You should be able to import all your favs from IE into firefox, it has an import facility if you click Bookmarks then go to Bookmark manager, click on the file menu and go to import. easy :)

[Liz]

Thanks again Zael. I got all the favourites back!

I have another problem now though as when I first lost the favourites I changed from Firefox home page as the default browser back to BT Yahoo but I then lost both!!!
How do I get Firefox back as the Home Page? :roll:

Sorry but I am a complete technophobe!!!

Liz

[Bobinovich]

At present I have Norton Anti-Virus 2002 along with Fire Alarm.

The NAV expires soon and I don't know whether to upgrade or change to another AV.
I have been told that AVG andd Trend Micro PC-Cillan are two of the best?

I'd much appreciate any advice.

Liz

Hi Liz

I've always been a proponent of 'You get what you pay for' and, when it comes to anti-virus software, I'd have to recommend sticking with Norton. In fact I'd probably suggest going to a newer version too. I've been working with PC's for over 11 years and it's not an area you want to skimp on.

Bite the bullet and upgrade to a newer version with a years' subscription.

Bob

[Zael]

I'd have to disagree with Bob, as in every case where I've been called out to a virus problem, the user invariably has norton and it has either been disabled by the virus or (even as up-to-date as it can get) does not recognise the fact that a virus is present in the system.

I have had 100% success with AVG as when installing the latest version (with norton still running) it picks up and removes the offending beastie.

As for the firefox homepage, click on the tools menu and then onto options, you should be presented with the general settings page, at the top of which you will see the home page location, simply enter the address of the page you wish to have as your homepage and click ok.

[Liz]

Thanks again Zael! :D

Sorry I have another question! Do you use the AVG Firewall?

I use Zone Alarm and wonder if this would be enough along with AVG AV? Also should I disable the Windows Firewall?

Thanks again!
Liz
:D

[Tom Cornwall]

I have also used AVG for a couple of years and have also had no problems

[catchalot]

Hiya Liz,


Bin Nortons..as Zael says it causes more probems that it's worth.

Go for AGV. far more effective without the grief and the cost of Nortons :)

[doreenhedgehog]

I have also ditched Norton after many, many problems, and use AVG

[Brizer2k2]

I would also definitely recommend AVG 7.0 free edition too !!!

I also have spybot, adaware SE and CWShredder to deal with all the adware, spyware etc.

[2little2late]

I had Norton 2004 anti-virus. Found it absolutely awful. Slowed the sysytem right down. As I used to use AVG and Zonealarm, I uninstalled Norton and am now using AVG and Zonealarm again. No probs whatsoever. AVG is even better than before. Wouldn't recommend Norton to my worst enemy. As for spy ware removal I use Webroot windows washer and spy sweeper. Excellent. Even some of the best things are free.

[Liz]

I've downloaded AVG but cannot register as there seems to be a 'blip'.

I've entered all the necessary details but it keeps saying to change info regarding error messages and there are none!

Do I really need to register it to be protected?

[kwbrown111]

i would also recommend McAfee Spamkiller for your e-mails.

[Zael]

As far as I rememeber you dont need to register AVG, if you do, it wont cost you anything, but you may get some e-mails regarding their products.

For a firewall, I'd recommend Sygate Personal Firewall, another freebee thats better then the paid for alternatives. You can run it alongside the XP firewall with no probs, unless you are configuring it to run a server of any kind from your PC :) then its a bit of a hassle, but not much. Its certainly more than enough for day-to-day use. Again, like AVG, it shouldn't cause any problems with your system and is one of the least invasive free firewalls out there (unlike zonealarm - although some people do swear by it)

For spyware removal (and a few virii) I'd say you should get adaware (from lavasoft), again a freebee and very good. I'm sure other will be able to recommend a few others and if you're having spyware problems (the type you only find with a proggy like adaware) you can install as many of these things as you like without any problems.

[307]

AVG7.0 - possibly the best FREE AV Product available.

PANDA Titanium / Platinum is also very good - but a HORRENDOUS annula upgrade process if your on PSTN dial up access.

BIT DEFENDER PRO - VERY GOOD product with simple update process firewall built in.

Having used all of these on my PCs, I currently have Panda on the server until the sub runs out, AVG on the other client PCs and Bit Defender Pro on the laptop.
The Linux laptop and PC don't need any AV products as security etc built in or added on the build.

[DrSzin]

Like some others above, I finally got so fed up with Norton Security that I have just junked it.

It was taking a good while simply to login, many programs were crawling along or hanging completely, and the hard disk was going into overdrive every time I tried to do anything non-trivial. It was becoming ridiculous: it often took several minutes to logoff or to shutdown, and I was having to resort to a hard reset -- aka hitting the power switch -- more and more often. Norton Security may have been protecting my PC, but my productivity was dropping to zero, and keeping the thing switched off would have been more cost-effective and 100% secure too. :D

What caused all this? Well, I "upgraded" from Norton Anti-virus 20003 to Norton Security a few months ago and the PC was noticeably slower from Day One. Since then, everything simply became slower and slower and I was becoming more and more demented. I studied several Norton-related web-boards: I tried what I understood, but I failed to understand half of what some of the geeks were saying. I finally got so fed up with it that I had to do something. I don't want to deal with ccApp.exe, its friends, or any of its "features" ever again. [mad] I am no Windows expert (as is probably obvious by now), but I am at least half-competent (I think!) and not entirely thick.

End of rant. :D

I decided to follow the suggestions of Zael et al, so I installed AVG Anti_virus (free edition) and ZoneAlarm. I have the 15-day trial of the Pro edition of the latter -- should I pay for this, or just go for the freebie version?

Having done all that, I removed Norton Security and Norton Password Manager, and wow! What a speedup! I have a real PC on my desk again. Well, so far so good, anyway...

I haven't really played around with ZoneAlarm's settings yet -- is there anything specific I should do or look out for?

Is there anything else I should install? I have Win XP and I keep it up-to-date.

Yeah, maybe I should be asking the experts at work, but they are all McAfee addicts -- I got so sick of that failing to update my virus definitions on my old Win95/98 laptop that I junked it when I got my current laptop a couple of years ago, and I am in no hurry to go back.

[jjc]

What caused all this? Well, I "upgraded" from Norton Anti-virus 20003 …..
Well that’s your problem right there. There's too many 0s in your application specification. I could probably take one out for you but [sucks in air through his teeth and tuts a few times] it’ll be pricey.

;)

[ironic_clans]

I would have to agree with all the negative comments about Norton, It just doesn't catch all the nasty s. I now use AVG 7 pro(the pay for it one) and cannot recommend it highly enough. I have had only one small problem with it and an email to Grisoft (the writers of the prog) soon sorted that out for me.

IC