I’ve used Norton/Symantec anti-virus software for over five years. After having assorted trouble with it along the way, the last straw was snapped this week.
In the latest update, the anti-virus scanner is broken where it prevents me from getting my mail. To get my mail, I had to turn off the scanner. It’s a known problem with Symantec and they offer no good solution.
Enough is enough. I’m tried of uninstalling and reinstalling the software. I’m getting new anti-virus software.
After doing some research, I’ve narrowed it down to three candidates.
1) Trend Micro PC-Cillin Fast, inexpensive, full suite including anti-spyware
2) F-Secure – Full suite, includes Ad-aware integration, more expensive
3) Grisoft AVG – Fast, inexpensive, lacks anti-spyware
Any suggestions?
15 thoughts on “Dumping Symantec”
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On my main PC my Norton “shield” always has the “X” on it when I start up my pc. I have to get into services and restart the process to get the “X” to go away.
Anyway, on my Lan-party (Shuttle) pc I have Grisoft AVG running and I like it. I don’t know how well it works as it’s never picked up a virus, but then again I don’t use that machine often at all and when I do it’s not for a lot of downloading from questionable websites.
Try Grisoft…it won’t cost you anything.
Stop using virus scanners. IMHO virus scanners are a unnecessary waste of system resources. Traditionally, virus scanners are resource hogs with very little value added. I find that if I just pay attention to what I’m doing on the computer and what I’m feeding it there is never a problem. I never use Internet Explorer, read and write all my mail in UW Pine on a remote server, never put media into my computer without knowing where it came from and I have a firewall at home between my network and the internet. If your going to be foolish on the internet then maybe you need a virus scanner… but my recommendation is try living without it for a while, you might like it.
I’ve been using AVG (Free Edition) on my Windows machine. I can’t really tell you if it’s doing better or worse than either of the other two, because it’s never detected anything. For the most part, though, it stays out of the way in the system tray, and seems to do a good job.
Trend Micro. Their reputation precedes them and their online scanner, house call, has never failed me.
Did you look at McAfee and if so, it’d be interesting to know why it didn’t make the cut. I use an older version and I’m not in love with it, although I’ve been told the latest version of their suite is excellent.
I just had the latest version of symantec installed on a work PC and so far it seems to behave well…but I totally agree that symantec has a long history of horrible bugs. I never could understand how they got so many customers with broken software. It drove me utterly insane in the past.
I also find that these days, it’s helpful to have a software firewall on the PC in addition to a hardware firewall. There’s lots of nasty stuff out there that you only catch with a software firewall(which is built into most of the suites nowadays).
Yeah… buy a Mac.
Holy crap, you’re still using Norton? How old school. I’ve never had much success using it, and it’s always given me nothing but problems. I’ve been using Grisoft AVG for years and have yet to get a virus since downloading it. I make sure all my family members use it, too. Switch over, fast, and you’ll never use Norton again.
AVG and Spybot. Trend is too ‘noisy’, always demanding attention. Some stuff gets thru AVG if you are doing your own e-mail virus filtering, but then again, some stuff gets thru Norton too.
Norton was our number one support call on Th and Fr after the last ‘core’ update.
Michael, I second the post by jho, just turn your PC into a VT100 terminal, text email, Lynx for web “content” (or better yet, turn it off and wrap in three layers of blue Saran wrap) and you’re good to go. Remember–an unused PC is a virus-free PC. And then buy a mac, configure it correctly and it will let you use all the Linux apps you want, the desktop you want (if you want one), and just use your PC for games.
Hm… I had that same problem with Norton Anti-spam and had to uninstall it, but Norton Anti-Virus has always worked well for me.
Then again, I still use Windows 98 🙂
I’m in the no virus protection camp. However, I am interested in a light weight way to make Windows XP sp2 shut the heck up with its warnings. My friend Jeff was in the same boat so he decided to do what, as he tells me, most of the people on the Microsoft campus do and install Computer Associates EZ Antivirus.
Seriously tho, give up that Outlook crap. 🙂
I too just recently gave up on Norton. I have switched to Grisoft AVG (with much prodding from my friends) and I am very happy with it. It’s not messy, it’s not bulky, and it does a fine job. I use it in conjunction with ad-aware and Spybot S&D and I keep my machine running smoothly. That’s just my two cents.
I’m using NOD32 since 2 years and never found a defect in it 🙂
And replace Outlook with Thunderbird 🙂
Get McAfee
Dear All,
Recently I dinstalled Norton antivirus from my laptop and I installed McAfee. Since then my Outlook does not open (I get an error message).
I have tried to de-active email virus scan but its hasn’t worked. Any suggestions?
thanks in advance
ck