October 12, 2007

Curious George: I Hate Norton Anti-Virus. It's time for the annual shakedown and I don't wanna. What do you use for AV? Anything good?

First off, its a Windows box. Yeah yeah. Right, good one - yeah Windows sucks. YES. Yes it does. Next question. Secondly, the last time my "subscription" ran out I couldn't buy a new license because they wanted more money than that so I "had" to upgrade. The download, install, and configuration of the upgrade was so horrible I vowed never to use them again. Plus their extortionist attitudes piss me off and they don't provide good support and yes the live updates are quite nice but really, just get the latest things and keep the riff-raff out and lay low and stay cheap. That's all I want out of an Anti-Virus program. I'd use ClamWin but it doesn't seem to scan very well, and the one example I had of an actual virus for it to find and remove, it didn't go so well. Kapersky seems to be loony about removing everything from your computer except Kapersky. MacAfee and I had a tiff somewhere around 1995 so I don't want to go there. And I didn't like the others, they were all too flat. So! I'd like to buy an anti-virus license. For a fish named Eric. What are your thoughts?

posted by petebest 16 years ago
  • I use AVG which is free for now and ZoneAlarm free, but I'm a cheap date.
  • Avast treats me well.
  • I've entrusted my bits to the basic Zone Alarm paid-for AV for the past couple of years and I'm pretty happy with it. Unobtrusive and not too demanding of memory or other resources. Comes with a very effective stealth mode firewall if you're not behind a router and it's easily trained to recognize your browsing habits. Pretty cheap at $20.00. Just go for the basic version, avoid the bloated and resource-intensive "Security Suite". Also be aware that Norton is notoriously difficult to eradicate. This tool can help.
  • AVG and Spybot Search & Destroy works for me.
  • B.A.M. (sorry)
  • Just throwing in another vote for AVG. The free version updates and scans nightly (the paid-for version allows for custom scan schedules). Since I gave up on warez and turned my life over to bittorrent, I've not really had any use for an AV. But, like a gun or a condom, it's nice to have just in case.
  • What fiddy said, plus Crap Cleaner (or C Cleaner as it's now called) to give it a good scrub down once in a while. Sorry, can't be arsed making a link.
  • Yeah, Norton is problematical. I use AVG free, CCleaner, Hijackthis, TheCleaner (moosoft), spybot S&D. You can still get virii from bittorrent, I've had files with an embedded virus on more than one occasion.
  • You can still get virii from bittorrent, I've had files with an embedded virus on more than one occasion. Interesting. I've not encountered any in my travels through that universe. Not to say I don't believe you -- at this point, I'll pretty much believe anything about the Internet. I tend toward the invitation-only private trackers, though, which, I think, mitigates the risk somewhat. My problems generally lie in the direction of resource management; that is, programs (Firefox, Skype, etc.) that suck up resources until my machine simply stops responding. Yeah. Off-topic. Sorry. I'll have to check out CCleaner -- have not heard of this before.
  • I use whatever I have a free trial for and will switch to AVG when that runs out.
  • Nthing the recommendation for AVG. Compared to Norton or McAfee, the client is extremely lightweight, and seems to be on the ball as far as keeping up to date and catching infected files.
  • Add me to the list of Monkeys who ran screeching from Norton Anti-Virus years ago and switched to AVG. Avast also gets high marks from most people I know who use it. flings poo at Peter Norton
  • AVG (although the YOU MUST UPDATE NOW notifications are really f-ing irritating), and PC Pitstop.
  • mr medusa & I use ZoneAlarm, which we hate.
  • You *want* avast. Nothing but good things to report.
  • AVG here, too.
  • Avast user here, too. I used to use AVG, but I switched to Avast when I got a new computer, and I love it. AVG's nagging was pretty annoying, but still way better than Norton, Symantec, and their ilk.
  • Kaspersly has been good to me
  • Also Kaspersky
  • I have used AVG in the past, but went to Avast after some good recommends. I like it. Not obtrusive, seems to do the trick. Fer grins and giggles I run both AdAware and Spybot. A couple times I've had one pick up something the other one didn't catch. Norton is an evil spawn of Satan and sucks. But then again, I'm certainly not biased.
  • Thank you for the recommendations, all! Looks like Norton's gettin' the boot. I'll start with AVG and see if I can stand the naggage. I'll be glad to get rid of those overmarketed NOrton suckaz.
  • I always head that Ed Norton's Auntie Vi was a very nice lady.
  • I used AVG for a long time. Then they said they were going to a pay program, which they never did. But when they announced that, I switched to Avast, another free one. After about a year of using Avast, I got a virus(from Pirate Bay, and Avast couldn't either recognize the virus or delete, I forget what the problem was, but I ran AVG and successfully eliminated the virus. Since then, I have stayed with AVG.
  • I run Spybot weekly. Something called Avira AntiVir has a place on my desktop, but I don't know why.
  • Been enjoying AVG very much. Thanks for the recommendations!
  • *bump* As a non-Windows user, I'm curious if anyone has any further recommendations for AVG or Avast? It appears that AVG is no longer free (well, they have a 30-day trial). I need to help my computer illiterate sister in getting new antivirus software on her Windows machine, as it has become bogged down with crappy Norton. Suggestions anyone? And is AVG still so naggy?
  • Avira's pretty good too. I just recently dumped Avast for it. Downside is that every time it updates its virus database, it pops up a little ad asking you to buy the pro version. Happens a couple of times a week and it's annoying, but all AV software pisses me off, so.