Crosswords1 min ago
Symantec/Norton or McAfee?
13 Answers
Quite simply which is the better buy for General Internet security/protection, Firewall & Anti-Virus software? And is it worth purchasing updates every year?
Answers
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No best answer has yet been selected by dave_c. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.100 % hands down, its got to be Norton. And yes get the updates regularly or you may contract a virus that you are not yet protected from. No virus protection will stop every virus. As a matter of fact, I got one yesterday that neither Norton or Avast antivirus protected me from. I did get rid of it but anyone who didnt know what to do would be in trouble.
I wouldn't touch either of these products with barge pole. I use ESET NOD32 since changing from AVG (paid version). AVG is very good, but NOD32 just has the edge IMO.
I support 100s of business customers in the UK, and have more trouble with NAV than with any other product.
Examples being:
One of their apps suddenly stops working after an NAV update.
NAV slows their machines, causes various other problems, is very difficult to remove/re-install.
Peanut, didn't you have a problem with RBot recently? How come Norton didn't prevent it, or assist you in removing it?
I don't think you will find many experienced IT professionals who would recommend NAV
(End of rant)
I support 100s of business customers in the UK, and have more trouble with NAV than with any other product.
Examples being:
One of their apps suddenly stops working after an NAV update.
NAV slows their machines, causes various other problems, is very difficult to remove/re-install.
Peanut, didn't you have a problem with RBot recently? How come Norton didn't prevent it, or assist you in removing it?
I don't think you will find many experienced IT professionals who would recommend NAV
(End of rant)
Avast or AVG for antivirus - both free and don't hog your system like Norton does. They both update automatically. You dont need to pay for an antivirus. I use Avast and it brilliant, not had a virus yet!! It comes highly recommended from other pc users.
For firewall go with Zonealarm. Again its free. Just turn off the authomtic notice when it detects a scan at one of your ports. You won't even notice it running!!
I know norton is a huge resource hog but it did great for me on my 32 bit computer. The virus I got was on my 64 bit computer. Norton does not make a 64 bit version so im out of luck there. I use Avast for that. So that tells me just how wonderful Avast is, Its crap. Apparently the "alcan a" worm i had could not be detected by Norton or Avast. Now I need a more reliable 64 bit compatible antivirus.
Peanut. It took me a while to find this out - it's note in any of the documentation or FAQs. But if you go to the download page:
http://www.eset.com/download/download.htm
You'll see it says " for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP 32/64-bit - standard". So the answer's apparently that the same version works on 64 bit machines.
On of the things I like about it is that it works with non-standard e-mail clients and/or multiple email accounts on different servers without the need for plug-ins OR a proxy server. In the second situation, McAfee for one, seems to get completely confused.
http://www.eset.com/download/download.htm
You'll see it says " for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP 32/64-bit - standard". So the answer's apparently that the same version works on 64 bit machines.
On of the things I like about it is that it works with non-standard e-mail clients and/or multiple email accounts on different servers without the need for plug-ins OR a proxy server. In the second situation, McAfee for one, seems to get completely confused.
dave_c, why not buy it from their site and get it instantly?
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/pricelist/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?pr d=sng
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/pricelist/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?pr d=sng