I've never had a problem using Norton.

 

Free version or pay?

I tend to agree with The Travler, you get what you pay for... that's why I'm still leaning to going back to Norton. The shop techy said neither Norton/Symantic or McAfee had upgraded their 'kernels' (sp?) (whatever that is) in 7 years. But friend of mine who works on pc's and likes Norton did not believe that was true; he thought they'd upgraded over the past two years. Who knows.... I sure don't.

 

as an extreme techie ya im a geek most of you dont know that about me i stand by what i typed

 

I used Norton Internet Security for years, then got fed up with its appetite for system resources. My local P/C shop tech geeks were really big on PC-cillin. I installed that, and it worked great until they brought out a new version compatible with Vista ( I run XP). I was forced to install that version to get out of an endless update loop. Then it, too, became a big resource hog.

End of story is that I went back to Norton on a free trial and really like it.

 

Dave -- I use two products (on different computers, one per computer) for no particular reason except for diversification -- if one catches something the other doesn't, I get very interested in what's going on. And my email is (also) virus-protected by my ISP with a McAfee server product. Since I started using the two products, I've had zero problems -- and they've found all sorts of stuff. I also use the Windows Firewall and my router has its own firewall at home; at my university, things are firewalled pretty well with large-scale products I don't know about.

One product I use is Webroot.com's Antivirus (with Antispyware);
the other is Avira.com's AntiVir Premium.

The main difference I can see is that you can turn off the Webroot notifications about updates and so on; AntiVir updates itself religiously. I pay for subscriptions to both (licenses for all my systems, in fact). As you've discovered, products like this that work are worth investing in. HPH

 

Avira

 

I have used both Norton and McAfee (I switch back and forth depending on who has the best price) and like them both. I have had no problems with either.

Anti Virus 2009 is a PITA program that has nothing to do with AVG. I found that both Norton and McAfee won't catch it. It shows up as a warning that you need to update your Windows program. It is sneaky and is hard to get rid of.

Someone should take the people that run the company (yes it is a company) and hand them by there gonads!!

 

If you use a host file and keep it up to date you wont have to worry about these issues.


Im tellin ya educate yourselves go back and read my post above and click the links here is another for you:

All about host file

antivirus 2009 can easily be blocked by using your host file

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

and

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...utorial51.html

the site above has some host file already for you to use.

 

Dave, I use the free version of AVG.

I also use the hosts file from http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

JonasM

 

The one thing all my techie contacts did seem to agree on was a router is the best firewall, beating all the software. I have used a router for several years.