Norton is the worst piece of software ever, especially the Internet Security part.

My history with it:

My own PC: Stopped the internet from working, and no amount of firewall configuration would get it working again. So I uninstall it. What happens next? IT STILL DOESN'T WORK. Good old Norton forgot to change all the settings back to their defaults afterwards, and left me to do registry diving to get my internet usable again. An eventual reformat was required to get it working perfectly again. (And yes, it was DEFINATELY Norton. It's the only thing that was installed at that time)

Other PCs I have worked on: The same thing as above is quite a common occurance, as well as Internet Security refusing some programs to work on the net despite specifically instructing it otherwise, and having an overall hizzyfit with any wireless network. Note that I have never had one, not one PC ever work correctly in my hands with Norton Internet Security.

PCs my grandma's PC company works on: 95% of all PCs with Norton Internet Security installed have their problems solved by uninstalling the POS. This includes massive slowdowns of both the PC and the internet, the things mentioned above, random file corruptions on anti-virus (This occured with Norton 2004, I think, so they may have actually bothered to fix this one for 2005), subscription service simply ignoring any payments but still charging the credit card, corruption on uninstall, completely unrelated software will simply stop working, and there have been about 12 cases where installing Norton caused a PC to simply stop booting correctly, and a reformat was required.

Keep in mind that none of these are isolated issues. My grandma's business deals with over a hundred PCs a month, and it happens so often that when people bring in their PCs, we first check for viruses/spyware, then WinME, and finally Norton Internet Security. That's how often it happens.

Good, cause you suck at it :p

It's a 56k. The only time you have to download a file over 1MB is at night.

HA! Only an isolated bad incident. I can be an extremely annoying smartass. Just ask any of my close friends.

I used Norton Anti-Virus Corporate 8.x for years. I liked the corporate edition because I never found a way in the standard edition to control when the auto-protection scans. It would always scan on file access and creation AND modification, I only wanted it on creation and modification, e.g. downloading something. Scan on access slows down my system so much. Corporate let me turn off scan on access, which you shouldn't need once your system is clean.

Anyway, Norton always had a habbit of detecting things and not being able to remove them. I don't recall an option to have it scan before Windows startup either, like when no file would be in use and it could clean or delete them.

I've got AVG on several computers in my home for my family, and I have McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0.0 installed on my main rig, which I got via RIT's ITS department for free. Haven't found anything yet, but I figure I'd give it a shot. I can configure it how I like, and RIT's ITS department is quite competant, so I'm trusting them on this one.

Not like it matters much, I rarely get infected with spyware or viruses, and let's just say I'm often around a lot of large archives and other small archives with file names in all caps that probably contain viruses.

Oh, and a note about firewalls, firewalls do NOT stop viruses.

Oh, and a note about dial-up, it doesn't matter if it's slow, viruses are usually no more than a few KB. It's not like viruses appeared when broadband did, the craze and paranoia started when everyone was still on 14.4.

Story time...

1. I was working on a PC a while ago (XP Home) running Internet Security, and strangly, the DSL connection was completely blocked. AOL (owner's idea, not mine, gah) could not connect, even over a modem connection. I went through every setting, found the interface to be overly complex and unintuitive, and never managed to fix the problem. After unninstalling Norton, the internet connection functioned flawlessly, and they ended up grabbing SP2 and trusting Microsoft with their security concerns. Not my preference, but it's worked so far.
Personally, I've been using Sygate Personal Firewall for over a year now, it's worked so well that I go months without AV running, with no worries. No, I'm not an idiot, I do limited browsing, and never risk warez sites.

2. My grandma's evil Compaq (ME upgraded to XP Home) contracted a virus. Norton was already installed, so it detected the virus right away... and couldn't repair it. I left the system alone for a day or two, only to find that Norton still couldn't heal the infected files, and the virus spread further each time I rebooted. I uninstalled Norton and installed AVG 6 free edition, which found all the infected files, 2 additional infections, and healed all of them. I was sold, I've been using AVG ever since.

So yeah, I agree, Norton is the devil, damn their trashy products... except System Utilities, I've always loved System Utilities.

Why do you use a "security software", when you can afford to turn it off in times when you are infected in a span of a few minutes by a Blaster or Sasser variant?
Why not configure your computer correctly? If you simply turned off all of the useless servers WinXP keeps running you wouldn't need a resource hogging "firewall". And if you are still afraid of evil hackers, why not simply use Windows' own firewall?
And if you keep from using IE and OE (or configure them properly) and don't start programs from dubious sources, you wouldn't even need an on-access virus-scanner.
Along with ~weekly Windows-Updates you should be able to stay clean for all eternity.

No, thats exactly how this whole mess got started. If you're going to use anti-virus software it needs to be installed all the time. Windows updates do nothing for a virus either, that's crazy talk.

I use ZoneAlarm's free firewall and Norton 2002 and have never had the slightest problem. Common sense goes a long way.

Windows Updates are there to secure the services you have to keep running. No scanner can prevent any security holes in them to be exploited.
But were should a virus come in? They don't just appear magically on your computer and destroy everything. You have to start a virus yourself or it has to use a security hole in some software you are running. Even a security-software can have holes.

An occasional virus-scan is good if you don't trust your brain to handle any filtering needed but, like phoenix said, it won't help you after you are infected.

Mcaffeeeee forever. Seriously. Buy it.

Amen.

I use Symantec antivirus corporate 8.x as well, and it works great. It's not as bloated as the internet security suite and it doesn't have any of that bull**** activation implemented into it either.

Norton may be bad, but McAffe is dispicable. It doesn't run poorly, but simply does nothing for viruses. It has a horrible detection system, its database is deplorable, its slower, and repairs even less viruses than Norton.

Ever since I've had my own machines on broadband, I've used AVG Free and after SP2, I used the windows firewall.

I've never had anything bad, or often for that matter. Every few months I might get one thing, but that's just wiped off by AVG.

*Shrug*

Of course it won't, that was part of my original point. Have it installed all the time. A virus scanner is supposed to catch something you've downloaded. The firewall is to prevent something from taking advantage of security holes. That's why I use Norton and ZoneAlarm. I've never had a problem, ever.

I get the feeling we're arguing almost the same points. Almost.

Yeah, you're right.
The only difference is the way in which we handle the security holes. I just don't use the software that could be faulty, that I don't need. You just put a desktop-firewall in front of it, which could be faulty, too.

I've got to agree, that virus scanners can be usefull.

I don't use the software with holes either. I'm a Firefox/Thunderbird man That firewall has just made a huge difference since I installed it. I'll never leave home without it. Or something.

Because Firefox didn't recently have two pretty serious security flaws...

Bottom line:

All software is vulnerable.

Untill such a time where as people can be all like TRON. And even then... they'd have to have alot of disc chucking flunkies to take care of all the virii.


More bottom line:

There will always be virii.

That were patched almost immediately after being discovered...

Virii

I'll gladly take the two Firefox holes to the thousands of IE holes. Math is good.

I mostly meant the servers that Windows (AFAIK since 2000) keeps running by default, whether you need them or not. Just shut everything down you don't need and there is nothing left a firewall would have to protect.

How do you do that? I may already know how and I'm having a brain fart, but that doesn't sound like something I've done before.

This page has a script that does that for you. I'm afraid the part about doing it yourself is only available in German but if you're really interested which services it stops you can read the script.

Ahahaha.

Sorry, I always laugh out loud whenever I see 'virii'. It's clearly an attempt to be clever with plurals, but is completely wrong and ends up shooting you in the foot.

The rule is -us turns to -i. One nucleus, several nuclei. One radius, several radii. One Jesus, several Jesi.

Going backwards, 'virii' is the plural of 'virius'. which isn't a word. so neither is 'virii'.

'Viri' is the logical plural, but because 'virus' is a mass noun then technically 'virora' is the most correct plural.

Despite this, 'viruses' will probably suffice. But 'virii' is wrong. Very wrong. So wrong it's funny.

I just like virii better..

Jeez.


Does it make it any less wrong? No.

Was it funny seeing people get their panties in a bunch over it.

Yes.