In the past, I have lost computers to malware, despite having anti-virus software installed. I recently bought a laptop, and plan to make it last for a while. It came installed with a trial version of Norton Internet Security which I'm currently using until the trial expires.
So, my questions are:
1) How trustworthy is Norton?
2) Is it recommended to run more than one anti-virus and/or spyware software at once?
3) Is there software that works better than others?
Thank you!
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6 responses so far ↓
1 UnknownName // May 20, 2008
1) I think its overrated… I use Kaspersky myself.
2) ONLY ONE ANTI-VIRUS BECAUSE IF MORE THAN ONE USED IT CAN CRASH YOUR SYSTEM!
Multiple anti-spywares is fine though and recommended.
3) Yes, of course its all about competition. CCleaner, Ad-Aware, and Spybot are all good anti-spywares and cleaning tools.
2 truelove // May 20, 2008
nortons is very trustworthy in my opinion!my whole family has the Nortons 360 to protect our computers.and we've never had a problem with
3 Doctor - SGW // May 20, 2008
It is always better to buy a anti virus and use it. Trial version and free version or share ware wont be so powerful.
Buy NOD32 / PC CIllin Anti virus
Fire wall Use Zone Alarm
Ad aware.
use the above you wont have any problem.
4 dracomalfoyxray // May 20, 2008
Norton is NOT RECOMMENDED.
Try this:
All of these are free for home use and will work with XP and Vista.
AVG Free is the most popular free solution available at no cost to home users and provides the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers.
Easy to use, low system resources
Automatic update functionality
Real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/us/frt/0
Avast-
avast! 4 Home Edition works for 60 days after the installation in demo mode. You will obtain your FREE license key by E-mail after the registration. The license key is valid for 1 year. After one year you will need to just re-register.
http://avast.com/eng/home-registration.p…
Avira-(recomended)
free-av.com – Protection and security against viruses, worms, Trojans, dialers & more.
http://www.free-av.com/
PC tools-(recomended)
PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition feature highlights
Protects your PC as you are working, surfing and playing
Detects, quarantines, disinfects and destroys Viruses, Trojans and Worms
OnGuard™ protects your computer against threats in real-time.
http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/
Trend Micro's FREE online virus scanner.(recommended)
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Free spyware remover…..
SUPERAntiSpyware(recomended)
SUPERAntiSpyware will remove ALL the Spyware, NOT just the easy ones!
Easily remove over 100,000 pests such as SmitFraud, Vundo, WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon, WinAntiVirus, AntiVermins and thousands more!
http://superantispyware.com
Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware.
http://www.spybot.info/
Adaware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_a…
Ewido.(recommended)
Go to the left of the page where it says,"Scan your computer now online
and clean it for free!"
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/
AVG anti-spyware-
AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition is a popular free antispyware solution available at no cost to home users and provides a high level of detection capability.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/us/frt/0
*Never install more than one anti virus, as they may conflict with each other.On the other hand, is always good to use more than one anti spyware.
System Cleaner
start with Ccleaner (no need to update)
http://www.ccleaner.com/download
delete everything the program finds…
This will take alot of crap from your computer and will make the next scans much faster.
Get a better firewall - Comodo Personal Firewall is the best free firewall.
I strongly recommend using FireFox, it's a far better and safer alternative to Internet Explorer.
http://www.getfirefox.com
5 Skillz // May 20, 2008
1) Norton is a very trustworthy product. I am not saying this as a naive customer, but as someone who has had quite a few years experience. Norton has had bad reviews in the past, but the new 2008 release of Norton products are very light on resources, lighter than most consider very light like AVG and avast!. Norton only uses 7 MB of RAM against avast! which uses 12 MB and AVG which uses 43 MB. Norton's scans are also very fast. Norton has the second most Virus Bulletin awards-43. The one with the most is NOD32 with 49 awards and third is Kaspersky which has 42 awards (although has failed fifteen times which is very poor for the "best" anti-virus). I suggest you go with Norton or NOD32 because they are equal in detection, equal in RAM usage, equal in scanning speed. The only difference is that NOD32 has by far a much better proactive detection.
2) You cannot run more than one anti-virus at one time, but you can have more than one anti-spyware at a time.
3) Like in the first answer, NOD32 and Norton are my top recommendations because of low false detection, fast scanning speed, and lightness on RAM. If you don't think NOD32 or Norton is right, than the best choices would be CA eTrust, Kaspersky, Norman, Sophos or McAfee.
6 ^^ PcGuru ^^ // May 20, 2008
Security is a three tier affair, one firewall, one anti-virus and as much adware/spyware removal software as you feel needed?
You should only have one antivirus installed at a time. Having more than one antivirus program installed at once is likely to cause conflicts and may well decrease your overall protection as well as impairing the performance of your PC.
There are many commercial anti-virus programs on the market or you may choose to use one of the free anti-virus programs which are available. It does not matter which you choose as long as you have a current anti-virus and either get daily updates or set it to get automatic updates.
A good and safe site for virus/spyware/adware removal programs is Majorgeeks.com
I like Avast antivirus (www.avast.com) it has a boot time scanner. This important feature allows a user to instigate scanning before a virus is activated, in the case that a virus is suspected to be active on your computer already.
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