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Thread ID: 46147	2004-06-15 02:22:00	Antivirus packages	Tinakarori (2162)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
244680	2004-06-15 02:22:00	We currently have Norton Antivirus and Personal Firewall 2003 installed on the two PCs on our home LAN, together with a laptop that is not normally connected to the LAN, but is often connected to dial-up internet services elsewhere. The cable modem serving the LAN is connected to Paradise.net. The D-Link router on the LAN has built-in firewall functions, although I am unsure what level of protection is enabled. The first subscription renewal for the Norton AV and PF has now come round. Given the level of risk on the internet nowadays, we certainly need to keep a frequently updated and effective AV and firewall system in place. We have used the successive previous versions of Norton AV for about 12 years or so, although not with the home LAN in place. Does anyone have any suggestions or personal experiences to offer on:- 1. Should we simply renew our subscriptions to the Norton 2003 products? 2. Should we upgrade to the Norton 2004 versions? I note that the 2004 editions now require online activation, which could pose problems given that we wish to install on 3 machines in total. 3. Would anyone seriously advocate another AV and PF product? We are competent PC and applications users, but a long long way from being techies so far as tinkering with the hardware, LAN, etc is concerned - as our tame (and extremely tolerant and understanding) techie would readily confirm! All feedback gratefully received.	Tinakarori (2162)
244681	2004-06-15 02:37:00	I always say to people if they don't want to know about comps then pay for Norton or MCAfee or basically something that'll do the worry for you. (Well some of it.) You seem clued up enough to go with free stuff you can fiddle around with yourself like Grisoft's AVG anti-virus and Zone Alarm Firewall, both of which I use successfully. I'm no techie but I reckon one thing that would help most net users to not get in the soup is to abandon Internet Explorer for one of the many alternative browsers. It's not even a matter of which is the 'superior' browser but the fact that almost all crudware is designed for IE. HTH :D	mark c (247)
244682	2004-06-15 05:28:00	Another free for personal use anitivirus I have just recently installed is Bitdefender-seems to do the job!	JohnD (509)
244683	2004-06-16 00:08:00	Hey, No matter which package you choose to go with, as long as they're updated regularly it would be ok . Here we use Norton Corporate edition, which seems to run ok, though personally I have used Pccillin and recently Mcaffee . I find Norton to be a lot more of a strain on hardware resources, predominantly from it running in the background, even when you have disabled it . Pccillin on the other hand is less hardware intensive and in fact is a very good little Antivirus prog, bundled with its own firewall prog too (this is backed up by rave reviews for it online as well) . But does have its limitations . Mcaffee which I am using currently at home (LAN), I have found to be excellent with a really good personal firewall that would rival Zonealarm for features and benefits - though I still use both . A friend of mine upgraded from 2003 to 2004 Norton System works and ran into nothing but problems with the online registration . His install just simply wouldnt accept the registration, phone calls to Norton could not fix the problem either - in the end frustrated, he migrated to Pc Cillin 2004 . I guess, price wise, the Norton 2003 update is probably the best option for you, simply because its a package you are familar with, and the repurchase is not going to mean you have to uninstall, reinstall, and update the package - time consuming it can be . And another question would be "Are the 2004 features and benefits anything really worth upgrading for"? 12 years is a long time to spend with any product - if its performance is unsatisfactory, then sure, upgrade to another option . But if its doing what you want it to do, then maybe the best thing is to stick with more of the same " if it aint broke, dont fix it" Hope this helps Cheers R	Robsa (5648)
244684	2004-06-16 01:39:00	May I suggest that you reformat the hard disk and reload all the programs again, before renewing any licences . This will get rid of a lot of "gunk" that the machine builds up after some time and the PC will run faster after that . One side effect of this maybe that the Nortons 2003 licences would "restart" from such a rebuild . I am not sure if this is the case but a friend suggested that the time (one year) restarts from each fresh install, and a reformat will be a "fresh" install . Let us know how you get along . Cheers (looking for the whine bottle . . .	aronking (2294)
244685	2004-06-16 09:57:00	if you have no problems with the nortons i sugest just to update tyhe subscription. if there is major pc problems then a format reinstall might be in order ;-) generally speaking the version should be good for 2-3 years. after that they tend to loose their evectiveness as the engine behind it can't keep up with the current virus's. for those on a tight budget and do liitle online activity then a free antivirus can be fine.	tweak'e (174)
244686	2004-06-16 10:34:00	AFAIK the last Norton AV you could get around the subscription by reinstalling was 2001 or maybe even 2000 . I suggest you have a thoraugh cleanout of old programmes, temp files, cache, etc, etc, before considering a re-install . If it's still not right then it's worth considering to breathe new life into a cruded up system . I've heard Nortons can cause a few more problems and digs it's fingers into a bit more of your system pie than other AV's . I gave it up at ver 1999 or something because it caused me grief . But I don't think that's necessarily the case with everyone . PCcillin 2002 has worked well for me with most of the modules turned off, just AV (with real time) and email scanning on the rest is done by Kerio firewall, system settings, Spybot, non-MS browser and email (it still lurks tho,) etc . Seems to work for me but the AV is starting to become a chore to maintain, installing this . dll and that pattern file to keep the scan and clean-up engine up and running efficiently and AV effective (no auto update anymore) . Anyway I digress . You'll should be ok with AVG or most of the other freebies if you keep a firewall and X-IE . Cheers Murray P Cheers Murray P	Murray P (44)
244687	2004-06-16 10:48:00	>AFAIK the last Norton AV you could get around the subscription by reinstalling was 2001 or maybe even 2000. the last ones you could uninstall, clean out, reinstall and get full subscription back was SOME of the 2003 vers. for those still useing 2000/2001 vers your better off to go to a free antivirus such as AVG. nortons is a pain when it dies (which it does for no particular reason every so often) and its intergration can be a nightmare. pCcillin i dislike purely due to i cannot find out when the subsription will run out and its useless error message it gives when it does run out. mcfee......crash happy, conflicts with allsorts....won't touch it with a barge pole. ditto panda. as you can see everyone has different reasons for there likes and dislikes and your milage will vary ;-) just downloading bitdefender at the moment (thanks partly to another thread) to try it out.	tweak'e (174)
244688	2004-06-16 11:53:00	PCcillin is still good to go once the sub runs out as long as your willing to manually download the pattern files . You might get another 18 mths before the planned obsolescence in the scan and clean up engines starts leaving you a little more vulnerable as you can no longer update these and they stop keeping them on open ftp . I'm not sure I like the idea of BitDefender without a real time scan . There was another thread that mentioned Clam, I think it was . I'll dig it out . Cheers Murray P	Murray P (44)
244689	2004-06-16 13:38:00	Checked out the Bitdefender site. It seem the main diff between free and the basic paid version is the free does not scan emails. I down-loaded anyway for a look, the paid version isn't a huge price for what it does either. Also grabbed the free version of Avast 4 which does scan emails and is looks promising on the price front as well. I'll let you know how I get on once I install them and test them on some sites. Cheers Murray P	Murray P (44)
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