OT - Calling PC security gurus

I used MacAfee and did not care for it. Went to Norton which was fine until my last upgrade. It has now "taken over" my computer and has wiped out all the timed functions. It will not standby, hybernate, turnoff the hard drive and turn off. I have to hold the on button in to turn it off. It has gotten expensive also. I'm going to try to remove it but the guy at the shop told me it still might not get my function back because it is so intertwined that it may have to have the hard drive wiped and everything reloaded (horrors). I have been running Grisoft AVG on my laptop and it has worked well. The one bug I got got through Norton. The guy at the shop recomended Avast. He said it was a bit better than AVG. He said the free version worked for most people. I do also use Adware for spyware.

Jerry

Get free edition of AVG from grisoft,

http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus- ... 2.html?%5E$

much less overhead than all those others, especially that crap from Symantec like Norton.

Then again, I've never had a Windows virus and that dates back to 1983. As Den noted, I'm careful about where I "go", what I open in email, etc. I do, however, have anti-virus software.

I think each OS has its strengths and weaknesses and which is best is, IMHO, a very personal decision I wouldn't attempt to debate with anyone

m

6PtStar wrote:I used MacAfee and did not care for it. Went to Norton which was fine until my last upgrade. It has now "taken over" my computer and has wiped out all the timed functions. It will not standby, hybernate, turnoff the hard drive and turn off. I have to hold the on button in to turn it off. It has gotten expensive also. I'm going to try to remove it but the guy at the shop told me it still might not get my function back because it is so intertwined that it may have to have the hard drive wiped and everything reloaded (horrors). I have been running Grisoft AVG on my laptop and it has worked well. The one bug I got got through Norton. The guy at the shop recomended Avast. He said it was a bit better than AVG. He said the free version worked for most people. I do also use Adware for spyware.

Jerry

That's a heck of a note when the anti-virus software becomes as big of a problem as the viruses/malware/spyware.

Den

Get a Mac! They just don't ever have any problems (I haven't had one in almost 4 yrs and I won't even tell you how unprotected mine is). I got an iMac/Intel, used Bootcamp to install XP, don't use the Win. side for anything BUT Encore, and will never again use a PC as long as I live - 10 nervous breakdowns a month are 10 too many - who needs them!

Wulfman wrote:.......
However, I've used the software from this outfit to pull some of my clients' asses out of some bad situations at times (I downloaded the free versions for those cases).

http://www.grisoft.com/

If I was going to use something, THAT would probably be it. ........

Good choice.

rooster wrote:

Wulfman wrote:.......
However, I've used the software from this outfit to pull some of my clients' asses out of some bad situations at times (I downloaded the free versions for those cases).

http://www.grisoft.com/

If I was going to use something, THAT would probably be it. ........

Good choice.

That's the "home" site for (AVG) the one that Snoredog referenced in his post.

Den

I bought Norton which cost me around $65.00 a few years ago and installed it on my last pc the darn thing caused me so many problems i finally uninstalled it. It seemed to slow my pc down to a crawl. When i bought this rebuilt tower from a computer guy i know he had already installed the free AVG software in it and it works o.k. I also run the Yahoo free toolbar spyware and Adaware and also CC cleaner (formerly called Crap Cleaner) a free download from filehippo which cleans out junk and also gets rid of cookies etc. The AVG did find a Trojan once (on my external storage drive) and i was able to quarantine it. Theres so much stuff in e-mails and on the web and i can't imagine going with out some protection of some kind. And i too discovered this morning all of the kapinsky posts on cpaptalk and my thought was someone had infected this site, i guess its all straightened out now.

Dale

2 years back I took my notebook for a service due to it freezing up. The tech said do you mind if I uninstal Norton and then I watched him install AVG free and pick around 80 threats on first scan

Thanks everyone. I new I could count on you for the right advice.

I plan to try out the AVG internet security product for now. I will also look into VMWare and Virtual Box and see about adding Linux once I get up to speed on the learning curve (well, up to moving along to where I can figure out what it takes to install and use).

I hope I'm able to remove McAfee without any issues. If not, I'll be back!

Thanks again everyone for your comments and suggestions.

2 years back I took my notebook for a service due to it freezing up. The tech said do you mind if I uninstal Norton and then I watched him install AVG free and pick around 80 threats on first scan

zorro

For being a freebie the AVG is a good antivirus software i set mine up to do a full scan automatically each night between 12:00 A.M. & 2:00 A.M. the only thing is if i happen to be on the computer at the time its scanning i have to pause the scan till i am done, because the computer slows down during the scan, too much going on at one time i guess and pages open slowly during the scan.

Dale

DreamStalker wrote:I plan to try out the AVG internet security product for now. I will also look into VMWare and Virtual Box and see about adding Linux once I get up to speed on the learning curve (well, up to moving along to where I can figure out what it takes to install and use).

All you need to get started with Linux are at: http://www.ubuntu.com
For Virtual Box: http://www.virtualbox.org

Virtual Box also has a version for Windows, just in case you want to run Linux in Windows rather than the other way around. If the Ubuntu website seems slow, its because they just released a major software upgrade with their second 5-year support version. Downloading an Ubuntu CD might be a tad slow right now.

Regards,
Bill

DreamStalker wrote:I bought a new laptop about a month ago and it came with a 30- trial of MacAfee which ran out a couple of days ago.

I did some research to try and determine what internet security software is best and the more I researched the more indecisive I became. Norton has some wifi security feature which I am attracted to but some of the reviews trashed Norton as being too bloated and a CPU resource hog. Kaspersky was rated as very effective but difficult to use. BitDefender also got good marks as did ZoneAlarm, TrendMicro, Panda, CA, and MacAfee. It seems each of the reviews favored different software products for various reasons … I assume that they are somehow biased. At Amazon all had bad reviews as well including the blue screen of death and being unable to uninstall and numerous nagging pop-ups, etc. All seem to be good and bad at the same time.

So does it matter which one? Should I decide on price and features alone? Anyone have a good unbiased source/link of reviews? Better yet, are any of you professional PC/network security folks that can paint a clearer picture of the various security software products currently available? I just know I can get better and more accurate info from the forum members here than PC World, PC Magazine, or CNET.

Thanks.

If your trial subscription for AV software has expired I would hope in the meantime you have something else already installed to take it's place while you decide which new software to choose. I would recommend AVG's free AV software version 7.5 but it's being replaced right now by a newer version 8.0 which some who have already switched to it do not like and many are switching to another software program called Avast which has good reviews.

At the moment I use Panda Platinum Internet Security for my anti-virus protection and have added AVG's free spyware protection which I downloaded from their website or you can go to CNET Downloads if you like and I have also added another program which I installed for malware protection which happens to be free called COMODO BOClean 4.26 which is very good. For review information or any questions I go to the source for the best information on the web, I go to CNET. Check out their site's security threats forums for some good advice and if you have any questions just ask.

You'll receive some very good feedback from that site, CNET. If you're online a lot surfing different sites another good free product to download and install by McAfee called SiteAdvisor will let you know by a color coded system when you're surfing on a good site or not. The icon will glow green meaning you're on a safe site, it will turn yellow for caution and red to let you know you need to get off the site and to surf elsewhere. It's also a good tool to have which works well with all the other programs I mentioned above but you can choose others, it's up tp you. You need to keep your computer safe these days especially a new one. I guess your OS is either Windows Vista or the older more stable Windows Home or Windows Pro XP. I use Windows Home XP.

DreamStalker wrote:I bought a new laptop about a month ago and it came with a 30- trial of MacAfee which ran out a couple of days ago.

I did some research to try and determine what internet security software is best and the more I researched the more indecisive I became. Norton has some wifi security feature which I am attracted to but some of the reviews trashed Norton as being too bloated and a CPU resource hog. Kaspersky was rated as very effective but difficult to use. BitDefender also got good marks as did ZoneAlarm, TrendMicro, Panda, CA, and MacAfee. It seems each of the reviews favored different software products for various reasons … I assume that they are somehow biased. At Amazon all had bad reviews as well including the blue screen of death and being unable to uninstall and numerous nagging pop-ups, etc. All seem to be good and bad at the same time.

So does it matter which one? Should I decide on price and features alone? Anyone have a good unbiased source/link of reviews? Better yet, are any of you professional PC/network security folks that can paint a clearer picture of the various security software products currently available? I just know I can get better and more accurate info from the forum members here than PC World, PC Magazine, or CNET.

Thanks.

The best deal out there is the Apple Imac for most uses or the Pro if you really have to have the power. No viruses so far and no security software in over 12 months operation. It comes with a program called BootCamp that will also allow you to install Windows and you can boot into that when you have to have Windows. There is another program called VmWare that allow you to have programs open in Linux, OSX, and Windows at the same time. I only use the free Avast anti-virus on the windows partition as it works as well as the expensive ones, so you might want to look at their website.

I too use Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2008. I really love it, It is the second time that I have installed Panda and will probably use it from now on.

The first time that I had Panda, I loved it, but when it expired, I decided to try Norton. I have had Norton on mine 3 different times, was good the first time, and the last two times, it literally trashed my computer and cost me a couple of hundred bucks to get it cleaned up and find out that it was Norton that caused the problems. NO MORE Norton in my house! When I used McAffee, I had a trojan hit the antivirus program! It (Mcaffee) let it slip by and didnt catch it.