just installed norton. any good?

whs said:

Fair enough Ken. If you found Norton at fault for a lot of BSODs, I take that as input. I can only talk from my own experience.

I don't touch those BSOD threads. I am too old to wade thru the dumps. Have done that long enough in the past - and all that in hexadecimal. One needs a lot of patience for that. I admire you for taking the time.

And I respect your opinion as well. We all bring our experience to the table.

I think norton would be a fine choice.

pparks1 said:

Comcast does offer a free version to it's customers. It's called Norton 360 or something. My dad has Comcast and he gets this free of charge for being a Comcast customer.

I read that it is Norton 360 being supplied. It costs about £32 on Amazon, so not a bad give-away. Norton 360 is a step up from Norton Internet Security (NIS), which is what I've been using for about 3 years now. NIS doesn't include a Registry cleaner but does have an 'optimiser'. This initiates Windows' own defrag function when the computer is detected as being idle.

I've found NIS to be pretty good. It has respectable detection rates and resource usage figures considering it is a full suite. A very 'quiet' program too that seems to make all the decisions for you. I turned to it originally because it is such a 'set and forget' program. I'm just about to renew for the 4th time.

NIS isn't my only security layer but is is one that I think is worth keeping. Below is a link to AV-Test comparing various AV programs/suites:

AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Jan/Feb 2012

in response to this there are certain "rumors" regarding Norton. I have seen this myself. When people install it does it's job bla bla bla BUT once the license runs out and you don't replace it and then you uninstall it you start getting massive virus's I know because I had to clean out a laptop at school with some help from my administrator that had about 40 virus's in it. We ended up removing them manually as there were too many infecting different parts of the machine to run any sort of program without it too getting infected. So just a warning.

luke127 said:

in response to this there are certain "rumors" regarding Norton. I have seen this myself. When people install it does it's job bla bla bla BUT once the license runs out and you don't replace it and then you uninstall it you start getting massive virus's I know because I had to clean out a laptop at school with some help from my administrator that had about 40 virus's in it. We ended up removing them manually as there were too many infecting different parts of the machine to run any sort of program without it too getting infected. So just a warning.

Uninstalling Norton does not give rise to viruses. What gets left behind are remnants or leftovers of the program. I find these do need removing manually from the C: drive and Registry. This being so even if the Norton Removal Tool has been run a couple of times.

I have recently tried 4 other security suites on a system that has had Norton removed. The first operation they do once installed is to scan the system for malware. None of them have found any.

Hmm maybe they have fixed this issue. There once a Norton that WAS a virus. literally an antivirus disguised as a virus many people fell for it until people like me complained. They must have found the hole and fixed it.

Ah, probably the scareware strategy. What happens is that while you are browsing, you suddenly get a popup claiming that your computer is infected with so and so many viruses. If you click anywhere on the popup (including on the "x" to close it), you can get redirected to the malware site, where the fake antivirus program will either try to install itself on your computer at once, run a fake scan and tell you to pay for virus removal, or coax you into buying the fake antivirus software...The goal is to get at your money. So do not ever click on such a popup. Instead, either close your browser by using the keyboard shortcut Alt+F4, or, even better, break your internet connection by turning off the Wireless switch or unplugging the internet cable and then closing your browser.

About leftover Norton entries in the registry: Norton Removal Tool:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/nort...rProfile_en_us

If you use it, it is best to run it twice, rebooting after each run (should happen automatically). You may also want to disconnect from the internet. And finally: the tool removes ALL Norton products on your computer. If there is anything remaining, then it will not interfere with your computer. The removal tool intentionally leaves behind your Norton product key in case you want to install your Norton product again at some later point in time.

And finally, what REALLY happens once your Norton subscription runs out is the following: Norton will turn itself off completely. That is all. Until you renew your subscription. This is something which, to my knowledge, is done by most major antivirus software vendors.

Athene said:

If there is anything remaining, then it will not interfere with your computer.

I have found that to be the case too. The removal tool run in the recommended way as mentioned, will remove Norton enough not to interfere with the computer or any incoming (new) AV program. However, I have found that after using the tool, a search of the disk and Registry will still bring up leftovers. In the interests of making the system really clear of Norton, I've always removed these files and Registry entries manually.