Avira free or Norton Internet Security???

[DarkRhystar]

I don't use Norton and I don't recommend it.

Unless you're a tech enthusiast or a security aficionado, you're not likely to be running the most up-to-date versions of all your software and Norton is awful at maintaining compatibility with other applications. Often times, the hotfixes and updates will fix problems only to create more of them. Troubleshooting a system running Norton quickly becomes a painful process because no version of Norton ever seems to work with everything.

The ideal security system to me is one that you can turn on and forget it exists. This means a low memory footprint, non-invasive security measures, and no compatibility issues. Norton doesn't achieve any of those and it's a costly investment at that.

Just to be clear, isn't knowledge that's 5 years old, this is last week knowledge.

Any evidence to backup your statement?

Of course.

Here's the latest issue I ran into with Norton on a machine where it conflicted with QuickBooks and basically stopped the user from using it at all. That one took a fairly long time to hammer out unfortunately.

I realize that you might be a Norton user that is very happy with your security setup, but please also realize that the software ecosystem for other users and also businesses varies greatly. I'm not attacking your preference or telling you that you are wrong for liking Norton, however due to issues I've seen and fixed in the (old and recent) past with Norton that it's not something I can recommend.

 

[whs]

I don't use Norton and I don't recommend it.

Unless you're a tech enthusiast or a security aficionado, you're not likely to be running the most up-to-date versions of all your software and Norton is awful at maintaining compatibility with other applications. Often times, the hotfixes and updates will fix problems only to create more of them. Troubleshooting a system running Norton quickly becomes a painful process because no version of Norton ever seems to work with everything.

The ideal security system to me is one that you can turn on and forget it exists. This means a low memory footprint, non-invasive security measures, and no compatibility issues. Norton doesn't achieve any of those and it's a costly investment at that.

Just to be clear, isn't knowledge that's 5 years old, this is last week knowledge.

Any evidence to backup your statement?

Of course.

Here's the latest issue I ran into with Norton on a machine where it conflicted with QuickBooks and basically stopped the user from using it at all. That one took a fairly long time to hammer out unfortunately.

I realize that you might be a Norton user that is very happy with your security setup, but please also realize that the software ecosystem for other users and also businesses varies greatly. I'm not attacking your preference or telling you that you are wrong for liking Norton, however due to issues I've seen and fixed in the (old and recent) past with Norton that it's not something I can recommend.

This looks like a problem with Quick Books. Quote: " This error may also occur even if Norton 360 is not installed on the computer". If nothing else, you can always put a program on the Norton exclusion list. I ran into a similar problem using MSE. A completely innocent little program would be harrassed by MSE. After I put it on the exclusion list there was no more problem.

 

[Dinesh]

I prefer norton products as I dont see any issues running it on my win7 64bit.

 

[DarkRhystar]

This looks like a problem with Quick Books. Quote: " This error may also occur even if Norton 360 is not installed on the computer". If nothing else, you can always put a program on the Norton exclusion list. I ran into a similar problem using MSE. A completely innocent little program would be harrassed by MSE. After I put it on the exclusion list there was no more problem.

Well, in this case it was directly caused by the Norton update and the solution on that page failed (and a few others). It came out to a decision by the user on whether to rollback the update or buy the latest version of QuickBooks (which apparently doesn't suffer from this issue). Unfortunately they picked rolling back the update. :sarc:

 

[Cocopara]

Dont get, Avira, Norton or MSE, MSE is only if you got low amount of Ram.

Avira = Pwnd by AVG

If you want good protection,
-Disable Windows Firewall
-Download Zone Alarm Firewall
-Download Eset, Zone Alarm Internet Security or Kaspersky (Zone Alarm running the Kaspersky engine)
-Download Malwarebytes (one off the best ive come over and found 10 trojans other programs could not)
-Download Super Anti Spyware

Download this from Cnet as there is less or no chance of getting virus from the download there.

But if choosing between Avira and Norton, I would pick Norton, if its the 2009/2010

 

[scoopeeedoo]

Dont get, Avira, Norton or MSE, MSE is only if you got low amount of Ram.

Avira = Pwnd by AVG

If you want good protection,
-Disable Windows Firewall
-Download Zone Alarm Firewall
-Download Eset, Zone Alarm Internet Security or Kaspersky (Zone Alarm running the Kaspersky engine)
-Download Malwarebytes (one off the best ive come over and found 10 trojans other programs could not)
-Download Super Anti Spyware

Download this from Cnet as there is less or no chance of getting virus from the download there.

But if choosing between Avira and Norton, I would pick Norton, if its the 2009/2010

About Zone Alarm : i installed it but had always Windows Maintenance Center alerts saying i had no firewall installed, however everything seemed to be ok...(!!!???)

 

[Cocopara]

Hmm, You sure you downloaded Zone Alarm Firewall, I turned windows firewall off and task manager said, WARNING: """
When I downloaded ZOne Alarms firewall its all fine, but dont care about task manager, aslong as Zone Alarm works, your PC is protected, Its anti virus is good and based on the "one of the best" anti virus engines. But I suggest get Eset or Kaspersky, with Eset its an inbuilt Firewall which comes in handy, though im not sure how good it is

 

[scoopeeedoo]

This morning's outcome :
Avira is far behind with 2 points...
Many other suggestions about other choices ("5 points"),
but Norton seems to have fought his ol'demons and reached a lot of user's trust now, he gets 9 points...
Thanks to all of you, i'll have a look this afternoon, after work, and probably will make my (hard!) choice...

 

[Cocopara]

I'd go with MSE if you don't do anything risky on the internet and Comodo Internet Security if you like to go to sites at random. Comodo has a higher detection rate than NIS or Avira, and the firewall, for lack of better term, just rocks... only firewall I've seen that shows realtime traffic by service, application and IP, with the option to terminate any connection you choose at any time

..., Comodo has got many bad reviews for their security, Id rather suggest untiing, Zonealarm Firewall with Eset Smart Security (Nod 32 Anti Virus With Firewall), I have no experience with Comodo myself, but when I googled it, it really got punched down harder then the +'ers.

 

[Cocopara]

This morning's outcome :
Avira is far behind with 2 points...
Many other suggestions about other choices ("5 points"),
but Norton seems to have fought his ol'demons and reached a lot of user's trust now, he gets 9 points...
Thanks to all of you, i'll have a look this afternoon, after work, and probably will make my (hard!) choice...

Indeed, Avira is like Avast, Rubbish.
Norton really is a rubbish Anti Virus, compared to many others, but it works, if your one off those teenagers whos curious, like to download new and unknown programs, get Kaspersky or eset , with Zonealarms firewall (10x beter then window's)

 

[scoopeeedoo]

This morning's outcome :
Avira is far behind with 2 points...
Many other suggestions about other choices ("5 points"),
but Norton seems to have fought his ol'demons and reached a lot of user's trust now, he gets 9 points...
Thanks to all of you, i'll have a look this afternoon, after work, and probably will make my (hard!) choice...

Indeed, Avira is like Avast, Rubbish.
Norton really is a rubbish Anti Virus, compared to many others, but it works, if your one off those teenagers whos curious, like to download new and unknown programs, get Kaspersky or eset , with Zonealarms firewall (10x beter then window's)

... a 40 y old curious teenager... ... curious but rather prudent!
I would love Kaspersky, but would have to pay for it while i can use Norton freely... I prefer put my money in other apps... or support creators...!

 

[Cocopara]

Well, there are other means to achive licens, mentioning none, there are also legal way off doing this. But as a freeware, and "if we consider non - trials" MSE is amongst the best anti viruses, but by no means does it compare to kaspersky, Zone alarm (Not sure of its anti virus, but heard good stuff) or Eset.

What i like about the MSE is that its:
-free
-consumes low amount of memory
-does not bother you
-and search VERY deeply into your PC, compared to other freeware such as AVG free

 

[whs]

-consumes low amount of memory

The MsMpEng.exe (MSE) uses about 50MBs. But I do not remember what Kaspersky and NIS used because I do not have a system with those any more (I used them in previous years). Maybe someone can post the numbers for comparison.

 

[Cocopara]

-consumes low amount of memory

The MsMpEng.exe (MSE) uses about 50MBs. But I do not remember what Kaspersky and NIS used because I do not have a system with those any more (I used them in previous years). Maybe someone can post the numbers for comparison.

50 Mb aint much, and KAspersky and Eset sure use more, MSE uses low amount of Memroy, 4mb, forgot if it was RAM or Hard Drive

 

[Dinesh]

I have tried many anti virus softwares on my system. From what I have seen on my task manager when the AV is idle:
kaspersky (avp.exe ) = 12-20 MB
avast (avastsvc.exe) = 4-9 MB
Norton (ccsvchost.exe) = 15-30 MB
MSE (msmpeng.exe) = 45-55 MB
ESET (ekrn.exe) = 45-55 MB.

Edit:

Comodo internet security (cmdagent.exe) = 8-10 MB

 

[whs]

Interesting numbers. That would suggest that Norton and Kaspersky use less RAM than MSE (against popular belief and if that is the whole story). But all of those numbers are so small that it does not matter much anyhow. The whole RAM usage "problem" is usually blown completely out of proportion.

 

[Dinesh]

Interesting numbers. That would suggest that Norton and Kaspersky use less RAM than MSE (against popular belief and if that is the whole story). But all of those numbers are so small that it does not matter much anyhow. The whole RAM usage "problem" is usually blown completely out of proportion.

Exactly. Besides, all these above mentioned AV runs with only 2 processes running. And the numbers I have shown is the total amount of RAM used by the AV.

There are some AV like G data, avg and mcafee which have 6-9 processes running in task mgr. And if you calculate the total amount of RAM, it goes beyond 50-70 MB.

Currently installing Comodo internet security V4 beta.

 

[malexous]

I have Firefox running with 16 tabs open. NIS2010 is using 10MB of RAM.

It usually fluctuates between 2MB (lasts for few seconds) and 15MB.

Avast! Free uses very similar amounts of RAM...except when scanning. It uses only 14MB on a full system scan. Norton uses 40MB (testing now) on a full system scan and completes a full scan far quicker than Avast!

 

[lior]

Avira Personal is a good program but I found several problems with it:

1) Update server is excruciatingly slow.
2) Product support is virtually non-existent.
3) When I upgraded to premium, the updater stopped working. After several clean installs and removing all previous registry entries, Avira suggested that I reinstall Windows. That's when I told them aufwiedersehen and installed Avast.

As far as Norton goes, I've heard very good reviews of it starting with the 2009 version. Prior to that it was garbage. The detection rate was decent but the program used a lot of resources. I remember back in early 2000-2001 when it was truly a p.o.s. and back then there weren't any malware or firewall modules built into it. It was a plain antivirus program that caused Windows to come to a virtual standstill when it was running. But apparently they improved a lot since then. If the Norton suite provided by your ISP gives you a more comprehensive security package my suggestion would be to use it over Avira Personal.

 

[scoopeeedoo]

Thanks again to all of you for your interesting comments, i think my choice is done now...
I'm gonna run Norton... I just hope Avira will let uninstall itself without prob'...
Well, i guess that work will be perfectly accomplished by "Avira Registry Cleaner", "Tune Up" & "CCleaner"...
You really helped me, Folks, Thank you!!!