I'm really beginning to HATE Norton!

[Sparko]

I use it and I love it. And I work security for a livimg, so I can tell you that it is actually very highly regarded in most circles. Mo0st people who don't like it are individuals.

nobody in IT that I know of likes Norton.

[Cow Poke]

Some of my clients are absolutely sold on Norton, so I'm "stuck" in those cases... I need to get it working. In THIS case, the Norton Removal Tool actually worked, a clean download and install succeeded, and it's back up and running.

[Cow Poke]

There are well-documented issues with removing Symantec products and the like. F-Secure or Sophos is where it's at

As Chris is aware, I used to use F-Prot (DOS - same company as F-Secure) WAY back in the day, and it was GREAT! I could fit the entire program AND updated definitions on ONE low density (anybody remember them?) floppy. It was FREE and it WORKED!

[Sparko]

right now I am just using Microsoft Security Essentials. seems to work pretty good.

[Raphael]

Norton used to be the first thing I would install on people's machines when helping them out. it's now the first thing I remove (uhh after downloading an alternate even Norton's is better than nothing).

[Chrawnus]

The best anti-virus, malware, spyware etc. protection I know of is to not do stupid things on the interwebz.

[Hamster]

I hate when it's on my PC as part of the default startup software. I can't think of a time when it wasn't, actually

[Raphael]

I hate when it's on my PC as part of the default startup software. I can't think of a time when it wasn't, actually

There is a reason why when I get a new computer it gets booted straight into a flash disk containing fresh install media.

[Manwë Súlimo]

We need to get to the Webroot of the problem.

[Manwë Súlimo]

The best anti-virus, malware, spyware etc. protection I know of is to not do stupid things on the interwebz.

....what other activities does that leave to do on the Internet?

[Chrawnus]

....what other activities does that leave to do on the Internet?

i said stupid, not silly.

[Bill the Cat]

nobody in IT that I know of likes Norton.

Most of our IT guys where I used to work hated Symantec... until we went to McAfee. From a security standpoint, any free product is easier to crack and exploit because it is readily available for download. From a user standpoint, including non-security IT folks, anything that restricts their actions sucks. But that's the real purpose of antivirus software.

[Chrs]

Most of our IT guys where I used to work hated Symantec... until we went to McAfee. From a security standpoint, any free product is easier to crack and exploit because it is readily available for download. From a user standpoint, including non-security IT folks, anything that restricts their actions sucks. But that's the real purpose of antivirus software.

Is this because you went from scraping the bottom of the security barrel to hiring someone to put spikes through said barrel while doing it? Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire

[Adrift]

There are well-documented issues with removing Symantec products and the like. F-Secure or Sophos is where it's at

I've worked in IT for about 6 years now, and Norton and McAfee have always been a bane. We had Symantec installed at my current business for a few years, but recently switched over to Sophos. On my personal PC, I pretty much stick with Microsoft Security Essentials.

The honest truth is that most anti-virus software sucks, and its sad that we even need it at all. My regimen for cleaning a PC for friends and family (which I mostly refuse to do now, unless its immediate family) typically means uninstalling whatever lame anti-virus they're using, turning off system restore, running Eset's online virus scanner, running Malware Bytes, running Super-Anti Spyware, running Spybot Search and Destroy, and for those really tough suckers running Combo Fix and TDSSKiller, and installing Microsoft Security Essentials. And usually I have to repeat these steps every 6 months or so. A co-worker of mine doesn't bother with all that. He simply ghosts the important data on the drive, wipes it, and then re-installs everything.

[Sparko]

Most of our IT guys where I used to work hated Symantec... until we went to McAfee. From a security standpoint, any free product is easier to crack and exploit because it is readily available for download. From a user standpoint, including non-security IT folks, anything that restricts their actions sucks. But that's the real purpose of antivirus software.

well McAfee isn't free. and it USED to be good, but for the last several years it has been as bad as Norton's on being bloatware. I hear good things about Kepersky, or at least I used to. Haven't heard much about them in the last year or so.