Proposing a challenge.

One of my online friends was complaining about the lack of anti-virus software that actually detects viruses. I proposed to him, he use any of the free anti-virus solutions I recommend, but to make things interesting... I will be using demos of products I hate.

Now, if you don't know me that well, you'd say that's no hardship. But as a techy, one of the first things I threw out when I was learning was Norton. Now, after almost three years, I return on a dare. Use Norton for all 15 days, and at the end of day 15, uninstall it, then go to McAfee for it's trial run. Now, while I support McAfee more then Norton, they are my two least favorite anti-virus solutions... I go so far as in to say they are the cause of viruses. And I can't use the stand-alone programs, I have to use the suites like he does. However, using McAfee is to see how bad or good it is.

What his bargain is though, is use Avast! Free, Comodo Firewall, and an Anti-spyware of his choice (I think he agreed with Meg, and will use AVG Anti-spyware if I remember correctly) for however long the combined demos last. Then we will uninstall all of the programs, and both install NOD32 to run a system scan. Whomever has the most viruses by the end of the month or month and a half, has to buy the other one lunch.

If it's alright with you, Boo, could you sticky this so I can report in on how I feel daily? I don't talk to my friend that often so if he cheats, I will not know, but it will be interesting to see me go against my norm of hating on those two.

If at the end of this, I have less viruses then him, then I will post the first half of First to Charge, the story I've been working on for all the time I've been signed up here. If I loose, I will still post it, although not the first half, more like a quarter or less.

Sound fair?

Y_F

Without even installing Norton 360, I can already see I'm not going to like it much... 75 mb. And while it's not a lot... my solutions run around 50 mb combined. Maybe Norton hasn't learned to loose weight?

Another thing that makes me worried is the EULA, End User License Agreement. Yes, I do read them... because I've been burnt before with them. It says, and I quote

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norton EULA

3. Product Installation; Required Activation:

A. During the installation process, the Software may uninstall or disable other security products, or features thereof, if such products or features are incompatible with the Software or for purposes of improving the overall functionality of the Software.

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So if it uninstalls or disables what you already have... does that not make you open to attacks? SHAME ON YOU NORTON!

I am using spybot search and destroy. It picked up 4 zlob virus.
Its funny why some scans dont pick up virus.

I wont use norton because its annoying and doesnt work right, Mcafee is a bit better but not that great of use to me
Avg, a bit better
Panda .. were getting there
Im curretly using webroot spy sweeper fire wall and antivirus, seems to be doing its job thus far.

Over the years ive used trend micro, and a few other names ;)


Of course im just throwing in what ive found with my personal experiences

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Young_Freebie

Without even installing Norton 360, I can already see I'm not going to like it much... 75 mb. And while it's not a lot... my solutions run around 50 mb combined. Maybe Norton hasn't learned to loose weight?

Another thing that makes me worried is the EULA, End User License Agreement. Yes, I do read them... because I've been burnt before with them. It says, and I quote


So if it uninstalls or disables what you already have... does that not make you open to attacks? SHAME ON YOU NORTON!

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Most antivirus systems do warn you that running one or more solutions may cause the platform not to work properly, but ive certainly never seen them say there going to disable other ones themselves! Yeesh thats strange they would!
Good luck deleting norton, I always find it a super pita to completely delete. I always end up in program files and the registry manually deleting it.:lolsign:

i have been using avg for a few years now and i like it...i got a dell laptop as my university graduation present in 06 and it was such a pain to remove the trial version of mcafeeeee :/

We use Macs :)

Laura

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sally888

Most antivirus systems do warn you that running one or more solutions may cause the platform not to work properly, but ive certainly never seen them say there going to disable other ones themselves! Yeesh thats strange they would!
Good luck deleting norton, I always find it a super pita to completely delete. I always end up in program files and the registry manually deleting it.:lolsign:

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I've seen the warning and I've paid the price for running more then one. And yes, Norton will be a pain to delete... makes me happy that I already downloaded the removal tool! :lolsign:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sally888

I wont use norton because its annoying and doesnt work right, Mcafee is a bit better but not that great of use to me
Avg, a bit better
Panda .. were getting there
Im curretly using webroot spy sweeper fire wall and antivirus, seems to be doing its job thus far.

Over the years ive used trend micro, and a few other names ;)


Of course im just throwing in what ive found with my personal experiences

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I've used Trend Micro, Norton, McAfee, and Avira before staying with what I have now, Avast and Bitdefender free versions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meg1112

I am using spybot search and destroy. It picked up 4 zlob virus.
Its funny why some scans dont pick up virus.

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Zlob is malware, but it's not a shock on the scans to me. Just depends on it's definitions and how well it is made.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ljclo

We use Macs :)

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If I had the money for them, I'd use them too. But paying $1100 dollars for a machine that's only worth $800... makes more sense to me to go with Windows or Linux.

Macs do get viruses though, they aren't unassailable. Heck, I was reading on either Lifehacker or Gizmodo that in a hackoff, Macs lost first, getting hacked into in under three days, Vista was in second, lasting around a week. And Linux? Made for hackers, by hackers?

Never.
Got.
In.

:excited:

I guess this can be considered day two of Norton's control of Windows Vista... if you expected me to run this antivirus on my desktop, it's already unstable, I don't need to crash more often! :lolsign:

As I write this from Firefox, the Norton Phishing bar popped up on Firefox... it's ugly, even for something like them. For those that have never used Norton, here's a screencap.http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/...ym_6e8e5dd.jpg

Blehhhhh...

I also had to Manually take control of Norton's firewall, making it ask me if I should allow/deny programs to crossing the net. By default, it was blocking MSN and Firefox, but I went in and tweaked that.

The all-in-one interface is also very ugly, but it works, since by instinct (or skill with other a/vs?) told me how to find my scanning. It's baring no fangs... but I'm waiting for the false alarms.

Let me see if it detects the test virus now... it didn't even do that much last time!

EDIT: Amazing, Norton detects and blocks it.. if not in a zip file. :|

If it's in a zip, there is a chance Norton will not detect it. I'm not impressed. Avira, Avast, and Bitdefender I know do the inside of zip files no issues. Even if it's two plus layers deep.

LOL we still have the crappy trail of norton on our puter cause i cant figure out how to get rid of it so its just disabled lol we have avast the free one...was going to download AVG when we get our wireless cause it times out on dial up when we try to download which is better? avast or avg?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by roseofblack25

LOL we still have the crappy trail of norton on our puter cause i cant figure out how to get rid of it so its just disabled lol we have avast the free one...was going to download AVG when we get our wireless cause it times out on dial up when we try to download which is better? avast or avg?

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I tryed everything to remove Norton too but Young Freebie told me exactly what to do and it worked so he can probably help you too. ( I can't remember what I did?? LOL) It almost drove me crazy trying to get rid of it.... kept saying that only the "system administrator" could remove the program?? Pretty freaky. I hated Norton. Using Avast now and love it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by roseofblack25

LOL we still have the crappy trail of norton on our puter cause i cant figure out how to get rid of it so its just disabled lol we have avast the free one...was going to download AVG when we get our wireless cause it times out on dial up when we try to download which is better? avast or avg?

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Avast has false positives, as does AVG, but I find AVG looks dated. Out of the two, I use Avast... so if you have a question about Avast, I can tell you right off the bat, just need to load it on the main PC.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/U...val-Tool.shtml
Try this to remove it. Should remove most, if not all of it.

Day three... Norton Firewall asks me if something is allowed to cross the internet.

I say something, because of the way it works, it tells you no information about the program until you hit more information. And then it tells you what it is. Only thing is... doesn't tell me what it's connecting though. And because I have MSN, Firefox, and Opera all going... it's an annoyance.

I still stand by Comodo Firewall as the best firewall yet.

As for the toolbar I posted about yesterday, it false alarmed me to deviantART, saying it was a phishing site. http://deviantart.com
Yeah... that's the REAL site.

I'm tempted to remove Norton right now. Ever since I installed it, my Vista laptop is two to five seconds slower then my XP machine. And they were at one point (before Norton and the bloat) booting under 30 seconds. Now Windows XP is 30 seconds on the nose, and Windows Vista is around 40-45.

Some bloat. :|

As well, I've noticed Vista's connection speed to be dropping as well. It's not dial up, but it's also not as fast as the Windows XP either.

I can't think of anything else to add just yet. Maybe Norton will surprise me, and give me my wasted time back with this product? I doubt..

Should I call and ask him to pull this all off? Up to you readers.

And it appears it's no longer up to us.

As I write this, Norton shut itself off, and when I went to turn it back on, it said my trial had run out.

Not a moment too soon, I'd say.