I've tried AVG ,Avast ,Bulllguard ,NOD32 and now im trying Norton Internet Security 2008. Is Norton anycop or what?

What's wrong with the ones you have tried? NOD32 is one of the best AV on the market. :)
I wouldn't touch Norton personally.

Yes I agree, I've used the free versions of AVG and Avast and they are fine. What firewall and spyware prevention have you got?

Nod32 gets my vote too. At the moment i'm using Symantec endpoint 11 as for some reason Nod32 2.7 seems to have issues with XP x64 ? NOD32 kind of locks out things i want to access the net, have no idea why and it's never done it before on 32bit. Nod32 is on 4 of the 5 PC's in my home but they all run 32bit.

AVG is free, and is fine. I've not had a virus in 4 years though, so I can't say it's ever been tested. Firewall + secure browser FTW.

Norton is a bloated memory hog.

i would say avg. It is free yes, but it is also very formidable. With a good firewall (of which the windows sp2 firewall works wonders) you should find you have little trouble.....if you are it may be a configuration problem.

For the love of god dont use norton...part of me thinks those guys make viruses up just to bloat their softwares abilities, maybe they create viruses just for it to pick up lol.

On a more serious note yeah norton is a system hog and there are a wide range of applications much smaller that can do much better.

Id highly recommend avg, a good malware remover and the windows firewall, o and a nice router to keep you safe.

he windows sp2 firewall works wonders

In what way (as it only stops inbound connections) - which, to my way of thinking, is pretty poor?:|

by that i mean....with programs such as zone alarm as an example it doesnt matter what it does it lets anything in, it also never truly uninstalls which is very suspect.

By best i also mean ease of setup...you hardly know its there and it does its job (blocking incoming) very well. It is true you could get a firmer firewall if you wish but after switching to the windows firewall from any other alternative i have zero viruses while running alongside avg.

Its a matter of how you feel, if you are careful what you open, where you go and what basic safety you have in place. Ive been a heavy net user since 1997 and only ever had virus problems when someone else messed with the computer downloading bloatware and malware.

You may have other needs but the following programs have kept me fully safe since they were created :

Opera Browser (zero popups, fast browsing, regular updates, tab browsing , saved sessions)
Windows sp2 firewall (works in background, easy to use, effective)
Avg anti virus (free, regular usually daily updates, good scan, finds MOST problems).

Last virus outbreak i had was back in 2005 and while the sp2 firewall might not do everything it's made my net life much easier.

btw i wasnt aware of incoming only :P, i might add another layer of protection if i get another virus, thanks for that.

by that i mean....with programs such as zone alarm as an example it doesnt matter what it does it lets anything in, it also never truly uninstalls which is very suspect.

I don't use ZAP. Comodo is far superior. However, ZAP does block outbound connections (unlike the Hex Poo "firewall"). Maybe you had it set up incorrectly?


i have zero viruses while running alongside avg.

That's because of AVG (which I found to give a lot of false positives), not the FW though. I now use comodo AV and FW and have found both to be extremely reliable/resilient:)

btw i wasnt aware of incoming only :P, i might add another layer of protection if i get another virus, thanks for that.

It's been widely publicised all over the net since Hex Poo was released:thumbsup:.

Norton every time for me. Never had a virus with the two computers we've got. :) You get what you pay for. :)

Here's an interesting article from the BBC News yesterday..

It's a statement from the Director of Security at Symantec, Kevin Hogan....

Perhaps the website designers are ignoring historical routes which are leading to a rise in effectiveness of the hackers.

BBC yesterday

Web designers making very old mistakes are letting malicious hackers hijack visitors to their sites, say experts.

Many of the loopholes left in the code created for websites have been known about for almost a decade say the security researchers.

The poor practices are proving very attractive to hi-tech criminals looking for a ready source of victims.

According to Symantec the number of sites vulnerable in this way almost doubled during the last half of 2007.

BBC article yesterday (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7345990.stm)

The best anti virus is to use an operating system that is more secure than windows.

AVG is free, and is fine. I've not had a virus in 4 years though, so I can't say it's ever been tested.

wouldnt that mean its doing its job? ;)

Firewall + secure browser FTW.

EWW Firewalls... EWWW.. 8spit*

wouldnt that mean its doing its job? ;)


No, as no virus has ever got past my first lines of defense (a router, Firefox with a crapload of security add-ons, a firewall, and a few other constantly-running security programs). The anti-virus never gets to catch anything.

nod32 is one of the best av ive ever used in 6 years of coming online but avast is good everyone on here rates avg but i find it fiddly , ashampoo might do a av i know they do a firewall cos im using it now:)

http://www.pandasecurity.com/uk/aff/aw/firewall.htm

http://www.download.com/Antivirus-Software/3150-2239_4-0.html?tag=dir

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads29.html

We started with kaspersky at christmas after 2 years with panda.

3 licences for around 50 quid - its a fit and forget

http://www.av-comparatives.org/ is the place to look. A very thorough testing of the best AVs on the market, testing heuristics, false positives, etc.

Here's an interesting article from the BBC News yesterday..

Perhaps the website designers are ignoring historical routes which are leading to a rise in effectiveness of the hackers.

BBC article yesterday (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7345990.stm)

also see the number of 'help, i want to build a website but can't work a computer' posts on here :rolleyes:

I've tried AVG ,Avast ,Bulllguard ,NOD32 and now im trying Norton Internet Security 2008. Is Norton anycop or what?

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=123115

Norton every time for me. Never had a virus with the two computers we've got.

How could you POSSIBLY know that? All you know is that Norton has never TOLD you you have one because it's never detected one!

Jesus wept(!)

Kapersky and Nod32 are the best atm.. I prefer Kapersky.

Kapersky and Nod32 are the best atm.. I prefer Kapersky.

me to :) nod32 is def a very close second

I've got the paid for verison of AVG Internet Security 8 which is a hell of an improvement on the 7.5 version in terms of looks, ease of use and scanning times.

I can't recommend it enough to be honest.

Norton and McAfee do their job but use way too many system resources which slows your system down although I've heard the latest Norton suite is an improvement on the last one.

Ok thanx everybody. I find Bullguard and NOD32 skipped lots of files whilst scanning but the anti spyware which is shipped with bullguard is fantastic. AVG Free is good but missed some virus that norton detected.

Still none the wiser as to which one to use. :huh:

I'd stay clear of Norton, where I work (programmer but we do some IT Support), most of the computers with strange problems seem to have Norton installed, and removing Norton seems to fix it... Norton also seems to make the computer slow in my experience. I'd recommend AVG or NOD32 and using Spybot S&D for antispyware (the immunise feature should prevent a lot of infections).

AVG Free is good but missed some virus that norton detected.

And i'm sure the reverse would be true.

No one A/V package is 100% reliable, you just have to choose one which you find easiest to use and your computer finds easiest to run.

Personally, i would never, ever use Norton... but i know of others who swear by it.

My vote is for AVG Free... but if you'd rather pay then NOD, Kaspersky and McAfee seem to be ok.



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