OT: Looking 4 New Anti Virus Software

[Atrocities]

My subscription has ran out for Nortan and I am looking to remove it from my system and install a new AntiVirus software. Any suggestions for a low cost solid, good, non yearly subscription fee free AV software, that is well supported and very good at what it does?

[Fyron]

AVG Free Edition.

http://free.grisoft.com

And make sure to find guides for how to actually remove the malware Norton from your machine. It is worse that most viruses it removes...

[Daynarr]

Another free solution is Avast.
It's on this URL.

As Fyron said, Norton does more damage to your system and performance then most viruses do. AVG and Avast are probably best free anti-virus programs out there so you can't go wrong with either.

[mac5732]

AT, I found some of the norton files you may want to see if you still have them. I havn't dumped mine yet as I still have serval wks to go on subscription, but I plan on dumping it as well. be sure to clik on the files and make sure they are symantec files.

Under Common Files.. Symatec Shared
Under Programs.. Symantec
Norton Virus
Symnetdrv

as far as I know these are all tied in with Norton.. If anyone else knows more about them, post.. good luck

[Kamog]

Same here. When I bought my computer last year, it came with Norton Antivirus and 3 months of free updates. Then when the 3 months ran out the program wanted me to to pay for the subscription. So instead I uninstalled Norton and downloaded AVG. I didn't have any trouble getting rid of Norton. I just went to add/remove programs in the control panel and removed and it worked. AVG is great and I am very happy with it.

[Captain Kwok]

Kamog - Norton will leave lots of little pieces around even after uninstalling. There is some tool provided by Symantec that gets rid of these, although it is hard to find on their site. Probably have better luck googling about the matter...

[Atrocities]

I have noticed that NORTAN is a major resource hog and that it really slows my system down during start up.

I like nortan for a few reasons, it has cought many worm intrusion attempts over MSN, Trillan, and other IM programs. It automatically scans my incoming emails and runs checks in the back ground on port activity and blocks other intrusion attempts that the fire wall might not catch.

Will any of these alternate AV programs do all of this? Can they be trusted not to sell out or be exploited by hackers?

How will say AVG interact with my firewall software? Things like that concern me.

[Fyron]

You've got a really bad firewall if it isn't monitoring port activity... That is not the job of an AV program. Norton is famous for bloat as much as the rootkit-like nature of their "personal" programs.

I am not aware of any free AV programs that will scan IM sessions, though they may exist somewhere. But then, I would rather not have any do that due to the excessive load it would place on IMing for no real net gain. Practicing safe computing (not clicking on links or accepting files from strangers) is just as effective.

AV scanners at the mail server level tend to be more effective than client side scanners, since a lot more effort tends to be put into them for robustness and efficacy. If you don't use something like outlook express, mail viruses are hard to infect yourself with simply by practicing safe computing. Delete anything that looks suspicious, never open attachments you were not expecting.

That being said, AVG Free does have an email scanner (not sure if it is a separate download or what, as my copy says it is not installed; but the site mentions it is included).

[Parasite]

I have both Norton and AVG. AVG starts first and blocks parts of Norton from running, basicly the Norton real time scanning. I am also thinking of dumping Norton.

[Fyron]

Its usually a bad idea to try to run two real time AV scanners.