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  • #2265036

    Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

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    by ashishs ·

    What I would like to know is how you guys feel about Norton Anti Virus? Personally, I am in the “Hate it” category. If you don’t like this software, what can you suggest that is similar if not better than Norton, and why you don’t like it. I am trying to build a business case to move our company off this product.

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    • #2583070

      I personally

      by tig2 ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Won’t use Norton. I find it to be a resource hog and to complicate the end users lives by slowing the pc to a crawl.

      I personally use AVG by Grisoft. I also support Zone AV. The footprints aren’t prohibitive and the software doesn’t noticeably slow the performance.

      There are a number of good AV tools out there. Best of luck finding the best one for your environment.

    • #2583067

      We run Sophus

      by clark1 ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Where I work, you can manage it totally from the server including installs and updates.

      It runs quietly with no noticed difference in performance.

    • #2583030

      From a passionate advocate to run to other Guy

      by donaldcoe ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I was a hard fast Norton AV fan for everything, until about 2 years ago Symantec started making changes to all of their applications. Example System Works versions would not let you install over the older version, additionally you were required to uninstall the previous application which sometimes became a complicated issue if you had more Symantec unique applications also installed. All the applications seemed to share the same operational files so uninstalling one might affect the performance of the rest. I have 5 PC’s in my household and after crashing 2 of most important systems because of confused registry’s and non-functional backup and restored Symantec utilities. Presently I have NO MORE of their apps because it is my belief that management has elected to fix things were not broke causing a loss of customer base.

    • #2583002

      Minority report

      by curlergirl ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I know I’m in the minority, but I’ve used Symantec corporate edition at numerous clients over the years and have always liked it. That is strictly for the corporate-level applications – Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition and Symantec Mail Security are the two products I use and like. I do agree with other comments that Norton Systemworks is a system hog and don’t recommend it at all. And I don’t used the client firewall aspects of the SAV corporate edition product either. I think hardware firewalling is the way to go so I don’t generally recommend software firewalls anyway; my experience is that they are all resource hogs and difficult to use.

      IMO, this software is just like a lot of other network-level applications – if you take the time to learn it properly from the beginning, then once you’ve used it and know its quirks and how to configure it, it’s great. If not, you can run into a lot of trouble and headaches and end up hating it forevermore.

    • #2580780

      A little of both worlds

      by wallowamichael ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I have used Symantec Corporate edition in the past, and agree that it is usable, but I much prefer CA or Sophos in my network environments.

      I will neither use nor recommend ‘retail’ versions of Norton/Symantec anti-virus, firewall, systemworks, etc. They have ALWAYS (IMO) been more trouble than they’re worth, and I’ve been working in technology longer than Peter Norton has…

      • #2580645

        Perhaps if Peter were still running the show, …

        by deepsand ·

        In reply to A little of both worlds

        the product that bears his name would still be worthy of it.

        Were I him, I’d do everything in my power to force them to cease using my name.

    • #2580775

      dan sticks his finger down his throat to express his oppinion

      by danlm ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Does that give you any idea what I think of Norton? It sucks, blows chunks, makes your pc blow chunks, and is an all around pos.

      Dan

      • #2580774

        Sheesh, Dan

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to dan sticks his finger down his throat to express his oppinion

        Don’t sugar coat it, tell us how you REALLY feel!

        And I agree 100%!

        • #2580683

          sorry, was kind of graphic wasn’t it.

          by danlm ·

          In reply to Sheesh, Dan

          What can I say, I’ve down this conversation before. Hell, that thread instigated a response from Norton. Last year???? Didn’t change my mind though.

          Dan

    • #2580646

      Symantec betrayed my trust & squandered my love.

      by deepsand ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Once upon a time NAV was a wonderfully trouble free, reliable & well behaved product. Now it has morphed into a resource hog that brings machines to their knees; that is, if it hasn’t already killed them.

      Machine deaths seem to be most likely when a given installation’s subscription has expired and/or one is forced at renewal time to upgrade to the newest version. Clean uninstalls are oft times virtually impossible, leaving the Registry Hive corrupted owing to unregistered DLLs and/or missing shared DLLs.

      Support personnel are wholly clueless as to how to remedy these situations, frequently suggesting fixes that are totally unrelated to the problem, referring one to online documentation that contains an overwhelming number of errors and/or has not been update since the birth of Christ, or offering only the suggestion that one re-install the OS.

      In some cases, I’ve been able to work around the problems created by remnants of NAV lurking in the shadows, interfering with IE’s ability to handle scripting, by swithing to FF. In others, I’ve been forced to re-image the machine.

      All of this caused me to avoid NAV like the plague several years ago. Today I rely on Grisoft AVG for AV, Spybot Search-and-Destroy for AS, & ZoneLab’s ZoneAlarm as a firewall, with no regrets.

      My advice is to not walk away from NAV, but to [b]run[/b].

    • #2580637

      I HATE IT!!!

      by vishalluthra ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I really personally HATE Norton antivirus. Being a user i really critisize it, it eats away a lot of RAM, Slows down PC speed, it makes the slow PCs worse, Eventually AVG And AVAST antiviruses are better

    • #2582206

      Norton Worst of the Worst

      by allan ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I stopped using or recommending NAV and all related products in 2004. Problems with resource hogging began with ver 2002 and just kept getting worse with every version. Previously I’d been a fan since forever…

      Cleaning it out of your system will be difficult. Use the Norton tool for total removal (buried on their site somewhere) and then clean the registries and then look for remnants in the registry. BTW, don’t forget to get rid of the Norton updater which hangs around all on its own to update (what???).

      I now vote for AVG for standalone and network computers. For Exchange Ninja is unbeatable.

      Arguements against Norton – just get the boss to run with AVG for a while and show them how much better their PC runs. That’s how I convinced a major customer to scrap their use of Nav 🙂

    • #2582200

      Detest It

      by paul.smyth ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Almost every PC I’ve been asked to clear of Virii has had Norton AV on it. For home users I recommend using AVG if they don’t want to pay or Trend PCCillin if they will and for Business/Enterprise look at the relevant Trend products. You can control the whole thing through a web browser including remote install to target pc’s and it even removes existing AV software as it installs. You can scan remote PC’s through the management web site without them even noticing it happen.

    • #2582199

      ESET

      by statseeker9 ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I prefer ESET NOD32 Antivirus. Its footprint is so small I dont even feel it in the performance of the system at all. Norton is a resource hog in the extreme. If you use Windows Vista, it on its own is a resource hog, let alone your AV program taking up valuable resources. So yea, I’m in the HATE IT category.

      • #2582193

        NOD32 – Way to go !

        by simran ·

        In reply to ESET

        I was wondering why no one mentioned Eset’s NOD32. As statseeker just mentioned it’s footprint is extremely small. Utilizes very little system resources. No noticeable time lag while launching apps.

        You’ll never believe the installation time on a single pc. On a normal P4 2Ghz & above it takes barely 20 to 30 seconds to install. It’s scanning rate is about the fastest in the industry. It’s also probably the most highly configurable Anti-Virus software in the market. Also takes care of rootkits. They have at least 1 update a day, very often even 2. Is this amazing or what ??

        Plus lots more … I’ve been using it for just over a year & am totally hooked. I probably sound like a salesman for the product.

        If anyone’s interested please check out http://www.eset.com

        Best Rgds,
        Prakash.

        • #2581958

          Put simply, Norton is…

          by older mycroft ·

          In reply to NOD32 – Way to go !

          Crud in its most identifiable form: if it could be stepped in – I’d throw my shoes away!

          AVG & Zone Alarm for me.

    • #2582173

      High maintenance

      by j.fisher ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I’ve used all flavours of norton for many!! years and have always found it high maintenance, buggy, intrusive and annoying.

    • #2582172

      Used to like it!

      by dmdm ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I used to like NAV & System Works. I have a P4 2.8Ghz w/hyper threading. NAV 2005 would rip through a thorough scan in less than 2 hours on a laptop with a 4,500RPM 60GB hard drive. Made the mistake of installing NAV 2007 my wife got as a 3 user pack. NAV 2007 takes over 4 hours to do a “quick” scan & over 7 hours to do a full scan! And as almost everyone else says, forget doing anything else while NAV is running. I’ll never put another version of NAV on my computers!

    • #2582166

      try avg – its free!

      by dma69593 ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      I have used norton anti-virus and found it to be fairly reliable, so long as I did regular updates and scans. I did find norton to be annoying at times, like if I went to change my homepage, norton would send a warning that some site was trying to access the computer etc etc…

      Anyway, I no longer am using it and have instead downloaded AVG from grisoft. Its freeware and I have found that I seem to get less viruses now than when I had norton.

      Consider downloading AVG anti-virus. It won’t cost you anything and many people I know swear by it.

      Regards

    • #2582067

      HATE IT

      by yobtaf ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      What a piece of crap.

      I had all sorts of problems until I dumped it. Then every was
      fine.

      I have a horror story on the MAC side too but I’ll skip that.

      I use AVG, Registry First Aid and Diskeeper and love them all.

    • #2582059

      Avast AV

      by omnifice ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Someone here at TR suggested Avast several years ago. I tried it, and have used it ever since on my systems and all those I support for family and friends. I’ve never had a problem with it and it doesn’t severely hog resources.

      It’s free for personal use…you just have to register for the free key about every 14 months, which takes all of a minute…fair trade.

      http://www.avast.com

      Cheers!

      • #2582016

        Norton System Works

        by pwhea9 ·

        In reply to Avast AV

        I used to swear by Norton untill my 3rd consecutive system crash – I realised how it had destroyed registry entries and caused some of my programs not to function anymore – when I did a system restore Norton wouldn’t allow me to re-activate the product – I contacted customer services who just wanted to sell me a subscription renewal causing me to lose over 4 months service of my existing product – I decided to do a complete restore to factory settings and won’t entertain Norton now at any price. I also use AVG and find it fulfills my needs, as been stated in this blog – pc is faster and less viruses.
        I also run Registry Mechanic which is good but does tend to be very searching and removes everything which sometimes causes problems with Windows XP professional Media Edition, problems are usually associated with the TV receiver.

        • #2581973

          You are telling the truth there

          by rhomp20029 ·

          In reply to Norton System Works

          I had exactly the same experience with Norton and changed to AVG as well. It works wonderfully and finds things the other products miss. Very satisfied user of AVG and will not tolerate Norton on my computer again.

    • #2582001

      Business Case Against NAV

      by notsochiguy ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      Put me squarely in the HATE IT category.

      In terms of building a business case, as others have alluded to, show management two machines that are identical in just about every way, except for the AV software. Have one configured with NAV, and the other with a competing product (I alternate between Sophos and AVG…depending on overall what is being accomplished).

      As sure a bet as there is, the PC without NAV will run considerably better, especially during a scan.

      If you could put both machines out into a DMZ, and expose them to a little ‘risk’, it would also demonstrate which AV product protected the system better (especially important for laptop users, if applicable).

      That’s my 2 cents.

      Good luck!

    • #2581995

      Depends which version

      by kiltie ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      You will probably find that those hating it are basing their opinion on later versions.

      Peter Norton had an excellent product, his mistake was in selling out to Symantec, which kept his name, and confused everyone in the process.
      It incidentally made Peter very rich.

      I had Peters products way back to the early days, when he started with a simple undelete utility, progressed to more advanced stuff such as Disk Doctor and Disk Edit, run from Floppies in those days, would you believe?
      I still have copies of Peters early stuff.

      Nortons products reached their peak in versions 2000/2001, although I have tried later versions, 2002 is the latest I will use, as that was the first to be compatible with XP.

      After that, just bloatware, so I agree with some posters, but they don’t state which version they complain about.

      So that is the key, ask anyone who complains about Nortons which version? Early stuff works just fine, later stuff is crap.

      A damn shame to besmirch Peters name with what Symantec did, imho

      A reminder: 2001 or earlier for 98SE or previous OSs, 2002 is as far as I’ll go because it supports XP

      • #2581990

        The AV is fine… its IS and other packages that are horrible

        by langlier ·

        In reply to Depends which version

        at least 2005 AV is fine. 2006+ sucks. Norton Internet Security Suite… sucks. The enterprise edition of the AV is useful though. Not as bad as the home version.

      • #2581956

        Peter should sue Symantec for defamation of character.

        by deepsand ·

        In reply to Depends which version

        You are quite correct to note that what was once a well respected name is now one to be held up for scorn & public ridicule.

    • #2581909

      You should define first why *you* hate it AshishS

      by tg2 ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      AshishS, you should define what you have come to hate in the product first.

      Personally.. I’ve enjoyed having it deployed in 200 plus machines where before users refused to be responsible enough to update or allow it to update, etc..

      It also depends on the version … 9 & 10 weren’t so bad .. Not had any newer experience, and I currently do not run it on my PERSONAL machines due to its overburdoning cost. (10 personal/family machines)

      I do also use a seperate firewall (Zonealarm pro) and dont like either’s version of “spyware” controls other than to stop an active attempt. that is… i don’t like their attempts at “cleaning” since it usually nixes cookies they’re told not to touch.. etc..

      Right tools for the right job.. so.. Define please what you’ve found to hate in the product, which versions you’ve found this in, and whether or not the problem is mitigatable.

      • #2593674

        Here are my reasons

        by ashishs ·

        In reply to You should define first why *you* hate it AshishS

        First of all, I want to thank everyone for their feedback. It is greatly appreciated.
        Now as for my reasons:
        1. It eats up the processings power.
        2. We had one case where norton quit downloading updates from our server(don’t know how that happened) and started downloading updates from Symantec and also archiving them on the user’s local disk, resulting in her C: drive getting full.
        3. Only on certain computers, it is set to run a 12 PM scan, and when it doesn’t, they freak out because they think that they have a virus in their PC. We have configured it many times to not run a scan during business hours but it still does.
        4. When a new user logs in to an existing pc for a first time, AV automatically kicks in and starts running a scan before the user logon script has even executed. I have seen this happen many times and it only happens to certain computers.
        5. Norton freezes some of the applications on the computers from time to time. I have looked in the task manager and seen it consume pretty much all of the pc’s processing power.
        6. Interface to manage/configure the application is not user friendly and sometimes confusing.

        Overall, I am not impressed with this program, and based on the feedback on this tread, I can see I am not the only one.

        • #2595721

          Consider the cost analysis

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Here are my reasons

          Of using the Grisoft (AVG) Enterprise edition.

          And from personal experience, always have a “plan B”.

          I saw an infection take down over 50% of users with McAfee. In that particular case, F-Secure saved us- they had the only fix at the time. We all downloaded the free client and was able to clean out the problem.

          How’s the weather in Olympia? I used to live in Bremerton- north but never rain free!

        • #2578829

          Weather is nice!

          by ashishs ·

          In reply to Consider the cost analysis

          Nice and Sunny and Hot!!!! Lovin’ every minute of it too. Have been BBQing pretty much every day.

        • #2578714

          Some like it hot.

          by deepsand ·

          In reply to Weather is nice!

          Some don’t. I prefer more moderate Spring-like conditions. Chronic sinusitis & hot don’t mix well.

        • #2578712

          In Washington State

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Some like it hot.

          Hot is a relative thing.

          I lived in Bremerton (can we all say Puget Sound Naval Shipyard?) for awhile. Being from Southern California, I can’t say that it ever got hot. Humid yes, hot no.

          Being able to grill is a rare pleasure- or at least it was in Bremerton- north of Olympia.

          Edit- Capitalisation error

        • #2590588

          Humid & sinusitis don’t play well together either.

          by deepsand ·

          In reply to In Washington State

          In order to truly breath well, I need relative humidity under 20%; 15% seems to be ideal. Needless to say, there’s very little of the year during which I’m more than barely adequately comfortable.

    • #2593654

      Symantec brings machines to their knees, again; cripples Chinese PCs

      by deepsand ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      PC World

      [b]Millions of Chinese Hit by Symantec Foul-Up[/b]

      [b]Symantec virus signature disabled critical system files in Chinese PCs, crippling Windows XP for millions of users.[/b]

      Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
      Monday, May 21, 2007 09:00 AM PDT

      Millions of Chinese PCs running Symantec Corp. antivirus software have been incapacitated by a faulty virus signature distributed last week, government media reported Sunday.

      A virus-signature update delivered automatically to users on Friday about 1:00 a.m. Beijing time to Symantec’s antivirus scanning engine mistook two critical system files of the Simplified Chinese edition of Windows XP Service Pack 2 for a Trojan horse. The two files — netapi32.dll and lsasrv.dll — were falsely quarantined, which in turn crippled Windows. If an affected PC was rebooted, Windows failed on start-up and showed only a blue screen.

      “The update of Norton’s virus database on Friday has caused millions of PCs and computers to crash, a heavy blow to people’s daily work and ongoing business,” China’s state-sponsored Xinhau News Agency said Sunday.

      Other reports, which cited numbers as low as 7,000 affected PCs, also circulated in Chinese technology and mainstream media reports over the weekend, with crippled systems said to be concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou province.

      Symantec re-released a revised signature update around 2:30 p.m. Friday, Beijing time, but the fix was too late for any PC that had been rebooted in the intervening 13 and a half hours. Those now-worthless systems needed new copies of the two .dll files restored to the hard drive’s “windows\system32” directory.

      China-based bloggers and pundits criticized the U.S. company for not clearly posting information about the problem, and worse, not linking to a solution for restoring computers from its support site. “You’d think if you accidentally killed a few hundred thousand PCs in China, you’d mention it on your website, hmm?, and put some links on how to recover from it,” wrote a a South African expatriate living in Shanghai.

      Symantec did post a support document on its Chinese-language Web site that outlined how to use the Windows XP installation CD to start the PC and use the Recovery Console, a command line-driven restore tool of last resort, to replace the quarantined netapi32.dll and lsasrv.dll with new copies. There was no notice of the update problem or the solution, however, on the site’s front page, nor on the company’s global home page, which is in English.

      Recovery may be all but impossible for some users. Many PC makers now forgo installation or restore CDs and instead slap recovery files on the hard drive itself, often in a separate partition. In cases like these, users would have to obtain copies of the two .dll files from another, working PC.

      That raises even more trouble, said Antony Ma, an IT audit manager at a Hong Kong bank. “[What] worries me the most is that people will try to download these [.dll] files on the Web in order to repair their computers,” said Ma in a blog dated Monday, Hong Kong time. “The integrity of these files is in question if they do not come from an authenticated source. A malicious hacker may plant a virus or back door in these system files and offer them in discussion groups.”

      Ma and others on message forums over the weekend took Symantec to task for publishing the buggy virus update. “There are actually two control points within the release process of a virus definition,” said Ma. “The first one is the approval and verification process for adding a system file to their blacklist. System files are high- risk files since they impact the whole system, instead of a single application.

      “The second is the testing of the definition before publishing,” he said. “Does Symantec test all their definitions with all versions of OS?”

      In the Chinese-language support document, Symantec blamed the false positive on an automated process used to develop signatures. Company spokespeople based in the U.S. and in Australia — the company no longer has a press representative in China — did not respond to e-mails sent Sunday asking for comment and explanation.

      This isn’t the first false positive for Symantec. As recently as March, the company’s enterprise antivirus scanner fingered a Windows XP and Windows 2000 system file — sfc.dll, which verifies the integrity of stored files — as malware. Like the newest error, this false reading quarantined a crucial file, which paralyzed some PCs.

    • #2594909

      Not a Fan – Look at McAfee

      by clockwerk it ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      3 years ago I implemented McAfee ePO for our division and we have been virus free since. Reason for moving to ePO? Because Norton was not catching a lot of viruses at the time and my pilot program with ePO was keeping the viruses at bay. Not sure how Norton is doing these days but am still hearing bad reviews from many of my collogues in other companies that are still running it.

      Some of the nice things about using ePO are that it is highly configurable for scans. Not just scheduling but CPU utilization when it does do it?s full scans. This makes all the users very happy as their systems are not brought to their knees when we run it at noon. The other reason is auditors. Enterprise reporting features for the entire environment are very well done. For an enterprise solution, I?ve been very pleased with the product so far.

      As to Norton, I?ll give you guys my opinion in the next few weeks as I?m transitioning to a new shop that is using Norton as their solution.

      • #2594765

        I’m not a fan of McAfee either.

        by deepsand ·

        In reply to Not a Fan – Look at McAfee

        Its heuristics based analysis yields too many false positives, and gives the user too little control re. the handling of files that it has determined are “infected.”

        Even after I’ve “unfixed” files that it “fixed,” it continues to undo my restorations on each scan. And, this is but one example of its heavy-handedness.

        Overall, it simply [u]forces[/u] the user to rely on its judgement in too many things.

    • #2594660

      my norton

      by orillasound ·

      In reply to Norton Anti Virus – Like it or Hate it

      ive had this brand new laptop for 2 weeks now running xp pro with norton antivirus and ive never managed to get live update to do what its told, it can never reach the server to update my definitions, that was via ICS to my desktop but tried direct ethernet and even usb connections to my cable broadband without avail, so im thinking of getting rid too, im happy with AVG Free on my desktop and now and then i do an online scan with Panda Activescan which is quite good at diggin deep….

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