computer security

[Phil Ambrose]

I'm looking for some new security and browsing Amazon found the following.

 

Norton Internet Security 2010

 

Norton Antivirus 2010

 

So can anyone tell me what the difference is?

 

Phil

[alan_fincher]

I'm looking for some new security and browsing Amazon found the following.

 

Norton Internet Security 2010

 

Norton Antivirus 2010

 

So can anyone tell me what the difference is?

 

Phil

Usually "Internet Security" suite type packages are the whole integrated package of some selection from the following list....

 

Anti-virus

Anti-spyware

Firewall

Spam Filter

Identity Protection...

 

etc, etc.

 

Whereas an antivirus program is usually only an antivirus program.

 

Some suppliers like AVG will give you basic anti-virus for free, but start charging progressively as you take more options to get maximum protection.

 

I'm assuming "Norton Internet Security" is the Full Monty, of which just one part will be "Norton Antivirus".

 

I speak from no experience, but know an awful lot of people now think that Norton, once a leader in the field, no longer provides the best solutions. Many have said the Norton products are relatively machine hungry compared to equally good alternatives, that create less machine overhead.

[RONNIE]

I'm looking for some new security and browsing Amazon found the following.

 

Norton Internet Security 2010

 

Norton Antivirus 2010

 

So can anyone tell me what the difference is?

 

Phil

 

Hi Phil we use avast it covers antivirus ,its free and we find it a lot better than norton,

[Byeckerslike]

Hey! Pssst! The word on the street is that Microsoft Security Essentials is very good and totally free!

 

Luigi

[RupertG]

Hey! Pssst! The word on the street is that Microsoft Security Essentials is very good and totally free!

 

Luigi

 

Don't buy Norton or Symantec. A couple of years ago I'dve typed that in screaming caps, but they have got better since then. They're still not anything like good value for money. Which is why they're marketed so heavily.

 

Kaspersky is good value for money. Avast is very good and free. Microsoft Security Essentials is OK, it's got lots of good things going for it (doesn't knobble your machine, installs through the standard Windows update) but is heavily targeted by the malware mob.

 

But better still is - not clicking on dodgy links, don't run Windows, don't go hanging around online filth or warez sites.

 

(I originally clicked on "report this post to an admin" instead of "reply". Second time I've done that. My mind's going...)

[Guest]

Hey! Pssst! The word on the street is that Microsoft Security Essentials is very good and totally free!

 

Luigi

 

I agree, however the evangelical anti Microsoft brigade might not....

[johnjo]

Don't touch Norton in any form, it'll slow your PC to a crawl plus it ain't that good.

 

AVG free will only cover virus's but you won't get any tech support, whereas AVG internet security V9 will cover everything including ID protection and you'll get free tech support for the duration of the licence, cost is around £49 for two years and you can legally use it on upto 3 PCs.

 

A lot of people like Kaspersky and Avast both of which I believe have a free version but again the freebies will normally only cover virus's and nothing else, but there is a free version of MalwareBytes which is very good and will obviously deal with the malware side.

Edited March 27, 2010 by johnjo

[alan_fincher]

AVG free will only cover virus's but you won't get any tech support, whereas AVG internet security V9 will cover everything including ID protection and you'll get free tech support for the duration of the licence, cost is around £49 for two years and you can legally use it on upto 3 PCs.

I've been an AVG fan for some years, and used it freely on a large number of PCs.

 

However when I was in hospital I found that if I used my "3" dongle to connect to the Internet, then my PC would randomly freeze t anywhere between about a minute and half an hour.

 

Eventually I found that by uninstalling AVG version 9, (and replacing with Avast), the problem seemed to be solved. Not conclusive but testing with it uninstalled I could no longer get the PC to freeze.

 

My conclusion is that AVG, (in it's version 9 form), plus Vista, plus use of Internet was in some way the problem, (possibly with some other conflicting component, which I did not identify).

 

Although there is some evidence in "Googling" that others have experienced it, I couldn't find any evidence that AVG had at the time acknowledged the fact. (They may have since, I don't know).

[Québec]

I've got the full Norton suite as I get it from work and occasionally work from home. However, it does slow the machine down, so were advised by a IT colleague to get STOPzilla and have that running full time, and programme Norton only to run a full scan during the wee small hours.

 

STOPzilla seems to be catching most if not all of the 'dodgy stuff', and one feature I like is its 'Black List' of sites. If it's not sure about a site it flags it up, and you can decide whether to put it on the 'Black list' or not. Same with the dreaded Pops-ups. You can set it to automatically stop and flag-up pop-ups, at which point you can decide to allow or block. Once blocked they stay blocked until you decide otherwise.

 

I'm sure others packages do very similar things, but we're very happy with STOPzilla.

[RLWP]

Don't touch Norton in any form, it'll slow your PC to a crawl plus it ain't that good.

 

AVG free will only cover virus's but you won't get any tech support, whereas AVG internet security V9 will cover everything including ID protection and you'll get free tech support for the duration of the licence, cost is around £49 for two years and you can legally use it on upto 3 PCs.

 

A lot of people like Kaspersky and Avast both of which I believe have a free version but again the freebies will normally only cover virus's and nothing else, but there is a free version of MalwareBytes which is very good and will obviously deal with the malware side.

 

If you want to piece together a security system from free stuff, include the ZoneAlarm firewall with AVG anti-virus. After you have those in place you can add any other spyware, anti-spam or any other software you fancy.

 

Richard

 

I'm a Norton IS user

[Phil Ambrose]

Thanks for the input, MOH pointed out to me that anything free is not going to be as good as paying for the full monty and it looks like we may try Ker...... whatever it's called as I have seen the name mentioned on several occasions, just going to look at Amazon again.

 

Phil

[Guest]

Thanks for the input, MOH pointed out to me that anything free is not going to be as good as paying for the full monty a

 

Phil

 

A fundamentaly flawed decision if I may say so.

 

I think the word you're looking for however is

 

This

[RupertG]

Thanks for the input, MOH pointed out to me that anything free is not going to be as good as paying for the full monty and it looks like we may try Ker...... whatever it's called as I have seen the name mentioned on several occasions, just going to look at Amazon again.

 

Phil

 

Kaspersky is probably the best, from everything I've heard - certainly, it's the one recommended by my friend who makes his living as an independent (and very good - he's qualified to forensic evidence level) PC support consultant, and it does consistently well in tests I trust.

 

It is possible to be too worried about all this, though. I haven't used AV or anti-malware software for years and have had no problems, and there'll always be things that get past even the best protection, if you get tricked into loading them or they're a zero-day exploit and you're unlucky,

[Gibbo]

A fundamentaly flawed decision if I may say so.

 

"Fundamentally" (in the true meaning of the word) flawed perhaps. But in reality, probably the truth.

 

The people who write these "free" bits of software are the same breed of people that write Wikipedia, Linux and the other various "open source" softwares (in that they have nothing better to do and can't do it professionally because they're not very good). Both of which fail to work properly.

 

Don't bother me showing me a link that says Wiki is quite accurate, because, in reality, all it takes is one article that is completely full of rubbish (I can show you many on Wiki) to cast serious doubt on the enitre "concept".

 

<dons hard hat, and opens another bottle of wine>

[Keeping Up]

Nobody here has yet mentioned Trend Micro Internet Security. I've been using it for years and find it works well and doesn't slow the PC down. It's not a bad price, I reckon it's worth it.

[Byeckerslike]

Kaspersky is probably the best, from everything I've heard - certainly, it's the one recommended by my friend who makes his living as an independent (and very good - he's qualified to forensic evidence level) PC support consultant, and it does consistently well in tests I trust.

 

It is possible to be too worried about all this, though. I haven't used AV or anti-malware software for years and have had no problems, and there'll always be things that get past even the best protection, if you get tricked into loading them or they're a zero-day exploit and you're unlucky,

 

If, perchance you bank with Barclay's Bank, they give you Kaspersky free of charge, for use with 3 'puters. The downside to Kaspersky is that it likes to update the definitions every day, and if are away from a broadband access point for more that three days, it nags you like hell.

Luigi!

[carlt]

The people who write these "free" bits of software are the same breed of people that write Wikipedia, Linux and the other various "open source" softwares (in that they have nothing better to do and can't do it professionally because they're not very good). Both of which fail to work properly.

The difference between the open source stuff and the free anti-virus packages is that the av is a chopdown version of commercial software, produced by the same, professional, programmers that write the full blown versions.

 

They are given away in the hope that the people, who download it, will upgrade and, also, go into work and tell everyone how great it is and they should buy it for the office.

 

As for Wikipedia.....

 

Clicky

Edited March 27, 2010 by carlt

[Gibbo]

The difference between the open source stuff and the free anti-virus packages is that the av is a chopdown version of commercial software, produced by the same, professional, programmers that write the full blown versions.

 

They are given away in the hope that the people, who download it, will upgrade and, also, go into work and tell everyone how great it is and they should buy it for the office.

 

As for Wikipedia.....

 

Clicky

 

Shush I was trying to get a rise out of people who type before reading fully!

[Gibbo]

PS. This contains as many facts as Wiki................

 

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

[imnogeek]

If you use a free Virus checker then install Malwarebytes too and update/scan weekly, you are covered for most nasties then.

 

All software can have issues with the various configurations/software it finds on different computers, here are a few issues I have come accross but it does not mean they will happen to you..

 

Norton - Used to have issues with updating (not picking them up regularly enough but I believe the newer versions are better) Always been a nasty program to install/uninstall and very often interfearing with other software on the computer eg there is a fix for corel draw users if they use norton. I avoid it myself.

 

Kaspersky - it can be a little complicated to configure, when you turn the firewall off it doesn't actually turn off fully and it has a quirk with some workgroup networks stopping the browser service working properly.

 

AVG - later versions seem to be having a few problems locking up PC's in certain conditions (see post above with dongle fo example)

 

I reccomend Panda antivirus myself, although I have known it to have installation problems. What I like about it is that it holds your hand if there is a problem "That file had a virus in it so you cannot open it" not "there may be a virus what would you like to do", great if you are not into computers.

 

If you want free then Avast and AVG are both good as long as they get on with your PC

[oasistoo]

If you use a free Virus checker then install Malwarebytes too and update/scan weekly, you are covered for most nasties then.

 

All software can have issues with the various configurations/software it finds on different computers, here are a few issues I have come accross but it does not mean they will happen to you..

 

Norton - Used to have issues with updating (not picking them up regularly enough but I believe the newer versions are better) Always been a nasty program to install/uninstall and very often interfearing with other software on the computer eg there is a fix for corel draw users if they use norton. I avoid it myself.

 

Kaspersky - it can be a little complicated to configure, when you turn the firewall off it doesn't actually turn off fully and it has a quirk with some workgroup networks stopping the browser service working properly.

 

AVG - later versions seem to be having a few problems locking up PC's in certain conditions (see post above with dongle fo example)

 

I reccomend Panda antivirus myself, although I have known it to have installation problems. What I like about it is that it holds your hand if there is a problem "That file had a virus in it so you cannot open it" not "there may be a virus what would you like to do", great if you are not into computers.

 

If you want free then Avast and AVG are both good as long as they get on with your PC

 

I have run AVG both free and currently V9 paid on both Vista and now W7 on a Dongle with no problems! So i think as usual with these things it is a bit the luck of the draw.

[Pickles2]

I've used Linux exclusively for the past year or so and have contributed to several distributions. There are no viruses currently in the wild written for for Linux. There is no malware written for Linux. I don't need AV software. Especially stuff I need to pay for. There are malicious scripts out there but these are dealt with in another way. Linux is free, both intellectually and economically as is the vast majority of software. Why would you pay for software?

 

On the other hand, we really don't want people to use it or others may start writing viruses. In fact, don't under any circumstances use Linux. It's rubbish. Written by amateur hobbyists, used by geeks and distributed by socialists. It's much better to go to PC World and spend your own money on very necessary, inexpensive and superbly written software. Good luck.

 

Pete

Edited March 28, 2010 by Pickles2

[Michael Johansson]

One problem with Linux I belive is that it doesn´t work with all programs such as Lightroom, Corel Draw, Photomatix, Proshow and so on (or rather those programs doesn´t work under Linux). I expect there is ways around that but how long time will it take me to learn to overcome these limitations.

[MartinClark]

Thanks for the input, MOH pointed out to me that anything free is not going to be as good as paying for the full monty and it looks like we may try Ker...... whatever it's called as I have seen the name mentioned on several occasions, just going to look at Amazon again.

 

Don't waste your money. I don't know who MOH is but in this case they are wrong. As other people have said, the free programs are usually basic versions of paid-for software, designed to impress you and encourage you to buy the full package from them.

 

As others have said you can put your own package together using well-regarded free programs.

You will need:

Firewall.

I used to use Zone Alarm and that is good but I now use Comodo, which I find to be even better.

 

Anti-Virus

I used AVG happily for many years but experienced problems last year, so switched to Avast, which I find to be better.

 

Anti-Malware

You can use a number of these together. I use Malwarebytes, AdAwareand sometimes Spybot.

 

I have listed lots of useful free software on this page.

[RLWP]

Let's just hope he hasn't waited six months before following the advice in this thread

 

Richard

Edited October 20, 2010 by RLWP