Is Norton Needed?

[John R]

I have Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall on XP Home Edition with SP-2.
It seems every thing is much slower since Norton was installed. Do I need
Norton to be secure? Any way to safely adjust Norton to make machine run
faster?

 

[R. McCarty]

The Norton Home products are known to cause serious system
performance loss. About the only thing you can do to lessen the
effect is to stop the programs from doing extensive logging. Best
to consider alternate/less expensive products. One combination
is AVG 7.5.432 and Zone Alarm Free 6.5.737, both cost free.
*Uninstalling Norton isn't always an effective/trouble-free process.

 

[timbrigham]

You do need to have anti virus and a decent firewall installed to keep
your computer clean, be it Norton or another product.
You don't strictly need to use the live monitoring feature in the anti
virus, which is the biggest cause for a slowdown like you're
describing.

If you disable the "File System Auto Protect" feature your computer
will be much more responsive. Keep in mind this isn't an advised
configuration, as your computer isn't virus protected 100% of the time.
If you should run scheduled scans frequently and keep your virus
definitions updated you should be fine though.
I've used this configuration on my lower end systems for 3+ years
without problem.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall on XP Home Edition with
SP-2. It seems every thing is much slower since Norton was installed.
Do I need Norton to be secure? Any way to safely adjust Norton to
make machine run faster?

My view is that Norton is the *worst* possible choice of security software.
You need three kinds of software for adequate protection:

1. An anti-virus program.

2. A firewall.

3. Two or more (because no single product is good enough) anti-spyware
programs.

Not only do none of these have to be Norton, but in my view, none of them
*should be* Norton. There are several better choices, many of them freeware.

 

[Maincat]

There are several better choices, many of them freeware.

And they are?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

There are several better choices, many of them freeware.

And they are?

For Anti-virus: Avast and AVG

For a Firewall: ZoneAlarm Free

For Anti-Spyware: Spyware Blaster, Adaware, Spybot Search and Destroy.

All of the above are freeware. There are other good freeware choices, but
I'll let others recommend them. The ones above are those I am mostly
familiar with.

 

[Cliff Wild]

There are several better choices, many of them freeware.

And they are?

This might keep you busy and give you an idea on how to find other apps that
can be helpful.


Free Anti-virus
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+antivirus&btnG=Google+Search

Free Spyware
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=free+spyware&btnG=Search

Cliff

 

[RHinNC]

Short answer: NO

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

This might keep you busy and give you an idea on how to find other
apps that can be helpful.


Free Anti-virus
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+antivirus&btnG=Google+Search

Free Spyware
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=free+spyware&btnG=Search

Unfortunately, *all* spyware is far too free. But in this case it's
*anti*-spyware software that's of interest. <g>

 

[Leythos]

I have Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall on XP Home Edition with SP-2.
It seems every thing is much slower since Norton was installed. Do I need
Norton to be secure? Any way to safely adjust Norton to make machine run
faster?

Norton AV while bloated is one of the best AV solutions on the market.
Norton Internet Security (NIS), their firewall, is so bloated that it's
not worth using.

You didn't mention what kind of internet connection you have - if it's
dialup you might be able to get away with just using the Windows XP
firewall, as long as you understand that it can easily be compromised,
provides no outbound protection, and has no real reporting functions.

If you have DSL/Cable or other broad-band service, you should have, at
the least, a NAT router or a proper firewall appliance. If you have one
of those devices then NIS is a waste of money/resources.

 

[Rock]

I have Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall on XP Home Edition with SP-2.
It seems every thing is much slower since Norton was installed. Do I need
Norton to be secure? Any way to safely adjust Norton to make machine run
faster?

I recommend not using Norton Home products because they are resource heavy
and cause problems at some point. There are other alternatives.

Anti-Virus: Avast, AVG, Anti-Vir, Ca eTrust
Firewall: Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal Firewall, Zone Alarm
Non Viral anti-malware programs: Adaware SE, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender,
Spyware Blaster, BHO Demon

Removing Norton products can be problematic. If you choose to do so, after
going through the normal removal through Add/Remove programs run their
removal utilities available from the Symantec web site.

 

[Cliff Wild]

Unfortunately, *all* spyware is far too free. But in this case it's
*anti*-spyware software that's of interest. <g>

I have been using AVG Free for a few years and now I get a pop up screen
that says the new version will cost.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/I+need+help

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have been using AVG Free for a few years and now I get a pop up
screen that says the new version will cost.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/I+need+help

No, the old free version is (or will soon be) no longer supported. However
the new AVG 7.5 is still free.

See http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

 

[Rock]

I have been using AVG Free for a few years and now I get a pop up screen
that says the new version will cost.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/I+need+help

This has been asked and answered in here multiple times. Version 7.1 has
been replaced by 7.5 which is still free.

 

[Cliff Wild]

No, the old free version is (or will soon be) no longer supported.
However the new AVG 7.5 is still free.

See http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Great, Thanks. I guess I was confused.

 

[Cliff Wild]

This has been asked and answered in here multiple times. Version 7.1
has been replaced by 7.5 which is still free.

I have only just started posting to this group so I missed it. Sorry and
thanks.

 

[Rock]

I have only just started posting to this group so I missed it. Sorry and
thanks.

For some reason this has been a common misconception with AVG. You're
welcome.

 

[Cliff Wild]

For some reason this has been a common misconception with AVG. You're
welcome.

The reason I got confused is because I started to get a rather large pop up
screen informing me that the version I have been using will be no longer be
available. I somehow understood that to mean it would no longer be free. My
bad but I bet others got confused also.

Regards.

Cliff

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Great, Thanks. I guess I was confused.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Ron Martell]

For some reason this has been a common misconception with AVG. You're
welcome.

I believe that AVG is deliberately promoting the misconception by not
providing any reference to the new free version in their notification
messages about version 7.1 support ending.

They are probably hoping that at least some users of 7.1 free will be
persuaded to change to the "paid for" 7.5 version thereby generating
some revenue for AVG.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."