Is Norton Needed?

[Ron Martell]

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.

An alternative to a software firewall is a cable/dsl home router with
NAT protection. That has the additional advantage of having zero
performance impact on your computer.

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."

 

[Rock]

An alternative to a software firewall is a cable/dsl home router with
NAT protection. That has the additional advantage of having zero
performance impact on your computer.

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."

Yes I actually recommend one use both, though a NAT router even with SPI is
not a firewall, it's a good first line of defense.

 

[Plato]

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 slows down every pc its installed on. Remove it asap.

 

[John E. Carty]

Norton slows down every pc its installed on. Remove it asap.

Not every system. I run Norton antivirus and see no difference on my system
as far as performance then when I ran AVG

 

[Uncle Sam]

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

If you have DSL/Cable or other broad-band service, you should have, at
the least, a NAT router or a proper firewall appliance.

I access internet from behind a proxy server that requires
authentication.
What kind of protection do I need the most?

 

[Leythos]

I access internet from behind a proxy server that requires
authentication.
What kind of protection do I need the most?

If you run XP as a Limited user, use a quality browser (like FireFox 2
or lock down IE6 or lock down IE7), and you use a quality AV scanner,
that runs in real time, and you learn to avoid bad sites, and you don't
use Outlook/Outlook Express for email, and you don't have kids (not
really kidding here) using your computer, then the proxy will protect
you from intrusion attempts, but it won't protect you from yourself -
the other things I mentioned will give you a fighting chance.

I've had a computer since 76, and designed networks for a LONG time, and
in all that time I've never had a compromised computer on any network
that I've managed.