Please help me with antivirus/firewall software

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred
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F

Fred

I recently bought a new computer with XP-home that was preloaded with
Norton Antivirus. I added McAfee Personal Firewall available from my
cable company.

The "free" time on both of these is expiring soon, and I need help
getting a permanent set of programs in place. I looked at using both
the Internet Security programs from Norton and McAfee, but both
require extensive operations on deleting all relevant security
programs as well as dealing with registry entries.

How likely is it to screw up these operations? Is it better simply to
renew the 2 programs I'm using--which seem to be doing their work just
fine--and forget about the other features that the suites offer? I
mean, I don't like spam but I've adjusted to it. I'd rather spend a
few seconds each day deleting spam than to spend hours cleaning up an
installation mess. Besides, the user reviews of both the Norton and
McAfee suites on CNET are really bad--and scary.

I'd appreciate any comments on these issues.

Thanks.
 
Greetings,

I recommend you to use the same company for virus or firewall applications.
I find it alot faster and you might be able to get a discount for one :) And
yes, most antivirus software have subscriptions thus you have to renew your
subscription every year.

Thanks and best of luck!
 
Jose, Your suggestion is fine, but my real concern is this. In order
to install a new program -- as I understand it -- I have to delete all
traces of the other company's program--both the programa dn the
registry entries. I've looked at both the McAfee and the Norton
(Symantic) websites and they both have a fairly complicated list of
deletes and editing of the registry. Other comments that have appeared
on the web indicated that if you don't do all these deletions you can
wind up with a hell of mess--up to nothing running!

It may not be elegant but I;m inclined to stick with these 2 programs
for now.

Thanks for your comments.

Fred
 
Phil, That sounds fine, but do these programs also require that I
clean out all traces of my present programs--which is what both Norton
and McAfee say I've got to do to load their antivirus or firewall
programs? Looking over the instructions for that process just scares
me. And I've seen other users report horror stories about how bad
things can get if you don't delete all the old stuff.

Also, do these "free" programs require subscriptions to update their
lists?

Thanks for yuor comments.

Fred
 
r-- Thanks for your comments. You suggest the easy way out. I was just
wondering whether, even if I don't use all the programs in a suite, I
might be better off with one company's programs. What I'm really
scared of is the mess I could make if I tried to clean out the
unwanted program and all its traces. It may not be elegant, but for
now I'm staying with the 2 different programs unless I hear that I can
change without messing up my whole computer.

Fred
 
No none of the free programs require any payment at all to stay updated.
It's all free.
It might be worth it to get rid of nortons and mcafee, even if it requires
some time and manual deletions. Because I would be asking the question.....
why are these programs written so poorly that their uninstall routines do
not uninstall the program correctly and/or completely. Once you get them
off, I'd never use them again until they can learn to write correct
uninstall routines. (one reason I stay far away from nortons bloat-ware)
 
Greetings --

You'll get nearly as many differing opinions as you will
responses.

I used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton Internet
Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP, all
without any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that.
But it's been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee
products. Their quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they
were acquired by Network Associates.

However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security 2002 came up for renewal (at a cost substantially
higher than the preceding year's subscription), I decided to try less
expensive solutions. I downloaded and installed the free version of
GriSoft's AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ) and the
free version of Sygate's Personal Firewall
(http://smb.sygate.com/free/default.php ). Both have proven to be
easily installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally, I
was pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable
improvement in my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec
product.


Bruce Chambers
--
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