Hi CLYDE;
Alan gave you some thoughts on running Norton/2006 and Defender, let me
just add a few other details. I have Norton Internet Security 2005 and
Defender installed, so I'm aware of some points for you to consider.
Norton generally doesn't like to be on a system with other security
packages, either Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware like Defender, and that is
because Symantec(Nortons) and Microsoft are competitive. What occurred is
that Symantec developed and started marketing their own Anti-Spyware
product sometime during 2006, so if you have the version of NIS that
included the Anti-Spyware functionality and it's running constantly in the
background looking for malware (real-time like Defender) the potential for
conflict is high because both may be fighting each other for access. This
can result in things like high CPU levels, unresponsiveness, and/or other
errors.
On my system, which doesn't have Nortons Anti-Spyware, there is still minor
conflict because Nortons monitors itself for access by other third parties,
like Defender and other scanners. To fix that problem which shows up in
the Norton Resource Protector logs, I've disabled that monitoring in my NIS
and NAV options. Occasionally, you'll see references to Nortons being
bloatware because it has so many bells and whistles, well it is fat and
complex, but it's still a good Anti-Virus with high levels of detection on
the comparative charts. You should keep that potential for conflict in
mind when you're adding any additional security packages to your system,
sometimes you can and sometimes you can't, but you do need some spyware
protection.
Alan made some additional AS recommendations and I'll make one more. It
generally doesn't hurt to have multiple Anti-Spyware products installed,
but most likely you don't want to have more than one AS running in
real-time again due to conflict potential. Having on-demand only (not
running constantly in real-time) scanning available using another AS
product however, is a good way to occasionally double check the detection
of your primary real-time AS. On-demand scanning is often available for
free once the time limited demo of an AS expires. Take a look at these
trustworthy recommendations:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#trustworthy
Wishing everyone success in their computer security efforts...
