I've paid for Norton and Mcfee anti-virus protection for years and years and its time to do something again. What makes me mad is when my subscription runs out these companies will slam your computer with pop ups and sometimes jam it and make it unusable so I'm forced to renew with them. I hate this kind of extortion and I also can't believe the jail sentences are not long and hard enough to shut down the hackers/spammers that are probably paid by the anti-virus companies. They keep getting more expensive too so is there any free or cheap decent anti-virus protection. I'm not too worried about losing information and I don't do much business on the computer.
Computer anti-virus protection?
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OP
I've paid for Norton and Mcfee anti-virus protection for years and years and its time to do something again. What makes me mad is when my subscription runs out these companies will slam your computer with pop ups and sometimes jam it and make it unusable so I'm forced to renew with them. I hate this kind of extortion and I also can't believe the jail sentences are not long and hard enough to shut down the hackers/spammers that are probably paid by the anti-virus companies. They keep getting more expensive too so is there any free or cheap decent anti-virus protection. I'm not too worried about losing information and I don't do much business on the computer.
AVG.
Has worked for me for 5 years now, doesn't cost a cent.
Steve
Has worked for me for 5 years now, doesn't cost a cent.
Steve
cmort666
Member
I worked for a friend of mine after the crackhead she had working as a technician walked off of a job and tried to empty the company bank account. For the next six months half of the jobs I did were fixing his screw-ups, including installing AVG-Free everywhere. AVG is in the Czech Republic and the reliability of their update servers has been spotty in the past. At least in previous versions, if a certain number of updates didn't happen, then automatic updates would NEVER happen until you MANUALLY applied all of the previous updates that got downloaded but not installed. Strangely, this is often beyond the capabilities of the dentists, legal secretaries and receptionists to whom this happened.
You get what you pay for. I know how Norton works. I know the ways in which it occasionally doesn't work. Penny wise, pound foolish...
Lee in Quartzsite
Member
I agree with sth44...AVG is the way to go. It's free, updates everyday and works great. I have used it for the past three years.
The worst thing about Norton is trying to remove all of it's components from your computer. It seems to install bits and pieces every where, plus Norton will really slow down a computer.
Here is a link to the free AVG program:
http://free.avg.com/download-a...i-virus-free-edition
The worst thing about Norton is trying to remove all of it's components from your computer. It seems to install bits and pieces every where, plus Norton will really slow down a computer.
Here is a link to the free AVG program:
http://free.avg.com/download-a...i-virus-free-edition
gjgalligan
Member
Every time (slow learner) I have installed Norton I have had nothing but problems. Delete Norton and the problems disappeared.
cmort666
Member
I almost never have problem with Norton. The only problem I've had recently was that you need to COMPLETELY remove the previous version(s) before installing the current one. There's a problem with Live Update that causes it to try to update older Symantec software that was installed before. Run their complete removal tool before installing and everything works fine.
ndtish
Member
AVG and PC Tools Spyware Doctor. Both are free and are as good or better than Norton.
Bassamatic
US Veteran
I've used AVG for years but just recently gave Avast a try (for no particular reason), seems to be doing just fine.
Run, don't walk away from Norton. It is a huge, gluttonous dinosaur that has long outlived it's usefulness. Too bad to, back in the 90's it used to be a decent utilities.
Run, don't walk away from Norton. It is a huge, gluttonous dinosaur that has long outlived it's usefulness. Too bad to, back in the 90's it used to be a decent utilities.
Just installed Norton 360... and it's great It's nowhere near the previous version.. that was slow and cumbersome..
I also have it on our main server at work..
I also have it on our main server at work..
Eagle Guns
Member
I have the AVG you pay for and I say it's much better.
I am an old guy now in IT (by default) and only know enough to be dangerous. I get my tech input from the 49 year old redneck/hippie techno-geek who "works" for us. I have used both Norton and McAfee subscription versions on various machines and when those expired I too used AVG based on his advice. This was in conjunction with Ad-Aware and his latest discovery, malwarebytes. All of this stuff seemed to work fine together.
Another friend (whose computers I am constantly cleaning up because for him just hitting the "on" button seems to bring in a virus) had a tech buddy recommend comodo.com, another free download. I had never heard of it, but after using it to clean up his machine for the umpteenth time I uninstalled all of the virus, spyware and malware programs on my home computer and gave it a try. First scan found 4 viruses and 2 worms that AVG and all of the other programs had missed so I am running that for the time being.
If you have a windows machine that is "legal", then you can also visit "safety.live.com" and get a free scan from Microsoft. This can go into parts of the operating system that are usually off-limits to other scans. It's easy to use and also free. Just be sure to uncheck the box that asks if you want to "share your results with Microsoft" when you are finishing the clean-up.
At any point in time Norton is better than McAfee is better than AVG, etc. All the techies I know say that all the anti-virus programs hop-scotch each other on performance based on who has just completed the most up-to-date and comprehensive virus definitions.
Another friend (whose computers I am constantly cleaning up because for him just hitting the "on" button seems to bring in a virus) had a tech buddy recommend comodo.com, another free download. I had never heard of it, but after using it to clean up his machine for the umpteenth time I uninstalled all of the virus, spyware and malware programs on my home computer and gave it a try. First scan found 4 viruses and 2 worms that AVG and all of the other programs had missed so I am running that for the time being.
If you have a windows machine that is "legal", then you can also visit "safety.live.com" and get a free scan from Microsoft. This can go into parts of the operating system that are usually off-limits to other scans. It's easy to use and also free. Just be sure to uncheck the box that asks if you want to "share your results with Microsoft" when you are finishing the clean-up.
At any point in time Norton is better than McAfee is better than AVG, etc. All the techies I know say that all the anti-virus programs hop-scotch each other on performance based on who has just completed the most up-to-date and comprehensive virus definitions.
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