Beyond The Spirits > Computer Clues

Virus protection

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Jim:
One of the first protections that everyone needs is from internet viruses.  Even if you only use the internet for email you need protection from viruses.  Email is the number one way that a virus is propagated, and it's usually through an attachment that has some sort of interesting title that just begs you to open it.

Virus protection software is not created equal.  There are good ones and there are bads ones.  I have experience with 3 that I will tell you about.

The first one is Norton Antivirus.  I used that software for 2 years, 2004 and 2005.  It worked well enough but in late 2005 it became a resource hog and really slowed down the operation of my computer.  From turn-on to clicking on a webpage was about 7 minutes; all that time waiting on Norton to load up all it's little watchdog programs.  I began to look for something that was better.

Next came Trend Micro PC-cillin 2006.  This was highly recommended and worked great.  It used practically no system resources and was touted as the best you could get by PC Magazine.  I would turn on my computer and be surfing the web in less than 3 minutes.  I bought a copy for Dianna's computer and convinced Aunt Bonnie to get it too.  In early 2007 I got an email from Trend Micro saying that my free upgrade to the 2007 version was ready for download.  I eagerly downloaded it and installed it and my computer came to a screeching halt.  There were so many integrated watchdog programs now I was looking for some indication that the Norton programmers were now working for Trend Micro.  Of course you could turn some of that stuff off but the CPU useage quite frequently still peaked out at 100%.  I finally found the process that loaded all the little monitoring programs and deleted it out of the start-up process and things got back to normal.  Except about once an hour the darn thing kept updating the virus definitions.  That became annoying real quick.  Earlier this week it began trying to update the Anti-spam code table which I had already disabled.  About halfway through it errored and said for me to contact on line support.  Instead I uninstalled it.

As of last night I am now running the free version of AVG Anti-Virus by Grisoft.  I read all the reviews and it appears to use less system resources, provides quality protection and it's free.  There are a couple of pay versions but for the most part all I was looking for was something to protect me from viruses and this does it quite well.  

If you are interested in AVG, You can find it here. I can assure you it will be on Dianna's computer as soon as the PC-cillin 2006 expires.

Bottom line is you must have some sort of virus protection if you are going to use the internet.  Does anyone else have any information on others?

jv:
I have been running AVG free for about 2 years dumped mcafee for it never did like norton got my only virus because of them several years ago.

Pharmerphil:
I have used AVG free edition since 2002, never have had a problem, low resource usage, and best of all, it don't cost a darn thing...
The problem with Norton is this.
Homeland security and symantec are in bed together.
HS asked symantech to leave a "backdoor" open so they could spy on us
(terrorist we all are)
AVG, either free or the paid edition, NOT being a U.S. company said NO WAY.
I repair computers for folks, I also refurbish them for kids who's parents cannot afford a computer for their kids. and in most cases ...give then away.
But, I've joked to Laura about this:
I am asked to REMOVE NORTON from so many puters that I've laffed and suggested a sign out by the road saying:
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS REMOVED HERE

and it's a beast to remove, you uninstall it, and your computer will still have over 119 files left in your system, the only way to get it is through regedit, one file, one Key at a time.

Jim:
Boy howdy, Norton is definitely a beast to remove.   :Groaner: The longer you've had it, the longer it will take to remove.  I never had anything but the anti-virus software so it only took a couple of hours to get it off. 

I kind of shy away from the protection suites.  They tend to be resource hogs with all their real-time protection.  That's kind of the reason for this board.  Folks need to know that the package deal is sometimes not the best.  These free programs all do a pretty good job.

Wrennie:
I use avg free too. Love it. no problems.

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