*EXTERNAL TOPIC* Norton 360

[jack flash]

a question to the techy peeps here

i have installed norton 360 version 2 and my computer has slowed right down and i keep losing internet


anyone else think Norton is the culprit???

i had internet security 2007 and it was woeful, Norton 360 promised to be less obstructive, but version 2 seems to be as crap as 2007

my computer is a packard bell (pc world i know but i can add to it if needs be) running a geforce 8800gtx (1.8gb graphics) core 2 duo and 600gb hard disc and orange broadband 8mb

so no reason for it to be slow

i am looking to bin Norton once and for all

need advise on replacement as i have trusted Norton for far too long

 

[Connor_Graham]

I'd suggest Trend Micro Antivirus. I've used it for almost 2 years now and never had a single issue with it.

 

[jack flash]

*Googles*

 

[Lord Kynd]

a question to the techy peeps here

i have installed norton 360 version 2 and my computer has slowed right down and i keep losing internet


anyone else think Norton is the culprit???

i had internet security 2007 and it was woeful, Norton 360 promised to be less obstructive, but version 2 seems to be as crap as 2007

my computer is a packard bell (pc world i know but i can add to it if needs be) running a geforce 8800gtx (1.8gb graphics) core 2 duo and 600gb hard disc and orange broadband 8mb

so no reason for it to be slow

i am looking to bin Norton once and for all

need advise on replacement as i have trusted Norton for far too long

maybe it is just in your settings, try changing it so it doesn't scan every packet ?
don't have 360 yet, but my subscription just ran out so need to do something soon.
norton is better than others thats for sure.

on a side note, i've been having problems latly also, if your running peerguardian it could be causing it also as for some reason EA keeps trying to access more than it should be.. hmmm and once it blocks the attempt by EA seems to be when my internet crashs, not just the game mind you.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

been using 360 for almost 8 months, so far no problems.

 

[Connor_Graham]

norton is better than others thats for sure.

That's certainly a matter of opinion. I found Norton to be very intrusive with it's constant pop ups, not to mention slowing the comp down. It's also not quite as good as Trend Micro at catching things before they hit your comp. Trend Micro is currently one of the top 3 rated AV programs, and in my experience, the best overall. Even AVG I've found has let viruses through that Trend Micro catches before the fact instead of after it, and AVG is one of the 2 others of the top 3. Norton has also rated pretty low in overall customer satisfaction compared to other programs.

 

[Bobar]

Hi Jack - I have been using 360 since it was issued and to date have had no problems. Not technical enough to suggest what it may be but seems to be more of a compatability issue for your set up than a general one.

 

[Wallenstein]

Norton's products have, in my experience, been nothing but absolutely horrid and abysmal. Literally every single time I install a Norton product my computer slows down drastically and I experience loads of security popups, fancy messages, errors, and restrictions on my access to basic things (game servers, etc.).

I have been using AVG Antivirus (free) along with Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware (also both free) for about two years and have had absolutely no problems. I've experienced better results than I would've had I used Norton, too.

IMO, there are tons of free products that are much better than Norton..

 

[phantus]

Norton's products have, in my experience, been nothing but absolutely horrid and abysmal. Literally every single time I install a Norton product my computer slows down drastically and I experience loads of security popups, fancy messages, errors, and restrictions on my access to basic things (game servers, etc.).

I have been using AVG Antivirus (free) along with Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware (also both free) for about two years and have had absolutely no problems. I've experienced better results than I would've had I used Norton, too.

IMO, there are tons of free products that are much better than Norton..

QFAT!(quoted for absolute truth)

I work on computers for a living. Server, desktop cluster, virtual or otherwise. When I see norton the first thing I do is uninstall it or suggest it's removal.

 

[Conrad99]

I use 360. I first bought it via web download and that cause many issuse with my system. Slowed my system down bad. I uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of times. I just dealt with it for about 5 months.

I got tried of it and bought the CD at the store. Yes I know spent money twice on the same program but I was pissed. I wanted to see if it was the download version, the program itself or my system. I am sure all computer nerds hate to think it is thier system.

The CD installed 360 runs much better on my system. It is still has a slow start up but once it is up and running it is fine.

 

[Widow Maker]

I have used Symantec products for about the last 15 years, along with many others. I no longer use them at all. It has become absolutely horrid and damaging to your machines.

I recommend AVG or the Windows Live 1 care products. Both excellent and not so intrusive on your machines. The Live 1 care is an outstanding product for home users, as it will do some basic maintenance tasks that most of the sheep out there ignore. It will build simple print share networks and quite a bit more. Obviously, Microsoft did not design this because it works very well, they bought it.

 

[Skylark SP]

I have been using Norton 360 since last year, and the only problem I noticed was that the services periodically shut down, requiring a reboot to correct. With the second version, this problem went away.

Do you by any chance have the Windows firewall or other firewall going? Multiple firewalls often don't play well together. Norton likes to be "in charge" so you may need to disable Windows firewall.

Most people who bought Norton 360 initial release are eligible for the latest version at no charge. I highly recommend that anyone with release 1 update - they fixed some things, and added some things, such as native support for Mozilla Firefox (hooray!)

-Skylark

 

[Cogniac]

Norton = Every single word that these forums bleep out.

I have seen computers that take over 10 minutes to boot up, simply due to running Norton.

I have also found that because Norton has become so ubiquitous that a lot of viruses are written specifically to target vulnerabilities in Norton itself.

 

[Orvago]

I have used Nortons off an on (mostly on) for at least 10 years. The only problems with Nortons products I have had, had been when I was ignorant enough to install something that conflicts with Nortons.

In my opinion as soneone who has fixed many PCs for not only myself as well as other people's, there are 4 main causes as to why Nortons doesn't "seem" to run well for some people.

1. The install was bad or the user who installed it was already infected before an install and their Nortons also got infected.
2. There are other AVs or Firewalls installed that conflict with Nortons.
3. The user doesn't know well enough how to handle setting permissions and settings in Nortons. (They block things that shouldn't be blocked, allow things that shouldn't be allowed, they leave automatic updating on which is a system hog, they leave it so everything pops up - customization is key).
4. The user also has a crap ton of start up programs which they do not "see" as the reason their PC is slowing down and instead blame Nortons.

Like it or not, Symantec is the world's leading Anti Virus and Firewall company. It is up to the end user to be able to understand how to use their services properly. (This is not to say it will always be flawless for some people, just like video games, your system has to be able to handle it. Try the trial versions first, if your system is old or low on memory/cpu power, try an earlier version or try a minimalistic service like Zone Labs or AVG. However, AVG has caused the most problems out of all the AV's I have used - I'd only recommend it as a last resort and only because they are good at detecting and removing Viruses.)


My top recommendations, from personal use and experience are the following:

1. Symantec (Norton)
   
2. McAfee
3. Check Point Software Technologies (was Zone Labs)
4. Grisoft (AVG)

Also, most people do not realize this and think that Nortons is irremovable from their system. This is a huge rumor or lie, see this link to be shown the truth.


Currently, because I cannot afford to renew my Nortons subscription and because Comcast offers McAfee for free to their customers, I am now using McAfee and have had just as many problems with McAfee as I have had with Nortons, practically none and any problems I did have, were only my fault for not paying closer attention to what I was allowing and blocking.

These programs are not AI's, they need Human input to keep them functioning optimally. Do something wrong, and well, problems are abound to show up.

 

[Halister Marner]

You may want to look into Kaspersky or Nod32, both of which aren't well known to the general consumer, and rarely get mentioned aside from recommendations from security professionals, however their detection rates are unparalleled in real world use.

 

[Vyal]

No no no all those things are garbage all they do is slow your pc down.
Here is what you do first unistall that norton trash, go to start run type in msconfig and make sure your pc isn't running any trash like norton at startup.

Hell I don't even use auto updates or run any virus scanning trash. Stay away from myspace and AIM pretty much anything with the letters AOL is garbage.

STAY AWAY from porn sites dude! Dont use limewire or any p2p programs to download any zip files or anything else for that matter. Then you wont even have to worry about viruses.

Biggest thing to speed up your pc is to stop trash like norton and windows auto update and anything that auto updates at start up then you will have a pc that runs like a charm.

AND if anyone ever says anything like this
"Like it or not, Symantec is the world's leading Anti Virus and Firewall company"
Ignore them forever. Symantec makes nothin but adware, kill your machine garbage.

 

[Orvago]

Symantec makes nothin but adware, kill your machine garbage.

You do know what adware is right? I've never seen ads in Nortons. It never communicates with Symantec unless you manually tell it to or have it set to. It never auto-installs itself when installing other programs. You cannot get infected with Symantec by browsing the web. Hmm, nope, Symantec is NOT adware.

Here is what you do first unistall that norton trash, go to start run type in msconfig and make sure your pc isn't running any trash like norton at startup.

Uhm, that is very dangerous. Msconfig should only be used by those who know what they are doing, I wouldn't recommend to just tell all souls to go in and remove things from Msconfig.

Stay away from myspace and AIM pretty much anything with the letters AOL is garbage.

STAY AWAY from porn sites dude! Dont use limewire or any p2p programs to download any zip files or anything else for that matter. Then you wont even have to worry about viruses.

Biggest thing to speed up your pc is to stop trash like norton and windows auto update and anything that auto updates at start up then you will have a pc that runs like a charm.

This here now, is good advice, save for stopping Nortons from auto-loading. It needs to auto-load to be fully protected... If you do not want to use it, remove it. Do not leave it installed so it interferes with other programs one may install instead. Trying to manually disable (through regedit, msconfig, or services.msc) parts of Nortons or McAfee or almost any AV/Firewall Suite, instead of using the program settings to turn features off or uninstalling it, can cause serious PC instability...

Then you wont even have to worry about viruses.

So not true. One may get viruses anywhere. Sites "known" to be safe can still get hacked, HiJacks redirect the browser to get a virus or some other malware... There are too many ways to count to get a virus if one is not using an AV.


IMO the best place to get informed about and get help with adware, spyware, malware and other nasties is to go here: http://www.spywareinfo.com/


For those who say Windows Firewall suffices, this is not true. It can be bypassed by those who know what they are doing if all your services are not protected, unfortunately Windows Firewall does not protect everything like it should. This is the reason Firewall companies exist.

 

[lucitus]

Personal Firewalls sorry but they are completly useless! Activate your Windows Firewall and all Services which are talking to the world are disabled. Virusscanner are usefull Tools, but do not use Norton, use a small programm which is not eating your resources you need them to game .

For ppl who understand German i have a nice presentation of the CCC presenting Personal Firewalls, http://www.ulm.ccc.de/ChaosSeminar/2004/12_Personal_Firewalls .

 

[Zodiac19]

I quit using Norton several years ago for reasons already given. I now use Avast, the home version is free.

 

[Ferrut]

Hi Jack Flash!!

Something else to consider that no-one has mentioned yet...

Orange!

How long have you been on their 8mb service? As far as I know, it is notoriously flaky... (something to do with cheap hardware at local exchanges or something?) Anyway, if you are interested, there is a pretty comprehensive website dedicated to problems with Orange, here : www.orangeproblems.co.uk

Good luck getting it all sorted!

 

[Sam the Scribe]

I'm gonna jump in here and support Norton. I run it on several computers and I've never lost a system due to a virus/trojan. I also exercise personal care in my choices when I'm online.

I used to use McAffee but I found that their subscription renewal process seemed to always direct me towards purchasing a new version of the product rather then allowing me to just renew my subscription. This became so frustrating to me that I quit using McAffee entirely.

It does take a minute for my computer to boot and Norton won't allow Internet access to occur until it's completed the startup procedure. I write that delay off as necessary to have a safe system. I have old and new systems and none of them suffer performance issues.

Safe Travels, Sam