Anti-virus opinion

[brjesusfreak]

I would like to know if Norton 360 slows down computers, and is it faster than Norton Internet Security 2006 and 2007?
Also, does anyone know when Norton Internet Security 2008 will be out in the market?

[liam858]

I would say yes, all Norton AV software seems to do the same thing, and is known as bloatware the internet over.


Liam

[fink]

As far as Norton 2008 release date, I have no idea but every version of Norton has gotten bigger and bigger so unless they radically redo the suite I don't see the bloat issue getting better any time soon.

[steve_83]

All (most) of what I know, I found here.

Linda Hewitt was kind enough to turn me onto Kaspersky Internet Suite.

I was a former Norton fan.
Never again for this surfer.

I can't say enough good things about Kaspersky.
Hourly (not weekly) virus and nasties updates,
Proactive defense
Spam protection
Firewall
Scans take (at most) 10-12 minutes (vs) what I was accustomed to with Symantec's stuff.

Check it out B4 you drop a dime on Norton products: seriously.

Steve_83

[Ridgerunr]

The one that's kept me and my PC's happy and safe for many years now is CA's Antivirus .You can't do better imho...

[lgbpop]

The only reason I'd want to know the release date and location of Norton would be so I could avoid it at all costs.

[PhiloVance]

I've been using NOD32 from Eset (http://www.eset.com/). I have both computers running under it. Very nice product and highly rated too. Everyone has their favorite, this is mine.

My son, for some reason has Norton and he renews every year. He doesn't use his computer much though and just wants protection. I guess Norton is good about that.

[stargazer777]

I too was a Norton user many, many moons ago . . . but never again. I have also used Panda, Kaspersky and CA AV.

I am currently trying out BitDefender, which has been rated #1. So far it has done quite well, as far as finding nasties . . . but seems to never be able to "kill" them, only move them. There are a slew of items ID'd as "adware" which it not only didn't delete, but can't seem to even move.

We'll see . . .

- Dave G.

[usil]

If I had to use anything other than Nod32, it would probably be Kaspersky. But nothing comes even close to Nod32 in my opinion.
Norton Virus should be kept away from at all costs.

[HAN]

I have yet to see any recent version of Norton that runs as fast as my 2 picks...NOD32 (paid), Avast (free). PCs running Norton take much longer to boot...

[Leonard Quirm]

Actually all that stuff about norton slowing down the system and whatnot doesn't seem to apply anymore to newer versions, tho, at least Norton 360 is getting good reviews in that department:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/110678/norton-360.html

First impressions are certainly good, with the coded-from-scratch suite not only installing more quickly, but consuming far less in the way of system resources than Norton Internet Security 2007. This is thanks to the improved background scheduler that monitors user input, CPU usage and disk activity, throttling tasks accordingly; initiating remaining scans, backups or system tuning only when idle time parameters are met. Even LiveUpdate, much maligned for its clunky update mechanism, is tamed. Both require less in the way of resources and are much better integrated - to the point that most of the time we didn't know they were running: exactly how it should be.

Doesn't sound so bad to me.

[SpywareDr]

ZDNet Norton AntiVirus 2008 Review & Comparison

The bad: Norton AntiVirus 2008 is ...

roughly six times the size of most competing antivirus applications;

doesn't offer three-user license;

doesn't support Firefox;

doesn't work with recent Yahoo and AOL IM applications (only old versions);

offers fee-based services under the guise of technical support.