Norton just updated

[lti]

After my computer took 10 minutes to boot, I found this.

I don't know why I'm using Norton. Almost all of its detections are false positives. When I was taking a C++ class, every program that anyone made was detected as a trojan by Norton, but all other antivirus software said the files were clean. That's just one example. After all these years, I haven't found any way to get a file out of the quarantine. When Norton detects something as malware, it's gone and you can't get it back.

Also, Norton hasn't worked in Windows XP for a long time. It started with the beta of the 2013 version, which they forced everyone to download in the middle of 2012 instead of the stable 2012 release. That version worked until the computer was connected to the internet. At that point, Norton would kill itself and stop running entirely, which was probably a good thing. The actual 2013 release kills the entire computer. One of its processes randomly starts using 100% of the CPU, and it is extremely difficult to get Windows to shut down properly at that point. The only thing you can do at that point is restart the computer.

I never had a problem with Norton until 2007. That was when I started seeing really badly infected computers that Norton said were clean. The 2009 version that was praised for its low resource use couldn't detect anything at all, including stuff that the older versions could still detect.

Does anyone remember Norton Systemworks? The only experience I had with it was on a computer where its registry cleaner trashed Windows in a way that prevented any antivirus software from installing. It's normal for registry cleaners to completely destroy Windows (I've never actually seen a registry cleaner do anything helpful), but why would one be included with antivirus software?

I think it's time to switch back to Avast. I only used Norton because it was already installed on this computer and my dad had a license for it. Avast doesn't have the big toolbar, so web browsing will be easier on my laptop's display. I don't really need the toolbar anyway.

[goontron]

Re: Norton just updated

what is this "Norton" of which you speak?
is it software from the island of windows?
LOL. i love clam A-V

[c_hegge]

Re: Norton just updated

I use norton on all of my PCs, and it's been perfect, including on XP (in fact, the PC I'm typing this from has Norton 2014 on XP, and had 2013 until a few days ago). It's still lightning fast to start and I've never had any false positives.

[Pinhead]

Re: Norton just updated

Avast or Bitdefender and Malwarebytes Pro for everything I work on; the protection is miles ahead of Norton and Symantec. When I work on a client's computer, removing Norton or Symantec (and keeping them off) is a requisite for me to warranty any of the work.

I also install Adblock Plus for IE, Chrome, and Firefox. I haven't come across enough computers with Opera to develop a standard policy with regards to that browser, however.

[ben7]

Re: Norton just updated

I use norton on all of my PCs, and it's been perfect, including on XP (in fact, the PC I'm typing this from has Norton 2014 on XP, and had 2013 until a few days ago). It's still lightning fast to start and I've never had any false positives.

I've never had any issues at all.

Well, in Iti's case, better safe then sorry ... just because it thought they were malware when you knew they weren't doesn't mean that other antivirus software are better than norton!

[lti]

Re: Norton just updated

just because it thought they were malware when you knew they weren't doesn't mean that other antivirus software are better than norton!

It isn't just a couple false positives. All antivirus software has false positives once in a while. Norton is better than it has been in years, but there are still some issues. The recent versions have actually detected some things and kept my computer clean, and it does have low resource use (the 2014 version appears to have even lower resource use than the previous versions). Unfortunately, the interface is a CPU hog because of all of the special rotation and fade effects and the browser add-on doesn't support the latest version of Firefox until a new version of Firefox is about to be released. There are those performance alerts that pop up under normal use and are larger than the threat detection warnings like they're more important.

Norton is still better than some other antivirus software.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Norton just updated

After my computer took 10 minutes to boot, I found this.



I think it's time to switch back to Avast. I only used Norton because it was already installed on this computer and my dad had a license for it. Avast doesn't have the big toolbar, so web browsing will be easier on my laptop's display. I don't really need the toolbar anyway.

The version number check for the extensions being gay again, just like the old school Firefox days. Where they're rejected, just because of a point-release, which isn't even relavent, it was simply a Firefox security update.

Firefox 25.0.1 rejected the updates with a bogus error message, because the extension version information config files are required to be modified, because they weren't configured to take point-releases in account, so Firefox will yell about the extensions.

IIRC, Avast isn't much better when it comes to false alarms, if at all!
Avast often reported trojans a while ago. It's possible that tools will cause the dreaded W32 trojan gen message. (familiar to Avast users)

[SuperDuty]

Re: Norton just updated

I've had so much trouble with Norton in the past that I don't want to see any Symantec products on the computers I touch. I've been using Antivir free version since 2008 on all my computers. It's fast, light on RAM, and rarely gives false positives. I've never had any viruses or any trouble of any sort. I'm running the same installation of Windows since 2010 on my main computer.

I wasn't using any antivirus prior to that, and never got a virus either (apart from one old virus that had been implanted on a CD I had burned, nothing serious).
I was making completes system checks with Malwarebytes and other programs every six month or so.

[momaka]

Re: Norton just updated

It's been so long that I've installed an anti-virus software that I forgot such things even existed. I kid you not.

I also no longer work on people's computers simply because all of my hard work goes to waste in exactly 5 minutes when they decide to do something stupid again.

There are those performance alerts that pop up under normal use and are larger than the threat detection warnings like they're more important.

Play around with the settings in Norton a little. Last I checked (about 6 to 7 months ago), you can actually completely disable those, along with the toolbar and a lot of other useless crap. When I did that, at least, Norton seemed quite okay.

I still refuse to put anti-virus crapware on my own computers, though.
AdblockPlus and a custom hosts file gets rid of quite a few threats. I also keep an installation of Malwarebytes in case I need to scan something. An older version of HijackThis is also useful to have around.

[lti]

Re: Norton just updated

The toolbar enabled itself now. It's almost double the height of a normal toolbar for no reason.

It's been so long that I've installed an anti-virus software that I forgot such things even existed. I kid you not.

I also no longer work on people's computers simply because all of my hard work goes to waste in exactly 5 minutes when they decide to do something stupid again.

Antivirus software can sometimes keep a computer a little less screwed after one of those people uses it.

Play around with the settings in Norton a little. Last I checked (about 6 to 7 months ago), you can actually completely disable those, along with the toolbar and a lot of other useless crap. When I did that, at least, Norton seemed quite okay.

It does have a way to disable the performance alerts. I already have them disabled because they're so annoying.
Hey, your stuff is infected.HIGH MEMORY USAGE BY INTERNET EXPLORER!

I still refuse to put anti-virus crapware on my own computers, though.
AdblockPlus and a custom hosts file gets rid of quite a few threats. I also keep an installation of Malwarebytes in case I need to scan something. An older version of HijackThis is also useful to have around.

I don't really need antivirus software, but I would rather prevent stuff from getting installed than reinstall Windows. I do have a custom hosts file (which MSE detects as a hijack ) that gets rid of a lot of bad stuff. I used ad blockers a few years ago, but they only hid the visible ads and still allowed them to download and run malware back then.

[TELVM]

Re: Norton just updated

Here's a simple, clever and very effective trick to help defending the fort :

Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File

Works like a charm.

[momaka]

Re: Norton just updated

^Internet Explorer??? LOL
No one should ever be allowed to use that slow, memory-hogging turd! The only version I used and still like (although it's almost completely incompatible with any website on the internet nowadays) is IE 6. Yes, it does have a crap-ton of security holes, but at least it was fast and efficient. Actually, I still use it every now and then for watching YouTube video in fullscreen (Firefox 3.6 doesn't want to do full screen, and newer versions of FF bog the CPU and memory down on my PC too much when it comes to YouTube).

Aside from that and Windows Explorer, I don't really use IE anymore. It's gone... a relic from the past.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Norton just updated

^Internet Explorer??? LOL
No one should ever be allowed to use that slow, memory-hogging turd! The only version I used and still like (although it's almost completely incompatible with any website on the internet nowadays) is IE 6. Yes, it does have a crap-ton of security holes, but at least it was fast and efficient. Actually, I still use it every now and then for watching YouTube video in fullscreen (Firefox 3.6 doesn't want to do full screen, and newer versions of FF bog the CPU and memory down on my PC too much when it comes to YouTube).

Aside from that and Windows Explorer, I don't really use IE anymore. It's gone... a relic from the past.

That's why I just use Internet Explorer 6 as a dependency for applications that use the Internet Explorer engine to render menus. Because later Internet Explorer versions on XP may add bloat.

Skype is fine with Internet Explorer 6.

[c_hegge]

Re: Norton just updated

Interesting. I find that IE6 and 7 are far slower than IE8. Even so, Firefox and Chrome are still way faster.

[lti]

Re: Norton just updated

Here's a simple, clever and very effective trick to help defending the fort :

Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File

Works like a charm.

That's the hosts file I use, but with a few additions.

^Internet Explorer??? LOL
No one should ever be allowed to use that slow, memory-hogging turd!

Yes, it uses so much RAM that it triggers the Norton "high memory usage" warning ten minutes after it is opened.

I don't understand why people hate Firefox for using so much RAM. There are some people who would rather use IE because Firefox uses so much RAM. For me, IE uses over 1GB of RAM under normal use once I view a page that contains a Flash element.

I actually got my parents to switch to Firefox, but only because a lot of websites don't work in IE8 anymore. Firefox uses a lot less memory, and the memory usage doesn't increase as quickly. Their computer doesn't run almost entirely in the swap file now. That's on Windows XP with 1GB of RAM.

[shovenose]

Re: Norton just updated

Panda Cloud or Avast!

[momaka]

Re: Norton just updated

Interesting. I find that IE6 and 7 are far slower than IE8.

If you're trying to surf a modern website with any amount of flash - yes, that's normal now. But it's not because IE6 is slower - it's because nothing is optimized for (or even compatible with) it anymore. Try opening a simple HTML help file or similar. IE6 loads in seconds compared to 7 and 8 and uses a fraction of the RAM.