Quote Originally Posted by pj View Post
Norton SUCKS, IMHO. Part of the reason it sucks is because it uses a lot of resources, and it can be quite tricky to remove cleanly.

I recommend a combination of three tools right now:

Zone Alarm (free version) instead of Windoze firewall
AVG anti virus from Grisoft (free version)
Defender, Windoze own anti-spam software (There is a reason for this. Microsoft "knows" the ins and outs of its own software better than anybody. Trying to remove spyware from archives and reserved areas can be really difficult using the other very good spyware packages out there. Defender does it transparently.)

Part of my life is maintaining a network, including several laptops that come and go. I've had zero incidents since implementing this set of defensive measures. (We do pay for licenses for work computers, but I use the free versions on my home computers and this laptop.)
Thanks alot for the recommendations pj, i'll download them and install them, really appreciate it, i have always hated Norton and it sometimes can't detect viruses that other programs can, in fact i may uninstall it on the computer upstairs, that way it may make the computer run a little faster

Once again thanks alot for the advice!