New Laptop, New Rules?

Hey,

I just got a laptop today as a well done present for my GCSE's and i've loaded everything up on it now however it comes to virus software. It has Norton already on it but i am hesitant to use it because it is on the computer up stairs and it takes up aload of processing power and other programs will run slow and thats on a dual core 2.8ghz processor. This laptop has a 1.73ghz processor and i can see Norton screwing it up, could anyone suggest some other virus software that i could install that won't screw up my system.

Thanks in advance. :)

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.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pj

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.)

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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!

Yeah will second AVG.

Also Spybot and Ad-aware SE

I have Norton Internet Security 2007 - works fine for me :)

I used Norton for 2 years simply because it was free. But it is the worst piece of software I have ever used. Be careful when uninstalling it Lucid Seeker, it can break your PC (Symantec has practically made it Malware) if you don't do things "properly", since the unistall is broken and it leaves broken services, files and data on your PC. Sony Ericsson's phone software is now broken because of Norton's dirty uninstall.

Symantec are bastards.

As for antivirus, I've used AVG. But I currently use Avast! which seems very good. It tells you what it is doing and what it is scanning in the background, so you know it's working. Plus, it's just easy.

And it's free.

I'll be really careful when uninstalling it, i had a really big problem when i used the trial version with the desktop we have upstairs, basically we set it up and then when i tried to install programs that require internet access to install they just locked up and i was left with a few programs that were half installed and when i tried to uninstall them it wouldn't let me so i had to do a system restore, worst anti virus software ever, i'll probably get my brother to do it for me just in case, i know how awkward norton can be when you try to uninstall it, my brother had this problem when uninstalling it on his laptop, he had to email symantec to get a special tool to have it removed.

Thanks for the help though, i really appreciate it :)

Yep, I'll definitely second (third?) pj's recommendation of AVG. It's what I use. I was using Avast on my old laptop, and it worked well too. I'm currently using the free trial of Norton Internet Security that came with my laptop for my firewall, myself, but I think I'll check out Zone Alarm now, thanks to pj.

And definitely get Spybot - Search & Destroy as well, Lucid Seeker.