I see posts on the subject of malware infecting various member's computers all the time so I thought I would share a little bit from this article.

Consumer Reports tested anti-virus software for this month's magazine. Surprisingly all four of the free anti-malware programs did well. CR recommends that use anti-malware, use a firewall (comes with windows since XP), and if necessary anti-spamware for your email.

The two CR picks are two of the free ones, Avira (65) and AVG (60). They scored the highest among the free anti-malware. Avast (57) was 3rd and MS Security Essentials (55) was last because it did a poor job at blocking known bad web sites.

The CR recommended pay software were:

1. BitDefender 65
2. ESET 64
3. Avira 61
4. Norton 61

Rest of list
5. G Data 60
6. Kaspersky 59
7. AVG 57
8. Avast 57
9. GFI 56
10. F-Secure 54
11. Trend Micro 51
12. Panda 48
13. McAfee 31
14. Agnitum 23

I get a kick out of that list. It puts Trend and Mcafee at the bottom and Norton at the top? Norton is the biggest joke of a program out there whether it be their corporate edition or home edition software. We used Norton at our office and caught so many viruses that we switched and have not caught a virus yet. It is the worst program and the slowest at catching a virus mid-stream. Their original program could not even be customized to delete the virus upon scan. It would only quarantine it. If you caught a virus, the little Norton box would pop up and say "virus could not be quarantined....access denied". Your only choice was to hit the "Ok" button and guess what, the virus remained on your computer. Since using Trend corporate and also the home edition at my house, I have not caught 1 virus in 5 years.

[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 05-28-2011).]

I have to agree with IMSA GT

We have had Norton since day one on our computer with XP and get viruses all the time. I have had to get a computer guy here several times to get rid of viruses. And he hates Norton as well. But he also said that they all suck in reality because people come up with new viruses so fast and often that non of them can keep up.

Steve

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Technology is great when it works,
and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't.

Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.

On 7-64 with Security Essentials I haven't had any issues. I also have to agree that Norton has always been crap in my experience. Interesting that this list goes full 180 against my experiences.

Must be a home use list. I wouldn't trust our network to those top 4

We use 3 different kinds of scanner to keep the viruses and malware out, one scanner is not enough.

Isn't norton a huge resource hog too? I use avast.
CR is so useless, I'm sure they have a team of computer security experts designing and performing the tests and not some dorky interns who looked like they are good at computers.
I have never heard an IT pro recommend Norton.
Avira is intrusive as hell. popups from my anti virus? No thanks.

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: I get a kick out of that list. It puts Trend and Mcafee at the bottom and Norton at the top? Norton is the biggest joke of a program out there whether it be their corporate edition or home edition software. We used Norton at our office and caught so many viruses that we switched and have not caught a virus yet. It is the worst program and the slowest at catching a virus mid-stream. Their original program could not even be customized to delete the virus upon scan. It would only quarantine it. If you caught a virus, the little Norton box would pop up and say "virus could not be quarantined....access denied". Your only choice was to hit the "Ok" button and guess what, the virus remained on your computer. Since using Trend corporate and also the home edition at my house, I have not caught 1 virus in 5 years.

Maby it wasent set up right, or maby people where you work where visiting sites they should not have, cause no virus protection will protect you from EVERYTHING thats out there.. No offense or anything. But Norton is a great piece of software.. People tend to dig on it cause its been one of the best ones for many many years.. Iv been using Norton for well over 10 years, and have havent had a problem with virus or maleware in years.. It blocks everything instantly, i dont think iv had an actual virus in all that time.. Norton did lag behind on detecting maleware when maleware became a problem, but in the last 5 years or so its improved enormously, i havent had a maleware problem in 4 or 5 years.. Its kinda a pig of a program for a beginning user, and can be a resource hog if not setup right. But it can be streamlined easily if one takes a few minutes to learn how.

Now that Symantec is no longer a client I can speak freely. (Full disclosure we handled their internet commerce from 2000 to 2010)
Norton was decent ala 2002.. since then nothing more than bloatware. Crap code piled on top of more old code. Considering they were our number one client 30% of total rev, we still ran McAfee on the network.
Can't speak to the rest as most of them are clients as well.
But I use Avast on win 7

Oh and we've recovered from the loss of them as a client.. Gaining the MS online store helped offset most of the loss as well as expansion into the CE marketplace.

I could go on.. but suffice to say, the only reason they're as big as they are considering what they've done with the "product" is OEM deals.

I did some reading about that from CR. Nortons was considered pretty weak for a number of years, but recently has made huge improvements to their programs and virus tracking that they surpass many other virus stoppers by surprise. (Never been a fan of Nortons and especially McAffiworthless.

I was using Webroot for quite a few years without any issues, but their newest update started to get really intrusive and annoying so I kicked them to the curb and decided to try the new Nortons Essentials based on CR recommendation rating and I like it and hadn't had any issues at all. Caught a few viruses that slipped past Webroot and Free AVG. So I'll stick with it for a year.

I'll see what next year brings though.

Nice since Norton is Free from Comcast but I turn off Tune up and other settings. Having Norton constantly defrag HD, scan registry, etc will slow your machine down.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

Norton uses too many system hooks with too many of the OS files.
In my opinion its worse than the Viruses it is suppose to defend against.

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: Norton uses too many system hooks with too many of the OS files. In my opinion its worse than the Viruses it is suppose to defend against.

Because by default Norton and some others try to be one stop shop... Firewall, Antivirus, Anti Spam, etc, etc, and mix some Norton Utility too...

Turn off or charge how many of "Feature" work will help allot. I turn off all backup and tuneup features. I have better tools to backup, scan registry, defrag, etc. I turn off some of ID protection and anti viris too. Example: Any software, not just Norton, using Heuristic protection can cause problem with some Backup and other software. Heuristic protection messes with some dates and hashes (method need to add it own header/data and must modify files.) that backup software uses to see when you change files. Can fail backup jobs when Heuristic protection is in uses.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)