Nearly 400 reasons Norton stinks!

[OBIO]

I just got home from my wife's aunt's house. I was there working on her computer, trying to get rid of an annoying pop up for Alpha Antivirus. The first thing I did was to install CCleaner and run it....removed nearly 70 meg of crap. Then I installed Everest and used it to take a look at her system's configuration, resources and operating temps (which where on the pretty high side...20 minutes with an old toothbrush, some Q-Tips and some compressed cleaner dropped the CPU temp by 45 degrees). Tried to install AVG and it would not install...conflict with the video driver for the on board video chip set. So I downloaded and installed the AntiMalwaresomething or other and ran it. Nearly 400 trojans, key loggers, phishing bots, spywares..you name it!!!!!!! And this on a system that has been "protected" from day one with Norton. Now, I don't know how well the gal utilized Norton, but for any anti-virus to allow that much stuff to slip by (and a lot of this stuff was the everyday stuff like MyWebSearch stuff that has been around since the dinosaurs basically) and still demand 60 dollar a year subscription fees...that is just criminal in my book.

Aunt Linda's computer is now dust free, has an extra 128 meg of RAM, AVAST anti-virus running, Mozilla Firefox, CCleaner, and a few other little utilities. System processes were chopped from nearly 70 down to a respectable 28. CPU and Motherboard temps are down 40 plus degrees F. Siting at idle, with just XP SP3 and the background apps running, over 400 meg of RAM is free (out of 640 meg installed).

Norton stinks!

OBIO

[Panther_99FS]

When I had Norton/Symantec,
I didn't have any malware problems.....However what made me get rid of Norton/Symantec was that it's a memory hog....

I now use Trend Micro....

[mrogers]

depends on how old her Norton AV is and if she utilized it properly - if it was updated regularly it shouldn't have all these trojans, etc.
I've got Norton AV and have it updated regularly and have had no malware problems with it. Interesting what Panther said about it being a resource hog. Usually disable it when I'm flying.

[glennc]

Are you sure " AntiMalwaresomething" wasn't the cause of the problem? There have been some news stories about some of the on-line ads offering to fix malware was actually adding it.

Glenn

[Panther_99FS]

Usually disable it when I'm flying.

Hmmm....I take it you don't fly online then - or do you turn it on when flying online :ques:

[cheezyflier]

if you mean "malewarebyte's anti-malware" it's a really good little program.

[brad kaste]

if you mean "malewarebyte's anti-malware" it's a really good little program.

I second that Cheezy. Great program. There's the purchase one and the free one.
Here's the link: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

[OBIO]

Yep, malwarebytes is the one I installed and that found the nearly 400 nasties hiding out way down deep in aunt Linda's computer. I have the malwarebytes anti-malware and AVAST running on her machine now....wanted to use AVG but it simply would not install due to a conflict with her video driver...cheap onboard chipset that I have never heard of before.

She called me the other day saying she had this antivirus thing popping up....from Alpha Antivirus....telling her that her machine was infected and that she needed to pay nearly $75 for this Alpha Antivirus to get rid of it. One of those nasty pop up trojan things. Took nearly an hour to get that one cleaned out of her system....Norton did not even see it on the computer...but malwarebytes removed about 14 places in her registry and hotkeys somethingorother that this Alpha Antivirus had implanted itself.

Heck, even her system restore points were infected...so I dumped all of them....which freed up a lot of HD space as a side benefit. I must have run malwarebytes and AVAST sweeps of her PC 10 times cleaning it all out.

Also directed her to Firefox and away from IE. Hipped her to CCleaner and the use of it every time she comes off the net.

OBIO

[demorier]

I junked Norton years ago because it almost completely takes over the system, so much so that I found it very difficult to do anything corrective with it. When I tried to clean it out of the machine I had in those days, bits and pieces of Norton software inhabited many parts of the system. Most people I know have got rid of it after a while.

[Gdavis101]

Norton is the biggest the biggest waste of money, even after you uninstall it it still leaves files on your system. I can't understand how a company can produce such a piece of ****! I love it when people tell me that they have Norton and they are "protected"... I laugh at them.

Make sure to download the Norton remover from the Norton site after you get things cleaned up.

If your computer has come under attack though you might find that your Windows Policies have changed.

[mrogers]

Demorier.I had that same problem too on an older PC years ago, but that was an older version of Norton. Today's newer version doesnt do that, as far as I could see on my current PC.

Panther, I'm still hooked up to the internet when I'm flying while the Norton AV is disabled, only that I'm not using the internet at all. I always turn it back on before using the internet after flying.

[hey_moe]

I was a firm believer of Norton Security, but over time other AV and AS came out that to me was better and used less user resources. As far as I am concerned there is really no all mighty AV or AS that will catch everything.It really depends on the owner wants and it's interface.I have been using the payware AVG Internet Security with no problems what so ever. Last week I went back to the new ZoneAlarm Extreme Security which has some nice features....I guess I will see soon enough. I gave up on Norton years ago.

[JoeW]

Alpha Antivirus is a nasty thing. I had a friend that cought this. I used c-cleaner and malwarebytes to clean it. He had Mc-Afee and it did nothing. This used to be a good program.
Again That Alpha is really bad.

[Dangerousdave26]

Going back to about 2003 I left Norton and went to Trend Micro.

I left Norton because a friend of mine who worked for Intuit at the time told me they switched to Trend Micro because the latest trend in the Virus world was to attack Norton and McAfee.

By that I mean the first thing the virus does is disable Norton or McAfee so that it can no longer do its work but still thinks it is.

When this happens the virus is free to drop its payload and Norton will be blind to it.

That is probably why the system was so infected.

Today I use Avast and I am quite happy with it.

[TeaSea]

On your original post, Obio, I noticed you pulled the case apart and cleaned up the actual hardware.

That's something a lot of folks often overlook which can pay great dividends. Electronic components attract so much dust, and the cases are often in bad areas. I'm not at all surprised you were able shed some of the CPU heat just by a good cleaning.

I'm not in a position to comment on Norton since I don't use it, but in general when I get asked to look at someone's machine I find a perfectly good piece of software, which inevitably someone's paying good money for, not turned on or configured or conflicting with something else on the system. Obviously that wasn't the case with the system you were working on, but I think all of us see this a lot.

I use McAfee because I am provided a home use license compliments of the DOD being one of their employees (available to anyone in uniform and civilian employees as well). I find it adequate, although it is also starting to become one of those "heavy" suites.

Hey_Moe's comments are probably most appropriate here....there's probably no single, almighty solution for protection.

[jrocky]

From Slashdot, Test of 16 Anti-Virus Products Says None Rates "Very Good": http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/11/08/0233248/Test-of-16-Anti-Virus-Products-Says-None-Rates-Very-Good
Then see this link for the review: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1137

(http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/11/08/0233248/Test-of-16-Anti-Virus-Products-Says-None-Rates-Very-Good)