Topic: Norton does it again...

[Bonk]

First Norton sucked my luddite aunt into upgrading to Norton 2005 when her system would not support it. (Win98, AMD K62-450, 64 MB RAM) Her subscription to the previous prodcut expired and she upgraded to 2005 by paying good money and downloading the new product. NOWHERE did they provide system requirements. Check the help file and it says: "see your printed documentation". They know full well the majority of users have no printed documentation as they downloaded the product. The system requirements were nowhere to be found on their website. I called them and finally got the system requirements (much greateer than my aunts system, as I suspected). Her system takes SEVEN MINUTES to boot up and locks up frequently. Bastards.

To top it off this next anecdote is even more insidious. My step-father can no longer connect to the internet (except for the Norton update site... ) as his Norton 2005 has expired. He cannot uninstall it as it is disabled because it is expired. Nasty, nasty, nasty! I told him to call then for removal instructions and to bill them for lost time in his consulting business.

It is official, Norton 2005 is malware. Worse it is a Trojan. It will cripple your system in ways you cannot even imagine.

Norton sucks. 

[Midnight Tech]

I second that Bonk! I try to steer peole clear of Norton and McAfee.
Personally I run AVG Free and have had no problems with it and supplement it with an occasional run of Trend Micro's online scanner.

[Brush Wolf]

It is a sad thing. At one time you swore by Norton and now you swear at it.

[Javora]

I returned Norton Internet Security early last year because it simply didn't work and received a full refund.  You might want to take a look at the return policy and see if you can get a refund, they will return the money if you meet their requirements for return.  But yeah I hate Norton, I swear their whole company is driven by their marketing department and not on making a good product.  I since switched to Trend Micro and except for that one update early this year that caused me to reformat/reload my hard drive I have had really good luck with them.  I will either go with them again next year or switch to Panda, something you might want to consider Bonk.  Hope the rest of your day goes better.

[Bonk]

Thanks Javora, yeah I use AVG on most installs and reccomend it to others. (Still using McAfee 6 on my own PC).

I have always considered Norton to be malicious software on the windows platform ever since I first encountered it. (With the exception perhaps of system commander)


Here's a conspiracy theory for ya:

Peter Norton, a former Microsoft employee, leaves Microsoft on bad terms.
Norton then develops an anti-virus software package.
In the ensuing years Windows is plagued by viruses targeted for the platform.
Norton anti-virus thrives.

Coincidence? I think not.

I was disappointed when Symantec was absorbed by Norton. That was the end of pcAnywhere for me. Thankfully VNC for windows and the MS remote desktop and terminal services has pretty much made it obsolete.

[Javora]

Well I was thinking more for your aunt, but if AVG works for you than that is what you should go with.  I don't think I well ever go with Norton or McAfee Antivirus/Firewall again.  I think the only thing those companies know how to do is keep the store shelves stocked.  I will say that Norton Ghost has worked pretty well for me though, saved my butt once already this year.

I've heard about the Antivirus companies making viruses conspiracy on and off for a couple of years, but never really put much stock into it.  Virus writers were bound to attack Windows, Norton and the other companies were just at the right place at the right time.

[Anthony Scott]

I use AntiVir, it is a freeware antivirus that runs better than Norton.

you can find it http://www.free-av.com/

Works just fine and it i freeware!

Semper Fi, Carry On

[E_Look]

I used to just LOVE Norton Utilities, the old DOS versions up to version, what 8?.  They were not only useful normally, they saved my neck more than a few times when the HD crashed and it was able to repair the bad sectors and move data over to usable portions of the ferromagnetic platter(s).

Then I noticed version by version successively, features were removed, one by one and YET IT TOOK UP MORE SPACE ON THE HD!  Finally, with my Athlon 64, the old socket 754 run-hotter-than-a-supernova models, it literally raised the running and idling temperatures on my chip because it accessed it so many times per cycle!  It just became bloated, inefficent, and much less functional.

I uninstalled it...

... with some difficulty and much help from the fine folks inhabiting this here Dynaverse...

... and I won't buy their stuff, whatever it may be, unless there'll be proof positive someday that they have changed their (evil) ways.

[CaptJosh]

I thought that Symantec bought Norton, not the other way around.

[Bonk]

That could be, either way, they're both on my pooplist now.

[Grim]

My father has Norton Internet Security on his PC, his machine has considerably slowed down and is causing all sorts of problems. I am trying to pluck up courage to uninstall it for him, but from what I’ve read and heard it can be a pain in the ass to remove completely.

[Sirgod]

I have to through in there with my discust for Norton also. Years ago, when a 120 MHZ machine was top of the line, I had a program from Norton that was supposed to make sure your PC didn't crash, any errors, and It would pop up a screen with a possible fix.

What the Program actually did, was Look for possible crashes by trying to crash your system. The only Norton Program I have is Ghost, and that's only used in extreme Emergancies.

Stephen

[Bonk]

In my opinion, once a Norton product is installed on your Windows system you might as well just back up your data, delete all partions and start again. Drastic, but guaranteed to remove all the Norton viruses/trojans.

[E_Look]

My father has Norton Internet Security on his PC, his machine has considerably slowed down and is causing all sorts of problems. I am trying to pluck up courage to uninstall it for him, but from what I’ve read and heard it can be a pain in the ass to remove completely.

Actually, Grim, there was a thread somewhere in our forums here that tells you how to remove Norton (Utilities, Firewall, Systemworks, etc.) completely, and it isn't all that bad, as I did it and as far as I know, there is no Symantec or Norton anything left on my hard drive.

Let me see if I can find it for you... which is a 50-50 proposition; so, you can search these forums, too, if you want using keywords like "remove Norton" or some such combination.

[E_Look]

HEY GRIM!!!

I found our thread, and the post was by none other than Pestalence:

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163355670.msg1122561647/topicseen.html#msg1122561647

and I have another post of his on the topic:

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163353521.msg1122536331.html#msg1122536331

Happy hunting!

[Grim]

Cool thanks

[Bonk]

Yay Pestalence! (I hope he's doing OK)  Thanks for digging that up E_Look. 

[Lono]

Gee Whiz - Is norton Really That Bad now??

I just got norton Util 2006 and Firewall fro free (after rebate) and I was gonna put it on my new comp this weekend.

With Norton I usually just turn all the processes off and just use the anti virus or defrag when I feel like running it - wont that keep it from using any unecessary resources?

And as far as the firewall - is that okay or also a resource hog?

Lemme know what you guys think because I haven't openend it yet and can return it no prob.

[Bonk]

The firewall product will comandeer your internet connection when it expires. It will essentially blackmail you into updating. I stongly advise that you return the product immediatly. It is evil.

Instead, I reccomend:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/Get+AVG+FREE/lng/us/tpl/v5  (bottom of the page)

It costs nothing, will not cripple your PC and actually removes viruses instead of being one.

[Grim]

The firewall product will comandeer your internet connection when it expires. It will essentially blackmail you into updating. I stongly advise that you return the product immediatly. It is evil.

Instead, I reccomend:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/Get+AVG+FREE/lng/us/tpl/v5  (bottom of the page)

It costs nothing, will not cripple your PC and actually removes viruses instead of being one.

Yeah AVG is a great free Antivirus prog, i was wondering if Bonk (or annyone else) have tried Avast?, which is supposedly a free antivirus prog as well.