Norton does not work when you need it!

Hello all,

I now have a macbook and am shortly going to be selling on my old laptop.

One of my main frustrations has been with virus guard software and specifically norton. Why is it that it warns me that it has blocked a threat but the truth really is that it has not blocked the threat at all? What I mean is I have on a 2 occasions this year picked up a virus the first one was trojan vundo and now
w32.spybot.worm and another one (whose name I have forgotten) each time Norton detected them and told me they had been blocked and that my P.C was secure, not true it would seem as they have obviously got through and then each time I run a system scan it detects them but cannot remove them. My outgoing email scanner is randomnly starting up so I guess one of them is trying to send emails from my P.C too (I have in the interim blocked all outgoing programs through the firewall) The email scanner is obviously rubbish anyway as I still get loads of "greeting cards" emails each week that get through.

It took me ages and several other tools to eventually remove the vundo virus, this time as I am selling the machine I won't bother trying and will do a clean windows install. My question (maybe it's just a rant) is why can norton not deal with these threats? It is after all why I bought it, especially as all of these seem to be older virus's too.

As an aside one of the biggest conspiracy theories that I still believe is that the antivirus industry is one created by itself and sustained by itself i.e creating the problem and selling us the solution! What a great idea, wish I'd thought of it!

 

I am not even going to read you entire post... 3 words and 2 letters plus a dot Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0... I hate norton with a passion. If you want the same features on norton without it beings a system hog and with it actually being helpfull please get this program. Norton is utter junk you even have to remove norton like a virus. Instead of clicking uninstall and clicking a button you have to do that plus install a norton removeal tool then use that tool to really uninstall it then uninstall that tool... Crap... sorry i keep ranting

 

An Internet Security Suite comprising of :
-AVG or avast! antivirus
-ZoneAlarm Firewall
-Spybot Search and Destroy.

All for free. Dump the Norton.

 

I back you up 100%, I am assuming you are running windows on your mac?

In terms of the antivirus software, I would go with AVG since its so much more resource friendly

 

Zone Alarm has fallen off my list of acceptable free software. Yes, when it works, it does the job well, and most of the time it works. But as each new version comes out, I find it to be a little more problematic--reaching the point where is can randomly shut down your networking.

Again, not very often, but more often than an isolated incident.

I have gone back to the old kerio 2.1.5, which is still the best basic, least resource intensive firewall you can find, though it is obviously a little out of date when it comes to some of the more modern security issues. But as a basic, it's great

Also worthy of note is the new Comodo Firewall...I haven't been testing it long enough to give a 100 percent endorsement on it, but it is very promising

 

that would actually be 3 words and 2 numbers lol

but anyway avast anti virus is great when it says its blocking a virus it is actually blocking a virus

 

I am moving over to mac but have installed parallels for when I need to run something windows. I have disabled internet access on parellels but have installed AVG.

I don't see me using windows too much at all once I have sorted out a mac version of photoshop cs3.

 

Norton is useless, such a resource hog.

 

Sorry I was ranting.

 

If you have a PC version of CS3 or earlier, if I remember correctly, you can sideways "upgrade" to Mac Photoshop CS3.

*edit.. I got the terminology wrong.. it's "crossgrade" here's a couple of threads from the Adobe forums http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc43729?14
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc41edf/5
It does come with a health warning though it can take a loooong time for Adobe to sort it out!

 

AVG free is better than 90% of anti-virus software out there, free or paid. Get it, and stop struggling with products named or rhyming with Symantec, Norton, or McAfee.

 

Here's what you do:
Stop using internet explorer.
Use Firefox.
Disallow cookies except for trusted sites, yeah it's an inconvenience having to remember to type in the address of new sites the first time you go there, but at least freevirus.com and malware.info and monkeypron.org or whatever other crap site you come across won't be storing anything on your machine without your permission.
Don't click on pop-ups that you didn't generate yourself by clicking on a link that spawns a pop-up with content you want (surely everyone knows this one by now).
Don't open random e-mails from people you don't know, especially not any with attachments, also don't click on any unknown links (another obvious one).
Stop downloading warez.
Stop going to pr0n sites.
If you see something that says your system is infected and you need to download something to fix it (even if it says it's just an update) chances are it's a trick, even if it's in your system tray. Of course, if it's in your system tray and isn't coming from the icon of a product you've installed, you're already infected.
And FFS stop using P2P software. They're just trojan gateways.

Problem solved.

That's what I do, and I don't have ANY malware on my system and haven't for years. You don't need to load your system up with a bunch of software that can't really protect you anyway. If you absolutely have to have some sort of "protection" on your system only use free products recommended by someone you trust.
Paying for crapware like Norton and McCrapfee is just a waste of money. Believe me, I've been a PC tech for many years, and almost every system I've ever seen with an infection already had Norton or McAfee on it, and most of them have some kind of crap anti-spyware/adware that is actually adware/spyware. Don't just go downloading the first anti-malware program you come across in a search, let alone 10 others like it.

99.999999% of virus and malware problems are the fault of the user. Whether its you, your kids, your relatives, or your friends or some combination thereof is unique to each situation, but computers don't infect themselves. There's always some human action that causes the infection. Don't take that action, and you won't get infected.

If you absolutely have to have some kind of protection loaded on your system other than using FF + smart browsing habits, use the following:
note: *'d items are my top recommendations
Anti-virus:
Avast, * AVG Anti-Virus (free edition)
Anti-spyware:
Adaware 2007, * AVG anti-spyware, * Spybot Search and Destroy, * Spyware Blaster, Spyware Doctor
Anti-rootkit:
* AVG anti-rootkit, Rootkit Revealer, Panda Anti-Rootkit

Only AVG free (antivirus) and Avast offer real-time protection, the rest require you to run manual scans. You don't absolutely need all of the above, those are just the best free products available that I've come across. Any combination of these programs (only use one anti-virus product though) in concert with the steps outlined in the beginning of this post are enough to keep your PC completely free of malware.

If everyone took the advice I just gave I wouldn't have a job anymore, and TBH, I wouldn't be terribly disappointed by it.

 

yes very good advice techguy. i will try some of those techniques myself. thank u very much.

 

Actually, Kaspersky up until version 6 slowed the system down a lot too. 6 wasn't bad. 7-beta slowed my system down a bit when I turned the advanced heuristics engine on though (a lot more than nod32 2.7 did).

Norton 2007 is supposed to slow your computer down a lot less - a huge improvement over previous versions. Supposedly.

Might be worth waiting until ESET 3 comes out though

 

I first used it when 6 came out and now i have 7.0 and it slows my computer down less then 6.0 did. 2 Kaspersky prosessed running one useing 3,164K the other useing 8,884K memory so i have to say not a system hog. hmmm wow iexplorer.exe useing 61,480K is that normal?

 

My main beef with Norton is that when I have needed it most, it has let me down. For the record it does seem to be less of a system hog than the previous version.

What good is a virus guard that does not stop virus's getting through or clean them up when they do?

I wonder if another brand would have worked better?

 

hey just use AVG it is free and it is really good dont bother with the other ones. y pay for something when you going to use it the same way as the free verison.

 

techguy2k7 - Very nice post, I've been doing this since I got my laptop (I'm to cheap to buy anti-virus I guess) and have never got a virus. I do run Ad-aware sometimes, but since switching to FF I never get a thing, while when using IE I would have 15 or more every time I ran it.

 

Yep. I was infected too when Norton Internet Security 2007 said I was secure. I had no idea I was infected until I ran TrendMicro. I am thinking of making a switch ASAP.

 

Let's say for just a moment that you are a virus programmer...

Due to the fact every monkey and his uncle will likely have norton due to its popularity, guess what the first thing you have the virus do upon infecting a system? (nerf norton)

Yes that's right... Norton's popularity is it's downfall...
Every serious virus programmer has a (cracked) copy of norton and knows exactly how to hit norton so it doesn't do anything.

Oh and techguy has some decent tips but even that doesn't make you invulnerable. Some attacks are vulnerabilities in your OS that are not always preventable by the user. The only real protection is to keep yourself up-to-date and aware of your computing environment.

This is one thing Vista has going for it... yes I know it is annoying to have to say "yes you can do that" all those times... but it really is the only way to know everything that is going on.

And no, mac users are not immune... you see MacOS was built on FreeBSD, which while quite secure compared to Microsoft OSs, is not invulnerable either.
The only thing MacOS has going for it is that there are too few users to bother writing many viruses for it.

In addition to techguy's info...
-Time to learn how viruses work... yes everyone... yes this is going to require quite a bit of reading.
-Time to go thorugh your startup items NOW so you know what it looks like before you get hit. Use hijack this! and be able to identify EVERY item... if you have to, google it.
-if you don't have Vista, install a firewall system that identifies processes when they execute.

Just a warning... those who know what they are talking about NEVER consider themselves safe and ALWAYS are on the lookout.

The only "safe" computer is one that is physically unplugged from the network and internet, turned off, and unplugged from its power source. Everything else is at risk.

Anything less is underestimating your adversary.

 

My thoughts exactly.