Norton, impossible to contact a human!

[Jackie]

Tried to renew my subscription to Norton (Symantec) and have had no luck. As far as I can see the version I have, Norton Anti-virus 2000, is no longer supported and an upgrade, despite the year's free subscription on offer, is quite a hike in price. Could not find anyone to email on their various sites and ringing the telephone number given just gives you a robot telling you how to find stuff on the net.

I also run the free AVG anti-virus and it seems to work ok but it has missed one or two that Norton has found.

I also run free versions of Adware and Spyware detector programmes so do I really want to upgrade the Norton Anti-virus. What would you do folks, have trapped more than half a dozen viruses this year, some in emails and some on quite innocuous web sites, the last one on the subject of concrete mixing would you believe!

I am aware that AVG have version 7 nearly available but is this likely to be good enough? What do you swear by?.....................John in Dept 79 

[Dave&Olive]

Hi

         See you are in the same area as we will be..I run AVG version 6 my self &spyware blaster as regards Norton and mcafee took them off years ago just made the pc so slo.........w I find it easier now not to use outlook  but to read my e-mail direct of the server they scan it with norton and then down load it to outlook you can then reply knowing it is safe.. hope this makes sense ???

                        Dave&Olive

[Russethouse]

I have used AVG for quite a while, since reading about it here, probably 3 years.

In that time I have had one problem which was fairly easily sorted with some help from this forum ( I had to go into system restore etc) I know people with Norton and McAffee who have had worse difficulties............

I use Spybot & Adaware too, I used to use Mail Washer, but BT now have an anti spam gizmo so I use that, it seems to work - maybe your service provider has something too?

Think some one recommended a French virus protection program on the AVG thread......might be worth a look ?

[Baz]

My computer engineer removed Norton and replaced it with AVG a few months ago as he said there were so many problems with Norton effecting the running of the computer. This IT expert spends most of his time removing viruses from Company machines, so I believe his advise to remove Norton was well founded.

Baz

[Boghound]

[quote]My computer engineer removed Norton and replaced it with AVG a few months ago as he said there were so many problems with Norton effecting the running of the computer. This IT expert spends most of hi...[/quote]

Rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Leschenauds]

Don't sit on the fence Boghound, say what you really mean.

I now use AVG because it is better than Symantec, causes no problems, does the job better and costs my favourite price -Free!

[Boghound]

[quote]Don't sit on the fence Boghound, say what you really mean.I now use AVG because it is better than Symantec, causes no problems, does the job better and costs my favourite price -Free![/quote]

I don't really understand why I'm sitting on the fence by saying rubbish. It seems that like a lot of the "posters" on this forum, you have great difficulty understanding the Queen's English.

Anyway. My arse is much to pert to spend all day sitting on a fence. Mind you. It's free sitting on a fence. So, according to the vast majority of "posters" it must be worthwhile. Might even try it one day.

[Leschenauds]

I think that most of understand that the Queen is english Boghound but, 'Rubbish-' is hardly an intelligent contribution to the discussion of a computer problem that one of our co-members of this forum is experiencing.

Let's try keeping our chips firmly off our shoulders shall we?

[Jackie]

Well thanks folks, I did not intend to start a war. AVG 6 is soon to be replaced I gather and therefore AVG 7 is a bit of an unknown quantity. Has any one got AVG that you pay for and is it any better than the free one? What other anti-virus software are some of you folks using and what do you think of it?.........................John.....(Tin hat on) in Dept 79 

[Russethouse]

I used to use PC-cillin, when they had a free version - it was fine - no problems - you can try the paying version for a month free.

http://uk.trendmicro-europe.com/index_consumer.php

[Iceni]

The advice from all virus product manufacturers is not to run two virus checkers together. If you do this you will get conflicts and virus programs can and will slip through. Also if you do not get the update daily you are in danger of getting hit, new virus definitions come out daily.

If you want something to run with Mailwasher, try Benign. This product simply strips out all code that it does not understand. Plain text is not altered. This also protects you from 'spy bots' which are activated as soon as you download the e-mail, they then contact a server to confirm your e-mail address as valid and you appear on even more spam lists.

On the 'rubbish' tack, I co-own an online group with over 80 members, most of who run AVG and the rest Norton or similar. The move to AVG is gaining speed due to the problems that Norton causes. All of these people run businesses on their PC's so that is real proof to me which product is better.

As I run mail for over 10 clients, I can say that I have never had a virus since a 'boot sector' virus in 1996 and have never ever used or wanted to use the N protector. I used Dr Solomon's Virus Toolkit before he was bought out by (I think) Symantec and also used to make my living going into companies to remove infections from corporate systems so say what you like, I do have some experience with these programs.