I'll cast a vote for AVG as well. I used to have McAfee at home, and I had loads of system stability problems with it. I'm forced to use it here at work, but it still seems (to me) to be a less-then-ready product. No direct experience with Norton; my Dad used it for a while and was less-then-impressed.
Biggest problem with Symantec products for the home user (besides having to pay every year for them) is that they are resource hogs. Not everyone a machine with a 3Ghz plus cpu.... I have installed NAV 2006/07 on multiple machines (I am an IT systems administrator) in the ~1Ghz range and it just brought them to their knees, even with loads of ram. All this software does is virus scanning, there is no need for this. I had seen enough of this product at this point and went with AVG which you never see unless it finds something or is auto updating.
newpylong wrote:Biggest problem with Symantec products for the home user (besides having to pay every year for them) is that they are resource hogs. Not everyone a machine with a 3Ghz plus cpu.... I have installed NAV 2006/07 on multiple machines (I am an IT systems administrator) in the ~1Ghz range and it just brought them to their knees, even with loads of ram. All this software does is virus scanning, there is no need for this. I had seen enough of this product at this point and went with AVG which you never see unless it finds something or is auto updating.
Hmm ... I know Norton is a hog, but symantec really isn't. It performs similar to AVG as you've described.
I saw Norton perform on a PIII 128MB RAM system ... didn't bring it to it's knees, but close enough!
I suggest AVG, I can't stand Norton, it is a resource hog, tends to not find viruses, and even when it does, it often fails to remove them. Oh, and it costs money.
AVG Free on the other hand....is free, quick, and it detects and removes stuff a lot better.
BUT if you must remain a Microsoft slut, most of my PC friends use Mcafee, and they've had no problems. My GF uses it, and still got some virus' but she also downloaded a ton of stuff via limewire...
McGaffee let its guard down and cost me a hard drive. They sucked. Norton on the other hand, once you have a problem, cannot be revived. Seems both have issues. Guess the best software protection is DON"T SURF THE NET. but then you get sloppy e-mails or something and you're screwed anyway.
Yes, Symantec bought the Norton brand of products some time ago. Some things still retain that name such as: Symantec "Norton Antivirus", etc. Symantec and Norton are one in the same basically...