How secure is Norton?

jaqian

I have Norton anti-virus/firewall etc installed on my pc runing winXP Home. Everything is up-to-date.

winXP told me the other day when connected to the net that it has winXP updates to download! What I want to know is how did it gain access to the net when I didn't authorise it thru Norton? Does Norton automatically allow windows to access the net for updates?

If it does, could this be used by malware to infect my pc?

Heinrich

I threw Norton out years ago. I am, like so many happy campers, using AVG. Ad-Aware/Spybot and Zone Alarm which are all free and efficienty!

Download...

oneweb

Norton automatically allows common Windows applications and services access the internet. There's an option to disable this if you want to explicitly give access only to certain apps.

jaqian

oneweb wrote:

Norton automatically allows common Windows applications and services access the internet. There's an option to disable this if you want to explicitly give access only to certain apps.

Cheers.I'll have to do that.

fakesnake

#Elites wrote:

I have had nortan for a few years. Perfect, aint got a virus in thoes years. if it finds ANYTHING it tells you asap, deleats and tells you.

Using Nortan anti Virus 2005 and MS anti spyware.

just because norton does not find anything does not mean you dont have any viri. i used to run norton, gave AVG a try and it found 4. i also put it on some of my mates rigs, and it found some on those as well. they were also using norton. look on other forums to see what is thought of norton.;)
good luck

Little-Devil

I got Norton free when i bought my Dell and it was ok for the first few years. The thing was it kept telling me i had a virus, so i downloaded AVG and SYGATE and removed Norton altogether, everyone i know thinks its a piece of sh*t. Try going to www.download.com and search for AVG and download it.

jaqian

I downloaded the free AVG but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Does it keep up-to-date with anti-virus info?

Heinrich

jaqian wrote:

I downloaded the free AVG but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Does it keep up-to-date with anti-virus info?

Updates and runs automatically daily! The business.
I threw out norton when their server went down and I caught a few nasties in the meantime. Why pay for a sub standard article when you get a better one free?

John2002

fakesnake wrote:

just because norton does not find anything does not mean you dont have any viri. i used to run norton, gave AVG a try and it found 4. i also put it on some of my mates rigs, and it found some on those as well. they were also using norton. look on other forums to see what is thought of norton.;)
good luck

You should also run the virus scanner in safe mode, I've had this detect viruses that weren't detected during normal mode.

daywalker

Norton claims to be nearly 99% secure, but it also claims 99% of your resources, i see the new version (2006) being used by some people and it is a resource hog, you need at least 512mb ram just to get windows and norton running smoothly and most people only have between 256 and 512mb installed on their standard work machines.

Capt'n Midnight

daywalker wrote:

Norton claims to be nearly 99% secure, but it also claims 99% of your resources,

Funny 'cos it's true.
getting the right security software for windows is probably the biggest speed tweak out there. Forget overclocking if you have something like that in the background.

jaqian

I'll AVG a go so. How does Zone Alarm compare against Norton's firewall?

Martyr

try looking around http://www.firewallguide.com/
they have some good info on what to choose.

mukki

jaqian wrote:

I have Norton anti-virus/firewall etc installed on my pc runing winXP Home. Everything is up-to-date.

winXP told me the other day when connected to the net that it has winXP updates to download! What I want to know is how did it gain access to the net when I didn't authorise it thru Norton? Does Norton automatically allow windows to access the net for updates?

If it does, could this be used by malware to infect my pc?

are you worring that xp will pull in and install its WGA tool

dahamsta

I don't know about other sysops/techs, but Norton and it's ilk are becoming a complete nightmare for me. We've gone from wide-open to next-to-unusable because of the "privacy managers" that come bundled with these things.

adam