question about spybot

joflor

hi look im new to this lark.. just bought a new dell lapop and have norton system works installed and today im trying out spybot as i keep having probs such as slow slow computer to the point where i have to restore it again and again............is it safe to use both spybot and norton together? i had windows defender and a girl in dell support advised me that the two may cancel each other out.. please help as i have paid 78 euro for norton but the others are detecting things norton doesnt....

Ruu_Old

Norton is always running in your system memory (probably hogging it too), Spybot doesn't run in memory afaik. Norton is a pile of muck and you are probably better off without.

joflor

ok...but does spybot cover everything or what else should i get
thanks

TerrorFirmer

Norton is - not totally useless, in fairness, but I would certainly uninstall Norton the second I got my hands on a machine running it.

Spybot in combination with AVG is your only man. Use it flawlessly on all of my systems.

www.free.grisoft.com

o1s1n

Get rid of Norton and replace it with free things like spybot, AdAware (i love that program!) sygate personal firewall, AVG, Avast and PC Tools registry Mechanic...the list goes on really. They're the main programs i use for securing my computer and keeping it clean. Never have a hitch with it.

Ruu_Old

for adware/spyware use Spybot (Search and Destroy)*ahem*, Ad-aware, Windows Defender or Ewido
for anti-virus use Anti-Vir, AVG or NOD32
for a firewall use ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall (version 5.6)

All these are free and there are others used by regular boards members who will tell you the same.

o1s1n

i remember having strange problems with Zone Alarm a while ago. I cant quite remember what they were, but i remember them being annoying.

anyway yes, that's really a list of programs everyone should have on their computer.

The shock on peoples faces when i run ad aware on their system for the first time

joflor

cheers guys looks like i just wasted money then ah well

joflor

ps can someone give me a link for ad aware
just googled it and cant get through from the homepage its throwin up

god's toy

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Ruu_Old

Ad-aware, this one is free to try but after 30 days (I think), some features become limited but it still works okay.

edit:snap

Karoma

It's Spybot Search & Destory ("Spybot" is different.)
It does have a memory-resident component (TeaTimer.exe) - which, along with the rest of the software, is great.

Ad-Aware (Free Ed.) :
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

TempestSabre

I can't believe how bad Norton is, how many problems is causes, what it doesn't detect, and yet people keep buying it. That said you never see bad reviews of it on the web or magazines, just in user groups and forums.

o1s1n

I'm pretty sure Adaware Personal is totally free forever with 100% of its functions. Ad aware SE professional is the commercial one.

And yes i agree with the Norton being a pain in the arse. A demo of it generally comes free with a lot of computers. So people not knowing any better go ahead and install it.

joflor

have been downloading sbybot seach and destroy now getting the updates is taking a very long time i hope im doing the right thing or maybe its my extremly slow perlico connection

o1s1n

well as Ruu stated, spybot search and destroy just gets rid of adware etc. Your main concerns should be a firewall and an antivirus. Getting rid of adware is important too, but id put it below these two on the priority list.

Black Swan

If you have the Norton 2007 Internet version and run Security Inspector, it will tell you to uninstall Spybot S&D, cause it is incompatible.

Windows Defender is also incompatible, but Ad-Aware SE Personal (free) and Spyware Blaster (free) run fine with this version of Norton, and are also compatible with each other.

No probs with this version of Norton, except once every blue moon it will run a LUcallback and suck up your CPU for about 1-2 minutes. Other than that, it runs smoother than Norton 2006 and earlier versions. Norton updates are occurring every day, sometimes twice daily.

Oh, talked with some techies at Best Buy, a huge electronics department chain the the States, and they said that they were having problems with Compact brand laptops and Norton AV 2007, but didn't share why. Lots of returns for service. No other brands seem to have this problem.

TempestSabre

joflor wrote:

have been downloading sbybot seach and destroy now getting the updates is taking a very long time i hope im doing the right thing or maybe its my extremly slow perlico connection

Probably. I find the "Safer Networking Europe" servers are the best to use.

TempestSabre

Recently had to fix a laptop with the latest Norton Systemworks on it. It brought the machine (P4 3Ghz) to its knees. Out of curiosity I let it uninstall itself, it took it about 12-14 hours. Which is why when I see Norton on a a Machine I usually wipe and reinstall Windows, its usually quicker than fixing it.

joflor

god this must be why my computer is so slow its only two weeks old and i have already had to wipe the harddrive twice and start all over again with windows..... spent three hours on the phone with dell doing so..

Karoma

Make sure you use the removal tool supplied on symantec.com when removing it.

burtyburr

Have to agree that Norton really sucks but I think in this case it is not the only culprit.I recently had a brand new Dell laptop in for a service and was looking forward to arseing around with it for a bit as well.
The first thing I noticed was the amount of software that automatically loads into the taskbar at startup.This is handy if you looking for a reason to go make a cup of tea...maybe some toast...catch up on sky news and wallpaper the kitchen.But if you actually want to use your computer its a pain in the arse.
So first it might be a good idea to turn some of these items off and disable the "load with windows" option.It might also be worth downloading Startup Mechanic and give it a spin.You will be amazed at the amount of crap running in the background.
If you uninstalling norton do it by the book as its a resource whore.
If you have a brand new system then in the time between Microsoft releasing the xp version and today there are probably a good few updates waiting to be downloaded.If your updates are set to automatic then both norton update and windows update can be trying to download at the same time which stretches the bandwidth a bit.You may wish to turn your windows
update off untill you have the time to let it run or else choose the option to look for updates but not to download them till you have the time.
Dell laptops also seem to come with a raft of media resources such as DVD players and cd burning software which loads at startup.You may wish to disable these too.
As for replacing Norton I suggest AVG.It is free and fairly simple BUT it does not update its virus definations as fast as comercial anti-virus.But if you are pretty security concious you should be ok.You might also want to try Avast.It looks cleaner and sharper but it can be a bit too intrusive.
As for firewalls, if it says microsoft on the outside its crap.The generic firewall in xp is only one way and not worth the effort so disable it.I use zonelabs but sometimes it can take a bit of tweaking to get it to behave.
As regards spyware then a combination of Spybot Search And Destroy and Ad-Aware Se cant be bet.But use Both as one covers the other.
happy laptopping!

thefinalstage

o1s1n wrote:

Get rid of Norton and replace it with free things like spybot, AdAware (i love that program!) sygate personal firewall, AVG, Avast and PC Tools registry Mechanic...the list goes on really. They're the main programs i use for securing my computer and keeping it clean. Never have a hitch with it.

Sygate is now owned by Norton and do not update their free personal firewall any more.

TempestSabre wrote:

Recently had to fix a laptop with the latest Norton Systemworks on it. It brought the machine (P4 3Ghz) to its knees. Out of curiosity I let it uninstall itself, it took it about 12-14 hours. Which is why when I see Norton on a a Machine I usually wipe and reinstall Windows, its usually quicker than fixing it.

Norton Anti-Virus removal tool.

Norton's Site wrote:

The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products from your computer. Before you continue, make sure that you have the installation CDs or downloaded installation files for any Norton products that you want to reinstall. Also, if you use ACT! or WinFAX, back up those databases and uninstall those products.

BTW: Spybot Search & Destroy has a feature in its advanced options that allows a user to uninstall software,prevent processes from starting when windows does,locking host files. All kinds of goodies.Have a look!

Damien360

I use Norton internet security with spybot on my dell laptop (win2000) for work. Do not use the tea-timer function in spybot if you have norton as you will get all kinds of conflicts. I got a reply from spybot team when I queried this a while back. Use spybot to periodically scan for trojans etc., without using it in the background. Personaly I find Norton internet security ok.

On a second home dell PC (XP) , I use AVG (free) with spybot (including tea-timer) and zonelabs (free) as a firewall. Turned off windows firewall. Very happy with this combo and would recommend this to save money. Use the Norton security tester online to test for holes in your system. It will find none.

thefinalstage

Damien360 wrote:

I use Norton internet security with spybot on my dell laptop (win2000) for work. Do not use the tea-timer function in spybot if you have norton as you will get all kinds of conflicts. I got a reply from spybot team when I queried this a while back. Use spybot to periodically scan for trojans etc., without using it in the background. Personaly I find Norton internet security ok.

On a second home dell PC (XP) , I use AVG (free) with spybot (including tea-timer) and zonelabs (free) as a firewall. Turned off windows firewall. Very happy with this combo and would recommend this to save money. Use the Norton security tester online to test for holes in your system. It will find none.

Or Shields up

TempestSabre

Damien360 wrote:

I....On a second home dell PC (XP) , I use AVG (free) with spybot (including tea-timer) and zonelabs (free) as a firewall. Turned off windows firewall. Very happy with this combo and would recommend this to save money. Use the Norton security tester online to test for holes in your system. It will find none.

Thats been my favoured set up for quite a while. But in addition I also use Spyware Blaster, Ad-Adware and X-Cleaner. The latter two have picked up things that the others missed on a few rare occasions.

Black Swan

TempestSabre wrote:

X-Cleaner

X-Cleaner or CCleaner?

TempestSabre

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

X-Cleaner or CCleaner?

Bit of a difference in spelling no? :cool: In fairness there's lot if other apps to confuse it with. It used to be freeware but a new crowd took it over and now its awkward to signup and update. But I like to run it as every so often it finds something that none of the others do.

http://www.xblock.com/download-freeware.php

o1s1n

thelastangryman wrote:

Sygate is now owned by Norton and do not update their free personal firewall any more.

I probably should have mentioned that in my post about Sygate.

Been on 5.5 pro now for a while. It asks to update whenever my computer connects to the internet. Something i most definitely don't plan on doing.