Norton Antivirus

Foleyart

I know I have already posted under the seagate drive thread but I think this warrants another. I have tried everything I could think of to get rid of this Norton antivirus scan on mount but it is still there. I dumped all Norton references wherever I could find them, no good. I downloaded the Symantec uninstaller but it could find nothing to uninstall ! Where is the damned thing hiding, and how the hell do I get rid of it??. I also wiped the external drive in case the bugger was hiding there:mad::mad::mad:

Sad Professor

Norton is a form of malware. Never, ever install it on a Mac. Personally I'd recommend doing a clean install to be safe. It's probably the only way to be sure it's gone and to undo whatever damage it has caused. Otherwise if you experience any system problems down the road you'll be wondering if Norton was the cause.

opinion guy

Sad Professor wrote: »

Norton is a form of malware. Never, ever install it on a Mac. Personally I'd recommend doing a clean install to be safe. It's probably the only way to be sure it's gone and to undo whatever damage it has caused. Otherwise if you experience any system problems down the road you'll be wondering if Norton was the cause.

Err why ?
I've had it on mine for 2 or 3 years with no problems

Sad Professor

Given that I've had to wipe a few hard drives over the years to get rid of it, I find that hard to believe.

Why did you have it on your Mac for 3 years?

Sean Quagmire

OP have you tried app cleaner?

http://download.cnet.com/AppCleaner/3000-2248_4-10867510.html

opinion guy

Sad Professor wrote: »

Given that I've had to wipe a few hard drives over the years to get rid of it, I find that hard to believe.

Why did you have it on your Mac for 3 years?

Er to kill virus's. why wouldn't I ?

Sad Professor

What viruses? You do have a Mac, right?

As I said, Norton is basically paid-for malware. There’s no end to the problems that it can potentially cause. Kernel panics, freezes, beach-balling, corrupted filesystems, missing files, etc. If your Mac inexplicably exploded and you had Norton installed, I would strongly suspect Norton.

opinion guy

Sad Professor wrote: »

What viruses? You do have a Mac, right?

As I said, Norton is basically paid-for malware. There’s no end to the problems that it can potentially cause. Kernel panics, freezes, beach-balling, corrupted filesystems, missing files, etc. If your Mac inexplicably exploded and you had Norton installed, I would strongly suspect Norton.

I'm required to have an antivirus program.
Never gave me any bother.

Foleyart

Hey guys, I found the bugger. I did an alias fixer with spring clean an lo and behold there it was. Library/application support and the Norton Folder. Deleted the bugger and re-started and it seems to be gone. How come all my searches couldnt find it ?:)

Sad Professor

Were you using Spotlight? It excludes system files by default. You have to manually tell it to include them.

Foleyart

I just had a look at the Spotlight preferences and everything was checked ! No matter, happy days!

Sad Professor

No, you have to enable it every time you search. After you type in your search entry in a Finder window, click on the plus sign below. It's in there somewhere.

Stainless_Steel

A home user should never install anti virus on their mac in my opinion.

If required in order to comply with company policy then fair enough. But it really only scans for windows virii. This is to stop transfer of these virii to windows users within the company.

Losty Dublin

If you really must install anti virus on a Mac then look at the free version of AVG.

ZENER

Up to version 9.5 AVG was pretty good, I've always installed it on any Windows machine I had for servicing. After that though it became resource hungry, slow and bloated !

The OP I think was using a PPC Mac so I don't think AVG will work for him. As has been said here already though, the AVs only serve to protect Windows machines from Windows viruses that may be included in files transferred from a Mac. Windows Viruses can not affect a Mac.

I've been using Macs for over 15 years now without any AV and have never had an issue. Common sense is key here, for example set Safari to NOT OPEN downloads automatically. Safari>Preferences>General> un-tick the box at the bottom of the pane "Open safe files after download".

Ken

Losty Dublin

ZENER wrote: »

Up to version 9.5 AVG was pretty good, I've always installed it on any Windows machine I had for servicing. After that though it became resource hungry, slow and bloated !

The OP I think was using a PPC Mac so I don't think AVG will work for him. As has been said here already though, the AVs only serve to protect Windows machines from Windows viruses that may be included in files transferred from a Mac. Windows Viruses can not affect a Mac.

I've been using Macs for over 15 years now without any AV and have never had an issue. Common sense is key here, for example set Safari to NOT OPEN downloads automatically. Safari>Preferences>General> un-tick the box at the bottom of the pane "Open safe files after download".

Ken

I had it on my G 5 and it was working ok for me. I never bothered with it on my Intel models as I didn't see the point anymore. Wasn't aware that AVG has gone all fat, just as well I don't use it anymore

Discostuy

I use Sophos myself...installed it on the advice of users over at Avforums.

Never had any issues with it. But am half thinking of uninstalling it...decisions decisions.

cybrandian

Hi All,

I uninstalled Norton antivirus because my free trial had expired.

I purchased the Norton antivirus CD at the time I bought the netbook, but the netbook doesn't have a CD drive!

I thought I could still install it, as I have the product key, but I can't find where or how I can download it again without purchasing another subscription online, or using a cd drive.

Surely there is a way around this, as I have already paid for the year, and I have the product key?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Sad Professor

cybrandian wrote: »

Hi All,

I uninstalled Norton antivirus because my free trial had expired.

I purchased the Norton antivirus CD at the time I bought the netbook, but the netbook doesn't have a CD drive!

I thought I could still install it, as I have the product key, but I can't find where or how I can download it again without purchasing another subscription online, or using a cd drive.

Surely there is a way around this, as I have already paid for the year, and I have the product key?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

You might be better posting this in the Laptop or C&T forum. This is the Mac forum and from the sounds of it you don't have a Mac.

cybrandian

Thanks, sorry didn't realise!

ZENER

ZENER wrote: »

Up to version 9.5 AVG was pretty good, I've always installed it on any Windows machine I had for servicing. After that though it became resource hungry, slow and bloated !

9.5? More like 7.5! Haven't recommended it once since version 8.0.