keep symantec or get AVG/Avast?

Status
Not open for further replies.
9

97tbird

Joined
May 9, 2003
Messages
9,290
Location
Fayetteville, NC
My laptop came with Symantec AV pre-installed. I was wondering if it's good enough, or as an added protection, if I should also get AVG free edition. (or any other good free av, like Avast free home edition which seems to have the best scores among the free a/v programs, and does not slow down the system much)

(or have AVG/Avast only and remove Symantec...because what I've heard so far about Symantec is not so great)...

and: is running 2 av programs not a good thing?
 
Last edited:
two Anti virus programs running at one can cause problems, but having one to run a secondary scan won't hurt so long as only 1 is running at a time (some AV will se the other AV as a virus).
I have been using AVG Free for several years and have been very happy with it. If your Symantic comes with free updates, keep using it. Once the free is done, use AVG (or Avast).
 
I'm a PC Tech.

Anything mcafee, or norton is the devil.

It hogs so many resources on your machine it isn't even funny.

I like AVG Free the best, its non invasive and does a great job.
 
I don't fell that there is anything wrong with Symantec products other than they tend to use a lot of system resources. I used to use it up until about 2002 and then in 2003 it became slow and bloated.

This is going to be about like a Pennzoil sludges engines, Valvoline doesn't give good UOAs, and Mobil 1 is not real synthetic now thread...
 
Ok..let's say I decided to uninstall the Symantec and get spomething else. it came preinstalled. If I uninstall it, I probably won't be able to reinstall it again if needed, right?
 
I agree with JustinH, Mcafee and Norton are complete resource hogs. If you want a good free one, AVG or Avast are good choices. I heard that AVG was going to start charging, but I haven't seen that on their website.

DO NOT, and I mean that in all seriousness, run two anti-viruses at once. They will "fight" with each other and could leave your system struggling to do anything, maybe even crash it completely.

Did you receive a Symantec reinstallation disc with the computer? Either you can re-install it that way, or if you have to use the automated recovery option to install software only, then you could re-install it.

My opinion on Norton, is that it is a agood anti-virus, and if you have ONLY the anti-virus, it doesn't take as much resources. It was when the Internet Security and Anti-Spam/Anti-Spyware options were installed that it became a major RAM hog. Norton 2007 is just a pain to use.
 
I use Nod32 on one machine and AVG on another. Have been very happy with both of them. Tried Panda a couple of years back and wasn't terribly imressed with the general functioning, although I never had virus probs.
 
I've installed the AVAST freebie on a bunch of XP based systems over the last year of so. No issues yet.

Joel
 
I have heard for quite a while that NOD32 and Kaspersky are the best, with Avast! being a good free antivirus. It is interesting to me that many of the most highly regarded antivirus programs are either Russian or Eastern European. BitDefender is also highly regarded.

The most recent Norton 2007 Internet Security is interesting but still a resource hog and a nightmare to uninstall. The American antivirus I like the best is TrendMicro PC-illian.
 
AVG has missed a LOT of detections on my past PC's and my relatives's PC's. Avast has grown into a bloated piggy. Give AntiVir a whirl. The best part about AntiVir is the ability to scan on WRITE only. No more wasted time scanning the same freaking file every time it's opened.

http://www.free-av.com/
 
Norton does a good job of finding things in its database, but anything else it will let right in to the system.

i have seen a fully updated norton 2003 let a couple of self replicating viruses in, when the definition was updated to find it, there were over 30000 infected files....

Mcafee isnt much better. you update the definitions on their spyware stuff, run scan, all clean. however you can see the active spyware processes in task manager. adaware got rid of them swiftly (there were 6 active processes, over 200 related files/registry keys)

Eset NOD32 is by far the best threat detection software there is, and has the highest detection rate for things not in its definition file. it also uses so little system resources you cannot tell its there.
 
I am a network admin at my office. We have been through several AV products. I was never 100% happy with any of them until we got Kaspersky. We've been running it at work for 3 years and I also run it on all my systems at home.

One problem that has not been brought up yet about most of these products is the lack of updates. When we were using Symantec/Norton, it would do its auto update once a week. That's all they published. It wasn't a setting in the software, it was the manufacturer's choice to not release that information any more frequently. Sure you could use a manual update method and get updates more frequently but they were only once a day.

Kaspersky updates every hour. Their support is great also. We had an e-mail with a ZIP attachment get caught in our e-mail filter. I scanned it repeatedly with no results but my gut told me it was no good. I submitted the file to Kaspersky and within 10 minutes I had a message back that it was a virus and they published the definition in the next hour's updates. Nowhere else will you get that kind of response. I'm hooked. Last I checked, they also had about 30,000 more definitions available than Symantec.
 
fro all i've read, Kaspersky does seem to be best, but of course it's not free. someday i ight be able to afford stuff like that, but right now, from thr free stuff Avast seem best
 
IMO, Norton AV is OK but Norton Internet Security suite is really a hog of system resources and refuses to allow you to do anything until after the inital scan is run. I now have McAfee Internet Security suite on my newer Dell (came preinstalled) and it has been a good program. The latest version seems to be more bloated and when my subscription is up I will probably switch to Kaspersky (and maybe also Webroot). My
twocents.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

ctechbob
Buying Directly From Valvoline - Specifically 20qt 'Garage Boxes'
Replies
4
Views
599
ctechbob
D
Battery issue or something deeper?
Replies
9
Views
372
50yr Street Mech
wwillson
  • Sticky
Pennzoil - Low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI) Q&A - Answers
Replies
6
Views
3K
garageman402
cwilliamsws6
DVD player program for Windows 10?
Replies
12
Views
2K
K.Aoi
Boomer
My Random Thoughts on Keeping a Car Running for a while
2 3 4
Replies
63
Views
7K
Sweetride
Back
Top Bottom