Norton or McAfee?

[Yossarian]

I'm looking for virus protection for my new computer. I've used McAfee in the past with good results, is there any reason to change to Norton? I was thinking of getting the Systemworks deal that has several utilities included. What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MTDEW]

Wow, what a coincidence.
I just logged on to ask a queation about my new purchase/installation of Norton System works.

I'd reccomend you buy Norton System Works Professional cuz its only around $15 - $20 more than Norton System Works & it comes with GHOST which is priceless!

I really cant comment on which virus software is better since Ive never used McAfee.

But I can say that System Works comes with some darn useful utilities to optimize & keep your system running clean & smooth.

As a bundle System Works & System Works Professional are well worth the money!

 

[KouklatheCat]

I love McAfee. I had problems with Norton in the past. I guess I have just been using McAfee so long im prejudiced towards it.....

 

[Mem]

I had a similar decision with Ontrack SystemSuite v3,it comes with Virus checker from Trend I believe,anyway do I install this & uninstall McAfee V5 or keep it installed,anyway McAfee gives you free DAT updates
after a year not like some other companies,it also has been rock solid so
I decided to keep it on since I`ve had no problems over the years.

 

[Agamar]

All of them have had their share of mistakes, but the latest McCafee is pretty solid, and you get free updates for a really long time. I use norton at the house, but only becuase it came with the Systemworks 2k package. Anyway, I use McCafee on my entire college campus, and as long as you wait and make sure all the upgrades they put out are solid, it works great.

 

[pen^2]

neither... as far as i know they take up system resources and cant cure if infections should occur to critical files like explore.exe, gdi.exe (correct me if i am worng). yet most importantly they dont update as often as i wish... i highly suggest AVP shareware or Vaccine III freeware version.. both are for dos FYI

 

[chicken]

Go for McAfee. Automatic updates, most of the times the first when it comes to discovering new viruses. They're by far the biggest vendor, and that's must be for a reason...

 

[Yossarian]

<< They're by far the biggest vendor, and that's must be for a reason... >>



Hehe and AOL is the biggest ISP...

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up going with Norton Systemworks 2001 Pro from buy.com for $71.95.

 

[Mday]

good. systemworks pro is a great choice. =) that's what i tell everyone to get...

 

[themadmonk]

Keep your McAfee.

 

[aUt0eXebat]

ive had macafee, and it sucks. i got 3 viruses. and never could delete them, or even detect some of them. I had the latest dat file and everything. i put in norton, and it picked them all up and got rid of them, id go with norton anitvirus 2001

 

[Insomnium]

I used Norton and haven't had problems.

InoculateIT is a good FREE antivirus package that was recommended by the forum Mods a while back and is really worth checking out.

Btw, you made a good choice w/ systemworks

 

[CyGho]

With McAfee (with the latest update) running i had a virus that passed the scanner and deleted almost the entire C drive. So thats clear. McAfee is gone. Norton AV version 6 (2000) thakes to much speed away. Now i'm using Norton System Works Pro 2001 with Norton AV 7 (2001) and it's running fine and fast.

 

[DefRef]

Note to all who think that AV is too much of a system drag: How fast are you gonna be when a virus whacks your system and wipes out your data and then destroys your friends rigs because you mailed it out to them?

I like Norton (McAfee did nasty things to my first PC and I've had it in for them ever since) for the reason that it doesn't force you to DL the whole DAT file (4+MB), which sucks on a dial-up. Norton Live Update only makes you DL the latest bits and they are typically ~300KB.

 

[Mem]

Time to defend McAfee (Don`t ask me why I`ve no loyalty)anyway when I took my PC in for repair about two months ago I was talking to a Guy whom was also having his PC repaired for a hardware problem, anyway we got talking about Norton anti-virus &amp; he told me he was unhappy because he downloaded a update from there site that contained a virus, to make things worst it happened again,btw Norton did apologize for the incident but remember no company is perfect.

 

[rb56]

I use Norton Systemworks Pro., haven't had a virus get by yet. I agree with one of the earlier posts,though buy it for Ghost.

 

[JellyBaby]

DefRef,

The added overhead and related problems of resident scanner software isn't worth the hassle. Of course to each his own. But in nearly 20 years of computing and not bothering with resident scanning crap, I've yet to get nailed. Of course I'm very aware of what I download and manually scan when I'm not sure of the source.

And besides, the type of attack that'll get most of us will simply not be covered by any of these products. But go ahead and put up your shields and slowdown all your apps just to be safe.

 

[madthumbs]

I've seen Mcafee software screw up too many PC's recently to trust anything from them. I use InnoculateIT, and even if Norton was free I would still choose InnoculateIT (which is free for personal use).

 

[DefRef]

JellyBaby,

I can't think of a bigger hassle than losing your data because you may miss that *one&quot; bad apple. My old boss torched TWO MONTHS of data and infected several others when, at the end of the day and fatigued, he absent-mindedly clicked on an unknown attachment and it went KABLAM!! His AV DAT was fairly current, but not the absolute latest flava and he got cooked and, between him and others, our company's IT dept. went on a bug hunt for THREE STRAIGHT DAYS!:|

I get 97 fps in Q3 @ 1024 with all options on AND the following junk running in the background:

* TopDesk
* ICQ
* GetRight
* ResMan
* WeatherBug
* HotSync Manager
* Norton AV
* &quot; Smartsweep and Intenet Sweep
* * Crashguard
* &quot; System Doctor (just CPU usage, 3% FYI)
* &quot; Internet Security
* InCD
* Various mouse and video tray icons
* Graphic tablet driver
* Volume Control
* Iomega junk
* UPS shutdown SW
* God knows what else...

I'm willing to sacrifice the extra 3 fps I'd get for risking loss of everything. I know I'm suffering terribly, but it's my life and I'll be watching for your &quot;I just got hit by a virus!&quot; post.

Cheers!

 

[JellyBaby]

DefRef,

Regarding your boss...a coupla points: First, losing 2 months of work is absolute stupidity. If you have valuable data, you back it up. Period. No compromises.

Next, again, the types of viruses and trojans that most of us are likely to get won't be stopped by virus scanners. Take the &quot;I love you&quot; virus -- no scanner at the time of its release could detect it. It took McAfee and others many hours to develop and post the cure.

If you run all that stuff and have satisfactory performance and system stability, great! More power to ya. McAfee and Norton continually improve their products and someday they may be lean and mean (and stable) enough for me to try.

 

[DefRef]

First, losing 2 months of work is absolute stupidity. If you have valuable data, you back it up. Period. No compromises.

No argument from me. He felt like a fool cuz he should of known better. I don't know how &quot;valuable&quot; his stuff was, just that he hadn't backed up to the online drives for a couple of months.

 

[damocles]

I use system works Pro- the virus protection is good, ghost is great, but most of the other features arent that special in my opinion. Systemworks was a good choice

 

[TP]

I have never had problems with Norton AV. I really like the 2001 version with the email poproxy protection, though I havent seen it snag any virii yet. I have worked on a couple Pc's running Mcaffee and it (mcaffee) was a real pain...but that was over a year ago and they probably have improved their product...

 

[Daniel4]

Use AVP, believe me, it's the best for detecting viruses. McAfee and Norton are more popular, but that does not mean they are the best.