# I'm ready to get rid of Norton



## MarieJoe (Oct 22, 2004)

I've had Norton for a few years now, both the firewall and virus protection. I really want to switch, but to where. 
I was all ready to go with PC Cillin, but then I've read where their firewall isn't so great. Also, they don't tell you much info about cookies? And no pop-up blocker?
*IS the PC Cillin firewall really that lackluster?*

I tried zoneAlarm, free and was really confused with the set up. So, I dumped it.
I'm also confused with having virus protection with one company and another for firewall. I had McAfee firewall and norton anti-virus when I got my PC and had ALL sorts of compatibility problems. (that was hy I switched to norton for both)
Is this always an issue? Seems like a lot of you use two different companies.

So, any suggestions. It doesn't have to be free, but I want cheaper that Norton. Also, smaller than Norton to up my performance.

I'm think of using AVG for my anti-virus, so if I am talked out of using PC Cillin, which I can find cheap, I only need a compatible firewall.
Also, something relatively easy to configure.

Pleazzzzzze help.


----------



## alex_holker (Sep 28, 2003)

I use Zonealarm for the firewall, AVG for the Antivirus and Mozilla/Firefox for the pop-up stopper. I haven't had any compatability problems with this setup, but you say you don't want to use Zonealarm. I have heard of compatibility problems with multiple firewalls or multiple spyware/antivirus programs, but this is the first time I've heard of a firewall and antivirus causing problems.

In my opinion AVG is easy to use and it seems to have the constant protection like Norton does (as I discovered when it spotted a virus on another computer on the network).

Alex


----------



## blues_harp28 (Jan 9, 2005)

AVG works well as an anti virus,Firefox as a browser and an anti pop up,and sygate personal as a Firewall,
In the review forum you will find many opinions on all of them.
You can read through them and make your choice..


----------



## past tense (Apr 25, 2004)

maybe this one http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html for the first 30 days its a full feature firewall,then it becomes a basic freeware firewall after that.
ZoneAlarm is a nice firewall if you want to give it another try here is webpage that can help you with config options http://www.markusjansson.net/eza.html
i think these two might be the easiest to use,then they get a little harder


----------



## cheese (Jun 22, 2003)

Sygates a pretty good firewall.
NOD32 is an awsome antivirus.
Avast is good for free.


----------



## MarieJoe (Oct 22, 2004)

Thanks guys!
I see there are options that I can live with.

Special thanks to *past tense* for the link to that excellent zone alarm firewall set up. Actually, it is not so different than the norton firewall set up.
Can I assume that Zone Alarm is less of a space hog?

(I will admit that when I tried zone alarm, I had my 'puter for a few months and was less than a newbie administrator. My ONLY experience was at work, where I had no decisions to make.  )


----------



## cheese (Jun 22, 2003)

I liked zone alarm alot. Very simple when setup.


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I use and love Zone Alarm Pro.

Step-by-Step: Installing ZoneAlarm Firewall
http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/sbs-zonealarm-configure.html

Step-by-Step: Configuring ZoneAlarm Firewall
http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/sbs-zonealarm-configure.html


----------



## past tense (Apr 25, 2004)

MarieJoe said:


> Special thanks to *past tense* for the link to that excellent zone alarm firewall set up.


your welcome


----------



## haplo210 (Nov 23, 2004)

I had my version of norton corrupt. It wouldnt uninstall afterwards either, as such, it still exists with lotsa files missing.

I puT AVG on my machine, scanned it...47 counyts of a virus going right through my system restore files that norton never opnce picked up on. 

Way to go AVG!!!!!!


----------



## MarieJoe (Oct 22, 2004)

hewee said:


> I use and love Zone Alarm Pro.
> 
> Step-by-Step: Installing ZoneAlarm Firewall
> http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/sbs-zonealarm-configure.html
> ...


Thanks, hewee!!!


----------



## MarieJoe (Oct 22, 2004)

haplo210 said:


> I had my version of norton corrupt. It wouldnt uninstall afterwards either, as such, it still exists with lotsa files missing.


Can't you manually remove some of this stuff and/or clean your registry? Or, is it not imprtant?
I recently could NOT uninstall some Nolo software. I went an deleted whatever files I could find.


----------



## MarieJoe (Oct 22, 2004)

:up: :up: 
Well, everything seems to have gone smoothly...NAV and firewll is gone and ZAP and Avast! (free) are up and running.

Thanks to all for your help!


----------



## blues_harp28 (Jan 9, 2005)

The feeling of relief when Norton finally leave your system..
MarieJoe welcome to the free world, should you wish to air your views on Norton-Symantec you will find a thread in this review section..
:up:


----------



## John Burns (Jul 29, 1999)

You did good - getting rid of Norton seems to be the normal thing to do now -I dumped them about 6 months ago after four years - they have destroyed their customer relations with their attitude. Hope it all continues to work well for you.


----------



## GoJoAGoGo (Dec 26, 2002)

I agree you are better off without NAV. I have stopped using NAV for about 15 mos now. I used AVG 6 free for about a year. I had some problems with AVG 7 free and have since been using Computer Associates eTrust EZ Antivirus for the past 4 months. It's a 1 year free deal and it's been good so far. I'm not sure if I will continue with it after the 1 year ends, depends on how much they charge to renew.

I must confess I still use Nortons Ghost 2003 to make my HD backups. No problems with Nortons Ghost as far as making the backups. Thus far I haven't had to use the backups to restore my system, so I can't comment on that part.

Does anyone have some input on Nortons Ghost?


----------



## rez410 (Dec 29, 2004)

Just to put it out there. I never really hear people saying avast or AVG is better then the other. but i was using avast for a while along with spy bot, spyware blaster, adaware, and microsoft anti-spyware and i was completely clean for the last 2 months. then my defs. went out of date so i switched to AVG and it picked up like 5 or 6 things that avast had been missing. unless i got those trojans by downloading AVG. but i doubt that


----------



## buddym2004 (May 30, 2005)

I recently switched from Norton to Trend Micro PC-cillin and what a relief! Norton has ruined their product with pop-ups and a bad habit of doing things without asking the user. PC-cillin runs MUCH faster and has a better firewall user interface.


----------



## SIR****TMG (Aug 12, 2003)

i got rid of norton 2 yeas ago ...


----------



## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

AVG Pro and Spyware Blaster. Personal firewalls are overkill for home users if you have a router that is running NAT(port forwarding)


----------



## smeegle (Jan 18, 2004)

I have Sygate as my personal firewall and I have the Norton System Works 2003. True confession time: My subscription to Norton will expire on 062705 and I intend to resubscribe. I've heard about AVG and AVAST but do either of these have the one button checkup? With Norton I can make Registry corrections, defrag my computer, make nescessary repairs to my hard disk that my Scan Disk cannot and so much more. True it takes up a lot of space, but for non-professionals like me I think its worth the money.


----------



## Space Cowboy (Apr 19, 2005)

> Does anyone have some input on Nortons Ghost 2003


Yeah .. don't install it !!

It just boots to DOS anyways.

Boot off the floppy or CD instead. You can do everthing you need to do with it without installin it on your system.

I use it weekly and all I have to do is boot off one floppy disk.

Also .. Verify/check the image after you create it so if there are any errors you can delete that image ~ run CHKDSK ~ and then try again.

Good Luck
Cowboy


----------



## old100 (Jan 12, 2004)

A past member, think it was Khazars, gave me a AV site: http://www.kaspersky.com . It took about 2 hours but found all kinds of problems. Has anybody else had any experience with this antivirus scanner?


----------



## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

I used to have an older version of Kaspersky labs AVP and it was awesome.


----------



## Ginosko (May 11, 2004)

lol, join the club got rid of Norton last year, got avg...never looked back. Avg is free and works great you might need a bit of know-how to get rid of somethings, but it's great for a free program, frequent updates too!


----------



## Telstar (Jun 20, 2003)

Ok, here's my deal...

Had Norton AV2002 since I bought my comp back in Feb of '02.

Computer came with first year free Norton2002 so I renewed each
year....until now!

Subscription expires in a few days (6/22) and I've decided that,
in-keeping with my theory that there are many, very good Freeware
Programs out there that we are all using (the Spybots, Ad-aware's,
HJT, etc, etc.) that there are also good AV Programs that don't cost
an arm and a leg.

Based on opinions here and in other Forums I'm going to go with AVG.

And, since Norton AV is labeled as a "Resource Hog", I'll be interested
to see if I notice a difference in performance in my XP Home (I never
see less than 4% CPU Usage when I bring up the Task Manager)
once I remove NAV.

Telstar


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I've used both AVAST and AVG anti-virus, both have worked well.


----------



## hermes (Aug 12, 2000)

I raised a post here a while back when my computer caught the Nortonanti Virus. Wrecked the PC. Symantec's answer; tough.


----------

