Since about 2005, Norton has gone from a must have program to probably the most common virus on computers today, IMHO. It constantly surprises people how much of their awesome multicore computer was occupied just to make Norton happy. I get done uninstalling it (in some cases an hour long process), and they’re frankly shocked at how fast their computer operates now.
Avira is one of my favorite replacements, as it’s very light weight and is frequently updated, though the propensity to put up pop ups of it’s own once per day is also pretty annoying... Buy it, of course, and those popups go away.
Another reasonably lightweight and quickly updated anti-virus program is Microsoft Security Essentials, which I really think is a must have for small businesses. Up to ten stations can be installed (assuming they’re all properly licensed Windows machines) and it’s pretty transparent to the average user. Both pieces of software are free, and both prevent this rootkit infection.
I found this for free and downloaded it, but it was ineffective against whatever horrible infection I had. To install Norton, I had to uninstall PCcillin(?) but I managed to do it, somewhat to my surprise. I don't think realtime hogs are due to (legitimate) security software, but due to whatever they have failed to detect and supress or remove. Your mileage may vary.
Yeah I was thinking how many virus programs were written just to exploit Norton itself. Its also a terrible resource hog.
Unrelated to your post - Mac’s are mostly used by liberals who feel good about overpriced crap. I do mean crap. The only reason you don’t hear more about Mac virus infections is a lack of user volume. Write a virus for a few or the many? These days mac’s are just pc’s with mac os and frankly its not that impressive. Suse (or insert any you wish) linux is better and as pointed out free and there are much fewer virus problems than even mac has.
I have had very good luck with Webroot for several years now. I have the Spy Sweeper with AV, as well as WindowWasher which I run at the end of the day. Do you have an opinion on Webroot?