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Posted on 10/24/2006 6:47:46 PM PDT by Swordmaker
"When you have a few minutes," my father asked me on the phone last night, "could you help me with my antivirus stuff?" The trial version of Norton AntiVirus 2006 on his three-month-old Lenovo laptop was expiring, and he was bit confused by the upgrade warning, so he wanted me to help him through the transition. One of the options was to upgrade to Norton AntiVirus 2007, for $39 (after the $10 promotional coupon he got in e-mail). Sounded good to me.
"Sure," I said. "It should only take a few minutes." I took control of his computer via LogMeIn and set to work.
Nearly an hour and a half later, hungry and irritated, I hung up and disconnected. The upgrade was complete. My father said, "I could not have done this without you." He was right, and that's why I was mad.
The upgrade required a complete uninstallation of the the 2006 product, which took a good 10 or 15 minutes and required a reboot. The download and installation of the 2007 version took nearly an hour itself and required its own reboot. It also asked for registration information that duplicated the info my father had given when he bought the new software online, leading him to think he was starting over. There were choices to make that he didn't understand and offers for products he didn't need. At several times during the process the computer appeared to be locked, and my father was tempted to turn it off and reboot. Before we said our good-byes, my bewildered father said to me, "Can't you write something about this? Make them change?"
So this is for you, Dad.
For everyone else: Nobody should have to deal with this. When the antivirus subscription that came with your PC expires, don't immediately jump to renew or upgrade what you have. There may be a better product out there. Also, the next time you're thinking of getting a new computer, take a serious look at the Macintosh.
Rafe Needleman has been covering technology and business since 1988. He started at InfoWorld as a reviews editor. Following that, he launched Corporate Computing magazine, and then moved on to become manager of advanced technologies for ZD Labs. In 1995, Needleman became editor-in-chief of Byte magazine. He joined CNET as editor of CNET.com, shortly after it started in 1997. In 1998 Needleman moved to Red Herring and is now back at CNET.
If HE has trouble and frustrations with this stuff, what does that say about all the rest of the poor, benighted Windows users?
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
I use AVG-free.
It's free for non-business users, and very effective.
When the Norton subscription was drawing to a close on my daughter's laptop, I gleefully un-installed the hideous Norton bloatware and installed the trim and every-bit-as-effective AVG-free.
.
Kaspersky anti-virus is excellent.
Actually the best way to avoid computer viruses is to avoid using computers at all. Why don't we all just shut our computs down, sell them on Ebay and go take a walk or read a good book.
When I upgraded my OS, Disk Doctor no longer worked properly.
I was breowsing the support discussion forums on the Apple site and ran across several posts to the effect that Norton anti-virus slowed down a computers performance.
I uninstalled System Works — no small feat — and sure enough my computer worked better.
The difference wasn't huge, but it was noticable.
In my estimation, Norton sucks.
Your role is to submit to my will. I download when I choose, I lock up your computer when I choose, I only let you know as much as I think you should know. And because I am all-knowing and almost as smart as Rush Limbaugh, I am damn near impossible to uninstall.
Wait, in that last aspect, they're more like vampires. You invite them in and you are in deep trouble.
This year they tell me that my Norton 2002 anti-virus will no longer be supported, please submit 39.95.
As I have never had a problem with Zone-Alarm I will be now using their suite!
PS I bought Norton 2002 security suite. And the only thing I had to use was Go-Back. But I can only keep it if I allow Norton 2002 to stay on my PC!
The best way to avoid food poisoning is to not eat. And you'd probably only need to brush your teeth once a week or so.
Regarding Norton antivirus software, which I have used in the past, I usually found that a virus infection was preferable.
I've got an old junker of a PC (came with Windows ME) that I used to surf the internet for about two months with no antivirus stuff whatsoever. I installed the latest Norton on it last week and expected it to be totally overun with viruses and spyware. But you know what? I ran the scan and it came up perfectly clean. A few years ago I had another old PC that I ran "bareback" on the Net, this time for about two years. And again, no viruses (actually I can't say this with total certainty -- I never scanned it -- but it never acted like it was infected with anything.).
You hear stories about computers being targeted within seconds when they're connected to the internet unprotected. I'm starting to think this is mostly fearmongering by outfits like Norton trying to sell antivirus products.
Well actually you ought to brush your teeth twice a day - whether you eat or not. This is because through the simple act of breathing, you are inhaling a lot of germs in the air that can get in between your teeth and cause decay.
A client of mine purchased a new Dell a few months ago for his home... and the Norton that was installed on it was popping up reminders about renewing. He called me in to "fix" it because he's all thumbs where tech things are concerned (He's an optometrist). It also had McAfees installed on it... Dell installs both on the system before shipping and the new owner is supposed to select one... the good doctor selected both. It took me 40 minutes to remove Norton and all its pieces (Except, of course, for the stuff the uninstaller leaves behind) and about 7 minutes to uninstall the McAfee... which was much better behaved... and install AVG.
But how would we get our Freerepublic fix?
I suggest you take a look at Avast http://www.avast.com Again, this is an excellent antivirus program, daily updates and like AVG...it's a freebie also.
Norton is the absolute worst. When we resubscribed, we found that the only way we could get our emails was to disconnect from their program...rather ludicrous, to pay for something that never worked. We will never have another Norton product.
what a great idea!....you first.
Germs in the air
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