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Today's Norton antivirus: unusable by normal humans
Alpha, the CNet Blog ^ | 10/23/2006 | Rafe Needleman

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: antivirus; avg; norton
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To: Echo Talon

Thanks, Echo, that would help a lot. Certainly easier than doing a dis-in-pest by hand, which I've had to do in the past.


41 posted on 10/24/2006 8:17:00 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: Westbrook

" I use AVG-free."


42 posted on 10/24/2006 8:19:10 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: Swordmaker
yea the name cracks me up! :D thats how i remembered it ! LOL
43 posted on 10/24/2006 8:19:13 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: Echo Talon

Thanks. i'll look into decrapifier too.

Sounds like a name my brother gives hes software.


44 posted on 10/24/2006 8:21:42 PM PDT by Toby06 (Diesel smoke makes me horny.)
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To: Echo Talon

Three seperate programs each with its own icons in the task bar. Anti-virus and Firewall both start automatically with WinXP but the Anti-spam put an icon in the startup folder.(?)

The anti-spam has defaults for Outlook, Outlook Express and Netscape. Euduro and Opera have options but are blanked out. I directed it to Mozilla Thunderbird but I can tell it isnt working 100% yet.

Im gettin upwards of 20 spam e-mails a day. Its the worst its been this century!


45 posted on 10/24/2006 8:22:03 PM PDT by Delta 21 ( MKC USCG - ret)
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To: SamAdams76

How do you sell your computer on Ebay if it is turned off?


46 posted on 10/24/2006 8:26:35 PM PDT by ThomasThomas (Red is good)
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To: Delta 21
ok.. have you compared the commodo anti-virus to avg free(as far as features)?

like can you set the time of day of the full system scan/what drives are scaned or is that automatically set unless you buy it?

47 posted on 10/24/2006 8:28:24 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: Swordmaker
Norton AntiVirus 2007, for $39 (after the $10 promotional coupon he got in e-mail). Sounded good to me.

$39 sounds good?!

AVG Free!
AVG Free!
AVG Free!
AVG Free!
AVG Free!

48 posted on 10/24/2006 8:32:32 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Mathemeticians are machines that turn coffee into theorems.)
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To: Swordmaker

This isn't a PC/ Mac thing, this is a Norton utilities has been going downhill since Peter sold the company days. Sh!tty software is sh!tty software is sh!tty software, and the Norton utilities crossed the line to be irredemably sh!tty software around 98 or so (at least that was the last version I could tolerate anymore, really all the 32-bit versions were crap), and 8 years later they just keep getting worse. If Needleman has been at the game so long he should know the first (last and only) thing to say when someone asks you for help with Norton is "I'll uninstall it and buy you something better".


49 posted on 10/24/2006 8:39:04 PM PDT by discostu (we're two of a kind, silence and I)
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To: Westbrook
I also use AVG on my 'infidel' machine. I don't run any antivirus on my Mac.
50 posted on 10/24/2006 8:44:18 PM PDT by BlazingArizona
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To: Swordmaker
To All:

AVG A/V and ZoneAlarm Firewall will protect your system as good, if not better than Norton, use 5% of the resources, and cost you nothing. For the VPN user, or anyone requiring a higher level of protection, ZoneAlarm Pro is $30, and money well spent. Norton will ruin your day at some point. If it hasn't yet, then you're due.

51 posted on 10/24/2006 8:58:04 PM PDT by Space Wrangler
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To: politicalwit

I use ClamWin which is another open source Freeware anti-virus. It has daily update .dat files like the others. Been very pleased so far.


52 posted on 10/24/2006 9:02:52 PM PDT by miliantnutcase ("If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it." -ichabod1)
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To: Echo Talon

I havent compared it to AVG but it seems to have all the bells and whistles that Nortons had. Fully customizeable in the Free version.

It launches from a "launchpad" that accesses 3 or 4 other Comodo products but not the firewall or the anti-spam.(?)

Decrapified and a2 downloading. I need to run Hijackthis and have some geek type read the results. Havent done that since before the last desktop hijack attempt.

Really dreaming of that G-4 now....


53 posted on 10/24/2006 9:19:14 PM PDT by Delta 21 ( MKC USCG - ret)
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To: Westbrook

Agreed. AVG is very good. I did have a trojan once and after I detected it, AVG cleaned it out real nice.


54 posted on 10/24/2006 9:21:44 PM PDT by djf (I'm not ISLAMOPHOBIC, just BOMBOPHOBIC!! Whether that's the same is up to Islam!!!)
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To: Swordmaker
Norton Antivirus once was the best. That time passed about six years ago.

It is one of the most bloated, buggy programs out there.
55 posted on 10/24/2006 9:22:30 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: Delta 21

a-squared is really just something that you run every now an then.... I mostly run Ad-Aware Se Personal, spybot Search& destroy, and AVG(all of them are free) every once in awhile i will run a-squared free malware scan)


56 posted on 10/24/2006 9:24:00 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: ConservativeMind

My Main complaints about Norton is the slow bootup times(no matter how fast the machine is) and the random shutdown problems.


57 posted on 10/24/2006 9:25:54 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: ShadowAce

Ping to your list


58 posted on 10/24/2006 11:32:44 PM PDT by CedarDave
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To: Echo Talon
do you have a Mac? I just went over to the MacBook Pro and am loving it. Stuff works. A couple of buggy things with files and getting used to navigation, but it's really sweet.
59 posted on 10/25/2006 5:56:12 AM PDT by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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To: SamAdams76

I see you are following your own advice. :D


60 posted on 10/25/2006 6:06:45 AM PDT by Sherri-D (~~I thougth it was a good idea at the time~~)
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