OT: Which is worse - Norton or McAfee?

[hugh]

Bearing in mind I can get McAfee free.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I use AVG free and Spybot. Should I be doing different? Free, obviously.

[polygonum]

I use Microsoft's freebie. Not aware of anything awful about it and it does seem less of an impact than some of the others. Maybe it is not so effective? Or simply does not do the function very well? Not sure - never had an issue to test it against!

I became heartily sick of intrusive invitations to buy, bad performance hits, etc. from many of the other products I tried. Few could match Symantec for horribleness. In my work I connect to maybe hundreds of machines - and the proportion which have AV issues (not updated, not working, causing other things to not work, etc.) is huge. Have to struggle to remember the MS freebie ever being a problem.

[mark]

My experience of Norton is that it very hard to get rid of. McAfee wanted to build its part and wasn't content to operate quietly in the background. It had to go.

AVG...good. Malwarebytes free version is very good, though it scans on demand, file, folder, entire PC. No nagging.

mark

[alan]

Norton is regarded by many as a virus itself!

For virus checkers try Malwarebytes, Avira, Avast (free versions)

[Chris Bartram]

As I have a long memory, I'd not use Norton if you paid me. It's supposed to be better now, but used to be an awful resource hog. I'd use AVG, Avast, or MS Security essentials.

[John Williamson]

It still was on a machine supplied with it installed a couple of years ago.

For what it's worth, my bank supply Kaspersky, so they must trust it. It's not *too* bad a resource hog, either..

[geoff]

In message , polygonum writes

Norton has decoded that the barclays online banking site is a phishing site and won't let me access it

About to install kaspersky which is free to barclays customers

[Tim Lamb]

In message , hugh writes

I use Norton. No experience of McAfee.

There was an issue where outgoing mail checking caused a time out failure with Turnpike so I have turned the feature off.

Otherwise I like the little green *OK* button alongside Googled suggested site results. Not aware of any issues.

If you routinely turn off your computer, it might pay to set the download to *notify* otherwise it can hog your system while it updates.

I am not an expert!

regards

[Chris Bartram]

We use Kaspersky at work. It's pretty good, and not too much of a hog, but of course, it costs money :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Same here, 'orrible bit of software but we are talking 20+ years ago so I would hope it has improved!

I used to use AVG Free but then the brought in a system that downloaded checked every single link on a search results page for nasties so they could place a greeen tick by it. That single feature doubled the amount of data we consumed. You could jump through some hoops to switch it off but then it whinged that you "wern't fully protected". Sorry it did a "Norton"...

Now use Avast! Free, no issues though it is starting to nag a bit and occassionaly tries to promote their other products (Android version being the latest).

Both AVG and Avast! just work without to much of a performance hit.

[John Williamson]

The licence they provide covers three machine, which is handy.

Except it's not exactly free, you pay for it with the account fee.

[Andy Burns]

I noticed that, but stick with MSE anyway.

Forgone interest maybe, but fee, wassat?

[Simon Cee]

Avast, and superantispyware - does it for me.

Virus free since 1990.

[Dave Liquorice]

That's probably not a bad thing. Barclays Online banking is almost a lesson in how *not* to impliment a website. Far too much form over function and illogical layouit. If you haven't got javascript you can't use it at all.

When the tuit arrives I'll be shifting to HSBC. Two reasons the crap website and local branch can't do anything without refering to their controlling branch 20+ miles away.

[misterroy]

MS Security essentials

[John Williamson]

Ah, I may have the wrong type of account,then.

Although they do insure my phobile and cover car breakdowns too.

[Andy Burns]

No charges if in credit or within overdraft, free statement reprints, free special cheque presentation, free cancelling of cheques (never used that one), free same day CHAPS ... no longer available for new accounts :-(

They keep trying to tempt me onto that version ...

[Tim Streater]

Ha, ha, ha , ha, ha.

[geoff]

In message , Simon Cee writes

Superantispyware has become too intrusive, I'm sorely tempted to give it the boot