Norton/McAfee

I have had a computer since 1995 and always used McAfee Virus Scan until I bought a new computer in September of 2002 which had Norton AV installed. I decided I liked Norton better and subscribed when my trial version expired.

When I used McAfee, I downloaded the .dat files manually and never had to pay a fee. I know I used the same version at least 2 years, maybe 3, before McAfee stopped supporting the version I had installed and I had to upgrade in order to get the .dat files.

I just read an article that states that McAfee has now started charging an annual fee.

When did their policy change?

And, the article stated that Symantec is going to require Norton 2002 users (that's me) to upgrade when their subscription expires (another $30.00) instead of being able to just renew the subscription.

My aunt just bought a new computer and I recommended Norton to her. Now I'm wondering if I gave her wrong advice.

I have read some posts about AVG?? being free, but I know I would not feel secure with once a month updates.

 

Who said updates are only once a month?
AVG updates at least once a week, usually more frequent than that.
And it's free, how can you go wrong?

 

I have only had AVG for approximately a week ans have had two ( 2 ) updates,

And Also. When you do download AVG it appeasr to be Up to date as close as possible already.

BillyBob

 

I also was a Norton AV user and I'm still a supporter of their software (Anti-Virus). I have gone to AVG like BillyBob and I am very happy also. I just did not like the way NAV seemed to use so much of my PC. I still would feel very confident recomending Norton AV to a friend and also I would recomend AVG, the Freebie!!!
Good Luck
~~Paul~~

 

I use Norton and would not feel comfortable recommending AVG to anyone, considering its dismal failure rate here

 

????

Hello doubleu,,I should be more careful the way I write things. I did mean I would recomend Norton AV to anyone and so far so good after about a month with AVG 6.0. Hopefully if AV keeps up this rate I will also recomend them too. I have been lucky I guess..AV caught a incoming e-mail the other day for me
thanks Doubleu for that info at the link you provided.
~~Paul~~

 

Unless I am hearing wrong Norton and McAfee are one and the same now.

I never liked McAfee.

Used to like Norton.

Now Norton is getting so that it loads the system down too much and does no more than AVG Which is a standalone App.

With Symantec, when you upgrade to a new version of the OS you have to ( or at least should ) PURCHASE an newer version of Norton.

Unless I completely mis-understand, with AVG ( just like my Eudora e-mail ) one version fits all. Now if that is not a big PLUS for something like AVG I do not know what is.

I just removed NIS 2003 from my machine. In doing so I removed app 30+ meg ( gig ? ) of files. And something like 50 or 60 ( or more ) entries from the registry.

BillyBob

 

Billy Bob, I think that Norton and McAfee are still rivals and like you I NEVER had any use for McAfee. Anyway, Norton sure does use lots of resources and space. I guess the IMPORTANT factor here is catch a Virus BEFORE it harms our or anyone else's PC. I'm happy that AVG already caught a virus before any harm came my way, so it did what I wanted so far!!! BillyBob, I used Norton Anti-Virus 5.0 for about 4 or 5 years till NAV 2002 came out. I upgraded only then because of the "Incoming/Outgoing" scan of mail was done I believe for the first time. I kept NAV 5.0 for Win 95 and Win98se, worked fine. Maybe with XP, new editions of Norton Anti-Virus should be in place but like you said AVG is fine,,,SO FAR
Hope I'm not mucking up this post by confusing anybody...
Good Luck all & "Thank a Vet "
~~Paul~~

 

The real world is different from the results reported by this link!

Being a professional and working on many many machines I have installed AVG on machines already (protected?) by both McA and NAV and found Viri that they did not.

As for the link to the site about the failure rate. Appearently AVG has a practice of removing very old almost non existant Virus defs from the Dat files, additionally the same for some harmless ones. So as to keep the dat files smaller (there could still be modem users, maybe?) and assure that the worst and most prolific are coverered.

Considering that nothing is perfect (except Faith Hill!!!!! ) (Smile! ) especially not a computer program, the performance gain from removing Mca and Nav is worth it, considering that you should be getting a second opinion by doing the good online scans.

I have not had anyone that did not notice the performace gains after properly completely removing it. Which takes a manual registy edit. Just an uninstall will not give you all of the performance back.

Mike

 

Sorry it took me so long. I had cable problems for a couple of days.

I asked the question about Norton & McAfee's annual fees and AVG.

I thought I read about updates only once a month on this forum, but I did a search and can't find it again. The AVG pages says something about updates once a month. Evidently, it is talking about updates to the program and not the virus definitions.

Now I have a question about the e-mail scanning. That is one of the things I like about Norton, too.

Does AVG scan incoming and outgoing mail?

Even though I like it, it does slow down the mail a little, but not enough to cause me to want to remove the program.

So far, I have been satisfied with NAV and my subscription is paid up until December. However, I don't see much point in paying every year if there is a free program that is just as reliable.

Now I am concerned about removing NAV if I should decide to change. The Symantec page says always use the add/remove feature to remove the program unless it fails. I suppose everyone is saying it's not enough even if it seems successful. I have done a little editing of the registry, but nothing as complicated and tedious as the instructions for removing NAV manually - not sure I am confident enough to do that.

I uninstalled McAfee using add/remove and I have had no conflicts.

So how do you get rid of AVG? No support for the free version.

Thanks

 

You are SOOOOO right. And the un-install does not ( or may not ) remove all of the folders under common files.

And if you should have to ( as I did ) do a complete manual unistall you will REALLY see what gives.

I Would be willing to bet that if you did a manual regedit and find for McAfee you would see what Mike and I are referring to.

And I would also not be surprised if you were to not find some McAfee folders still on the HD.

BillyBob

 

AVG can simply be uninstalled the normal way. A link/shortcut to the uninstaller is in it's program group on the start menu.

AVG's program updates are about once a month. Virus def's are at least twice a week.

AVG does scan both incoming and outgoing email, and adds a little blurb on the bottom certifying it.

Norton and McAfee et al, are in somewhat of a battle over copyright issues. Let's let other users pay for the legal costs, I'll stick to AVG, which is in no way associated with either, nor is it involved in any legal battles with anyone.

mflynn is completely right. REAL WORLD results are what counts. Performance gains with AVG over NAV are significant enough to warrant the change.