Norton

[allenrichard]

If I am running norton anti virus and have windows xp operating system, do I need to disable the fire wall from norton as my system is real slow. How does it work with two firewalls on at the same time. And is it suggested to keep the norton phishing protecton on?

[Doc C]

I'd dump Norton and get something not so bloated but since you have it anyway, shut off Norton's firewall, use the Windows one. Also run a disk cleanup and defrag, if you have IE 7, you can use it's phishing protection.

[Croc Hunter]

Yeah Norton is a resource hog, I'd dump it too and use AVG Free. Many years ago my subscription to Norton Corporate Edition expired, six months later it released the entire virus vault onto my system. Took me a month of digging deleting and registry editing just to get it back to stable. I'll never use Norton again.

[satis]

fyi, I recently dumped AVG Free due to bloat and their crappy link checker. I switched to Avast free and am pretty happy with it. Just something as an alternative.

I agree with Croc, the big antivirus suites (Symantec/Norton and MacAfee) are bloated piles of dungware.

[Doc C]

NOD32 from eset is pretty good. That's what I'm running now. It's a paid for one but I like it.

(Side note: Peter Norton designed his software while he was working for the same company I was.
He worked out for that picture on the box as he was a dweeby guy when I knew him.)

[Croc Hunter]

I noticed the same Satis, version 7 seemed faster. The AVG Free version 8 link checker is stupid, you can't stop it tagging incoming email either (could in 7). If you re-run the install you can choose to add/remove components or upon install choose custom and untick the link checker. It still seems sluggish. NOD32 ($40) and AVG (free) are often in the top 10 lists, Kasperspy ($40) is usually listed #1. Back to Allens question, for performance I would use Xp's firewall and IE7 anti-phising as Doc said, not Norton's.

[allenrichard]

wow, am confused to which one to use. Crock Hunter helped me before with media and it was a breeze. I might go with Croc.

What is IE7 for anti-phising?

[KitBear]

It stops you from going to a "fake" website typically designed to steal information from you. AKA "phishing"

[allenrichard]

thanks

[allenrichard]

and how do I get the IE7?

[Doc C]

Go to Microsoft's homepage and find the Download section.

[allenrichard]

cool

[satis]

IE7 should be an option from windowsupdate.microsoft.com, too. And I'm pretty sure it's bundled as part of service pack 3. Not that I trust SP3. :)

[Croc Hunter]

I haven't noticed any problems since updating to SP3, IE7 was an option as I recall (already had it). My problem with IE6 to 7 was toolbar layout, I like the text nav on top and forward/back buttons before the address bar. There's a hack to fix it so.

[satis]

there were a lot of reports of SP3 causing issues after installation. Chances are MS has already addressed all that, I suppose, but I didn't even update to SP2 until I had to for a game. :p I know I recently did a windowsupdate on my laptop and it managed to toast my wireless network manager.

[DaveMac]

I gave up on Norton a couple of years ago. Tried Kaspersky, and I think there was nothing wrong with it other than it was too complicated for me (probably that I am not smart enough to use all the features.) I switched to ESET and have never had a problem with it. Worth the $, in my book.