rcdailey
Dragoonfly
Premium
join:2005-03-29
Rialto, CA | reply to The Snowman
Re: Symantec executive: dangerous to run free antivirus
Well, there is Comodo firewall with anti-virus "free." but people may not have a high opinion of that.
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In reality, there is no such thing as a clean human being. |
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vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium
join:2005-03-01
Worcester, MA | reply to Doctor Four
Why didn't he take the opportunity to say Symantec's suite is the best money can buy? |
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The Snowman
Premium
join:2007-05-20 | reply to rcdailey
rcd.
Have never tried Comodo Products.......doubt that I ever will.......but hey thanks for the info. |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28
 ·magicjack.com
| reply to Doctor Four
My first layer of security is to not give admin rights to any program I don't trust (which isn't to say that I actually trust any program). The only time a machine of mine has ever been "infected" is when I did it intentionally for testing. Norton used to be good--tops, even; then Symantec bought 'em--the Symantec curse**. When your "security" software causes more problems than it supposedly prevents, then it's time to go with something else, and if it's free, then all the better.
(**Just been bought by Symantec? It's all down-hill from here!) |
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Grail Knight
Who Dares Wins
Premium
join:2003-05-31
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to The Snowman
They work fine and I have them on all of my computers.
Firewall only w/ Avast as my AV.
Avira was a time waster meaning I wasted time chasing down false positives when I could have been doing something better like updating Fx themes. 
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"Facts not FUD!" |
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BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Doctor Four
I recall they were beat by free av, and they try to claim this? They have been doing TV advertising... I know of no other av to ever do tv advertising other than scamware like stopsign, and finally fast.
Symantec is full of bullcrap, and this is just ploy to get into the news, however I love when things like this backfire. |
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Sindows 7
join:2006-09-13
Hope, BC
| reply to Doctor Four
"Symantec executive: dangerous to run free antivirus"
I beg to differ:
Symantec says call center worker in India may have sold credit card data
»www.computerworld.com/action/art···rss_news |
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PrntRhd
join:2004-11-03
Fairfield, CA
 ·Comcast
·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to Doctor Four
"Security is an ongoing process, and no single application achieves security."-
unknown author
That goes for Symantec's or any other product. I stopped using Norton when I figured out it was using all my PC resources and leaving none for any useful activity. I was further convinced when a customer called because their printer would not work, turned out NIS had blocked the printer port in that case. Computers that cannot connect to the outside world are very safe but not very useful to most PC owners. |
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Grail Knight
Who Dares Wins
Premium
join:2003-05-31
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Sindows 7
quote:
Symantec says call center worker in India may have sold credit card data
That can happen to any company that handles customer data. Just because it is Symantec at the moment does not mean it could not be your AV vendor next.
Even if security is in place to stop this an employee could have gathered the data months or years before security was put in place to prevent this.
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"Facts not FUD!" |
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Nanoprobe
Crunching in subspace
Premium
join:2003-05-11
Crab Nebula
clubs: 
·Skype
·magicjack.com
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to mod_wastrel
said by mod_wastrel  :Norton used to be good--tops, even; then Symantec bought 'em--the Symantec curse**. Same thing happened when Symantec bought out Sygate F/W so they could incorporate it into their suites. I still use Sygate F/W stand alone on all my XP machines and see no need to change it. I did try Comodo for a while but they went the bloatware route. After two of their updates (related thread) borked my machines twice it was aloha to them.
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The circumstances of life, the events of life, and the people around me in life, do not make me the way I am, but reveal the way I am. Dr. Sam Peeples.
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rcdailey
Dragoonfly
Premium
join:2005-03-29
Rialto, CA
1 edit | I've avoided using the AV part of Comodo, but do use the Firewall and Defense+ alongside NOD32 AV. No real problems with this, but I also have Malwarebytes and SAS, plus I have Windows Defender running. Malwarebytes and SAS are on demand, so no resident conflict. I keep Spybot S&D for sentimental reasons, as well.
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In reality, there is no such thing as a clean human being. |
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pnjunction
Teksavvy Premium
Premium
join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON | reply to Doctor Four
Shows what he knows....I paid good money for 'Antivirus 2009' and my computer is running like crap! |
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jadinolf
I love you Fred
Premium
join:2005-07-09
Ojai, CA
·DSL EXTREME
| said by pnjunction :Shows what he knows....I paid good money for 'Antivirus 2009' and my computer is running like crap! 
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This post printed on 100% recycled bytes |
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DownTheShore
Maddie Knows Poopie
Premium
join:2003-12-02
Beautiful NJ
clubs:
| reply to Doctor Four
I think the bottom line has to be who is using the computer. I semi-know what's what regarding proper security, so I can put any combination of free, paid, or free & paid on this computer and know that it is being protected. However, I have relatives and friends who simply can't be bothered or can't remember to make sure that their security software is running properly. It's not that they are unintelligent, it's just that computers are not where their interests lie and they view them as they would a TV or a refrigerator - they know that it has to be plugged in but that's about all thought that they give it.
For them, freeware AV's work well IF they auto-update themselves and don't make the user jump through any hoops to install a new version by having free licenses expire. Because I can tell you from experience, that when that happens, the AV just languishes on the computer and you hear, "yeah, an alert about the program keeps popping up whenever I start the computer, but I just click on it and it goes away". 
BUT, the same thing happens when the paid AV version expires
Sometimes it's just better to put a paid all-in-one suite on some people's computers so that their inattention doesn't wind up with them just becoming another source of infection, and then just set a reminder to yourself to check with them when it's time for renewal of the program. 
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Patriotism is not waving a flag, it is living the ideals
Bush & Co. didn't keep us safe - 9/11 happend on their watch! |
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r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium
join:2001-11-14
St John'S, NL
·magicjack.com
·Cox HSI
·Insight Communicat..
·AT&T Midwest
1 edit | reply to simmery
said by simmery :I don't think it's pure FUD. I would say it's over-reaching. Naturally, he has a stake in selling Symantec products, and I will give him the benefit of the doubt regarding his sincere belief in the superiority of his product (or perhaps similar commercial products). I think you can probably meet or exceed the level of protection a commercial suite offers by frankensteining your own free collection, but you have to be knowledgeable about each product's limitations, compatibility with other products, quality of its update procedures, and so on. Some people enjoy keeping up with all this; some don't. Commercial suites are invasive and do measurably slow down you computer, but a lot of this can be attributed to weak/old hardware and OEM crudware/bad configurations. I have not been bothered by slowdown with any suite I've used on the computers I build and maintain myself. Right now, I'm quite happy using NIS 2009 and have no interest in chasing around after free applications. I do not put my faith in NIS 2009. I merely hope it will protect me if I make a mistake. Meanwhile, I try to be careful about what I click on and keep recent disk images on an external hard drive. Paying for McAfee and Norton is completely not necessary. The only people who get suckered into buying them are those who bought computer that came with a free trial and the pop up saying your expired scared them to pay $100 for another year.
Internet suites are not necessary and do waste alot of your resources. I used to work tech support for a college and brand new computers with NIS were slow until you uninstalled NIS. Windows firewall and a free virus program is all the average user needs.
I will tell you this that those who know what they are doing with computers will not pay for NIS.
Nortons whole business model is based on people being scared into buying their software.
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For those of you playing a drinking game.... MY FRIENDS! |
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pog
Premium
join:2004-06-03
Kihei, HI
·Hawaiian Telcom
| reply to Doctor Four
Top executives are mouth pieces... they are supposed to pump up their product line and cast aspersions on the competition. That's their job and it makes little sense to take any of it at face value.
Regarding what he's actually saying? ...unable to "stay clean"? ...no "reasonable chance of avoiding identity theft"? ...yes, FUD.
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My Site |
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Gaff
Every Villain Is Lemons
join:1999-09-05
Mineral Wells, TX
clubs:
·AT&T Southwest
·Suddenlink
2 edits | reply to Doctor Four
I don't think it's necessarily that people have (many) free alternatives now, it's that these free alternatives are often better than the paid competition.
Case in point is Avast. I know it's very popular on this forum (I use it myself) and 99% of the time I don't even notice it's running. It does its job unobtrusively using minimal system resources.
The last time I used Norton (arguably this was a few years ago, perhaps it's improved since then) it would slow my machine to a crawl even when I just moused over its icon. Actually starting a virus scan seemed to require more computing power than the entire continental US could provide, as it basically rendered my machine unusable until any scan or processing was complete.
Tell me again why I would use Norton over Avast?
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My PC Gaming Blog
»thegaffadin.blogspot.com |
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computerman2
Premium
join:2002-04-20
Rockwood, MI
·AT&T Midwest
| Tried Mcafee on other household PC's when at&t started offering it just to see if it was good enough to use, Mom used to get Viruses on her PC with Avast in,
Then she said later on it was slow to a crawl, so i eventually put in Avast back in, and staying with Avast on every single PC in the House, Now tell me why would i use Norton/Symantc/Mcafee product for 6 PC's? Unless Norton can offer a Great deal for protecting up to 7 Pc's, then i say no thanks, i'll stick with Avast |
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Cthen
join:2004-08-01
Ypsilanti, MI
·Comcast
| reply to VikingBob
said by VikingBob :From the article: Speaking to BLORGE, David Hall, Symantec’s Product Manager Asia-Pacific Consumer Products and Solutions said that free antivirus software isn’t able to keep up with full-price suites like those offered by Symantec. The one and only person here who gets it!
Of course no single AV will be as effective an entire security suite. Not even Symantec's AV can be as effective as an entire suite.
Notice they didn't put their product up against the other suites? Yes there is a very good reason they skewed the facts. 
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"I like to refer to myself as an Adult Film Efficienato." - Stuart Bondek |
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Owlbet
Ignite the Ice
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-24
Palmer, AK
clubs:
·MTA Online
| reply to La Luna
said by La Luna :There's been more than one time that a "paid" AV has screwed up. And just as many times as a free one has screwed up as well.
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Team Discovery
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