Norton Antivirus,,,How about something else?

Sir-GuySir-Guy
edited October 2006 in Science & Tech
I'm not really sure if this is the right place to put this but....

I've been trying to get my father's new computer up to speed. I'm now trying to make norton happy. It keeps telling me, "1 Item is affecting your status." That one item is "Run Full System Scan." Whenever I try to do that, however, I recieve this message:

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Anyone know what I should do about this? Also, the subscription ends in 30 days so I'm thinking about getting him a different anti-malware. However, he isn't the most computer literate so I'd like it to have an easily understandable interface (basically one that does everyhting for him so he doesn't have to worry about malware, or an anti-virus that wont scan :rolleyes: ). So, if anyone has any suggestions about anti-malware for dummies, please post.

Any help is greatly appreatiated.

Thanks.

Comments

  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    I have used AVG Anti Virus free version for home use with Spybot Search & Destroy - free on all my pc's.
    Also I have Ad-Aware Personal -free.
    AVG is set to update and scan daily.
    Spybot Search & Destroy which I update weekly has a running resident that blocks bad sites.
    And last I update and run Ad-Aware once a week.
    With those 3 programs I haven't had any problems what so ever on my pc's for at least 3 yrs now.
    They also have very small footprints on the systems.
    Another words they don't slow your system down like the Norton programs do.
    I tried Norton many times with bad results such as slowing my pc down. It's a sytem resource hog.
    Ewido anti-spyware Free is another one that's pretty good too if you want to try different ones. It's at the AVG site.
    Hope this helps you out.
  • EssoEsso Stockholm, Sweden
    edited October 2006
    And here comes the firewall,
    http://www.jetico.com/

    Its free and seems to be very good.
    http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php
  • Sir-GuySir-Guy
    edited October 2006
    I have AVG on my computer. I haven't found an option for a weekly scan or update or anything. But anyway I think that AVG and all those others might be a little bit too cumbersome. I'll have to do a lot more looking around. thanks for both of your imputs.

    I'd still like to hear if anyone has any other ideas.

    Also, anyone know about that error message?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    But anyway I think that AVG and all those others might be a little bit too cumbersome.
    "All those others" combined make a trim, athletic figure compared to Symantec anything! I think Symantec and McAfee are good for enterprise level security setups deployed over scores or hundreds of machines, but for the home user, they are horribly bloated and spread tentacles throughout the entire PC.

    My recommendations:

    AV: AVG
    Anti-Malware: Ad-Aware or Ewido (anti-spyware), Spybot, and Spywareblaster

    On one of my computers, I run all four of the above programs simultaneously. Combined, their system resource demands are very small. SpywareBlaster is an immunization program, and not a monitor.

    In addition, do occasional scans with Kaspersky's online scanner. AVG - you can schedule it to scan daily, weekly, monthly, or at whatever frequency suits your fancy.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    AVG + Spysweeper (The latter being not a free program).

    For immediate threat-handling, I endorse Bitdefender's web scanning as backup.
  • Sir-GuySir-Guy
    edited October 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    "All those others" combined make a trim, athletic figure compared to Symantec anything! I think Symantec and McAfee are good for enterprise level security setups deployed over scores or hundreds of machines, but for the home user, they are horribly bloated and spread tentacles throughout the entire PC.

    My apologies. That was horriable wording on my part. I just meant that "all those others" were designed for more advanced users. I personally have AVG, Spybot, Spyware blaster, Add aware, and Zone alarm installed on my computer. They frequently give me reports about what's happening on my computer and ask me to make decisions about some things. I think this would only confuse and frustrate my dad. So that's why I was looking for an anti-malware that's basically silent and performs all the actions in the background so the user doesn't have to worry about it. I'm willing to sacrifice the "bloat" issue for a more silent anti-malware.

    I hope that clears that up. I really like all my anti-malware. But I dont think my dad can handle all the sensory input.

    I'll have to look around for that schedular in AVG. whenever I try it tells me to upgrade. **EDIT** I found it. lol I guess the thing is that you cant add more schedules but update and scan are already there.
  • Sir-GuySir-Guy
    edited October 2006
    :-/ so any less complicated interfaces for anti-malware? or should i just install AVG, Spybot, Zonealarm, add-aware, and spyware blaster, and tell him to tough it out? i'd really rather get him an anti-malware that does all the work for him without bothering him. even if it means spending a bit more cash.

    also as far as i know norton still refuses to run a full system scan :-/ anyone know how to fix that?


    thanks for the imput.
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