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General discussion

AVG or Norton?

Mar 24, 2004 6:15PM PST

I used AVG free edition for over two years and always kept it updated. No problems. Then a couple of weeks ago my one computer was infected with the Opas Worm (probably through my own carelessness). I tried everything with AVG and could not remove it. So I went to Norton and Norton took care of business. Here's my question: On my one computer AVG scans 27,000 files on a complete scan, Norton scans 38,000. On the other computer AVG scans 47,000 and Norton scans 84,000. Big difference. Isn't it possible that some of those files that AVG is not even scanning could be infected and you'd never know it? Thanks.

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Re: AVG or Norton?
Nov 20, 2004 1:16AM PST

I used Norton for several years. Switched to AVG because of Norton's high maintenance costs, high resource usage, and general problems installing/uninstalling, etc. I started with AVG free & quickly upgraded to Pro. The Pro version offers a one time fee (less than NAV) for a 2 year license on 2 machines including all program and definition updates. It allows much more user control over scheduling, which files and extensions to scan, control of the virus vault, email scanner, etc. I have been very happy with it.

That being said, no anti-virus program is perfect. Even with heuristics and diligent updating, someone has to be the first victim in the wild before the virus can be analyzed and a definition issued. Further, anti virus protection is only one part of the security equation. I also use Zone Alarm Pro, BoClean 4.11 (anti-trojan), strong WPA encryption on my wireless network, a random password generator for online banking and other important activities plus Spybot, AdAware and Pest Patrol. Finally, I usually reformat and reinstall the OS and all software about once a year.

If all this seems like a lot of work, well maybe it is but I enjoy such things and have not, to my knowledge, been infected in the last 4 1/2 years.

Such are the times we live in. Hope my somewhat off topic rambling has been of some help.

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? for Guido
Nov 20, 2004 2:56AM PST

Where did you find the program for a random password generator for online banking?

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Re: AVG or Norton?
Nov 21, 2004 8:18AM PST

Here is a link to comparisons of AVG vs. other AV software FYI:

http://www.anti-virus-software-review.com/index.html?ttreng=1&ttrkey=avg

I started using McAfee in '87 when it was free, before Symantec showed up to assimilate it. AVG is the first free service that I've found to work as well as McAfee did those many years ago. It is extremely configurable, which addresses precisely why you are seeing more files scanned in NAV than AVG; if you want to scan more files or more types of files, just change the settings.

It automatically updates itself with the latest virus definitions at an interval of your choosing (mine goes 1x/wk). It can be set to check your boot sector at startup, your incoming and outgoing email, attachments, add certification, and more.

It works fast and competently, doesn't waste any resources, doesn't slow my browsing or work, and it doesn't present conflicts with any of the 300 or so programs I work with regularly, nor any of my kids games, etc. It has a handy rt-click menu add-in that allows me to rt-click anything and scan it, be it a file, folder or drive.

You can spend plenty on anti-virus and their endless subscription updates, or you can get what IMO is a better solution for free in AVG providing you are using it at home and not professionally. If you need more bells & whistles, pay for AVG Pro. The newest free version is v7.0