[MelindaMorgan]

I was intrigued by the rating of Norton as most secure. Does that include the free Norton suite Comcast customers recieve with their subscription? It doesn't look like the one pictured in the article, and the Comcast one was never mentioned.

[LiveBrianD]

I've consistently heard of Norton having good scan scores, yet leaving ugly uninstalls (of itself). I'm really not sure whether it's a good program or not.

Note: There are different security suites, like Norton 360 and Norton Internet Security, so perhaps Comcast offers one and PCWorld was reviewing another. I imagine they both use the same scanner though.

[coastie65]

I don't know what Verizon FiOS uses ( it isn't FREE anyway ). Probably McCafee, but I won't use them nor Norton. Both seem to be resource hogs. Actually Norton is as there is nothing lightweight about it. You'll find that a lot of members do not use the "Security Suites". Instaed, we use some of the good FREE Anti Virus Apps that are out there such as Avast! and Avira. I do get Webroot Spysweeper FREE with MSN Premium, so I use that for my antiSpyware and Avast! for Anti Virus. I have Malewarebytes & Superantispyware installed as on demand scans ( not running actively ). Sort of a layered approach.

[QueenPendragon]

coastie65, on 15 January 2011 - 06:23 PM, said:

I don't know what Verizon FiOS uses ( it isn't FREE anyway ). Probably McCafee, but I won't use them nor Norton. Both seem to be resource hogs. Actually Norton is as there is nothing lightweight about it. You'll find that a lot of members do not use the "Security Suites". Instaed, we use some of the good FREE Anti Virus Apps that are out there such as Avast! and Avira. I do get Webroot Spysweeper FREE with MSN Premium, so I use that for my antiSpyware and Avast! for Anti Virus. I have Malewarebytes & Superantispyware installed as on demand scans ( not running actively ). Sort of a layered approach.

Yes, I have layers also. Malwarebytes is there plus Ad-Adware. Vista has its thing too, I see the updates when I download. (and yes that's me above, I finally got login sorted out)

This post has been edited by QueenPendragon: 15 January 2011 - 06:55 PM

[orlbuckeye]

I used Norton (Symantec) years ago and it had the problem if it was attacked by a virus and basically disabled it was hard to install. I had to delete files and go into the registry to delete. I switched to Pc_cillian which is Micros Trends product that worked good then they did and upgrade and i got errors. After reading about Symantec's improvement I went back and have been using for 3 years. I've had issues where malware and spyware have disable the scanning but never had to uninstall. I haven't has any isssue in awhile but I also use Anti-malware and Super Anti-Spyware along with Norton 360.

[SpiritWind]

Hi Melinda :

I recommend avoiding all security "offered" by an
Internet Service Provider ; all they offer is
something provided by a security company and is
usually a watered-down version or not one of the
top performing ones . Best to do your own research,
such as asking on forums like this one and/or
reading the Test Results done by an Independent
Researcher such as the one at
http://www.av-comparatives.org .

[Car54]

SpiritWind, on 24 March 2011 - 10:30 AM, said:

Hi Melinda :

I recommend avoiding all security "offered" by an
Internet Service Provider ; all they offer is
something provided by a security company and is
usually a watered-down version or not one of the
top performing ones . Best to do your own research,
such as asking on forums like this one and/or
reading the Test Results done by an Independent
Researcher such as the one at
http://www.av-comparatives.org .

When I first started online computing, my ISP had as a part of their subscription an AV (I can't remember which one) which I used for awhile. I did start learning more about security software and thought to uninstall the ISP version and install a paid for version (didn't really know about free versions in 2004). Upon my first sweep, it found about 8 malware issues. Since then I no longer rely on those "watered down" versions as SpiritWind mentioned, and maybe would only use them in conjunction with another on-demand malware scanner (i.e. SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes). SpiritWind also gave you a good link...kudos S.W.

This post has been edited by Car54: 24 March 2011 - 02:07 PM