Programs need to play nicely with protection.

I think you are 100% correct (adding a rule to firewall is of course completely different :))

Good jobs that Sins doesn't make you do that  

I've been running in the DMZ on my router without a firewall, anti-virus or spy-ware blocker for a few years now. Paranoia is over-rated. Don't be stupid and your odds of having problems are nil.

Better safe than sorry. I keep Norton Antivirus running all the time, and I can count on one hand the number of problems I've had with my computers over the past half dozen years. Most were old hardware failing, to boot.

LOL @ Norton. Norton IS a virus, insidious beast.

Indeed, if you're using Norton, you've got bigger worries than hackers and viruses.

Pah. Mess with the settings a bit, and you can tame it quite nicely. Most good programs are like that.

No, a 'good' program is 'tamed quite nicely' when you install it.

If you have to 'mess with the settings a bit' just to get it tame, then it's doodoo caca.

All I know is, I dealt with the programming abortion that is Norton for far too long before I wised up and wiped that incessant, useless and ineffectual program off my system.

I still remember the first time I did a scan (after having used Norton forever, and scanned for viruses at least twice a week) with a competent anti-virus program - it found a mountain of viruses that Norton either missed or was too busy playing pocket-pool with.

Plus, the new anti-virus program I run is much less of a resource hog.

Anyway, this is just my long winded way of saying:



QFT.

Errm, QFT?

Quite Funny Though???

Again, pah. I've encountered no antivirus more effective then Norton. It's kinda like Windows. There's a some annoyances, but it's more powerful than the rest.

Most of the antivirus/spyware/etc. programs that find a zillion viruses tend to just break down the same thing into a million pieces in my experience.

Personally, my computer doesn't speed up at all with Norton off (Including games). The only time I notice any lag with it is when doing an actual scan (Even then, only with games).

QFT = Quote for Truth.

The most effective anti-virus program i know of is the F-Secure. However it's such a resource hog that running it has effectively made some older machines unusable. My old laptop came pre-installed with Norton, and it didn't give me headaches, However, i moved to freeware solutions, that have worked perfectly so far.

I have had problems with Norton in the past.

My current fav is BitDefender. My machine stays clean, and it does not get in the way.


And by the way...
A lot of the problems users encounter with GalCiv2 (as in slow turn times and such) can be helped or solved by excluding the GalCiv2 folders from the real-time scanning engine.

Norton had like a gazillion processes and was constantly using like 60mb of ram altogether. Since I switched to AVG, it only has a few processes and uses a fraction the amount of resources that Norton did. Not only that, but I got 2 licenses for 2 years for the same price as a 1 year, 1 license from Norton.

Ya know...I hear/see that all the time...but I've yet to have a problem with it and I've been using it for about 5 years now. it runs all the time...and doesn't even slow me down. And hell...my ObjectDock uses more ram than Norton does. Go figure!

I guess like with a lot of software you guys got a bad batch or something.

But whats even better is using your brain.....much less of a resource hog and doesn't cost anything....mine came installed....although I did abuse it a bit during the sixties!

The 60's?

Where was Norton in the 60's?
???

Where was the PC?

And, how did you abuse it in that time period?

Kaspersky is by far the nicest in terms of staying out of the way and protecting the system. It finds even the most minor of infections the moment they happen. And even when running a scan is hardly noticable.

But so long as your careful, programs like that should almost never need to run. I've had nothing but the most minor adware in the last eight years or so.

A hint, when a pop up says, click here to scan your computer for repairs. Don't.

amen Bebi.  

And yes,I agree,a proggy should never ask me to disable either antivirus or firewall.(course,I cant think of a single time I've had to)  

Tried Norton here too, and Mcafee, and AVG and a few others. When it came right down to it though, nothing out there today beats eSet's NOD32 AntiVirus/AntiSpyware software.

He was referring to his brain, you know, where you "save" what you have read in a post.

Exactly.....

In case, on the off-chance Norton succeeds in keeping your system squeaky clean, just so you keep feeling all warm and fuzzy it'll take it upon itself to screw your system anyway, just like the good old days when you had a virus/trojan/bug....;)

My HP came with Norton and it was the hardest thing to clean out.Damn parasite!It was also a resource HOG!I used AVG for awhile,now Avast,with Windows Defender.The only adware I ever had was from a toolbar I installed.I cleaned that out with Spybot S&D.

I have never disabled anything while installing other software,including Impulse.I don't believe I have ever even changed firewall settings,except to allow winamp.

The corporate version of CA's E-trust AV/Pestpatrol is about as "lean and mean" as an AV program can get in my opinion. We use it on all of our workstations and servers without a hitch and the lowest resource-usage I've ever seen in an AV program. It's the first AV program my staff claims to not even notice, and that's big praise.

I have been testing (in our test-lab) the MS solution (MS Forefront client/server) for several months now, and I have to say....I am suitably impressed with their attempts to enter the market. The MS solution does have a ways to go though, before I would begin replacing the CA solution on our systems.... it's MS afterall!   


the Monk

If anyone is 'brave' enough .. although 'brave' may not be the best descriptive term ... try running your PC without an Anti-virus, Firewall or Anti-Spyware app running and see how long it takes for a nasty to latch onto your box.

Bad form (not to mention bad idea) for any program to require you to shut down your malware protection just to install it.

At the very least, you should disconnect your machine from the Internet if the app to be installed requires turning these programs off ... although if the app to be installed requires Internet access, you're damned if you do; damned if you don't.   

Running a bunch of bloated crap to offset someone's inability to write system and network-enabled code is a half-measure.


Several years, if you update, don't use IE and don't open random executable attachments in spam emails.

Mass Effect (Got it as a gift) actually refused to run with antivirus at all. Saw an email by the SecuRom people that said that the antivirus software could uncover their methods. So it's intentionally not allowing me to even play the game with antivirus also running.


Then run antivirus/spyware and see what you find. Even the most careful browsing can get you malware.