NIS - should I just call it a day..

HLK

I took Norton Internet Security for a second year.. got a good deal from an EBAY seller with an excellent rep.. so not bad I thought..

Installed it 3 months ago, since then all sorts of issues, some just niggles other really infuriating..

here's a quick list

system runs a lot slower - (defragged and RAM updated to 1024 - 4 slices)

had to switch off personal firewall as NTL says I can't use it with Outlook and get email..

can't seem to watch news clips anymore as always just says loading or communicating .. sure norton is slowing this up..

had to switch off pop-up blocker and ad blocker for various reasons..

etc so I don't use a lot of the features I've installed

---

so, my question is - should I just uninstall it and use AVAST / ZONEALARM

I already use/ ADAWARE / SPYBOT & SPYWAREBLASTER and have a hardware firewall on my wireless router so windows firewall is also switched off.

Our laptop just uses AVAST & ZONEALARM.. it's just I'm nervous of leaving my main machine exposed as it's heavily used and on all the time..

Thanks

ps - I've looked through other posts on subject of anti-virus. Only these are normally shoudl I buy this etc.. Woudl any of you actually ditch Norton once you've bought it ?

NellyLock

HLK wrote:

had to switch off personal firewall as NTL says I can't use it with Outlook and get email..

HRMM i dont like the sound of that...any isp that activelly tells you that you must switch off the firewall in order to get mail sounds dodgy...are you on dialup or broadband...i will sniff around and look at this if you let me know more.

HLK wrote:

had to switch off pop-up blocker and ad blocker for various reasons..

not a major issue and probably quite a no of people do this...

i dunno, in my eyes altho norton is fairly bloated, it probably has one of the biggest team of people coding and working in the backround so i kinda think it is 1 of t best, but tis just my opinion.

HLK

Hi ther.. thanks for reply

For your first statement - NTL say they dont support Outlook - only Outlook Express - and of course I use outlook like millions of other people.. and they only suggested I turned it off.. funnily enough though, mail came through as soon as I did - so
I just rely on the firewall in my NETGEAR router..

Second part - yeah, that's what I've always thought, but I'm getting a bit frustrated with these issues..specially the news-clips, one of the reasons I upped my bandwith is so that I could watch them , and it used to work really well not it's not even worth trying..

wolfman

Firstly, NTL are talking rubbish. Outlook can use POP/SMTP just like Outlook Express. I can't see how they'd know which of the two you were using. Setup your account correctly in Outlook and it'll run fine.

If I were you, I'd get rid of NIS. It's bloated and quite resource intensive. I'd go with Kerio Personal Firewall, it's free, light, and works very well. Combine that with Avast and you should be fine. Alternatively for about £30 you can get Nod32 which is one of the best AV's out there.

With regards to anti spam software, just setup rules in Outlook and "train" it and you'll eventually reduce or capture most of the spam you get.

danmanchester

I had exactly the same problems with NIS - system slowing down to snails pace etc so exchanged it for Norton systemworks (which includes NAV) and everything runs fine(and fast!) now. I chose to use Zone Alarm as my firewall. As others have mentioned above - NIS really does seem to be very very memory hungry!

fayraz

I use NIS 2004 PRO and it does slow my system on boot up but after that it is fine.

But I might switch to Kerio, but don't you have to psy for it?

wolfman

No, Kerio Personal Firewall is free. Within the product there is also a popup blocker which starts on a trial period but ends after 30 days, and you have to pay/buy a license to get it enabled again.

blinky

Norton does slow your system down, it's a major resource hog. Like wolfman, I'd recommend NOD32. think it's about £27-28 at the moment. Faster, more frequent updates and it has an excellent detection record.

As for free firewalls, in addition to Kerio, also consider Zonealarm and Sygate Personal.

T4i

Get rid of Norton, you'll notice a difference. Norton are the peoples choice, but how many other AV's do you see advertised on T.V

Rikki

I too have stopped using Norton.
What are you recommending and where do I get them from?

T4i

Rikki wrote:

I too have stopped using Norton.
What are you recommending and where do I get them from?

AntiVirus? Or Firewall? Or both?

NOD32 for AntiVirus http://www.nod32uk.com/purchase/purchase.htm £23 for a single workstation per year.

Kerio Firewall http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html