Norton 360

fred_easey · 6 Oct 2007 at 13:14

Hi,

Am in the process of fixing up my mate's battered Dell desktop.

After a vicious battle I've managed to set up his broadband, delete a load of spyware, install firefox and chopped loads of rubbish out of the sys tray.

Anyway, last thing I need to sort out is anti-virus. He bought Norton 360 a couple of months ago, but I can't figure out if it is actually working or not.

If I click on the security centre icon in control panel and then click on firewall, it says that Norton 360 is on. Likewise for virus protection.

Anyhow, there is no Norton icon in the sys tray, and if I look on task manager then there is no sign of anything called Norton.

How can I check to see if it is actually working or not?

Also, he got a copy of McAfee bundled with his Sky Broadband, along with a year's subscription. Should he use that instead of Norton 360, or is there not much in it?

Should he laugh off Norton and McAfee completely and use some free av instead (eg ZoneAlarm, Avast etc)?

Any advice would be much appreciated

Cheers,

Fred

fred_easey · 6 Oct 2007 at 13:18

Sorry have just read this long thread on it:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17777484&highlight=Norton+360

So I'm going to uninstall Norton and install McAfee instead

Richdog · 6 Oct 2007 at 13:19

There are sooo many AV's better than Mcaffee... even free ones.

Indy500 · 6 Oct 2007 at 13:24

Agreed. Symantec's Norton range is generally pretty rubbish, as are the McAfee products.

Duke · 6 Oct 2007 at 13:34

Both are slow and a resource hog. At least go for AVG or even better, NOD32

TheVoice · 6 Oct 2007 at 14:10

Norton 360 is rubbish. I installed it on my Mum's new Dell PC when I was at their house during Summer, and it showed the same strange problem as you've seen; no system tray icons or processes. Uninstalling it failed, then had to use the Symantec Removal Tool (completely ridiculous that it even needs one). This had the desired effect, except it now won't allow 360 to reinstall. Waste of space.

bledd · 6 Oct 2007 at 17:03

remove them both, and use avast if he wants a free one

swinnie · 6 Oct 2007 at 18:24

I found that Norton Internet Security products to behave strangly on some makes of Laptop. Mostly Eveshams and ocasionally Dells.

I have now been using AVG or Avast! on other machines with virtually know problems (touch wood).

fred_easey · 8 Oct 2007 at 09:24

I use a combination of Avast / Zone Alarm on my own laptop.

However, I've heard that there is a fairly easy way for Zone Alarm firewall to be compromised, which I think may have actually have happened to me a few times, as I've left my laptop on overnight and Zone Alarm has bombed out sometime during the night.

So I figured McAfee may be a better option for my mate, purely for the firewall. Or is there a free alternative that is not Zone Alarm that he should use? Or is Zone Alarm fairly safe to use after all?