I have Norton internet security

[mycatis]

anti virus, spyware etc. Is it worth while downloading other anti virus software, or will Norton find anything on my computer? Thanks

[stevie21]

Norton's pretty good and it's found stuff on my PC that others have missed. In saying that, I'm sure others will have had the opposite experience.

Whatever you do, make sure you only use one antivirus at a time : don't have two installed.

There's no harm in downloading other antispyware and everyone everywhere recommends SpyBot S&D, AdAware and Microsoft's effort - I use ALL of these! (and more)

[Impret-Sir]

Agree with everything stevie said, personally I have found that Norton has slipped a bit in the last 12 months, I have switched to F-Secure which has found things on my PC that Norton missed. It has the advantage of including a firewall and only costs about �30 so is good value too. I also use Spy-bot and ad-aware, but nothing will protect you 100%, see my other post down the page!

[stoo_pid]

I've just upgraded to Norton AV 2006. I ran the spyware part of the prog & it came up clean. As I still had Pest Patrol installed I double-checked with that immediately afterwards and it found 5 or 6 items that Norton missed. Since then there has been 1 more occasion when Norton found nothing but PP picked up stuff.

I still use NAV but now I've disabled the spyware aspect (just cos it takes so flippin long to scan for apparently nothing) & continue to use Pest Patrol.

[sarah_louise]

It is OK to have more than one anti virus program or anti spyware on your PC but I think stevie21 means do not have them all active at once (Am I correct Stevie21).

To disable the others edit the MSCCONFIG start up, do not just turn them off in the icon tray. Sounds a bit techie and daunting but if you want a step by step I can tell you. I think Norton have indeed lost the plot and suggest AVG only. It is excellent and goodness knows why it is still free to use.

[stevie21]

sarah_louise - any antivirus program worth its salt will scan in the background while you're typing a letter, browsing t'internet etc. so if it's installed, it's active.

Install only one AV prog : at the moment if you already have another AV prog installed and also try to install Norton then it should detect the other and warn you.

This applies only to antivirus programs : you can have numerous anti-spyware programs installed as I, and thousands of others, do.

[spaced]

Personally I would ditch nortons, it messed up my new xp machine when I got it. As you can also see from other users, it is a pants fault ridden package. Your best bet is AVG Anti Viruis software. I have used it for the last 2 years, and have had no probs.

Plus its free - go to www.grisoft.com

[dommy100]

Hi

I use Norton and find it is fine. I also use Spybot (Search & Destroy) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal.

You can download these free from download.com

These two find things on your p.c. that Norton just doesn't pick up. Every Norton scan I do finds nothing but using these other two, everytime it picks up things so it's definitely worth having.