Alternative Security Suites

[Tweety.Abd]

Greeting my friends,

I'm really mad at Norton right now, for the last few days, it's been constantly detecting clean files as threat "WS.Reputation". So I downloaded a software which was pretty big, but it didn't have a digital signature, and once it was downloaded, Norton scanned it and removed it! That made me so mad because it's been doing the same thing so often and now I think it's pushed me to the point where I'm ready for a change. I used Norton 2011, but I didn't face so great amount of false positives, I'm not sure what's wrong with Norton. I like Norton because of the Identity Safe and it's pretty automatic and has a fearsome firewall and good malware removal as compared to other suites, but I just realized how crappy can false postives and lack of control can be. I think I'll be missing Norton's Identity safe more than anything because I have lots of log-ins saved in my Norton Account, but I'm moving on a positive note. I had a great time using Norton, but I think this is the time where I call it a quit.

So since I'm contemplating removal of Norton, I'd like to know good alternatives to it :) preferably one that has low system footprint, but more importantly, one that doesn't take all the control from the users like Norton nor one that can't make any decisions on its own :)

Thank you :)

[majithia23]

hello tweety ,

well this is the same reason i ditched Norton an year back .

as you yourself have summed up the Norton fiasco very well, so no point discussing it or restating any thing about it ... <_<

coming down to the options available ,

and you are well aware -- There are Many .!

and if i were to state my take ,

i ll put forth my opinion about the ones i tried .

Kaspersky - Its good . but then it too is heavy on resources .before installation , conflicted with a few already installed apps on the pc and told to uninstall them if KAV was to be installed .after installation , things went slow on my pc , noticeably . it quarantined and block many things. after struggling with it for a few days and when i got a little adjusted to it , i noticed , that the CPU spikes went to complete 100% even while just opening an Explorer Window ! Finally - Removed .!

Avast - Free version is the one , if you want to go . PRO is just redundant . it is light and doesnt trouble and understands the instructions well . and decent detection rates .the only thing i dint like was the messy GUI , too many options .

Avira - A very good choice . light and no performance hindrance . good protection . just noticed it misbehave a few times . dont remember exactly when , but it was not that troublesome as NAV

F-Secure - a very good setup . liked it . neat and clean and the parental protection suite was really good . but then it too is a bit hungry . runs too many services and stuff and also is a bit hard to uninstall . leaves behind stuff .

BitDefender - 2 AVs engines . Enough Said .....

Panda - its Cloud thing is just a hoax . doesnt run in the cloud . eats up the system . system bugger .

Eset - this was the one i was using and eventually returned back to in the end . fits my criteria . Good Detection , Low System Resources , No System Downtimes , No Nagging , Understands instructions well , Does its Job well . there are a few bugs in the new version , but then nothing is 100% .-_-

you gotta settle on some thing , !

Eset is the one i would recommend to any one at this time ......

see for what the other members put forth , keep your options open , try and see what suits your taste !

(ps - i ll just again put -, remove Norton carefully and manually . it wont go away that easy ..... )

[niharjhatn]

F-secure is pretty good, but uninstalling it is a BITCH, really don't recommend it for this reason.

ESET and avast are probably my choice (also given that fixes are available).

Perhaps some more "riskier" ones are AVG 2012, tried RC and ran decently, don't know about protection though. The new webroot seems really promising too!

[R0H1T]

Greeting my friends,

I'm really mad at Norton right now, for the last few days, it's been constantly detecting clean files as threat "WS.Reputation". So I downloaded a software which was pretty big, but it didn't have a digital signature, and once it was downloaded, Norton scanned it and removed it! That made me so mad because it's been doing the same thing so often and now I think it's pushed me to the point where I'm ready for a change. I used Norton 2011, but I didn't face so great amount of false positives, I'm not sure what's wrong with Norton. I like Norton because of the Identity Safe and it's pretty automatic and has a fearsome firewall and good malware removal as compared to other suites, but I just realized how crappy can false postives and lack of control can be. I think I'll be missing Norton's Identity safe more than anything because I have lots of log-ins saved in my Norton Account, but I'm moving on a positive note. I had a great time using Norton, but I think this is the time where I call it a quit.

So since I'm contemplating removal of Norton, I'd like to know good alternatives to it :) preferably one that has low system footprint, but more importantly, one that doesn't take all the control from the users like Norton nor one that can't make any decisions on its own :)

Thank you :)

There's only one that fits this criteria of yours i.e. NOD32 so you can pick version 4 or 5 depending upon the features you want, honestly HIPS isn't much of a gamechanger for me nor do I use parental controls, then come AVAST IS 6 & AVIRA IS 2012. The greatest thing about EST is that you can disable individual components(through taskbar) without going into any details whereas you have to figure out in most other AV's which particular components to turn ON/OFF but in ESET you have all the 8 major ones directly accessible through the UI !

[Tweety.Abd]

@majithia23:

You were right about the Norton crap and about the uninstallation problem. I unintalled Norton using the built-in uninstaller, and restarted and tried to install ESET and it detected Norton! I hate Norton even more right now, provided with it's flawed AV. I'm currently using ESET SS 5, it was hard to decide between ESET and Avast, but I finally decided to use it since it is low on system resources, low false postives, "smart security" (doesn't ask me for every other decision) and mainly parental control. I liked Norton's 2011 version, and I had high hopes from 2012, but it just ruined my experience. I still have Norton 2011 installed on my other computers and will continue to do so, Norton 2012 is a fail. I'm going to miss Norton's automatism and mainly Identity Safe to some extent, but I'm looking forward to the feeling of having control over my computer again :)

(ps - i ll just again put -, remove Norton carefully and manually . it wont go away that easy ..... )

That's something every AV vendor should pin on their support section :P Norton 2012 is pure crap :)

[AlienForce1]

@majithia23:

You were right about the Norton crap and about the uninstallation problem. I unintalled Norton using the built-in uninstaller, and restarted and tried to install ESET and it detected Norton! I hate Norton even more right now, provided with it's flawed AV. I'm currently using ESET SS 5, it was hard to decide between ESET and Avast, but I finally decided to use it since it is low on system resources, low false postives, "smart security" (doesn't ask me for every other decision) and mainly parental control. I liked Norton's 2011 version, and I had high hopes from 2012, but it just ruined my experience. I still have Norton 2011 installed on my other computers and will continue to do so, Norton 2012 is a fail. I'm going to miss Norton's automatism and mainly Identity Safe to some extent, but I'm looking forward to the feeling of having control over my computer again :)

(ps - i ll just again put -, remove Norton carefully and manually . it wont go away that easy ..... )

That's something every AV vendor should pin on their support section :P Norton 2012 is pure crap :)

I am really sorry for you that you had to realise in such a hard way that what I was telling you about Norton2012 being a TOTAL FAILURE , at that time you were contradicted me saying that Norton2012 is a good software , that one of the parts you like is that Norton2012 takes decisions automatically...etc... :huh:

[avmad]

Another one see's the light B) My pc came with Norton 90 day, it lasted 40 minutes before I replaced it with Avast. I so hate any AV that deletes without asking first. I find them impossible to use. Even if you use all legit software it will happen eventually. That list is getting quite big as more and more software seems to do it. As for F-Secure it wouldn't listen to me telling it something was good and excluded, kept popping up over and over again.

I have read how Eset kept detecting OA and other files as a problem but probably sorted by now. At least you can set it to no cleaning. B)

[Tweety.Abd]

@majithia23:

You were right about the Norton crap and about the uninstallation problem. I unintalled Norton using the built-in uninstaller, and restarted and tried to install ESET and it detected Norton! I hate Norton even more right now, provided with it's flawed AV. I'm currently using ESET SS 5, it was hard to decide between ESET and Avast, but I finally decided to use it since it is low on system resources, low false postives, "smart security" (doesn't ask me for every other decision) and mainly parental control. I liked Norton's 2011 version, and I had high hopes from 2012, but it just ruined my experience. I still have Norton 2011 installed on my other computers and will continue to do so, Norton 2012 is a fail. I'm going to miss Norton's automatism and mainly Identity Safe to some extent, but I'm looking forward to the feeling of having control over my computer again :)

(ps - i ll just again put -, remove Norton carefully and manually . it wont go away that easy ..... )

That's something every AV vendor should pin on their support section :P Norton 2012 is pure crap :)

I am really sorry for you that you had to realise in such a hard way that what I was telling you about Norton2012 being a TOTAL FAILURE , at that time you were contradicted me saying that Norton2012 is a good software , that one of the parts you like is that Norton2012 takes decisions automatically...etc... :huh:

I didn't realize that it'd turn out to be a nightmare. I didn't have any issues with its automatism, rather it was it's messed up Reputation scanner and increase in false positives and what made it worse was that I had no control over it. Norton 2011 had some minor issues, but I could live with that, but Norton 2012 is just too much to bear. Norton 2012 is good software, with the exception for it's "Reputational Scanner" which seems to detect only good and clean files, and it takes away all the control, but even so if its reputational scanner wasn't so messed up, I'd still be using it. ESET seems much better cleaner and I like the green and clean interface :)

[AlienForce1]

Neither ESET 5 is not perfect , nor Kaspersky , but at least you can tweak their settings as you like - and they listen you (that`s why I use them) . B)

-> and another thing I like is that they keep a copy to quarantine of every disinfected / deleted file ...(Norton2012 sometimes deletes only)

[Tweety.Abd]

Neither ESET 5 is not perfect , nor Kaspersky , but at least you can tweak their settings as you like - and they listen you (that`s why I use them) . B)

-> and another thing I like is that they keep a copy to quarantine of every disinfected / deleted file ...(Norton2012 sometimes deletes only)

I agree, no product is perfect but things can be made easier if you have control over it. Norton 2012 has fatal flaws (Reputation scanner, false positives) and what makes it worse is that you have no control over what Norton 2012 does and that ruins it all. And about not keeping a copy in Quarantine, if Norton 'blocks' a program, it makes no copy of it in the quarantine, but if it 'removes', you'll find it in the quarantine for sure, but even if there's a copy in the quarantine, it's cumbersome to go to Norton and restore it again.

[vfusion]

what makes it worse is that you have no control over what Norton 2012 does and that ruins it all

Hi,

Not trying to ask you to keep Norton or whatever.

You can actually create a 'special folder' where you would tweak Norton to exclude the folder in "Auto Protect, Sonar & Download Intelligence'.

For false positives (esp. keygen & patches) I would normally download to this folder and open it from there.

BTW, just disable the 'Download Intelligence & Norton Community Watch' which usually provide crap info.

[majithia23]

@tweety

why miss identity safe .

you can use Lastpass or Roboform or Keepass with Keefox ..! ;)

[toyo]

@majithia: what happened to your kaspersky is it failed somehow to recognise trusted/already scanned files. This happened to me in the past and I had to wait months for a hotfix (and KIS had to be uninstalled completely for the fix to work anyway).

You should give it another try with a new install and default scanner settings.

However, you will still see CPU spikes for some apps (like AIDA64, which launches another process when started). New/modified apps are always scanned and estimated during the launch. This will always consume CPU cycles.

[Tweety.Abd]

what makes it worse is that you have no control over what Norton 2012 does and that ruins it all

Hi,

Not trying to ask you to keep Norton or whatever.

You can actually create a 'special folder' where you would tweak Norton to exclude the folder in "Auto Protect, Sonar & Download Intelligence'.

For false positives (esp. keygen & patches) I would normally download to this folder and open it from there.

BTW, just disable the 'Download Intelligence & Norton Community Watch' which usually provide crap info.

For a moment, I considered doing that, but it's not feasible for me since I don't store the such files on my computer, I only download them, use them and delete them, and besides it wasn't only for keygens and patches (if it were, I'd understand), but it were for every other download without a verified publisher. About Norton Community Watch, I always keep it enabled in a effort 'to support the developers' to improve their product, but Norton just got worse in 2012.

@tweety

why miss identity safe .

you can use Lastpass or Roboform or Keepass with Keefox ..! ;)

I'm not familiar with either of those, and Norton's Identity Safe was pretty simple and easy for me to use, and I still have lots of credentials stored 'in the cloud'. I'll check out the one which uses the least system resources and is simple and easy to use.

[vfusion]

About Norton Community Watch, I always keep it enabled in a effort 'to support the developers' to improve their product, but Norton just got worse in 2012.

Your problem could be from the Community Watch ?

Ever try to disable it & see the outcome ? :s

[majithia23]

@majithia: what happened to your kaspersky is it failed somehow to recognise trusted/already scanned files. This happened to me in the past and I had to wait months for a hotfix (and KIS had to be uninstalled completely for the fix to work anyway).

You should give it another try with a new install and default scanner settings.

However, you will still see CPU spikes for some apps (like AIDA64, which launches another process when started). New/modified apps are always scanned and estimated during the launch. This will always consume CPU cycles.

hmmm...

i can relate that ... :think:

after installation of KIS ,

>system sound just went dead . it blocked my inbuilt IDT sound card management application . it had inbuilt equalizer and SRS controls beside the hardware controls .

>Firefox started like a clean new installation . some add ons were just gone , where as for rest of the others i was greeted with the message " welcome to NoScript ", " welcome to Better Privacy " , welcome to this and to that .....

>Applications took an eternity to launch

>Explorer went crazy

>in all System was like it was under heavy artillery fire and just dint know what to do ...!

now is an anti-malware suite supposed to that ? :dunno:

it amounts to the same corollary as an Anti Bacterial Med attacking the patients own cells !!

I'm not familiar with either of those, and Norton's Identity Safe was pretty simple and easy for me to use, and I still have lots of credentials stored 'in the cloud'. I'll check out the one which uses the least system resources and is simple and easy to use.

never used Roboform , so cant comment on that .

but use Lastpass as of now , and previously used KeePass .

Lastpass is very simple and straight forward , and as you say ,you like automation , you will for sure appreciate its Advanced A.I. its real good . ;)

and it also supports some advanced security features . check the Lastpass home page for details .

KeePass is also very simple and with KeeFox you can enable it to be integrated into FF .

and is more secure than any password managers , as the password database is maintained on your Personal Computer .

nothing goes into the cloud and thus minimal fear of password hacking .

but

then you have to have your Keepass Database and Keepass with you all the time , if you need to access your passwords from a computer other than your PC . i.e. is manual syncing . which can be a little tedious .

thats the only reason i shifted to Lastpass .

hope that clears your doubts .... :)

[toyo]

I dunno what happened, but it seems something in your PC was incompatible. I never saw any of those symptoms in my computers, and I use Kaspersky since the 90s. There are ways to find out what went wrong, but it's obviously too late now :P

[HX1]

OKAY.. big question.. did you successfully remove Norton and all concerned folders and files from your computer?... Clean the registry and all..

Welcome to ESS 5.. I like it.. I am using a Trial License right now.. HIPS seems to do its job well.. a little glitchy though.. better once you get the rules for it down.. think it needs some attention from ESET.. but that will come soon enough I hope.. If you have never used it before you might have a little time getting used to it and understanding exactly how to set it for your needs and most efficiently.. but I think you made a great decision... I started using it with version 2.. have been a fan ever since.. 3 sort of wasn't what I expected from them.. but it worked out and 4 was great... 5 I really like ...

[morteza]

Only Norton 2012 -_- .If you right please share an image for your every claims.

[majithia23]

I dunno what happened, but it seems something in your PC was incompatible. I never saw any of those symptoms in my computers, and I use Kaspersky since the 90s. There are ways to find out what went wrong, but it's obviously too late now :P

OKAY.. big question.. did you successfully remove Norton and all concerned folders and files from your computer?... Clean the registry and all..

Welcome to ESS 5.. I like it.. I am using a Trial License right now.. HIPS seems to do its job well.. a little glitchy though.. better once you get the rules for it down.. think it needs some attention from ESET.. but that will come soon enough I hope.. If you have never used it before you might have a little time getting used to it and understanding exactly how to set it for your needs and most efficiently.. but I think you made a great decision... I started using it with version 2.. have been a fan ever since.. 3 sort of wasn't what I expected from them.. but it worked out and 4 was great... 5 I really like ...

@toyo

at the time of installation it said , Orbit and one more app ( dont remember which one was that ) , were incompatible with KAV and they need to be uninstalled .

which i did and installation then went fine .

but later even i was even puzzled as to ,should the software be behaving in such a rude manner .

well of course if i wanted to keep it , i sure would have dropped in a Help topic to troubleshoot the bug and find a solution .!!

as i said , after i got used to it in a few days and figured out the settings and started to get adjusted to it , the erratic CPU spikes and the sudden momentarily ( few second ) freezing at random launching of files and programs , was the thing that really put me off ..!! -_-

@HX1

i think i did remove Norton completely, else , KAV would have detected it also along with Orbit and the other app .

it acted weird , but dint figure out why . ...

as for me ESET is the one i would go for any time presently and also recommend it to any one who asks ..

its a Charm .... ;)

[DKT27]

Recommend Lastpass too.

I loved having "asking everything" HIPS in Comodo, but in ESET, I prefer it Automatic with rules. Tell you, even in automatic mode, I've seen 2 messages asking. I'm happy to have an extra protection with HIPS without the hassle of configuring it. :)

[majithia23]

Only Norton 2012 -_- .If you right please share an image for your every claims.

....nobody is asking here for a refund of a money spent

or

.....filing a legal suit against any one .

and no body is claiming any thing ,

these are just the views expressed liberally and freely ,

by few members of a community in a common place that is meant for sharing your opinions .

[morteza]

@majithia23

When anyone said about Norton that it is delete files without quarantine them,must show a image about that because i never see that.

[DKT27]

Chillax guys. There are better ways to say things. Lets not make it an argument thread instead of preference and discussion thread. ;)

[morteza]

@DKT27

He is talking about my comments 3 times with impolitely words.What do you want to i do with this impolitely man?