Anti-Virus software

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#1
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3694
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North Carolina
I have decided that I have had enough of Norton. Multiple ads every day and they ignore me when I click “Do not show this again.” Is there anything better out there that will not slow my computer down noticeably?

I have Nord VPN - happy with it - and Acronis for online backups - reasonably happy.
 

#2
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4-Mar-2018 9:03pm
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The Office
After spending the majority of the day on IT related activities (the joy of wearing many hats), I added a calendar reminder to do a deep dive on antivirus/firewall/anti-malware software after Thanksgiving vacation. So this post is timely for me. I too have Norton. I've had it for years on business devices and even longer on personal devices, but am wondering if it's still the best option for me. And the pop ups have gotten annoying for me as well. I don't remember them ever being this bad. Plus, the interface seems to keep getting more and more complicated. They seem to be moving toward being not only antivirus/firewall/anti-malware but to a holistic data security platform. That's their prerogative, but I don't want VPN or a password manager through Norton, so the whole thing is beginning to feel a little bloated to me.

One option I'm going to be exploring is the "free" native Windows Defender with a lightweight anti-malware supplemental program. Periodic research I do suggests that the antivirus and firewall in Windows Defender are actually quite good.

I'll let you know what I find. Of course, the best protection is user education. i.e. Don't click on suspicious links and don't visit questionable websites.
 

#3
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3694
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21-Apr-2014 11:24am
Location:
North Carolina
I’m involved in Scottish politics. Visiting questionable websites comes with the territory. Seriously, I do know what you mean.

My tech guy thinks Windows anti-virus is fine but, ach, I don’t know. I want braces to go with the belt.
 

#4
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8152
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The Office
Took me a few seconds to figure out what "braces" are. :)

In the US, we say "How can you trust a guy who wears suspenders and a belt? That guy doesn't even trust his own pants."
 

#5
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2887
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21-May-2018 7:50am
Location:
Northern MI and Coastal SC
I have transitioned a few times over the many years and have always 100% hated Norton and McAfee. I do not trust Kaspersky.

I have landed on BitDefender. It still has one of the smaller footprints while offering great protection, IMO. It used to play well with MalwareBytes but now they battle each other, so I am going down to just BitDefender. Central management is nice, too.
 

#6
LDCPA  
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173
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8-Aug-2022 8:04pm
Location:
CA
I used ESET for the last year. It's what my IT guy recommended and so far I like it. They've been around forever. ESET doesn't use a ton of computer resources like CPU and RAM and runs fast in the background. My experience with other antivirus software is it eats up a lot of CPU & RAM and slows down our computers.
 

#7
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3694
Joined:
21-Apr-2014 11:24am
Location:
North Carolina
Thanks for the suggestion on ESET. Might well go for it. My Norton subscription expires in five days so I have plenty of time to think about this and dig into the deepest recesses of my wallet for a form of payment.
 

#8
sjrcpa  
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6474
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23-Apr-2014 5:27pm
Location:
Maryland
We use Trend Micro. The decision was our IT guy's.
 

#9
zl28  
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2066
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Location:
usa
I like ESET as well
 

#10
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2887
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21-May-2018 7:50am
Location:
Northern MI and Coastal SC
I use ESET on my virtual server. Forgot about that one.
 


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