Thursday, December 06, 2007

Security

I'm a happy camper, somewhat, because today we ditched Norton from the desktop PC.

It had gone into a loop, popping up a message about every fifteen sections that OMIGOD WE'VE DETECTED AN UNKNOWN BLOODHOUND SOMETHIN OR OTHER and interspersing it with RELAX CALM DOWN ALL IS OK YOUR PC IS SAFE. As if that weren't bad enough, it blocked internet access (which, to be fair, might actually have been happening due to something else, since Norton itself couldn't get to the net).

Enough is freakin' enough, we thought. I deinstalled it, downloaded Avast, installed it. It's running now, no problems.

I'm willing to say that Norton probably does more in the way of security than Avast. I don't know that, but I'm willing to posit it. But when the damn thing is an active pain (unlike being a passive pain, which its been for quite some time), I really don't care any more. I know, its probably a Security Through Ignorance policy. Hell with it. Chuck it.

So we did.

3 comments:

Sweeti said...

I'm ready to do the same thing, I'm tired of the sluggishness and tired of having to purchase all these stupid programs for this n that.
Just give me some internet security and a anti virus and let me be happy.
I would be interested in knowing how you like the new program and what made you choose it.

Cerulean Bill said...

It's difficult for me to tell if it's 'working' -- I don't get something that says this many problems found and fixed, as I do with Norton's one-button checkup. On the other hand, when I do a search for info on antivirus programs (and thats all that this is, I think, none of the other things like email scanning or trojan detection), this (and, I think, AVG) always come up as recommended. So far, it looks fine to me. Installs very easily and quickly, unlike Norton. Their home page is http://www.avast.com/eng/download.html.

Cerulean Bill said...

Yes, I've heard good things about AVG, too. I always think that if I were going to try to pollute people's PCs, I'd do it by offering a freeware that they'd want -- and what better than a program that says it's checking your security? So I worry a little...but not a lot. Probably not as much as I should!