Is Norton Anti-Virus Supposed to Slow You Down?

[jtracking]

Hi, I was just wondering if Norton Anti-Virus has slowed down anyones PC or if you feel a slow down may be a result from the NAV installation.

When I bought my PC it came equipped with Norton's basic package going for $49.00 CAD and when I upgraded it to the $79.00 CAD version my PC works like a turtle. It really bites!

I disabled the Norton Protection Center that comes with the upgraded package ($79.00) and it's a bit quicker but start from scratch or from sleep/hibernation takes weekends!

Do I have to un-install this whole thing and run free or does someone know the best bestes way ; )

Let me know and a hearty thanks to anyone with assistance.

[jawn_tech]

I divorced Norton several years ago for pretty much that reason. Bulky and often times ineffective against newest threats. Since then AVG Free from Grisoft has done a great job for me personally.

[bj]

I ended up reformatting to get Norton totally off my system. Yeah, I know. Drastic. But necessary. They should have named it Kudzu instead of Norton.

I went with Kaspersky. Very good, total integration with my email program (that's IMPORTANT!) and caught a bunch of stuff Norton missed.

[RegDCP]

Same problem.
I went to Avast after getting rid of Norton.

When I put Avast on it found 2 Trojans that Norton missed.

Reg

[RegDCP]

Same problem.
I went to Avast after getting rid of Norton.

When I put Avast on it found 2 Trojans that Norton missed.

Reg

[halfmexi]

Norton is crap.... corrupted my entire system when it lost a fight with an email worm.... took a week to get the computer back to normal. Kaspersky has been keeping my computer clean for 3 years now and I get alot of files from clients, use the torrents, etc. and it has caught every little virus people have thrown at me (so far).

I can't believe Norton is still so popular... of course I have that same question about MS Explorer - bulky, slow and totally unsecure.

[deepsand]

Is it "supposed to?" No. Does it? Yes. That's an unavoidable consequence of its size, complexity & privileged interaction with the OS.

A more relevant question is that of whether or not it provides a benefit whose value is commensurate with the cost of the performance penalty & the risk of system corruption. In my experiences, it does not.

Not only are there suitable alternatives with smaller footprints & lesser performance penalties, but with substantially less risk of corruption of the OS and/or browser as well.

I've witnessed 4 cases in which NAV severely crippled machines when the subscriptions were being renewed and/or had expired. 2 were partially rehabilitated by substituting FireFox as the default browser; 1 required the installation of a new primary HD, with the old one becoming a slave so as to retain & allow access to existing data files. The 4th machine was replaced.

IMHO, use NAV at your own risk.

[gnomeshollow]

I installed computer systems for 15 years, and we refused to support them if they used Norton. It was always flakey and draged down the computers preformance. It was installed on my computer when I bought it, and also had to reformat my hard drive to get rid of all the crap that Norton uninstall left. I now use AVAST (free version) and am very happy with it.

OlGnome

Pender Island B&B - Gnomes Hollow Bed and Breakfast - Pender Island Accommodations - gnomeshollow.com

[johngroup]

I followed jawn_tech path. It's too bad. The company at one time made a good product.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by johngroup

I followed jawn_tech path. It's too bad. The company at one time made a good product.

The Norton name once was held in the very highest regards; now it's held up for public scorn & ridicule.

Peter Norton should sue Symantec for ruining his good name.

[Manpasand]

I am using NAV last 3 years, since then I have not much problem except taking time when computer start. This take around 1-2 mints, which I don't like.

I used other Anti Viruses also and every software finds Trojans. IMO no anti virus is complete since so many Viruses.

What other guys think?

[ronparrs]

Dittos! Once someone introduced me to Grisoft's AVG, both Free & paid, versions, my family & business has enjoyed virus free living. Switch now & save yourself some aggravation.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by Manpasand

I<snip>
IMO no anti virus is complete since so many Viruses.

What other guys think?

True; but, that is not an adequate reason for choosing a particular AV product.

The fact remains that no other product has the long unbroken record of having so badly trashed so many machines as does NAV under Symantec.

[wige]

When I started my job a little over a year ago, we had Norton Corporate Edition, fully up to date installed on our internal server. Browsing through some files, I came across about 4GB of German um... movies, in a hidden folder (read as: server got hacked). I managed after about two hours to get Norton uninstalled and put the free version of AVG on the server to test... found over twenty trojans and viruses. We have since moved to a mix of AVG Corporate on our XP systems and Avast on our Vista systems. This gives us some overlap so if one antivirus misses something, the other should catch it.

Also, because viruses are modified quickly to avoid detection, most antivirus products use heuristic scanning to find new viruses, and people who write the viruses test against the most popular programs, in this case, Norton and McAffee. For the same reason Windows has more viruses than Macs (most people use Win, so that is what you attack), more viruses get through the big two AV products than the smaller ones (again, you target what most people have).

Every once in a while, obscurity helps in your security.

[kgun]

Originally Posted by bj

I ended up reformatting to get Norton totally off my system. Yeah, I know. Drastic. But necessary. They should have named it Kudzu instead of Norton.

I went with Kaspersky. Very good, total integration with my email program (that's IMPORTANT!) and caught a bunch of stuff Norton missed.

I think this is already answered in the security sub forum.

In my view, the greatest virus is antivirus programs. My son agree.

I only tried AV some years ago. I did not fintune the options, but I am sure it slowed my efficiency with at least 2 %.

No I do not use an AV at all. If I do not surf known sites, I usually surf as a user and not as administrator. I use restore points, and sometimes scan my computer for malware with online trojan, spyware, adware, antivirus scanners etc.

General reccomendation:

• Don't click on everything you see.
• Learn to judge sites.
• Surf as user.
• Use restore points.
• Take regular backups.
• If the worst thing happens, and you have to install everything, use the backups, format the harddisk and reinstall.
• Do not have company critical information on a computer with connection to the internet.

This was not a reccomendention to delete your AV program. May be it is better to use abtrusion protection Abtrusion Security since it protect against future unknown virus. AV can be false security. In the digital age a virus can spread accross the globe in seconds, long before the AV providers have updated their systems.

Conclusion: Go to the security sub forum and find expert information.

[wige]

Any program that does live scanning will slow down your computer slightly because it does pretty thorough checks on new files and on files as you access them. However, antivirus software is still important because even trusted sites can be compromised and the virus can spread on your system quickly.

One of the things I like about the Avast software is that it can be configured to run the full scan when the screensaver is running so it doesn't affect performance when you are working.

[bj]

Geez, I guess all the agreement with me from a lot of folks on this board whose opinion I respect shows JUST HOW BAD NORTON AV IS!

I thought I'd mention, in view of what else has been said, to offer a couple other experiences I've had. Avast, though a very good AV, didn't play well with some of the other software on my machine. YMMV. I had Avira AV for awhile and it let something through. Panda didn't play well with others, even worse problems with it than Avast, its support page is a PITA, and the support people don't communicate well in English. Kaspersky so far has been golden.

There is a free, slightly stripped down version of Kaspersky available here:
Active Virus Shield

Very informative thread!

[bj]

I thought y'all might be interested in what problems CAN result from Norton--

Computer Security and your Website

[wige]

Like bj mentions, no AV software will work perfectly 100% of the time... In addition to my above mentioned experiences with Norton, I have seen various issues with a variety of other products....

I had always used AVG, but when I switched to Vista, they did not support it yet. I then switched to Avast. Avast is pretty good, and I like its boot mode scanning option, but it can be flaky at times, I don't know if that is because of Vista or Avast (unable to delete a virus from the Recycle Bin for example)

When it first came out, MS Antispyware Beta 1 was AMAZING. My computer science teacher was giving a lecture and did a search on Google for some obscure piece of code, and ended up infecting the computer with a rather severe virus. This was a 0-day exploit and the four major name anti-virus products we tried could not get rid of the infection. The computers at the school had a feature that they automatically rebuilt off of a hidded drive at reboot, so we tried an experiment infecting three computers and installing MSAS on them. It prevented or removed the infection in each case. Now though, it doesn't seem to be nearly as effective.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by wige

<snip>

When it first came out, MS Antispyware Beta 1 was AMAZING.
<snip>

Yes, its was amazing how many false positives it gave!

[Akashic]

I have to agree ... I haven't had a single virus issue on any of our computers since we changed over to AVG.

[megahertz28]

AVG Free kicks arse! I have yet to encounter a problem with it's effectiveness in removing viruses acrossed several hundered PC's. Sometime paid programs like Mcafee & norton can't get them & the FREE one will! I am totally sold. If you use spybot, adaware SE, and zone alarm in conjunction w/ avg, yes your computer will slow down a bit, but in my experience not as much as the resource intinsive whore that Norton is. (and they are all free!)
I would recommend that you choose not to start Adaware & Spybot on system boot, or place an icon in the system tray when installing. Just run each, once a week manually or through schedules. It's also a good idea to see what processes that you have running at any given time. From RUN on the start menu type - msconfig (2000 & XP only I think). The last two tabs to the right are most important. If you haven't backed up & formatted your machine in a year or so, I bet you will be confounded by the BS that resides in your "startup". Likewise with the services ~ there is a button there that says hide MS progs. Do that, & see what you recognize from whats left. If there is a doubt about a prog. cut and paste it's specifics into google & determine whether it is required for your hardware / software / objectives. I always try to tell clients to defrag, (before I overlay windows...which I always end up doing anyway lol) but it does make the data contigous and the read/write heads on the platter don't have to travel so far to find the info to display. This is especially important on WIN 98 machinces & 5400 rpm drives.
Anyway, here are the links to free solutions that actually work -
AVG Free Advisor: AVG Anti-Virus Free
ZoneAlarm - Proactive Firewall protection with multiple layers of security that stop inbound, outbound, and program attacks
The home of Spybot-S&D!
Ad-Aware 2007 Free - Lavasoft
Ditch Norton, we use it at work & it blows in comparison.
(from the other post... just because avast is complient w/ vista doesn't make it good? Their track record over the last several years, with established OS's has been lackluster at best.)

Good luck

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by megahertz28

AVG Free kicks arse! I have yet to encounter a problem with it's effectiveness in removing viruses acrossed several hundered PC's. Sometime paid programs like Mcafee & norton can't get them & the FREE one will! I am totally sold. If you use spybot, adaware SE, and zone alarm in conjunction w/ avg, yes your computer will slow down a bit, but in my experience not as much as the resource intinsive whore that Norton is. (and they are all free!)
I would recommend that you choose not to start Adaware & Spybot on system boot, or place an icon in the system tray when installing. Just run each, once a week manually or through schedules. It's also a good idea to see what processes that you have running at any given time. From RUN on the start menu type - msconfig (2000 & XP only I think). The last two tabs to the right are most important. If you haven't backed up & formatted your machine in a year or so, I bet you will be confounded by the BS that resides in your "startup". Likewise with the services ~ there is a button there that says hide MS progs. Do that, & see what you recognize from whats left. If there is a doubt about a prog. cut and paste it's specifics into google & determine whether it is required for your hardware / software / objectives. I always try to tell clients to defrag, (before I overlay windows...which I always end up doing anyway lol) but it does make the data contigous and the read/write heads on the platter don't have to travel so far to find the info to display. This is especially important on WIN 98 machinces & 5400 rpm drives.
Anyway, here are the links to free solutions that actually work -
AVG Free Advisor: AVG Anti-Virus Free
ZoneAlarm - Proactive Firewall protection with multiple layers of security that stop inbound, outbound, and program attacks
The home of Spybot-S&D!
Ad-Aware 2007 Free - Lavasoft
Ditch Norton, we use it at work & it blows in comparison.
(from the other post... just because avast is complient w/ vista doesn't make it good? Their track record over the last several years, with established OS's has been lackluster at best.)

Good luck

AVG Free is good because, other than the absence of the management features required by those supporting a large LAN, it is identical to the paid version; the 2 versions use the same engine.

As for Ad Aware, I stopped using it, as it is too aggresvie, yielding far too many false positives, and detecting nothing that Spybot S&D doesn't.

Two pieces of advice.

1) If you use ZoneAlarm Pro, rather than the free version, do not use its anti-spam, anti-spyware, or anti-cookie features. The 1st two are far from being "best of breed," and the 3rd is overly aggressive.

2) As for Spybot Search & Destroy, most definitely do select Advanced mode, do set it to run at Boot time, but with no initial scan, and activate both Resident features. And, if the machine remains on at all times, establish a scheduled scan for during a time that the machine is not be actively used.

This will provide you with automatic blocking of known bad sites and guard against unwanted changes to both the Registry Hive and the Startup file.. Any performance hit here will be negligible

[Marco X]

I used Norton a couple of years ago when was a good product but know is only marketing, so I use from sometime Kaspersky products KAV and KIS . It is the first antivirus on top and even ZoneAlarm integrated the code of KAV.

Kaspersky is an easy-to-use program for the average person with plenty of customizable options for an advanced user. Just install and set up this software and you'll never have to worry about a virus or worm infecting your computer.

Have many Virus Bulletin awards.Also in may 2007 PC World declare the KAV6 one of the 100 Best Products of 2007.Also get awards from ComputerBild,PCUser,SC Europe Awards and more others.

[jtracking]

wow i thought i might get eaten alive for removing norton but the posts show norton does bite and practually ruins everything - that is unless you're one of the lucky ones where it works just fine - but i couldn't even handle the 3 minute boot time, much too much...

Thanks for your stories everyone. I'm going to try AVG or Kaspersky, why not. I really wish I didn't have to use any anti-virus program but the way some writers are these day, you have no choice!

Thanks!

[Martinscholes]

It is not supposed to slow your computer. Or cause crashes. But it does both. I guess they figured that a computer that cannot work is impervious to any viral attack...

[kgun]

Have any of you tried BitDefender? It was rated highest the last time I saw a rating for different av programs. They have an excellent online scan, that I use once a year or less

[megahertz28]

(I didn't have time to read all the posts..so forgive if double info)
IMO Norton is a resource hog that will slow your machine down to a crawl, especially if you enable the "real time" junk. I have been giving ONLY HOME users the free AVG client for quite awhile now....no complaints.
I am editing this again because I realized I already posted...forever ago! duh!

deepsand penn state ticket man....I work at a University too (and would scalp tickets if I could, lol), I wish you were closer so we could go out drink'n and talk PC's.

[NetProwler]

In addition to the suggestions mentioned above, there is one more routine you can adopt to look for suspicious activity on your Windows computer:

CTL-ALT-DEL and go to Task manager and view all running processes. Any process which shouldn't be running points to the fact that something is amiss. But there is always the possibility that it can masquerade as a genuine Windows process. This is where Security task manager can come in handy. This shows all the processes running in your machine and also gives you the option of blocking the process permanently. It is another simple utility to keep a watch on your machine.

[kgun]

If you have windows XP (Not sure about Vista), you can use

1. run
2. msconfig

And uncheck some processes from running.

[innominds]

My recommendation are in this order of priority:

1. Kaspersky's Anti Virus 7.0
2. Trend Micro Anti Virus
3. CA Anti Virus 2008

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by megahertz28

<snip>

deepsand penn state ticket man....I work at a University too (and would scalp tickets if I could, lol), I wish you were closer so we could go out drink'n and talk PC's.

Actually, deepsand (myself) and the Penn State Ticket Man are 2 different persons; the latter is a long time friend of mine, dating from our time together at Penn State nearly 4 decades ago.

Having brought him into the age of the Internet, I'm deeply involved in his business, to the point of having become a de facto partner. The greatest benefit of such is that I get to spend a great deal of time in Happy Valley, particularly during football season.

As for Illinois, they're making a name for themselves in the Big Ten; if they continue on their present course, they could become a perennial power to be reckoned with. Maybe then we can sell more than the present handful of tickets to our away games there.

BTW, it's scalping only when the law re. the resale of tickets is violated. That's the reason for the Tour Club Membership on our site; we sell tour packages, not naked tickets. Of course, with the recent change in PA Law re. Internet sales, we'll no longer have need of that.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by NetProwler

In addition to the suggestions mentioned above, there is one more routine you can adopt to look for suspicious activity on your Windows computer:

CTL-ALT-DEL and go to Task manager and view all running processes. Any process which shouldn't be running points to the fact that something is amiss. But there is always the possibility that it can masquerade as a genuine Windows process. This is where Security task manager can come in handy. This shows all the processes running in your machine and also gives you the option of blocking the process permanently. It is another simple utility to keep a watch on your machine.

Process Explorer, an extended version of Task Manager, which allows you to view the individual process tree, thereby seeing the succession by which a given process spawned additional processes, is highly recommended.

It can be downloaded, at no cost, from Process Explorer v11.04 . (Microsoft now owns SysInternals, and makes available the entire suite of outstanding utilitites.)

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by kgun

If you have windows XP (Not sure about Vista), you can use

1. run
2. msconfig

And uncheck some processes from running.

Spybot Search & Destroy's Advanced features include the ability to view & change the msconfig file at will, with much more flexibility than the internal OS command; additionally, it provides information about each entry, to the extent such is available, from the Paul Collins Startup list.

[eMonsterhost]

Yeah, both Norton and McAfee and some cumbersome services that run in the background, however McAfee works great for a work/business environment, due to it being an NAI product that works well with ePolicy Orchestrator.

I personally prefer AVG Free-edition for my PC at home.

Regards!

[gofranco]

Hi everyone
Am new to this forum and would like to thank all who have posted such valuable info re Norton A.V.
I shall definitely be changing from Norton to one of those suggested
A problem(and I am no techie here!)which recurrs all the time is that when I run either SpyBot or Adware(can't remember which)I get told that my Microsoft Windows Security Centre is disabled and although the spyware deletes it , there it is back when I do the next scan !
Any advice from you experts would be welcome

Franco

We give you Tons Of High Targeted Traffic To Your Website
Have you ever wished that you could be paid a percentage of Everything Sold Online ?
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[deepsand]

Originally Posted by gofranco

Hi everyone
A problem(and I am no techie here!)which recurrs all the time is that when I run either SpyBot or Adware(can't remember which)I get told that my Microsoft Windows Security Centre is disabled and although the spyware deletes it , there it is back when I do the next scan !
Any advice from you experts would be welcome

Please advise:

1) If it is SD&D or AdAware where you observe this behavior;

2) The specific Registry Key(s) reported as being problematic; and,

3 The specific & exact wording of the corresponding Description(s) of the problem(s).

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by deepsand

Actually, deepsand (myself) and the Penn State Ticket Man are 2 different persons; the latter is a long time friend of mine, dating from our time together at Penn State nearly 4 decades ago.

Did I understand you to say you two are dating?

I experienced a nightmare with NAV about 5 years ago ... and have been bug free since with AVG and Mcafee installed - hey, what can I tell you, my computer tech is overly protective, perhaps. Yes, it slows down my system a bit at times, but nothing like NAV did.

Cheers, MJ

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Did I understand you to say you two are dating?

I experienced a nightmare with NAV about 5 years ago ... and have been bug free since with AVG and Mcafee installed - hey, what can I tell you, my computer tech is overly protective, perhaps. Yes, it slows down my system a bit at times, but nothing like NAV did.

Cheers, MJ

More like married; in fact, he calls me so frequently when I'm at one particular client's office that the people there, when fielding his calls for me, simply tell me that "my wife" in on the line! In truth, he's essentially the brother that I never had.

I've tried various McAfee products, on several machines, over several years, all with the same results - 1) It proved to be an unacceptable load on the machines' resources, although not to the same extent as NAV; 2) it yielded too many false positives; and, 3) it failed to give me adequate control over the disposition of items it deemed "dangerous."

Despite frequently testing other products, the combination that I've used for several years now is AVG and Spybot Search & Destroy.

[gofranco]

Originally Posted by deepsand

Please advise:

1) If it is SD&D or AdAware where you observe this behavior;

2) The specific Registry Key(s) reported as being problematic; and,

3 The specific & exact wording of the corresponding Description(s) of the problem(s).

Hi Deepsand, thanks for your reply

The answers you requested are

1) SpyBot
2) sorry do not know or understand Q
3)"Microsoft Windows Security Centre Disabled"and no details were given by S.B.

Hope this helps

Franco

We give you Tons Of High Targeted Traffic To Your Website
Have you ever wished that you could be paid a percentage of Everything Sold Online ?
Enable your valued customers to pay by their mobile phone !

[wige]

Originally Posted by gofranco

Hi Deepsand, thanks for your reply

The answers you requested are

1) SpyBot
2) sorry do not know or understand Q
3)"Microsoft Windows Security Centre Disabled"and no details were given by S.B.

Hope this helps

Franco

Franco, is SpyBot indicating that this is due to a specific program? I suspect that most likely, SpyBot is detecting that WSC is off, and the prompt is to turn it back on. However, the program that disabled it will turn it back off as soon as you reboot. This is probably not spyware. All WSC does is report the current status of your firewall and antivirus software, so a virus or spyware program has no advantage from turning it off.

I see this most often with AntiVirus programs. What antivirus software do you have installed on the computer in question? Some don't know how to communicate with WSC about the status of their updates, so they disable WSC completely.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by gofranco

Hi Deepsand, thanks for your reply

The answers you requested are

1) SpyBot
2) sorry do not know or understand Q
3)"Microsoft Windows Security Centre Disabled"and no details were given by S.B.

As the "MS Security Center" was not introduced until Windows XP SP2, presumably that is the OS that you're running under.

The Security Center checks for the presence of and monitors the Firewall and Anti-Virus protection, along with monitoring the settings re. Automatic Updates., and uses several Registry keys to track the various settings for the 3 components monitored, along with the status of the Security Center itself.

The specific message that you reference is a warning that the Security Center itself is disabled, so that it is not monitoring any of the above said 3 items.

If you are presently running SS&D in Basic mode, switch to Advanced mode by going to Mode > Advanced node in the Tool Bar at the upper left. Additionally, you may wish to then go to Settings > Settings, in the Menu at the left, and then, in right-hand panel, to Expert settings and Check Show expert buttons in results list.

In order to see the specific Registry Key(s) involved, Left Click on the Expand box - the Square with the "Plus" sign inside it - at the left of the message. Next, Left Click on a displayed Registry Key, Drag the Slider at the right side of the display leftward, and you will see a description of this warning, along with recommended responses on your part.

If you've any additional questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

__________________________________________________ ______

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by wige

Franco, is SpyBot indicating that this is due to a specific program? I suspect that most likely, SpyBot is detecting that WSC is off, and the prompt is to turn it back on. However, the program that disabled it will turn it back off as soon as you reboot. This is probably not spyware. All WSC does is report the current status of your firewall and antivirus software, so a virus or spyware program has no advantage from turning it off.

I see this most often with AntiVirus programs. What antivirus software do you have installed on the computer in question? Some don't know how to communicate with WSC about the status of their updates, so they disable WSC completely.

In this case, SS&D is reporting on the value of that Registry Key for the Security Center itself, not one regarding any other application. The message is actually a Warning of a potential problem, rather than of a realized one, as SS&D has no way of knowing whether any of the settings relative to the Firewall, AV Protection, AU, or the entire Security Center itself are a result of a deliberate & conscious choice of the user, of some misbehaved application, or of malware.

For example, on the machine I'm using a the moment, Windows Firewall is disabled, and ZoneAlarm (ZA) is active & properly functioning; the Security Center correctly detects the presence and status of ZA. And, since ZA is being used in lieu of the Windows Firewall, the Registry Key for reporting the status of the latter is set to not give notification of its being deactivated.

Nonetheless, SS&D still presents the "MicrosoftWindowsSecurityCenter.FirewallOverri de" warning message, as I've not instructed SS&D to ignore such.

Malware does indeed have good reason to muck with these Registry Keys, as they control what notifications of potential security problems the OS displays to the user. It should be noted that, as the Windows Firewall operates independently of the Security Center settings, it will, if disabled, set the appropriate Registry Key to that value which will trigger notification of such, unless the Security Center is actively monitoring for and detecting the presence of another firewall, in which case such notification will be suppressed, as above described.

Therefore, in Franco's case, as SS&D has not reported re. any other related Registry Keys, and he has made no mention of getting notifications that he is without a functioning firewall, it seems most likely that the wscsvc Service itself is disabled.

As for AV products changing the Registry Keys here involved, I've not seen any evidence of such. Can you give a specific example?