Ok, for those that have seen my rants about WD and Vista, I’ve restrained myself from removing Norton Internet Security from my parents computers even tho the evidence against it is stacked fairly high. Because for the most part it has kept them out of trouble and done it’s job quietly. But it’s the only thing (remove NIS) left that I’ve not tried to get WD to run without mysteriously closing down at random times.
The reason I’ve tolerated NIS is that my parents need to be protected from themselves
They do pretty good with computers, and use them quit a bit. But I’ve never been able to cure them from going or doing things they shouldn’t do while online. And this in the past led to ME having a semi full time job of keeping their systems cleaned up and running.
I did have to disable the firewall in NIS because everytime my parents sneezed, the dumb thing would block their email or internet access…it was a major pain in the seat of the pants for all concerned.
So, if I remove NIS from my fathers computer, what do I replace it with?
Requirements:
1-It MUST run on autopilot, the program(s) can not be popping up windows asking questions.
2-It must require very very little user interaction.
3-Must protect from spyware-malware-virus’s-popups, etc.
4-Did I mention it MUST run on autopilot.
Paid or free doesn’t matter as long as it works.
Suggestions please.
Thanks.
Norton is hopeless (voice of experience!). I would replace it with AVG Internet Security Suite. BUT, and this is a big BUT, when you uninstall Norton, it will leave half of itself in the registry and there is NO WAY you can get rid of it and it will still slow down the system. It will therefore be strongly advisable to back up all the data, reformat the HDDs, re-install Windows, the drivers and the applications. A PITA, to be sure, but that is what Norton has become since about 2000.
In comparison, AVG will do everything Norton does and more with a faster response for new viruses, an excellent 2-way firewall (not Vista) and it is non-invasive and easy-to-use.
haha - was just going to ask about av program in your other thread.
I’ve just dumped Zone Alarm - found their Vista offering was missing a number of “features”, and besides It would permanently block my Internet connection as soon as it was installed, which was a “small” but not insignificant issue!
The vista firewall is okay, but outward blocking is not configured by default. If you do a google you will find out how to configure the outbound firewall
As for AV, Nod32 (www.eset.com) has a low overhead, so an option might be Nod32 and vista firewall with outbound firewall turned on.
However I ended up settling on Kaspersky Internet Security - mainly due to it’s regular daily updates and reasonable renewal cost. It will take you a few days to train (depending on use), but it is highly configurable, and doesn’t seem to provide the performance impact that Norton’s does. It will do spam filtering, firewall, av, parental controls (just in case you want to control your parents I guess!), logging, etc.
Even if you don’t go for Kaspersky, at least have a look at their forums. there are links to removal tools , and instructions for installing Kaspersky IS - but they are good advice for anyone looking to change their IS software. There are also links to removal tools for Nortons software.
I have set up a few laptops in the last couple of months and have used Comodo Free Firewall and Avast Free AV they seems to work well together and I have not had any complaints from the users. Suppose time will tell.
As for the aging parents I too have the same problem with my 86 year old father who likes surfing the www and doing stuff he is not supposed too…lol. I have resolved this problem by changing his OS to Linux been this way for a few months I have had no callouts and he is happy as he likes Linux…cool . He does not have the root password ( he cant remember) so cant do any damage to the system we dont have any problems with viruses/spyware and the firewall is taken care of by Firestarter and a nat router…sorted…
Vista at home - Kaspersky Internet Suite. They were one of the first to have proper Vista support and it seems to work well. It occasionally crashes for some strange reason, but carries on as normal when re-started.
Vista at work - McAfee. It’s our standard so we have licences. It works without problems.
Avast complemented by Spybot has my preference (on Windows XP).
I finally got rid of all NIS traces using Regcleaner.
Safe surfing requires Linux.
I installed a dual boot to Ubuntu or XP (using this tutorial).
For the elderly (I qualify ) Ubuntu would be my choice.
I don’t know either of them well, but my perceptions are that I probably get on fairly well with having Mr Gates as a friend, but I couldn’t say the same for Mr Jobs. I think I find Gates relatively human (in geek terms) whereas Jobs appears to be far more of a hard-nosed businessman who would do anything to get what he wants (to be King of IT Land).
Looney - I use Avast (for Vista), along with the windows firewall and Defender. I have not had an infection or spyware problem since using Vista with this combo. No visible impact on performance with any of the testing I have done. AVG free would be my 2nd choice. Hate the internet security products - kill performance and duplicate protection that is already there.
Everything is autopilot and avast only requires that you renew the license once a year. As for Norton, I think they have an uninstall exec on their website that ensures the registry gets cleaned and all file removed.
For a slightly different approach, if you are worried about them websurfing on a windows machine then consider sandboxing their browser. I find sandboxie works well.
I run Avast4 on all my computers at home with Windows Defender for anti-spyware. That combination works great for me and 85% of my clients (about 200). Is very user friendly for the age group you are describing … wait … that’s me :). Also I like the price … FREE.
Here is a Avast-fan too. Have used it for years without problems (XP and Vista), its light weight and easy to use. The best thing in Avast is u you can use it in DOS-mode and then can scan ALL files (what you NOT can when OS is running). :lol:
