Do I need McAfee and NOrton ? Or just one of them ? Thanks !?

Question

computer security question.

Answer 1

just one and i wouldn't recomend more than one antivirus program or they end up competing with each other and when that happens, neither of them will be as efficient. my personal recomendation based on that of a class a technician for pc's was go to: http://www.snapfiles.com/downloadfind.php?action=s&st=avast download the home edition, this is a free anti virus application and all it costs you is to have to register for free to get a product key and then renew the key every 14 months, which is also free. i have been using this program for 3 years plus and it is more efficient than norton and macafee and its free, and although there isn't a single antivirus program that will protect you completely this one updates online automatically, is free and is better than most you pay for.

Answer 2

You MUST only have 1 antivirus running at the same time. I am not saying you are not allowed to install more than 1 antivirus. You just have to set one on real time running and the other just run on demand.

If I am forced to choose one between the 2 you mentioned, I will go with McAfee. Norton will eats up your system memory to a point you feel like formatting your computer.

But if you ask me any antivirus to go with, I will suggest Avast. It is very lightweight, medium-high detection rate, real time screening and best of all it's FREE!!!!

Avast - http://www.avast.com/

Answer 3

Having more than one antivirus program active in memory uses additional resources and can result in program conflicts and false virus alerts.

So.... if you have more than one piece of software running at the same time, each program will think the other is a virus.

IMHO........ (AVAST is the one to have... In contradiction to what the previous answerer said, It updates itself continuously, meaning, you never initiate an update, because Avast uses push to send update you whenever an update is ready.)

Answer 4

Use only one anti-virus program to avoid conflicts... I have experienced these conflicts, and while sometimes you can manage to have more than one anti-virus program, its more likely that you'll end up with an unstable (crashing) system, and even an unbootable one on occasion.

As for McAfee vs. Norton, I'd highly recommend McAfee over Norton, but neither are that great. Both tend to suck up system resources- Norton more than McAfee, in my experience- and Norton has been known to damage systems (it has happened to me.) They are also both expensive, and very wide spread. For the same reason that Macs don't get viruses (very often at least) and Firefox is safer than IE, you would probably want to avoid wide-spread anti-virus solutions. The more wide-spread an operating system, browser, or anti-virus program is, the more troublemakers will design things to take advantage of their flaws, because they are more likely to "hit" a PC, for example, than a mac on the internet, or more likely to hit IE than Firefox, or- in this case- their virus or malware is more likely to be scanned by Norton or McAfee than by smaller, less well-known things such as Kaspersky or NOD32.

I'd highly recommend trying NOD32. It is available at www.eset.com. You can get a free trial, and the program is less expensive than either Norton or Mcafee. It is not very well known, but very light on resources, and is one of the (If not *the*) best anti-virus program(s) out there.

Another good, though somewhat more expensive, solution is Kaspersky as an anti-virus program (or suite.) It is also a very robust anti-virus program. It is usually rated right under, and sometimes over, NOD32.

For free, you can get a whole host of anti-virus programs, but usually they're not as good as their paid-for counterparts (and its hard to measure up to NOD32.)

Here's a list of those that I'm aware of (minus comodo antivirus, availabe at www.comodo.com. I havn't stuck it in my list yet! :) )

They're in the order that I recommend them. Avast!, however, does not have a scan scheduler. If that's important to you, try AVG or Antivir. :)

Antivirus Programs

*Most antivirus programs have active protection and provide antispyware features

NOTE: You can only safely install one antivirus program on a given computer or you run the serious risk of conflicts, system lockups, and even damage. (I have experienced this.)

Avast! http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html (XP, Vista)

AVG http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/ (XP, Vista)

Antivir http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-PersonalEdition-Classic/3000-2239_4-10690040.html?tag=lst-0-1 (XP, Vista, no Email protection)

*Special*AOL Virus Shield (has been replaced by a special-edition Mcafee) http://safety.aol.com/isc/BasicSecurity/ (XP, 32 bit Vista, Includes a firewall)

*Bitdefender 10 http://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/Download-Free-Products.html (XP only, no real-time protection)

Clamwin http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/ (XP only, no real-time protection)


Hope this helps!

--John

Answer 5

When I took my pc in to get it overhauled they put a free one called AGV I like it!

Answer 6

None, get Kaspersky

Answer 7

Neither. They both cost too much. Use AVG. It's free and works wonders.

Answer 8

to avoig conflicts it is best to use just one of them

Answer 9

I have had both, and now use AVG... the free one... no problems at all... why pay

Answer 10

Use one or the other, they interfere with each other.