I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out there?

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

My question was as Simple as this: " I want to know the major features of Nod antivirus and the additional features that Nod have when compared to NAV "

Any software product will have a list of major features. And the whole marketing will be based on these features. And the support people need not explain the features as they will have ready made knowledge bases which explains the features. Are you telling that NOD32 is such a poorly documented software that customers need to look at forums where people discuss these things

Check the KB i got from Symantec when I asked the features of NAV 2006:

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/nav.nsf/docid/2005081610463506

Here is a similar Mcafee link:

http://us.mcafee.com/root/package.asp?pkgid=113

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Ahh you wanted to read the website! You could have just said so...

here

http://www.nod32.com/

Click on products and you'll be at this page

http://www.nod32.com/products/index.php

There's a long list on the left.

HTH!

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

The main features are listed here: http://www.nod32.com/products/index.php (just go to the main website, nod32.com, and click "Products") That page lists all the features, if there's anything else you want to know then you'll have to be more specific. There are also lots of NOD32 users here that I'm sure would be happy to share their experiences. Perhaps a piece of information that you're missing is that NOD32 is purely an antivirus scanner, and not a security suite (at least not until the upcoming version 3 is out), but what it scans, what it scans for, and integration options are all on that page. I don't know much about Norton, but if you are then the webpage linked above should give you an idea. As for the file size, size of download is really no indication of anything. NOD32 is programmed in assembly language, which makes the program small and light, and also very fast and stable (I've never had the same kind of hanging or crashing with NOD32 as described in previous posts about NAV), because it's the closest you can get to pure machine language. The NOD32 installer may also simply have higher compression than Norton's.

Surely you can appreciate that tech support is for helping existing users that have problems or questions about using the software, and that general pre-sales questions would be handled by sales. Support is going to be focused solely on technical issues, and marketing is going to be handled by sales. You just contacted the wrong department, not really a big deal. I'm sure sales would be able and willing to answer any pre-sales questions.

I've also only had good experiences with their support. As long as questions were sent to the right department, the responses have always been prompt, and I've never known them to be less than courteous and focused (never had to send an email back reiterating my question).

 

Maybe my take on it was wrong. To me it sounded like he was saying........ NAV was a small part of the big picture. Sure we like the individual consumer buy NAV, but our main focus is elsewhere. Of course my attitude towards Symantec wasn't very good at the time I read that, and it still isn't, so maybe I read more into it than there was.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

The large file size issue might be OS dependent. It depends on how NAV is coded to handle file sizes. I am using Win 2000.

THere are a number of ways to do this, and, in a large program, different programmers may have used different methods in different parts of the program. There are OS dependent API calls for returning file size and it's possible that different methods are being used in different parts of the program, depending on the OS used.

The method I am using is independent of the OS, but not all programmers are aware of this issue. I was not until this year.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Whether somehing is coded in assembler or C++ or ... is not a factor in the crashes.

Indeed, assembler is MUCH harder (and costlier) to maintain, so I would not consider that a positive.

NAV's problem is that it tries to integrate itself too tightly with other stuff.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

I saw the same comment in the NOD32 web site.. but there the comment was " most parts of NOD 32 is programmed in assembly language " . I do not have much experience in programming, but I won't believe that an application like NOD32 was programmed in assembly language.

Who will use the old assembly language and program a win32 application these days ...." MOV [] [] PUSH [] POP [] " ... it would have taken ages to program such a thing.......

If some one have really done such a work .. then I appreciate the patience .. but still I won't believe .. Because with such good high level programming ............ who want to waste the time....

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Point was that there are reasons that the download could be smaller that don't necessarily mean that it lacks features. How it's coded can contribute, so can compression, and any number of other things. If you give the trial a go I'm sure you'll see. That's also probably the best way to get the overall picture anyway.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

It's easy to write inefficient code, assembler or not.

For example, to see how inefficient are some implementations of the "same" sorting algorithm, take a look at http://www.standards.com/index.html?Sorting,

And a good example of how programming experience matters is, many, many, ..., many years ago, I was learning IBM's assembler language for the IBM 360 computer.

One day I was oh so proud of myself because I figured out to move characters with 8 instructions. I felt so clever! Well, that glee did not last for long, I learned that the deed could b edone much faster and with ONLY one instruction.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

I'm not sure I follow you. I was just throwing in my 2 cents on why NOD32 shouldn't necessarily be dismissed purely because of the download size. The last I knew, how it was coded (overall) contributes to this.

I'm begining to wonder why I bother.

 

Since about a week has passed, I thought I would ask this one last time. Has the file count problem been fixed yet in NAV 2006? I guess I keep hoping Symantec will get off their butts and do something.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

I guess nobody following this tread has NAV 2006 installed, or they do not have large enough files on which to test(heck, a TI backup file should be large enough).

My NAV 2005 subscription expires near th eend of August 2006, that's when I'll install NAV 2006 and learn the answer.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Hello Howard. Hope you don't mind me asking this. I can't really tell if you are happy/unhappy with NAV as a antivirus product, but you know that NAV 2005 has this scan count problem. Why do you continue to use NAV 2005, and plan to use NAV 2006? I'm not asking this to be mean spirited, just curious.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

When am I happy about anything?

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Well that doesn't really answer my question, but ok.

 

Nod32 is the best anyivirus I have ever installed and used, I help repair computers and most of the trouble is caused by nortons.
After uninstalling nortons completely and showing the customers what nod32 can do, as most of them dont mind paying for an antivirus program anyway, I get them to install nod32 and as of yet have not had any come backs at all.
Got 3 to do next week and all of them have nortons installed on them.

So yes go for nods32 you will not regret it.

 

After last night, I've decided to jump ship. I am leaving Norton all together. On top of the numerous problems that I've been having with NAV, last night when I tried to run Live Update I received an error indicating that Live Update could not determine whether or not my virus definitions were up-to-date because the file had become corrupt. Ironically, I received this error on both my laptop and my desktop machines. I followed the directions on my laptop and it had me utilize their online technical analyzer and seemed to remedy the problem. However, when I tried to run Liveupdate again, the same thing happened. After subsequently uninstalling NAV, reinstalling it, and updating it, everything was fine. That's when I decided to run Live Update on my desktop. All be damned if there wasn't an update available and everything worked fine on my desktop. What that tells me is that I did not have to go through that uninstallation crap after all. My theory is that Symantec had a problem on their end that caused Live Update not to be able to determine if my definitions were in fact up-to-date. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

First, have you ever considered the possibility that the reason that your customers do not come back to complain about NOD32 has nothing to do with their satisfaction with the product. For example, what if they just do not know any better? What if they really are dissatisfied with NOD32, but take their computer elsewhere to address the issue, or take care of it themselves? I use these examples simply to illustrate that the fact that you've had no complaints does not necessarily indicate complete satisfaction.

My question for you is why NOD32 and not BitDefender (which has consistently been touted as a superior value, due in part to its relatively low cost), or Kaspersky which is also considered by many to be the best overall Anti-virus product?

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Yes, there was indeed a problem with NAV yesterday, and perhaps early today as well. Apparently it had something to do with expired certificates according to a thread on BBR:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16031730

Seems to be working fine now.

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Well I jumped the NAV ship several weeks ago. I'm using NOD32. At first I wasn't too sure I liked it, but I do now. As for BitDefender and KAV, I've tried both of them. KAV 6 just didn't get along with my computer. It affected my computer's performance too much. BitDefender had some problems with e-mail scanning. This was just on my computer, so things could be different on yours. I'm just really liking NOD.

 

It's interesting that you say KAV 6 affecte tyour performance too much. The reason I say that is because most people that talk highly of KAV usually mention that it's light on resources. Also, KAV 6 has not yet been released to the public as far as I know. I know that they are getting very close (within 2 weeks) of going public. Maybe, this has something to do with your negative experience.

NOD32, BitDefender and KAV consistantly rank very high, usually top 3, among AV solutions. I just want to make sure that I'm satisfied with my choice. I will likely give them each a try before I buy, but I still want to know what to look for and the best way to do that is to hear from people like yourself.

Can you please tell me more about the specific problems you had with BitDefender and KAV?

What specifically do you like about NOD32?

 

Dallen I have used all of the above antivirus programs through many versions and after years of testing and experimenting with av programs I have settled with F-Secure Internet Security 2006 it runs very light on my comp. and the detection rate with it's four scan engines, the av engine being kav based is as good as it gets according to av-comparatives. you might find it worth your while to give it a try.

bigc

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

Hi Dallen,

I am not a geek type, just an average user. I had BD on my machines for over a year. I recently trialed NOD on my desktop, and laptop. I am now trialing KAV6 which I plan to buy when it comes on the market on May 15.

Bit Defender was/is a great AV, but I recently ran into compatibility problems, and gave it up. I still have most of a year's subscription left. It would be great if the V10 in beta would correct some of the compatability problems, but I doubt it. If it runs well on one's machine I would highly recommend it. They permit one license for your PC and laptop which is really nice. Their customer support is first class in my experience.

NOD32 ran well on both my computers. I think it is a superb AV, and after the first couple of days to get acquainted with it, I really liked it. I almost did not trial KAV, but thought I would anyway. The uninstall of NOD went without a hitch.

KAV6 is on my desktop now. I did not try it on the laptop, and put Avast free on it after the NOD trial. I think that KAV6 will permit two computers on one license. There have been no issues with it for me. It uses less mem that NOD on my machines, and scans very fast. Full scans have run from 19 minutes to 2.05 minutes. NOD ran about 30 minutes, and my BD used to take about 40 minutes for a full scan.

Although I liked NOD, I had long admired the on-demand detection rates of KAV. I once tried KAV5 but had update problems, and ditched it. I have been very pleased with KAV6, but would be equally happy with NOD.

Have a good evening,
Jerry

 

JerryM
Why have you not tried F-Secure?

Also, I appreciate all of the feedback. Thank you. I wish people would be a little more specific with their descriptions of their problems, however. For example, when someone says "I had compatability issues..." I would like to know a little more details. If that same person goes on to say that their problems were all related to Process Guard, then I know not to pay that much attention because I've long given up on that software due to my genuine distrust of DCS. On the other hand, if that person were to say that their problems are related to a conflict with Zone Alarm, then I would baulk because I use Zone Alarm.

bigc73542,
I have to admit that my analysis of which new AV to adopt has not given F-Secure equal time. Your posting is changing that. My initial concern is that F-Secure did meet the necessary criteria to be ICSA 2005 Certified. Why is this? I've heard that F-Secure does not provide, p2p/File Sharing Protection, WebMail Protection and its update frequency is one of the most infrequent in the industry next to Norton. Is this true?

 

Re: I've been using Norton for years, Please tell me there is something better out th

It really is not useful to state that a scan took only, say, 20 minutes with product A.

How many files?
Does it scan within archives?
Does it offer you a choice of what action to take, or are file automatically deleted?
When a virus definition subscription expires, can one still get program updates?
Is there any silliness such as being tied to IE to be used?