Genealogy Chat

hi all. i have had this computer for about 3 months, it came with a norton disc. this morning my computer has informed me - i have to pay £24 to continue my norton subscription. do i pay, ar are there better deals to be had ? i know absolutely nothing about any of this. my old computer ran for 5 years without any protection at all, mind you by the end of its life it had more viruses than the local hospital.lol. advice needed please. thanks, sue.

I have had my PC for about 6 years and still use the original Norton Antivirus. After the initial 5 years I could not automatically update. But, you can get around this by going to Symantec Home Page and downloding Virus Definition Update. This takes about 10 mins. and then you can update your virus protection. Roy (David)

You dont want to get hit by a virus some of which can ruin your hard drive so all your work would be lost. So virus protection of some sought is a must. You can down load free anti virus software from here. http(:)//www(.)grisoft(.)com/us/us_index(.)php - Remove the brackets - or if you want to email me I can tell you of a work around so you can keep using your norton. lawrence at nlc(.)net(.)au Wayne

I use the free one AVG from Grisoft. I found Norton to be more trouble than it is worth. Sometimes thought that some of the viruses were coming from the anti virus software sellers , but that is me being cynical. I agree that you do need protection though and I have never had any problems with AVG In the meantime, I think there is a free virus scan online at Panda, not sure of the web address though.

Hi Sue, couple of ways round this,unistall the norton & then reinstall from your disc, then you get your free updates again :)) or you can pay the yearly subscription of about £20 Either way it's worth it as the Norton is a very good antivirus. I have used a few & found the Norton the best so far. Hope this is of some help Rita

If you go to the Mcaffee site you can download a program called Stinger, free of charge. You can run it through your pc to see if there are any viruses and then nuke them. However, best to stop them before they get on your pc. I had my whole system wiped out once when one of son's friends put on a disc he had downloaded from net. Scream.

Don't know whether this will help but I downloaded a three month free trial of Norton off the www. Was due to expire on 3.8.04 - I had an email asking me whether I wanted to pay for the full version. I didn't and ignored the email - but good old Norton still runs everyday! Lisa

Lisa, But are you getting the updates? If not what happens when there is a new virus and your version of Norton is not updated to deal with it. having had my complete hard drive wiped because my computer locked up in Feb I am very wary. Ann Glos

You would have thought that all those nerds writing viruses would put their knowledge to something constructive. Cant see the point of circulating viruses when you cant see the reaction of the recipient.

We gave up on Norton last year as we had too many problems with it. Hubby has AVG at work so we now have it at home and it seems to work better than Norton. Dawn

Sue, listen to the lad down the road. The worst thing that can happen is that your computer totally becomes unusable. If you have your personal data saved then it does not matter. You will (at least) have a restore disk which will reset your PC to "as new". I totally believe that Norton and all the others( buy me or your pc will explode) are all a rip off merchants, playing on peoples fears. There is (and never can be) any virus that can render a pc unrepairable. I would stick with AVG or Avast (my favorite) on and stuff Norton. You can get a full XP SP2 install disk for around £60 so why pay them £24 for what may never happen? Bob

hi all, have just got in. thanks for all your help. am so glad i didnt pay up this morning ! seems to be a few choices i have, i have 17 days before mine runs out, so will read through your replies and sort something out with your help . again many many thanks, sue.

Hi Sue If you look up Judy in the States' thread about 1-stop PC maintenance, she's a professional and gives some good recommendations. Mandy :)

having tried to renew Norton and spent £30 and not been able to and been all round their site I would recomment Avg have had no problems at all. Kim

Would thoroughly recommend Norton Antivirus and Firewall - have never had a single problem. We are about to renew ours for the 3rd time. Maz. XX

hi sue i obtained my protection with my broadband from b.t.