Why you shouldn’t use Norton/McAfee

We fix a lot of virus infested computers. People are often frustrated and confused as they explain their virus problems to us. They wonder “Why did I get this virus? I paid $120 for Norton Internet Security 2010, I thought that was supposed to protect me!”. The fact of the matter is that there is no perfect Anti-Malware Solution. Every company has it’s own database of known cyber-dangers and it’s a cat and mouse game trying to keep up with hackers. That’s why every well protected system has at least 2 different Anti-Malware programs installed on them, because having just one is not enough, you need at least 2 databases working for you.

But how do you know which solutions to choose? Free or paid? People naturally tend to think that if they pay for something, it should be better than it’s free counterpart. Most of the time this is true, however this is an exception. Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, and all the other major sellers provide Security Suites that bog down your computer with their extensive features that don’t work. They make your computer slow, and sometimes provide less than average protection.

So what’s the solution? Pick a free one. There’s really only 2 that are solid solutions. The older AVG free edition or the new and in our opinion superior Microsoft Security Essentials. They are both lightweight, and very dependable. We like MSE more because it has a super simple user interface, quick updates, and it doesn’t annoy you with popups like others do.

It’s always a good idea to have a second line of defense. We highly recommend MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. It finds a lot of the stuff that other scanners don’t, and best of all it’s free. Here’s a another option. Usually you don’t want to have two resident scanners operating at the same time, however we’ve found that using the paid version ($30 for lifetime subscription) of MBAM, which adds a resident scanner and ip blocking technology (very useful), doesn’t bog down your system and adds excellent protection. I’d like to see a virus get through the combination of MSE and MBAM Pro…

Good luck!

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