Computer Wizz's, Please Take A Look .....

[gardener 0]

why not use Norton? Quite a few reasons but namely why pay for something when you can get the same or better protection for free?

 

Other reasons are the amount of resources that Norton (And McAfee use - McAfee is the bigger offender in this regards). BTW resources = 'The amount of RAM memory being used at anyone time'. It is the major reason behind windows crashing or freezing, especially so if you also use Internet explorer and/or any other resource heavy program; i.e. Video editor, Photoshop, Audio editing, all of these are heavy resource users so the more memory you can give them the better.

 

Using Norton or McAfee your going to lose around 30% to 40% of those resources, on older computers or computers not 'Cleaned' often this can be even worse. (By 'Cleaned' I don't mean Ditch's Agent Orange cloud - I mean cleaning out the temp folder, history, internet tmp files and the likes - if your using I.E. these are going to be riddled with un-needed rubbish anyway).

 

The programs I have listed above; AVG AV, AVG AS, ZONE ALARM, SPYBOT all have very low memory usage. They are also way smaller in program size than both of the main proprietary softwares - Norton/McAfee and the best of the lot? They are totally free to the home user!

 

They don't bug the living daylights out of you and just get on with the job at hand, though ZoneAlarm does need to be 'Trained' which is not that hard to do. Spybot also has a built in Immunizer to immunize against known bad products and also what is known as a 'Host File Inclusion' list. Once installed your computer will not be allowed to access any of the sites in the lists even if you accidentally try to access one and seriously, some of the sites in the list you just do not want to go anywhere near! Especially coolwebsearch (nasty B*&^%rds - very nasty B%$*ards) - I'd recommend it to anyone for that feature alone. on top of that it was the first program to address the problem of 'Malware or Spyware'. All the others are playing catch up or copy cat imho.

 

So if you want your computer to work properly, quick and also be as safe as possible all the programs mentioned can be found at www.downloads.com just type the name of the program into the search and it will give you the download link.

 

Also get a browser called 'Mozilla Firefox' if you haven't already. It's way better than I.E., safer, more secure and it displays websites as the webmaster intended not as microsoft think it should be displayed. Thats available at www.mozilla.com or www.firemonger.info - firemonger is a support project for Mozilla and comes with everything you need to get started. basically unlike I.E. you set the browser up the way you want it to work not the way microsoft think it should work (I do wish they would stop treating people like idiots as they have a want to do - very annoying)..

 

Anyway hope that helps,,

 

ok I'll give jen her computer back now lol ^_^

[wiccamiss 0]

Cheers for the explaination

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

I could 'listen to' a Real expert all day!

 

So " Fire Fox " is That good, and IE That crap, eh? Does for me! I shall be taking an eight hour break from all this presently. But, once I get back in the saddle, ripping out IE and getting FF sounds like a job! Anything less mickey can only be better, surely to god? I didn't vote Gates. Why be ruled by the c***?!

 

Incidentally; Another thing about Norton, at least, is that the moment ye subscription runs out, they start a pop up war 'reccomending' ye pay up again. If ye don't? Ye mysteriously cop a 'virus'! B*stards! That's why I've used AVG for donkeys now. I also ~ in times of heightened awareness ~ pass a thing called " Stinger " through my system. (MacAfee, as I recall. But stand alone and just lives in one of my self made folders). Don't know the craic there, but I've seen it catch the odd thing missed by my other systems.

 

'Training' Zone Alarm always got on my tits to the point where I jacked it in. I've never knowingly come to grief due to lack of it. Maybe I'll have a rethink? Pity it can't be trained to f*ck mickey off!

 

Quite honestly, I've just got too many plates spinning to even think that straight right now. But, comes the day I break surface again, I think I'll just get a proper OS and start over again. Just a gutting bloody shame it'll have to be XP, because that's simply all I know!