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Geek Culture / Norton Antivirius...is a viruis?

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JLMoondog
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Location: Paradox
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 04:02 Edited at: 11th Jan 2010 04:02
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So here's my strange story. I've always had Norton on this computer, just never used it, had it set to no-protection and disabled the load on windows startup.

Two days ago I uninstalled the program, after it asked me 1000 times if I was sure and warning me that I'd be exposing my computer, it finally uninstalled.

No one has touched my computer since, and when I booted up today, blam!! Norton pops up and tells me it's scanning for viruises...wth??

A new norton icon is on my desktop, and an icon is in the system tray. I look at the file information, it is an official version of Norton and it was installed at 12:01am the day before...my computer wasn't even turned on during this time...

I've uninstalled it again and am waiting for it to see if it suddenly reappears in the next few days.

P.S. My computer doesn't auto-update as I've disabled this feature.

P.S.S. I can't spell...


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xplosys
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Playing: FPSC Multiplayer Games
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 05:19
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So what you're saying is that, while the computer was off, it downloaded and installed a program.

Are you currently taking any prescription drugs?
Do you drink? Heavily?
Have you suddenly found yourself in an unfamiliar place or wondered how you got somewhere?
Is there any history of mental illness in your family?
Are you prone to story telling or enhancing events?
Do you have a little brother or sister?

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Venge
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Location: Iowa
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 05:22
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This is why you get a program that works, like Avast or AVG Free or NOD32 or basically anything but Norton.


I will live forever or die trying.
My game blog
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Indicium
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 05:26
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I could write a better antivirus than Norton in darkbasic.



Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium Intel Pentium Dual-Core @ 1.46Ghz 2038mb RAM
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gbark
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Location: US - Virginia
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 05:34
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Strange, a similar thing happened on my dad's laptop. After the subscription ran out, he got a new antivirus and uninstalled Norton. About a week later, he noticed Norton was running a full system scan...

As far as I know, he was able to keep it off his machine the second time. But yeah, it was weird.

You know there's conspiracy theories that a large number of the major viruses are actually manufactured by antivirus companies themselves. Take what you will from it.
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JLMoondog
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 05:43
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xplosys:
If 5/6 of those things apply to me should I be worried?

Venge:
I use AVG

Mad:
Agreed.

gbark:
Very strange...still baffles me.


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ShaunRW
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 12:49
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Quote: "You know there's conspiracy theories that a large number of the major viruses are actually manufactured by antivirus companies themselves."


That's not hard to believe.


ShaunRWs Timer Plugin.
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MSon
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Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 15:05
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Many years ago i use to have norton, but it was the full norton suite and it made my computer run too slow, i've never used it since and use things like AVG now, someone i know recently brought norton at the recommendation of there ISP and they asked me to install it for them, when i did it said the program would expire after something like 300 days which i thought was cheeky as they spent a fair bit on it as they brought it from PCWorld, or as i call it RipOffWorld.

Everyone Be Cool, You, Be Cool.
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Melancholic
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 15:20
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Hmmmmmm, strange, this also happend to me except the second time round the installer broke(Yay for file deleters and regedit). Although im supprised nobody has mentioned Avira yet, it saved me from avasts incompatence. Although i would reccomend AVG more, but it wont install on this computer, infact i recomend it so much every one in my class uses it and my main teacher
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Phaelax
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 16:04
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Have you tried the Norton Removal Tool?


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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Outscape
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 18:28
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you need an anti virus removal tool to remove an anti virus tool, priceless.


Huge List of Ways to Increase FPS
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 18:43
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I had the problem before as well, it's one of the things I dislike Norton, it loves to be awkward and doesn't necessarily do a good job, at least when I used it, it was sub-par. The only anti-viruses I would pay for are Kaspersky and NOD32, they're reliable without being a pain in the A.

I'm actually currently on a yearly subscription of Kaspersky, though I'm currently using Avast on Windows 7, because I'm still using the BETA version, as it's a 3 user license, one is install on Vista, the second will be installed on the full version of 7 and one reserve. Avast seems to do an effective job for a freebee, though generally I like peace of mind, and WHSmiths tends to sell Kaspersky at 1/2 price around the time I need to renew.

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FredP
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 20:00
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AVG Free all the way!
The first thing I did when I got my computer was to get rid of Norton.I'm not paying a yearly subscription for an antivirus which makes my pc unusable.
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General Jackson
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 20:01
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My dad and I have had a lot of trouble with Norton.
USe avast antivirus, the best IMO

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thenerd
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Location: Boston, USA
Posted: 11th Jan 2010 20:35
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my norton subscription has been expired for 5 years.
Norton is only good for:
-blocking internet explorer
-trying to update while I'm in team fortress and creating huge lag
-scanning and deleting my graphics drivers
-scanning and deleting steam
-replacing my code with "norton SCAN v4.17 timestamp 1-2-10:1:10PM" (yeah, that actually happened, it replaced my code with a log file...lol)
well, it's better than mcaffee...

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xplosys
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 21:17
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Quote: "well, it's better than mcaffee..."


or a sharp stick in the eye.

Brian.

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Melancholic
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Posted: 11th Jan 2010 21:18
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Quote: "USe avast antivirus, the best IMO"


IMO its on of the worst, honestly it couldnt even catch a virus windows defender could........ AVG All te way!, Avira all the backup plan way!!!!!
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budokaiman
FPSC Tool Maker
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Playing: Hard to get
Posted: 12th Jan 2010 15:23 Edited at: 12th Jan 2010 15:25
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Quote: "-trying to update while I'm in team fortress and creating huge lag"

I hate the auto-update, this has happened to me so many times, except it would not lag, it would kick me in the middle of a killing-spree. I have auto-update disabled for everything on my computer, as it always seems to be during something important that it decides to restart, or start downloading.

I give Norton the worst grade ever... an A--.

This signature is legen-wait for it... dary };]
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Outscape
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Posted: 12th Jan 2010 16:43
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the only beef i got with avg, is with the weighty scans, but every scan is, the only reason im annoyed is that when i had an older version of avg, when it scanned it never lagged.

but i think thats cos i changed something in the settings (in older avgs u could make it use less memory, at the cost of the time it takes to scan)


Huge List of Ways to Increase FPS
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Master Man Of Justice
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Posted: 12th Jan 2010 17:22
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i dont know about anyone in here but i use avira.
low cpu usage with great protection (not as good as avast though) but better memory and cpu usage.

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The Fps Creator rocks!
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Posted: 12th Jan 2010 21:22 Edited at: 12th Jan 2010 21:24
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Norton is for people who don't have outdated PC's. Too bad I have an outdated one.

Quote: "USe avast antivirus, the best IMO"


That's what I'm using. It's good because it blocks any virus from entering your computer.

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Terrestrial Productions
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Posted: 13th Jan 2010 01:00
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That is why you never EVER but, download, trial, Nortan Anti-Virus, because it installs it's own tool or whatever in a hidden file where you can't remove it unless you hack your computer, use Nortan Removal Tool, or something like that because it will reistall itself if you don't remove the hidden files.


Terrestrial Productions
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Seppuku Arts
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Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 13th Jan 2010 01:07 Edited at: 13th Jan 2010 01:08
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Sadly, some computers come installed with a trial of Norton...like mine did. The first thing I did? Killed it and went to the shop the next day and grabbed Kaspersky.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 13th Jan 2010 04:40
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I just had to uninstall the trial of Norton that came on my laptop and I had no further involvement with that blasted piece of software. I then installed AVG & Spybot and run scans periodically. Iv'e had no problems with AVG in the least and I find the "LinkScanner" tool it comes with to be quite useful (only works in Firefox, not Chrome).


Sign up here!
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 13th Jan 2010 06:11
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My School forces us to install Macafee...

I guess that's good for the people who wouldn't have anything otherwise???

Good thing they only check once to see if we install it. Thus it is quickly removed.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 13th Jan 2010 07:17
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If a school told me what I *need* on my system, I'd tell them to go piss off.

Quote: "-trying to update while I'm in team fortress and creating huge lag"

Quote: "I hate the auto-update"

You guys know you can disabled that, right?

PC Magazine is currently choosing Norton 2010 as its editor's pick for security suites, claiming it blew away the competition. Kaspersky and BitDefender had noticable impact on system performance. "ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010" now offers harddrive encryption, which I thought was interesting. (I use the free firewall)

I use Symantec (not Norton), good on-the-fly detection and relatively small footprint with little or no performance hit. I tried Nod32 a few years ago after seeing it mentioned on the forum, and I couldn't stand it. The file-scanning/protection was tremendously slow making the system practically useless.

I just read about Prevx, which is new to me, and it sounds promising as an anti-malware tool.


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 13th Jan 2010 09:54
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Quote: "If a school told me what I *need* on my system, I'd tell them to go piss off."


Rightly so but what if the school was accepting connections form your system or it PROVIDED your system? Either way, it's easier for them if they give everyone *something*.

Athlon64 2.7gHz->OC 3.9gHz, 31C, MSi 9500GT->OC 1gHz core/2gHz memory, 48C, 4Gb DDR2 667, 500Gb Seagate + 80Gb Maxtor + 40Gb Maxtor = 620Gb, XP Home
Air cooled, total cost £160
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budokaiman
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Posted: 13th Jan 2010 15:16
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Quote: "You guys know you can disabled that, right?"

Quote: " I have auto-update disabled for everything on my computer"


This signature is legen-wait for it... dary };]
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Satchmo
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Posted: 14th Jan 2010 00:20
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Microsoft Security Essentials, best free AV by far. It runs on very few resources, and keeps my system secure. It's not annoying either, if the icon is green, everything is OK, red or orange and there is a problem. It looks really nice too.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 14th Jan 2010 00:51
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Oops, must've missed that part budokaiman. Next step, kill the auto update service.


Quote: "Rightly so but what if the school was accepting connections form your system or it PROVIDED your system?"

Not sure what software they'd require on my system to connect to a school network. But if they provided the computer, well then, let them install whatever.
My work laptop was loaded full of crap I didn't need, but it's policy. And should something go wrong, the IT guy who sets them up was my roommate anyway.(who usually told me to fix it myself)


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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Asteric
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Posted: 17th Jan 2010 22:51
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Whats even more weird was i all of a sudden found Norton running a scan even though i had not even downloaded the installation.

Your signature has been erased by a mod - Please reduce it to 600x120 maximum size
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gbark
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Posted: 17th Jan 2010 23:23
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Somebody on your IM or email list uses Norton and it propagated through that to your machine without your knowledge.
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gamerboots
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Posted: 18th Jan 2010 00:35
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Quote: "anything but Norton"

^^^^^ I believe this sums it up ^^^^

----------------
Gamerboots~
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Lemonade
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Posted: 18th Jan 2010 09:04
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Quote: "Microsoft Security Essentials, best free AV by far. It runs on very few resources, and keeps my system secure. It's not annoying either, if the icon is green, everything is OK, red or orange and there is a problem. It looks really nice too.
"


Same for me. I hardly notice it's running, and haven't got a virus since I installed it.
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kaedroho
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Posted: 18th Jan 2010 13:45 Edited at: 18th Jan 2010 13:46
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I know someone who had this "norton free scan". It came with the google pack. All the time it would pop up "Would you like a free norton scan" then say you have a few hundred viruses (even though other antiviruses found just a few viruses). All it really did is tell you to get norton anti virus. And they distribute this WITH the google pack. It doesnt do anything but annoy the hell out of you while your trying to play games.

BlitzTerrain - FREE LOD Terrain plugin for DBPro
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Melancholic
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Posted: 18th Jan 2010 16:34
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Sounds like a bad but effective approach to marketing Keadroho. Isnt that also simmilar to addware?
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