Quote Originally Posted by VAisForEagleLovers View Post
Austin, I've have the complete opposite results with Norton! In sixteen years of having computers at home, I've never once had a computer infected with anything (knock on wood!). I would never consider trying something else because of that. The one time I did get an infected email from a friend (I didn't open it), he'd let his Norton subscription lapse. He was having other issues (ironically, a real virus that had him stuck in bed) so I called Norton support for him to ask a question. Since I had received the email, they insisted on running a scan on my computer, then they sent themselves the email for analysis. It wasn't a known virus, but one that had recognizable signatures. When my friend was able, he called Norton Support, got his subscription up to date, and they took temporary control of his computer and cleaned it completely while he watched.

I get pop-ups and such at least once a month that something was caught and stopped. I really like the flexibility it has, and I really like how it works with Windows instead of butting heads with it. I like having the Norton icon on the search results when running a search that tells me which links are safe to click on, even though if I click on when using a browser that doesn't have the toolbar installed, Norton stops me from going further. I'm amazed at how many seemingly innocent links have malicious software imbedded in their pictures.
Consider yourself VERY lucky! I can't tell you how many problems with their software I've had over the years. Most computer places (other than big chain stores) don't recommend it. One of the biggest gripes is/was that it REALLY slows down the system and really is a CPU/RAM hog. The other being it's somewhat lacking protection (it's great when it has a signature for something but if it doesn't, which is more often than not - you are screwed.).

See it's funny because no antivirus is perfect. Soda got infected when using Kaspersky and I've had 0 infections for me and all of my clients that use it and I love it to death. There are things that can sneak by any program. But for me the resource usage plus the decent-at-best signatures kind of turn me off. I will say they are slowly getting better about the resource usage but back in 2009 I made LOTS of money removing Norton from PCs. Angry, angry people that paid money for something and were mad that it had to be removed but once they removed it and switched to either Kaspersky, Avast, or AVG they were MUCH happier.

One of the reasons I prefer Kaspersky is it's zero day component. If you configure it right, even if Kaspersky doesn't have a signature for something (which is rare as Kaspersky updates at least every few hours) - it will protect you with it's HIPS/Application Control part of the software. You can't rely on just signatures anymore. Malware is getting too good, too fast released, and all of that. You need a HIPS engine or sandboxing to really stay fully protected. Of course common sense browsing helps but sometimes things hide themselves VERY well.