topic Re: Switch to Norton in Everything else

Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 12:00:59 GMT

I have just received an email with the switch to Norton. My first question is why? McAfee has always worked well for me.

Secondly, I began my account with Plusnet in 2011 and paid £2.00 a month for McAfee. As I still have McAfee, I am assuming my package either includes it or I am paying for it as part of my monthly fee. I've tried to have a look at my account but not sure where to look.

Could someone let me know if I have McAfee currently, will I need to pay a further £2.00 after the trial ends. If that is the case I probably won't switch to Norton, given the trouble people appear to be having, and switch to MWB.

Re: Switch to Norton

iannewson — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 20:02:33 GMT

@WorldMachine wrote:

......given the trouble people appear to be having, and switch to MWB.

Malwarebytes wont cover you for viruses, only malware.

Re: Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 07:36:18 GMT

Thanks for the response; I've been doing some reading and yes, it appears MWB won't cut it for virus protection. I will try and download Norton later on today and hope I don't run into the difficulties others seem to have had.

Re: Switch to Norton

jab1 — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 07:47:27 GMT

@WorldMachine Assuming you are using a Windows OS, why not forget Norton and use Windows Defender (or whatever it is called these days) in conjunction with MWB?

Re: Switch to Norton

Champnet — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 08:23:29 GMT

I use Windows Security (Defender) and Malwarebytes and never had a problem.
Malwarebytes doesn't do virus protection but will warn if you're going into, or downloading from, known unsafe areas of the web.....

Re: Switch to Norton

beeceegee — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 10:50:04 GMT

@iannewson wrote:

Malwarebytes wont cover you for viruses, only malware.

Malwarebytes does now include antivirus, at least in its paid version. It may not be the best av around, but as an all-in-one product it's not bad

Re: Switch to Norton

MisterW — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 10:54:11 GMT

Malwarebytes does now include antivirus, at least in its paid version

Yes, MWB Premium does, and if you have a Current account with either Natwest or RBS then you can get a free licence for up to 10 devices

Re: Switch to Norton

beeceegee — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 11:24:12 GMT

@MisterW wrote:

Malwarebytes does now include antivirus, at least in its paid version

Yes, MWB Premium does, and if you have a Current account with either Natwest or RBS then you can get a free licence for up to 10 devices

Good to know. I have a lifetime sub, from a special offer many years ago, but I'm also with Natwest so I'll install on the rest of the household machines

Re: Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 13:03:15 GMT

I've spent a couple of hours this morning looking at various options;almost decided on BitDefender but they will only support WIn7 users to January 2023. Apparently MWB doesn't have good customer service. I've had a look at some free ones such as Avast but just can't seem to find something which appeals and has good reviews.

Re: Switch to Norton

jab1 — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 13:07:48 GMT

@WorldMachine I am not associated with MWB, except as being a satisfied free version user for a number of years. Never in that time have I needed 'customer services' and the odd time I've had a problem - 2 in 10+ years of use? - the forum has had, or found me, the answer.

Re: Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:05:25 GMT

Thanks John, it seems from several websites I’ve read, that MWB does have anti virus in its free version…

Malwarebytes offers free versions to scan and clean viruses and malware from your devices. Paid antivirus software like Malwarebytes Premium gives you on-going protection against viruses and malware, rather than just scanning and cleaning when you think your device might be infected.

I think the only difference is the paid for version has real time protection. I’ve downloaded MWB and done a first scan. I will see how it goes as I will miss the real time protection of McAfee but I have the option to pay for this on MWB.

Re: Switch to Norton

jab1 — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:21:39 GMT

Yup, the free version does scan for viruses - when you initiate a scan, but as you say it has no real-time protection, for which Windows Defender is perfectly adequate (and also free), and the two do not interfere with each other.

As a Linux user, I obviously don't have either on my current machine, but my back-up (a Windows 7) has Avast AV and the free MWB - neither of which have picked anything up, other than the odd tracker, for longer than I can remember.

Re: Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:37:30 GMT

I looked at WD but I don’t think it’s available to download anymore for windows 7.

Re: Switch to Norton

jab1 — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:48:33 GMT

I may be wrong, as I have always used an alternative AV, but I thought it was installed as part of the OS, although you may be partly correct as W7 is no longer supported, maybe the AV definitions are no longer updated - I don't know.

Re: Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 16:11:04 GMT

From what I’ve seen WD is part of MS Essentials and that is no longer supported or available for Win 7. Due to long hours at work imminent, I think I’m going to have to take the path of least resistance and download Norton and hope it works as well as McAfee for me.

Re: Switch to Norton

jab1 — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 16:13:57 GMT

OK - sounds 'normal' to me, but be aware that at the moment there is some 'technical difficulty' with installing the PN supplied version of Norton.

Re: Switch to Norton

Longliner — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 17:25:58 GMT

I wonder why you retain W7? I liked it and was most reluctant to replace with W10 but after a couple of years I must admit I was wrong. I thought W7 was cleaner in that it did not offer W10's bells and whistles which I don't want anyway, but W10 is faster for my simple needs and offers Windows Defender which seems to match most of the paid-for AVs, why not give it a try?

I used to buy both McAfee and Norton but they both fell back in the comparison tables so I turned to Kaspersky about seven years ago. It worked well but I have ditched it (and my half-year's payment) since the Russian war on Ukraine and repeated warnings from several governments. Recently W10 has suggested several updates being available for some of my ancient equipment, not least my 2002 Samsung monitor, so Microsoft has its good points!

Mike

Re: Switch to Norton

jab1 — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 17:43:51 GMT

@Longliner You're possibly not referring to me, but the reason I retain W7 is that I didn't like W10, or get on with it when installed it when the 'trial' was offered. It was the only version of Windows, going back to the original - W95? - which didn't easily 'follow on' from its predecessor by offering a reasonably easy learning path, and although I persevered for the maximum amount of time possible, I was relieved to consign it whence it came.

I had a second bite at the cherry when we had to replace my mums W8.1 machine (again, IMO, a dud system) and found it just as bad, but as the IT guy in our family had to try and like it - failed miserably, but only ever touched it when I had to.

The Windows machine is now only used for a couple of programs that do not have easy equivalent ones in Linux - although I keep checking for possibles - and as an emergency back-up machine, and I'll never go back to a Redmond OS.

Re: Switch to Norton

WorldMachine — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 18:10:32 GMT

Thanks for the heads up re Norton problems. One would assume that McAfee won’t be stopped until Norton can be successfully installed.

re windows 7. Have been around a fair few years, recall all the versions of windows and for me, W7 is hands down the best. A couple of months ago we switched to W10 at work and I really don’t like it, there’s too much emphasis on people having more than one device, too many ways to change the same settings. I’ll hang out on W7 til the bitter end. I’ve had no problems so far, it runs beautifully and I take a system image once a month should I encounter a problem.

Re: Switch to Norton

Longliner — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 13:27:32 GMT

@WorldMachine (and John)

OK I understand now. I thought W7 was the best and didn't like all the 'features' and the tiles like a child's nursery on W10, but I got used to it after I managed to get rid of all the clobber and make my screen like W7. I'm impressed by Defender, only two warnings this year and both genuine. Each to his own I suppose.

Mike