The response to my most recent Weblog item about problems with Norton AntiVirus (NAV) 2004 demonstrates users are sick of dealing with their antivirus software.
"I'm a 20-year computer tech who's been using (and selling) NAV religiously for the last several years," wrote one reader. "Due to the MASSIVE rash of sudden NAV-related problems we're seeing at work, I've changed my mind. Finally at home my wife's computer had a ‘Norton has encountered an internal error ...’ and I bought McAfee. No more NAV for me. Had no troubles I couldn't fix with all versions PRIOR to 2004."
Support difficulties figure prominently in many of these complaints. "I also had difficulties installing NAV 2004, but it wasn't due to my technical inability," another reader wrote. "I've exhausted the tech support docs on the support site, and finally had to pay for a tech support call to un-install and re-install. Oh, and by the way, my TCP/IP stack blew up during this loveliness, which I had to re-install and reconfigure. LiveUpdate still doesn't work, but rather than pay another $39.95 for a support call, I'm manually downloading and installing Antivirus updates. How insane is that?! Extremely dissatisfied with NAV 2004 and will not upgrade to a newer version until it flat refuses to work on my PC."
As gripes about McAfee are common as well, several readers suggested another alternative to Norton. "Go to www.grisoft.com," one reader wrote. "Get the Freeware AVG. I've run it for several years, and have had zero problems with it. Always timely updates, and they're at least as quick as the others to jump on new viruses. No nagware, or other hooha, just a good, solid anti-virus product, absolutely free. Can't ask for more than that. And if you want to support their efforts, they have a fancier product you can buy. But the free AVG gives you everything you need to be safe. I've read numerous comments in various forums from users of AVG, and have never heard anything but praise for it."
11:39:20 AM 
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