News and Reviews > Mini-Reviews by Members

Malwarebytes FREE and PRO/Premium - Mini-Review.

<< < (8/14) > >>

dcwul62:
Some people (not me, you understand) might say that not only is MBAM not an antivirus tool and which seems to run perfectly happily alongside MS Security Essentials or other virus tools, with no conflicts, but also that they would not attach much credence to advice coming from anyone pushing Norton/Symantec, because that product set and brand seem to equate to lock-in, "shonky" and untrustworthy, and so they wouldn't touch any of it with a bargepole. However, I couldn't possibly comment.
-IainB (May 22, 2014, 09:36 AM)
--- End quote ---

On Norton forum it isexplicitely recommended to run MBAM along with Norton, be it the 'free' version.
So, there is nothing against it.
The only issue raised was - how would both products go in case of malicious software, i.e. when both are fighting to remove it...

I have both NIS and KIS, I've been  a KIS-supporter for about 7 years.
But the support is not vice versa.
I support thém, but they donot support mé (except for the forum).
If there is no solution on the forum, then you (or at least *I*) got stuck.
Mails, reminders, even when escalated to mgrs level, well, they don't give a ****
eh... they don't care.
I have also submitted false positives, Norton replies/update their database, Kaspersky, they don't know you and donot respond
I have asked to verify a file, extra-check, Norton replied/confirmed the file is okay, Kaspersky only confirms receipt, that's it, no feedback
I have had a few chat sessions with Norton, they solved the matters without problems (forget about KIS on this point)
Given that both products are 'top-rated' AV-products, well, at one point I stopped using KIS.
Kaspersky, without doubt, is a very good product, but they simply donot offer support on 'personal' level.

Norton also may have some habits I don't really like: I have had some ligitimate software, that was marked as spyware or so.
It was simply removed, no questions asked. Period. If that was the only file you had... what then?

=

tomos:
I have also submitted false positives, Norton replies/update their database, Kaspersky, they don't know you and donot respond
I have asked to verify a file, extra-check, Norton replied/confirmed the file is okay, Kaspersky only confirms receipt, that's it, no feedback
I have had a few chat sessions with Norton, they solved the matters without problems-dcwul62 (May 23, 2014, 02:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
^ this does sound very good (Norton) :up:
Ease of reporting false positives is very important ...

but
I could not live with this:
Norton also may have some habits I don't really like: I have had some ligitimate software, that was marked as spyware or so.
It was simply removed, no questions asked. Period. If that was the only file you had... what then?
-dcwul62 (May 23, 2014, 02:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
is there no option to allow the user to choose how to respond?

My negativity towards Norton is based on a laptop that I 'manage' for an elderly friend - Vista/ 2GB ram/ and Norton on full power - including freezing the machine so it can tell us that the CPU is overloaded :down: - in fairness I was able to disable a lot of it's activities - but until I did, the machine was completely unusable - drove me batty trying to do anything on it ;-)
I presume on most modern machines this would not be a problem...

dcwul62:
Well, I asked about this and the feedback was that this is the idea of using Norton.
One cud submit files as possible false positives.

Under settings, there is an option 'Ask Me', but Norton sofar never asked me, but rather immediately quarantined the files.

Figure the way of proceeding would be a bit as follows:

The file:
- is marked as malicious and quarantined/removed by Norton
- should be restored
- submitted to Norton as false positive

then wait for feedback.
that may take a while but timebeing you can't use the program.

=
Malwarebytes FREE and PRO/Premium - Mini-Review.
=

IainB:
Co-incidentally, I have just today had the experience of de-installing Norton/Symantec virus tools from a new laptop that had it pre-installed, running Windows 8. The Norton thing was like those hijack trojans that demand payment for something. Kept nagging the user to upgrade and pay $17.99 or something. It also disabled MBAM real-time scanning when I installed MBAM, which was really annoying, and it had disabled MS Security Essentials (which is built-in to Windows Defender in Win 8 and up).

I disconnected the laptop from the Internet, and then proceeded to remove each of the 4 or so components of the Norton package, one at a time, using RevoUninstaller. There is a plant, indigenous to New Zealand, which trampers (people who like roughing it, walking over the mountains) call a "Bush Lawyer", because it has hooks on it so that it clings to your legs/clothes - anything it touches - and is well-nigh impossible to shake off. You learned to avoid the thing like the plague. Norton virus software is like that - only worse. Hooks all over the place. As it was being uninstalled, it kept saying things like "Are you sure?", "Tell us why you are uninstalling this software", and so forth, all the while desperately trying to phone home (in anticipation of which, I had already disconnected the laptop from the Internet).
In the end, after RevoUnistaller had done its thing, I had to spend a good 20 minutes or so trying to delete the residual registry keys and sundry write-protected files that Norton had left hidden/embedded amongst the system folders. I put Unlocker to good use, and put the laptop through 2 restarts in the process, running CCleaner to help to expunge residual bits and pieces, and xplorer²'s Shredder on anything left in the Recycle bin and temp folders.

I then re-installed MBAM (PRO, the PAID-for version), which came up with real-time protection ON by default - i.e., as it should have. I set MBAM to do a quick scan, and it promptly found a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) that Norton had missed.
Starting up Windows Defender, I enabled MS Security Essentials, and set it to work on an update and then a scan.

MilesAhead:
I bought a series of HP desktop machines.  Without exception the most annoying time of ownership was between the first boot and the removal of the last vestige of Norton.  On the last machine even after I ran the Norton Removal Tool 3 times I was getting slow boots(like warm boot of 120 seconds.)  By looking at the boot log I saw the system was timing out waiting for Norton drivers to load even though Norton executables were gone.

I ran CCleaner registry clean to finally get rid of the last of it.  It's pure harassment.  Preloaded is the only way it would get on any of my machines.

Maybe next time I'll have the resources to do a build and retail copy of Windows.  Just get totally away from this aggraware.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page