Well, join the club! That horrid, resource-hogging monstrosity is the bane of my life. My advice? Dump Norton – if you can manage to uninstall the damned thing! My experience of Norton Antivirus is that it behaves much like the viruses it is supposed to protect you from…
- Uses lots of processing power.
- Stops other programs working properly.
- Difficult to remove.
So, for good, honest, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin, AV protection may I suggest the excellent, open source Clamwin instead. Seven good reasons…
1. It detects viruses that Norton misses.
2. It doesn’t hog all your resources.
3. It uninstalls cleanly if you don’t like it.
4. Its developer is honest about its shortcomings.
5. It’s free.
6. All its updates are free.
7. It’s not Norton.
Erm, try it…
http://www.clamwin.com/
If you need a software firewall then you might prefer Zone Alarm to Norton Firewall. The simple freeware version has kept my mum’s PC free of worms for years. Mother Goose does not like worms in her PC! And it’s pretty easy to understand & set up.
Better, how about a hardware firewall? Your needs may be more complex than mine but I find the firewall that came free with my Netgear broadband modem/hub/router/wireless/make-the-tea thing does me just fine.
But then I’m a simple soul…