advice needed please

[Mr DJ]

hi guys and gals
has anyone heard of this problem before...
it has now been rectified but i thought id tell you about it to see if anyone else has had this problem.

ive lost the use of system restore, search option in start and windows security centre(even tho i dont use it).
when i click on start and search it opens a new window but its just a white box.
clicking on system restore does nothing at all.

i also had a problem with norton.
on my task bar it has the norton box with the green tick saying everything is ok. but when i click on the icon it opens the norton box but everything just says refresshing and wont let me open any programs in it to do a scan or look at my quarantined section.

this is where the fun starts.
i contacted symantec helpdesk and they said they could sort it for me over the phone. "great i thought". at the cost of £18 a call. i lost my rag with the call centre technician whose name was john from india. i told him he could stick norton where the sun dont shine and i would never use their software again. he went and spoke to his manager and when he came back on he offered me free support (fancy that, wasnt i lucky).
anyway after giving me a long line of letters and numbers to write into my run box the problem was sorted. somehow a driver or dll file was missing and he said it was due to my last automatic update.(and they wanted to charge me £18 for a fix on a update they sent out).
strangely enough my system restore now works and my search facility has returned to all its glory and the windows security centre has also returned even tho im still not using it.
i was just wondering if anybody else has had a symilar problem.
jim

[Clunk]

£18 for technical help? Dump norton mate, more trouble that they are worth.

[orbiter]

Jeez...£18. I hope you told John from India to fook oof.

I can't say I've had problems similar to yours as I''ve never used any of Symantec's stuff in my systems and never would.. Its far too heavy on system resources which I'm sure I could find a use for on things I wanted running!

Just use Avast antivirus (free for personal use) make sure your system is firewalled and fully patched.

[BlindMelon7]

What would you say was better orbiter. AVG or Avast. I've used both and have only had one virus. That was with Avast.

[pp05]

I've had a few cases lately from people all of the to do with norton update feature bugging up system. Removing it is also a hassle. (not a fan of consumer version)

Corporate version of the product is better.

[dave87]

I personally would stay away from Norton, and possibly even McAfee (though it is not as bad). I've found NOD32 to be extremely good, and it is now what I am recommending to family & friends, though my enemies still get recommended Norton*

*That was a joke

[orbiter]

BlindMelon7.. Between the two IMHO I would choose Avast over AVG, I have been using Avast for over 5 years now without any problems at all. I have recommended it to a few friends too who have had viri using AVG. Avasts virus DB is also updated very frequently nowadays (mine is set to check for updates every 3 hours)

[Mr DJ]

thanks for the reply guys.
are there any conflics using avast or AVG with spybot, ad aware, cc cleaner and windows defender. i know a couple conflict with norton but that will be a thing of the past soon as im binning it. also do you need a seperate firewall while using avast or AVG or does one come with it.
cheers.
jim

[orbiter]

Mr DJ,

I'm using Avast along with Ad-Aware without any issues, and looking at your system you should have enough resources too for the programs your trying to use. You may find that the conflicts you had in the past were due to Norton using so many system resources that any other spyware/malware programs have been scrabbling for the left over resouces that Norton wasn't using.

BTW.. Avast does NOT have a firewall, its sole purpose is to protect you against viri and other infections http://www.avast.com/eng/whats_new_in_avastve.html

If your using Windows XP you will need to turn on its inbuilt firewall.

[Mr DJ]

thanks orbiter.
i will be getting rid of norton just after christmas so will seriously considder Avast.
i am running xp so will re activate microsoft firewall back on.
thanks for the advice
jim

Mr DJ,

I'm using Avast along with Ad-Aware without any issues, and looking at your system you should have enough resources too for the programs your trying to use. You may find that the conflicts you had in the past were due to Norton using so many system resources that any other spyware/malware programs have been scrabbling for the left over resouces that Norton wasn't using.

BTW.. Avast does NOT have a firewall, its sole purpose is to protect you against viri and other infections http://www.avast.com/eng/whats_new_in_avastve.html

If your using Windows XP you will need to turn on its inbuilt firewall.

[orbiter]

No Probs