Okay so I received a brand new HP laptop for Christmas right...I was asking the guy at Best Buy about wireless internet connections and such, got that discussion out of the way and he suggests to me that another software for internet security "Trend Micro" is better than "Norton's Security" which came on my computer for a trial period of time. So what do i do...I go and buy the darn Trend Micro software, go home, uninstall the Norton's software, install Trend Micro and then my computer starts freezing up, the screen goes black and I get very frustrated. I made sure that everything that related to Norton's was off of the computer, but somehow that "Trend Micro" thing just clashed with another program that was on the computer. In a panic, I go to system restore to restore the system back before I even uninstalled Norton's and rushed to return "Trend Micro".....

well guess what, Best Buy won't take it back because it's been opened. So now the giftcard that I used to buy the damn program at $70 is basically wasted because I have no use for the program and they won't give me money back.

My mom and my bf basically fussed at me for even listening to the guy at Best Buy in the first place, but he said that it was better than Norton's...I mean I thought I was doing the right thing. I just know that i'm pissed that free money given to me is now gone.

So there, just had to vent.

There's plenty of free software that is good enough, and even works better than Norton.

ArielB said:

Really? I'm still a bit heated that the $70 is gone.

Well I can't help you with the $70. but there's AVG anti virus, or Avast. Both are very good.
There are a few free firewall sofwares that are good.
There is ad-aware and spybot to clean your computer from evil programs.
There's CCleaner to clean your computer from time to time from junk files that accumilated in time.

ArielB said:

Exactly what he said

what exactly did he sell you ??

this is a good site if you really want to look into AV performance

http://www.av-comparative...007_11.php

missfee said:

I also bought this program from Best Buy for both my computers, I had them install it in the first one then I did the second one myself, both work great! But I didnt pay $70.00 for Trend Micro I only paid $20.00 oh and I also have Spy Sweeper in both.
Can't you take it to Best Buy and have them take a look at it???

should have got one of these.

Milty said:

bullshit.

I'm not saying apple sucks, them products are great but suggesting an apple is a solution for secure computing is bullshit.

One4All4Ever said:

Really??? good to know!

Mac OS has much less viruses, because it wasn't as popular. but since in the last couple of years Mac has become popular, so does the number of the viruses made for it, increase.

i dunno. i dont get spyware, adware, viruses, crashes, i dont need patches to fix problems etc. the updates come out regularly and thats it. its a pretty secure system. it truly is.

Milty said:

I don't have any of that 3rd shit installed on my MAC (spyware filters, Norton, etc.). I use the mac the same as I did my Pcs, and don't have any issues.
Like some magazine once said, MACS do get viruses, but when they happen, it's a news event. When they happen on Windows, it's business as usual.

Milty said:

not everyone can afford a damn mac.

trend micro's worked okay for me in the past, and norton is shitty. maybe try re-installing windows or something, and leaving norton off it completely this time?

there's not that many viruses in the Windows world anymore either. This is an assumption, but I'll take a shot at it. Apart from being a great nuisance, in the past viruses didn't exactly cause great damage (unless you were a company and your business depended on your IT infrastructure. What we see now dramatically increasing is targetted attacks, where custom malware is written to attack, blackmail or steal information from specific companies (size doesn't matter there, there's SMB's being attacked as well as corporate giants). In retrospect we can assume that the viruses we saw back in 2003-2005 were both programming trials from students and freaks AND trials to test 'vehicles' that can be used to transport malware in an efficient way (remember one of the big issues about those viruses is they brought the network down, which meant they consumed all bandwidth. Malware today doesn't do that anymore, because it is more resource-efficient).

On the other hand, last year we had the MoAB (Month of Apple Bugs) and believe it or not, there WAS a steady flow of vulnerabilities for the Mac OS platform (checkout www.securityfocus.com for a list).
Most Information Security experts do believe an increase for malware directed at the Mac OS platform can be expected for 2008. With their different products (Mac, MacBook, iPod, IPhone and Apple TV) they are an interesting target for identity and information theft.

the Mac vs. PC fight is old, very old and not worth it. I would never advise someone to buy a Mac solely because it is more secure. The choice is there and anybody that has the funds and requires certain features will make the right choice. I for my part don't have a preference, chances are good my next machine will be a Mac but my main reason is because most of the tools I use run on *nix and will be working (albeit with some tinkering and compiling) on the nifty MacOS.