Symantec/Norton Antivirus (Not Symantec Internet Security)

I have used Symantec's antivirus products for years and generally been very satisfied. Keeping your antivirus up to date is critical for a couple of reasons:

- The bad products spread and mutate very quickly. Your 30 day old patterns may not save you.
- Since they are a major player, some aggressive virus products target Symantec and attempt to disable your protection.

Lately, Symantec has tried to move in the direction of PC/Internet Security and stubbed it's toe badly. Their suite of products can slow up a computer, confuse it's owner, complicate/disable other firewall products that you might have.

Users complain that their computer has slowed down. If I find the Symantec Security operating, I disable it, and the performance is generally better. They disable the Windows firewall when setting up (as does McAfee), so don't forget to restart your operating systems protection.

I've sent people to Symantec's web site to buy antivirus protection, and Symantec sucked them into upgrading to the full security package, for just a few dollars more - why not?! I don't blame Symantec for marketing their products, and trying to upgrade everybody. I just don't like their current Internet security offerings.

I'm not judging the quality of their protection versus other choices, but the performance and management hit to your PC is too great a price to pay when there are alternatives that don't cripple you in the process of protecting you.

Which anti-virus package are you using?