Re: OT: Going without Norton

[Michael Norman michael.norman@xxxxxxxx]

At 07:57 PM 12/28/2007, Wolfgang Bechstein wrote:
Harry Binswanger  wrote:

> I know Robert has indicated that anti-virus software like Norton is
> unnecessary (at least for him). I would like to know if any XyWriters have
> been going without anti-virus software (even without ZoneAlarm) under XP.

I avoid Norton like the plague and have never had any anti-virus
software installed, on any of the four to five computers normally
running in this household, connected via wired LAN to the
router/firewall that sits at the end of my FTTH (fiber to the home)
connection.<*> Until about four months ago, the mix of operating systems
included Windows 98 SE and XP, now it's XP exclusively. My own two
machines and my wife's machine have never had any kind of virus
infection, period.
Couldn't find the RH post on his experience with AV software, but if
you use an e-mail client and get your mail from a university server,
are you sure you don't want AV software? Yes, I could be absolutely
safe and leave the mail on the server and use the university's e-mail
manager to read it on the server and leave it there. A real chore,
given their software. And if your e-mail is part of your research
(the case here) then you want to download it. So I bite the bullet
and use Norton Corporate 10.1, from what I read the least offensive
of all the Norton products. Thought it's given me problems from time
to time, it's also shagged at least two or three bugs a year, again
unavoidable, I think, if you work through a large public server. I'd
like to be convinced otherwise, however.

Michael Norman