| donutbandit typed:
|
| > | >
| >> But before i installed any firewall, i've read several
reviews and in
| >> all Norton was the winner. All freeware ones were at the
bottom of
| >> the list with remark that they are pretty good "for the
price..."
| >>
Sleeper,
The reports I have seen have all said that the Norton firewall
was weak and buggy. I regret the day that Peter Norton sold his
well-crafted products to Symantec.
| >
| > Reviews accomplish what the writer wants them to accomplish.
Sounds
| > likely to me that the ones you read wanted you to buy a
firewall.
| >
Reviews are also typically written by people on corporate systems
with an in-house IT department that Symantec will actually talk
with. Have you ever tried to use Symantec's customer support?
With two versions of Norton Systemworks, my experience with
Symantec's support was a big fat Zero, and the top-rated product
itself was much more trouble than it solved. Like with Intuit,
they have insulated themselves thoroughly against their customers
with an impenetrable moat. You hurl yourself against a squished
email system, repeatedly, pleading for recognition. When they
condescend to answer you, it's canned, irrelevant, and plain
wrong. I'm sure you know the drill: They essentially tell you to
go FAQ yourself.
Sometimes this kind of quality is named "Award-winning support!"
Trust me: I've been there. It's printed on the box. In fact, I
returned an HP CD burner that had that statement printed on the
box. It turned out that the fine print inside said that, yes,
phone support is available to all for $2.50 per minute. Those
minutes start on the day of purchase. Symantec, too, delivers
"award-winning support." They don't mention whose award this is.
Perhaps it is from "Joe's award licensing corporation." For
$20,000, I'll wave my magic wand and issue you an award myself.
When it comes to security products that I pay for, I damn well
expect these bastards to answer the telephone! Failing that, I
can do just as well, perhaps better, with free software. If your
system is so screwed up that you can't boot, you certainly can't
go on-line to get at their email support or their FAQed-up FAQs.
I don't have to pay money for that kind of help. After those
miserable experiences, decent freeware becomes a godsend (see
that: I've been on-topic all along, man!).
| > IF you had asked around the Usenet groups instead, you would
have
| > gotten a completely opposite picture. Norton is the number 1
cause of
| > computer and user problems. The first thing we ask in the
help groups
| > is "Do you have Norton?" and the answer is almost always
"yes."
| >
| > I would put the top 3 or 4 free firewalls up against Norton
any day
| > of the week. But, they already have your money, which is what
they
| > wanted to begin with.
|
| First of all, who said anything about me buying norton?
I
like
| thoroughly test things BEFORE buying. That 30 day crap testing
is too damn
| short period.
I agree. I've been using PCs since 1984. I've always had the
feeling that I've got to live with a complex program for six
months before I can know whether I want to live with it or not.
That's unfortunate, but it's true for me. Smaller programs will
reveal themselves to me much sooner, of course. I don't see how a
critic can review a program on a tight publication deadline.
| Secondly...from these posts i still don't know which one is
"the one". Most
| of you say about Kerio, but some say they had biiig problems
with it in XP
| and newest version is vey resource hungry.
| So, which one? I used to have Agniutm free version (before
Norton), worked
| OK, but i still don't know about level of protection. And
especially
| protection was the most important point of all reviews i've
read and i all
| views Norton was the winner.
| I'm not Norton fan, i'll dump it the second i'll be sure of any
other being
| better. For now my Norton works and causes no problems, so i
can't say
| nothing in this direction.
|
| But i'm waiting for some reccomendations... Free or payable -
doesn't
| matter.
At this point, I don't expect any program to be perfect. That's
too much to ask for. But the issue is: which program is "good
enough?" Sometimes, the parameters might be, "which program is
great when it is used in conjunction with program 'B?'" It may
help to consider these offerings from that perspective.
Kerio (an older version, I see here in another forum) is
extremely capable. One must use pre-fabricated control files for
it or cobble up one's own. I made my own just from making yes/no
rules on the fly, and my experience was quite good. It could have
been better, but I could live with it. I haven't tried Agnitum
yet, but I'm drawn to check it out. I have used a crippled
version of Sygate (included in a recently departed competitor to
Norton Systemworks) that performed very well at what it did; it
whetted my appetite for a "real" firewall from the same company.
I'm using the free one right now and I especially like the way it
handles: the interface is the best I've seen. However, Sygate's
phone support policy prevent me from considering purchase of the
commercial version. For antivirus, I'm using Grisoft AVG, which
is also a masteripiece in the design, handling, and interface
departments. And I find it exceptionally well-maintained. My
feeling about the other program from the Czech Republic, Avast,
was that the interface isn't there yet. I hope that they improve
it.
Enough out of me.
Richard
.