Technical Tidbits

I’ve spoken with several people since my discovery that now TrendMicro’s software has gone down the drain.

I wanted someone - anyone - to tell me why! Why is it that when a company gets bigger their products get crappier? Why!???

At first it was Symantec. My gosh, how well I remember my love of Norton AV. They saved my hard drive when McAfee failed me early on in this business.  But Norton then was not the same as Symantec/Norton now.

First Norton changed to Symantec (they were bought out?). The downhill spiral started. But then, Symantec bought Veritas showing us where they were putting the money - enterprise! I can see them waving as they say, “Goodbye all you little end users who made us what we are! We are going after the real money!”

On we moved to Zonelabs Zone Alarm. Great software. Great control and not a heavy resource user. But then came the Checkpoint buyout and suddenly ZA has it’s own AV program too. And how odd that suddenly their updates started disabling Norton AV? Conspiracy? Maybe.

So, we all made the switch to TrendMicro’s PC-Cillin. My gosh, they’ve been around for ages too! And wow! Internet Security 2006 was a dream come true! I had to keep checking to see if it was working because it never bothered me!

But then, some evil happened in Trends Internet Security 2007. Was it the corporate bug-a-boo that bit them too? Suddenly we have a resource hog on our hands that grows worse with time and updates.

Why??? Why??? Why???

Is it a plague running rampant in Corporations?

A friend of mine gave me the answer I believe. And yes, it’s the plague of all Corporations. It’s an evil virus that spreads across the corporate landscape faster than a botnet. It’s called the “SHAREHOLDER”!

My friend believes that as the companies get bigger and either go public or get bought out by larger corporations, suddenly they have to worry about earnings and shareholders. So, they start to cut corners, cut expenses, make shoddier products. All to keep earnings up and keep the shareholders happy.

So there you have the explanation. The next time your favorite software merges, buys, gets bought out, or goes public, run! Run as fast you can away from them!

Please don’t ever tell me someone has bought up Spybot Search and Destroy. I think I’ll consider Hari kari!

written by Admin \\ tags: antivirus, firewall, norton, spybot, symantec, trend, zone alarm

MICE Training & Technology is announcing formally our decision to remove ourselves from Partnership with Trend Micro and Symantec products. Although we’ve never done much with our partner sites anyway!

Here’s the first part of our decision….

In both partner plans, you have to purchase the CDs or skew products from a distributor. Our customers and clients don’t do that. We no longer go on site and install this stuff. Our customers and clients download their software.

Hello? Symantec and Trend? This IS the 21st Century!

Secondly, we can no longer support their products because they suck. Or as my sister puts it, “They suck pond water.”

Which is the second and final reason we stopped supporting and recommending them.

As many of you old timers know, we’ve given you unlimited support (unlike Symantec’s support site) for which we’ve never been paid. It’s become too costly to support Symantec and Trend without payment. And to be honest, we don’t want you to pay us to support their products because we don’t want you to buy them!

Symantec’s Norton Antivirus is so top heavy it eats up your resources and slows your PC to a slow crawl. Now I don’t know if it does that on the newer Vista capable machines, and frankly I don’t care. Because if Symantec doesn’t slow you down, I’m sure Microsoft will!

TrendMicro’s Internet Security 2006 was a god-send after dealing with Symantec/Norton’s AV. It ran well and fast. You never noticed it was there.

But alas, Trend must’ve grown up and grown big because their software went down the drain with 2007. I know that if you read my previous post in the repairs section that TrendMicro will slow down if you don’t undo the immunize function in Spybot, but I’ve done a clean install on a PC that NEVER ran Spybot and Trend PC-cillin 2007 degraded over time.

The minute I closed it down and disabled the running services in the management console, the PC sped up so fast I sat there with my mouth hanging open in shock. I could NOT believe it! The difference was unbelievable. (And I have a very fast running client who’s very happy and will back-up my claims here!)

So, if you have a PC that’s running Symantec or Trend Micro products, uninstall baby! You’d be surprised how fast your PC really is!

What do we recommend? Grab AVAST free Home or professional version. Right now, they are the best on our list for AV software. (And we are joining their affiliate program!)

AVG is okay, but the free version is extremely annoying. The coverage is great, but I really prefer the interface with AVAST. Even in the free version. But be warned! It talks to you! I mean in an audible voice when it updates or traps a suspicious message. The first time it scared the heck out of me!

Firewall Software? ZoneAlarm. They’ve recovered from their crappier versions and the newer ones work well. Either way, it’s better than M$ Firewall! (Ok, never mind that comment. ANYTHING is better than M$ firewall!)

And yes, we’ve joined ZoneAlarms affiliate program also! For now.

Stay safe, Debbie

written by Admin \\ tags: computer slow, internet security, norton, norton antivirus, pc-cillin, slow pc, symantec, trend, trendmicro