Testing on my Windows XP PC revealed that Avira Antivirus detected more viruses than the tool built into Norton 360 Premier Edition (sorry, Norton). I disabled the antivirus function in Norton 360 and turned over those duties to Avira. I created exceptions in Norton for activity out of the Avira folder in the Programs folder, after I discovered Norton was blocking Avira from downloading antivirus definitions. Now there's a new problem. Norton is blocking me from using my Web browser to enter the forums at the Avira site. How do I find the setting in Norton were sites are blocked, so that I can create an exception for the Avira domain name?
Hello okieseeker
Welcome to the Norton Community Forum.
If you have 2 antivirus programs running on the same computer, of course, neither one is going to work properly;. You can't use Avira Antivirus and N360 together even with disabling parts. Of course N360 is going to malfunction under those conditions.
If you want a 2nd on demand scanner, then you use something like the free version of malwarebytes. That program doesn't have any live time components that are going to interfere with Norton products;. If you want to use Avira antivirus, then get yourself a separate fire wall.
Hi okieseeker,
What sort of testing did you do? Please realize that the actual number of detected viruses is meaningless, since some AV programs will group two or more variants into a single entry while others will list every instance. Also, Norton uses a variety of means to detect malware and most home testers never run tests that take this into account. What you end up with are tests that lack proper controls and results that do not reflect real world performance.
If you have decided to go with Avira however, you would be wise to completely uninstall Norton as there is no way to completely disable it and you are risking conflicts that will hinder Avira from working for you. You may already have a conflict since, in its default configuration, Norton will not block you from accessing web sites, nor will it interfere with legitimate programs, such as Avira, getting on the internet to retrieve updates. The fact that you are having to create special rules in attempts to have Norton do things that it natively does with no user intervention indicates that something is messed up. Your life will be simpler and your computer will be more secure if you stick with one security suite, or otherwise use products that are each designed to do only one thing
Thank you both for writing back. First let me say, floplot and SendOfJive, I don't intend to annoy you by configuring my PC in a manner that seems unwise. I fully agree with your logic as not running two pieces of software which conflict.
Here's the problem I'm trying to work around: On two recent occasions I've run a full virus scan with Norton 360 (definitions updated), had it declare my drives clean, then run a scan with Avira which found the HTML/rce.gen virus. I was surprised, given Norton's years of developing quality software and the sophistication of the premier editon of Norton 360 I bought. This is why I started looking around for a solution. Can either of you help me understand why Norton 360 might overlook a virus? Perhaps I'm not using it correctly?
Hi okieseeker,
There are a couple of things you should know. First, even the best antivirus engines, of which Norton is one, catch around 95% of the threats that are in the wild. They all miss some, and the specific malware that evades detection will vary from vendor to vendor. So Norton will miss a few, Avira will miss a few. But your situation probably was not caused by something that Norton missed. Rather, it was possibly caused by something that Avira caught that was not actually there.
HTML/RCE.GEN is a heuristic detection, which means it is not a firm identification based on a known signature. Rather, it is a conviction based on some characteristic or action of a file that looked suspicious. This is a far less reliable detection than a definition match and can often lead to a False Positive where a safe file is mistakenly identified as being malicious. Avira has had many reported false positives for HTML/RCE.GEN in the past, the most recent having occurred this month. So it is very possible that Norton did not alert to this threat because it was never actually there.
False positives are more than just a nuisance. This thread on the Avira Forum discusses how this month's HTML/RCE.GEN false positive caused the loss of 10,000 files on one user's computer.
Considering that Norton consistently tests well in independent trials for giving very few false positives while achieving one of the highest detection rates among all security programs, you may want to stay with N360. Even if your situation turns out not to be the result of a false positive, missing a single heuristic threat would not be a reason to dump a product that consistently scores at or near the top in overall protection, as Norton does.
I have re-activated the anti-virus function in Norton 360 and removed Avira. Thank you both for your help!!!
You're welcome.