Hello, Alexander!
On Sunday, 17 October 2004, Alexander S. Kunz wrote:
ASK> If you have to look at what you're spending your ASK> money for, IMO, you're better off with a good ASK> standalone virus scanner (I recommend Kaspersky) ASK> and leave all the (IMO crappy, sorry) Norton stuff ASK> be....
Thank you for your candid response, Alexander, and you owe me no apology for your opinion of Symantec. Regarding the issue of "spending [my] money," I was given Norton SytemWorks 2005 Premium last week as a gift by an excessively generous person, to wish me well with some health and employment problems I am facing -- so the money has already been spent (past tense). :-|
I have been very happy with Norton System Works Professional (now Premium) for several years. Symantec's support is an entirely different matter! My research shows that Norton AntiVirus ranks consistently high, and I mean no disrespect to the other fine antivirus programs, such as Kaspersky. (I do worry that NAV shows a progress bar when I send out e-mail with every single client I have tried, except for The Bat!, because if NAV is not checking outgoing mail for viruses, which I think is a great idea, how do I know that it is checking incoming messages with TB? One person has suggested that NAV works automatically and unseen with TB!, which is why there is no plug-in. I know that with 1.X.X versions of The Bat! and NAV that users had to configure each account with some sort of link to Symantec's Web site, in order to get NAV 2001, I believe, to work with The Bat!.
You mention alternatives to Symantec's, Alexander, but I have not been able to find alternatives to SystemWorks' diagnostic and disk tools. (The defragmenter that comes with Windows XP Professional is not in the same league as Norton's SpeedDisk.)
I do not want to dwell on the initial comment in your kind reply, Alexander, because I have never had any problems with Norton SystemWorks, and it's what I have, unless I try to sell the gift on eBay. ;-) When I install it, after reinstalling Windows XP Pro, Alexander, I will have System Mechanic monitor the installation, so I will have a precise record of what is installed and where.
Besides -- the main topic is the benefits and drawbacks of using a tool such as SpamPal or K9 to filter e-mail before The Bat! accepts the messages.
Although I am concerned about a "performance hit" by any such add-on utility, such a program also gives me some "breathing room" while I try to learn The Bat!'s sophisticated and powerful filtering, as well as giving me the chance to experiment with Bayesian filtering before trying the BayesIT plug-in with The Bat!
You mention my canceling my MyCYM.com account, Alexander. I could have MyCYM stop checking, retrieving, filtering, and sorting e-mail from my POP3 accounts, but I have distributed the 'mycym.com' e-mail address widely. It's on every resume that I've sent out or submitted to IT jobs site, Alexander, and IT recruiters swap resumes, so I do not know who all legitimately has the particular e-mail address. On the other hand, MyCYM is run by MailPort25, which, until a couple of years ago, offered essentially the same e-mail service on SpamRecycle.com. MailPort25 supposedly notified all subscribers that their SpamRecycle.com accounts would be canceled by a certain date, but I never received a notice and I lost all of my e-mail still on the server. One day, there simply was no login section on the SpamRecycle.com site! A few months ago, MailPort25 supposedly switched over the outsourcing of some portion of its ISP services, and all MyCYM.com subscribers found that we had no way to log in. After repeated e-mails to support, I was told of the situation and that I "had received an e-mail notification about the problem" -- but I, nor any subscriber I know, received the notice. MailPort25 also asked for proof of subscribers' previous renewal date or payment for another year ($25 US). Although it would be best for me to keep the MyCYM.com account, Alexander, I think that you can guess what my fear is about MyCYM! :-( People and software vendors get tired of my changing my e-mail address!
I apologize for my incoherence, Alexander. It is well after 1:00 AM in my time zone and I am trying to decide whether an add-on, such as K9 or SpamPal, would be to my advantage. In addition, because Windows XP Pro, which I must reinstall, is unstable, I have not been able to test The Bat! thoroughly. When I get an error, such as an access violation, in The Bat!, I do not know if the problem is with TB! or WinXP Pro.
You are correct about Symantec products being virtually unremovable, but -- as I say -- I have not found a substitute for SpeedDisk or WinDoctor; plus, I do have this copy of SystemWorks Premium 2005, which might be the first version of SystemWorks that causes me problems, or it might work wonderfully. Obviously, I cannot reinstall Windows XP Pro unless I have antivirus software, and I do use the other utilities in Norton SystemWorks. (Ghost, which I have never needed, *does* occasionally slow the system down.)
I thank you, again, for your message, Alexander, and I would appreciate hearing from others. (If anyone has a message regarding using Norton SystemWorks or alternatives, please send me a private message, because such a discussion would be off-topic on TBUDL. Thanks!)
Cordially,
David -- http://ddickerson.igc.org/
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