I know we need protection from the dark side of the internet. The purpose of my articles are to help you with information you should know. I am all about trying to write a: Guide, Tutorial, Informational, or all the above type of articles for your benefit.

Today it will be informational. Concerning, Anti Virus. With Norton being a focal point here. I thrive on having a smooth running computer. As many people may not know proper computer maintenance and so forth, I want to educate you on that area the best I can.

As many people cannot understand why within 3 weeks of buying that brand new computer, it runs like the old one they just got rid of.

I am not trying to focus on all of that right now, in a later article I will give some great tips, but let me start with an important one. One that deals with more than making sure my computer runs great, but it deals with my security on the internet.

We surf everywhere, from you to spouse to children, and other relatives that borrow your computer, going to every forsaken land on the internet. Regardless of what you do, where you go. You have an underlying issue. Safety and Security.

Now, let us get this out the way. No matter what I or anyone else says there is no such thing as 100% security, or 100% perfect anti virus program.

There are though, great tips and things you can do to make yourself a little more secure than the next guy.

First thing is first. The Norton land is simply my category for Anti Viruses. These are the AV's (Anti Viruses) that really are a poor choice for purchase. With considerable reasons.

Norton and many AV's like it were good at one point, but I feel they gone to that special land. In nature you have your elephant graveyard. Where elephant's go and make their final rest. I believe we have something similar, a AV graveyard. Where AV's should go if they are not here to improve the situation.

I am sure you have heard the old saying, "If you are not part of the sollution, you are part of the probem." Many AV's have become part of the problem, and are more of a issue to you than a help. It would be the same as buying a wild Tiger to protect your family. Sure you should have the protection, but there is a difference between doing it right, and doing it extreme.

I want you to know, this is about AV. I am not trying to target any other products of Symantec. The creators of Norton. I do not know about their other products, but I know their AV has gone to that Norton Land.

Why is Norton bad?

To answer this question, because it will be a lengthy answer. You must be aware of several factors, to understand the lot of this. In the past, Norton was great. Originally it was an answer to prayers back in the mid-90's. Something to add to our protection while on the internet.

A babe to the industry the only one everyone really knew, then suddenly it had a taste of the darkside and it kind of stayed there. How, you might ask? The issues today are not just viruses anymore. We are fighting against: Spyware, Malware, and things of this nature.

If I may be so bold and say, "If you are a anti-spyware company, please focus on your program to fight against spyware, and if you are a AV company please focus on your AV product."

As you probably deduced. Part of the problem is, Norton makes itself a suite to try to combat all of the security issues. Then gotten real sloppy about it, and made very agressive algorithms that is very destcructive.

Let us also not forget, Norton is very mainstream. So hackers can write viral code that will bypass Norton's system. Not just the AV end of it, but the spyware end of it too.

Well, a team of engineers help design the program and its algorithms. Generally the way it works is, once the team becomes informed of a threat they get into action to see how it was written and to see what it really is and how to get rid of it.

AV programs use what is known as, "Definition Files." These are the files that the AV use to compare against your program. If any file matches an algorithm of the Definition files, then your AV will say, "Hey that program there is a threat. How do you want me to handle it?"

This is how it is suppose to work, and this is how it usually works. Now, I told you previously here that, a AV company should focus on their AV, and anti-spyware against the spyware. Yet, companies like Norton try to take on both issues. And fails miserably.

How so? Well, Symantec has engineers for back-ups, Ghosting, security and other areas their products work on. And let us also assume here that you are given 100 men on each of those mentioned products..

Norton tends to break it up and say, some for AV, another set amount for malware. While at the sametime, it tries to give a firewall, and make sure your computer runs faster.

So now your 100 people man power just became seriously reduced. Even if it were not the case, again they are so mainstream that Hackers learn to write viral code to bypass it.

Not just Norton mind you, but there are a few other AV's out there that are in Norton Land too, and some on its way there.

I can think of only one pro for Norton. That even though it is not a good Anti Virus, it is still an Anti Virus. Better than nothing. I mean, the program costs between $50 - $80 bucks depending on where you shop and what you get.

Some would get it shipped with their brand new computer. Which I would understand why you would have it. Getting essentially a $50 dollar program for free is nice. (Is it really free, or is there a hidden cost?) Again, I feel this is about the only pro you are going to get out of Norton, is that it is an AV and if you have nothing else, you now have something.

Sadly I feel Norton is a Con these days. In many underground circles, Norton is considered to be a "paid virus." The Algorithm is too agressive. Again, using the analogy of a wild tiger to protect. It may or may not turn against you, who is to say?

Of course you would not leave your children unattended with that beast as you know better. Wild creatures are unpredictable. Keeping this momentum going, I want to further say, if your son or daughter or both travel to various websites. Where they are generally good like: Facebook, Myspace, twitter. Or they might even go to: Yahoo Games, CartoonNetwork to play games and the AV shouts and screams about nearly ripping your OS out of the computer than you will see that this AV was more dangerous to you and costly than the virus was.

Another bad thing about Norton is the processes it uses up. In many tech magazines, and articles from respected technologists. They would tell you that having between 30-50 processes is good. The same as having a well oiled car.

If you do not know how many processes you are using now press the buttons: "CTRL+ALT+DEL" at the same time and it will bring up your task manager. At the bottom of the window you will see processes:# which tells you your current processes.

These are programs your CPU must maintain to keep them working. Generally if a program is idle (which means it is sitting there not being used, but it is still on.), it may use 0-5 processes. Where as a program that is running and that you are using may use 15-20 processes, some may be more.

Norton uses, 20-25 processes just being idle. A computer program itself is just a passive collection of instructions, while a process is the actual execution of those instructions. Essentially, a idle process is considered passive, a non-idle process is considered active.

If your process on idle is doing more instructions sitting down than other programs that are actually being used, than I might have to reconsider a few things.

My humble advice to you is. If you are using Norton, and you want a faster computer, your first step should be getting rid of Norton. Find some alternatives. There are some free AV's out there that are much better than Norton. Save the $50 dollars and spend it on a new PS3 game, and grab a free AV.

Or spend $20 - $30 of that $50 on a much better AV like, NOD32. One of my members of my crew works at the company. I do not get a discount because of it, but because leading people to it or getting the word out, helps him keeps his job a little more longer.

There are other ways to protect your computer, and in later articles I will share as many as I know, and as more come my way, I will share that too.