[jam90]

if the alternatives are better than, yeah, i will get them. the spec for my system is
HP Pavilion
AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+
1.79Ghz 960 Mb RAM
180 Gb Hard Drive

What are the alternative virus protection?

[Mike0001]

Well, AVG from

http://free.grisoft.com

will do for viruses and spyware, and Zonealarm from

http://www.zonelabs.com

will replace the firewall.

[serverguy]

Zone Alarm is a good firewall choice. Alternatively you could use Commodo.

Whilst AVG used to be a very good choice, it has now been well over taken by Avast Free Edition.

AVG is just not what it used to be.

Make sure your run the Norton Removal Tool to get rid of Norton 360 properly.

[Mike0001]

Wow, have you seen the latest AVG?

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by Mike0001 Wow, have you seen the latest AVG?

Yes.

It is generally considered very bad. Going the Norton ways, bloated and not working like it used to.

Avast has used this to it's advantage and come out with a very good product. Much better than AVG's offering.

Sad to say it but AVG is way behind now. Ask evilfantasy if you don't believe me.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Avast is incredible.. especially considering its free (well the free version is anyway xD)

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by 4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie Avast is incredible.. especially considering its free (well the free version is anyway xD)

Yep.

I consider it only to be beaten by the paid for NOD32. And only by a tiny bit even then.

Avast FTW!

[Mike0001]

But it keeps locking me out of my SMTP server!

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by Mike0001 But it keeps locking me out of my SMTP server!

Do you have a SMTP server at home on the LAN?

[Dave Hybrid]

AVG8 FTW, I'm converted...

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by Dave Hybrid AVG8 FTW, I'm converted...

Eh, you only just converted to Avast!

[Dave Hybrid]

Nope, have been on Avast for last few years.

[evilfantasy]

Back on topic

Avast! FTW!! - Had to get that in there...

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by serverguy Do you have a SMTP server at home on the LAN?

Nope, it just shuts me out of my ISP SMTP server and I can't send any mail until I close it. It will be perfectly ok, then one day it does this. I have tried it several times on different PCs and always the same.

I guess it is just some obscure bug.

[jam90]

I have uninstalled Norton 360 and have installed avast. i will keep monitoring the shut diwn situation and keep you informed...
thanks for all the help