I used to have Microsoft Security Essentials on my computer. Its running Windows 7 Home Premium.

I now have Avast - the free version.

I was talking to my sister, who is on expert on everything - and she was telling me that she also had Avast and then she talked to a Telus (Telus is her Internet Provider and her land line and cell provider) representative in the Phillipines and he was super helpful. He told her that Avast is a bad thing to use and that he would take over her computer and get rid of Avast for her and install Norton (I have heard nothing good about Norton). So she let him take over her computer and he couldn't remove Avast so he installed some program he had to get rid of Avast and he also told her she had things on her computer that she didn't need and as it was midnight her time, she could go to bed and he would fix everything by the morning.

I don't use Telus. I just wondered if it was a good idea to let someone you don't really know from a hole in the ground to do this to your computer.

I would also like to know if you all think Avast is a bad thing that slows down your computer. And if so, what is a good thing for me to install instead of Avast. And am I going to have trouble uninstalling Avast and if so, how the heck do I do it??

Please and thank you for your help.

You should have no issue with removing Avast but PLEASE do not do in favor of Norton. Personally I can't say where Avast stands on tests but I've never had an issue with it when used. As far as slowing down a system that thought is ludicrous! Norton and McAfee are the two biggest resource hogs around.

Personally I think that your sister has probably been scammed and the person she allowed to take over her system either did not really work for the ISP or the ISP's practices are questionable. NO!!! It was NOT a good idea for your sister to allow her system to be taken over by someone that has not proven their credentials. Even then I would question the practice unless you knew the person. If the ISP supplies Norton for free to a user they probably get a kickback.

The real question is whether she contacted the ISP or if she was contacted. In either case I would not allow my system to be taken over by a stranger but, if she was contacted by the person, I can 99.9999% garauntee that she has been scammed. First off a reputable rep would never tell her to go to bed and he would continue. See if she will admit that this cost her $200.00 USD. If it did not then her system has probably been 'ripped' of a lot of personal data. Also ( May be different in the Phillipines but I doubt. ) an ISP will NEVER bcontact you about what you have installed on your system due to the simple fact that they don't know.

If you are happy with Avast stay with that which you are happy... Don't fix what isn't broken.

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OK. Thanks for that. I suspected that was going to be the case. As for telling my sister - it would be a waste of time because I can guarantee that the possibility that she would come to the conclusion that she was wrong is extremely remote. Not sure if you have a sister but if you'd like one - you can have one of mine!

What started this conversation was because I told her I had problems with Thunderbird not working. I contacted my ISP and usually they say they are not able to support third party email programs. But I think things were slow and the guy I was talking to said it was my email settings and helped me fix them. I suppose my sister didn't want me to find someone more helpful than she did so she told me about the Telus guy. He did offer to take over her computer. She didn't ask him. She said he removed Avast and when she restarted her computer, it was back again. So he asked if she would wait while he found the program that would allow him to remove it. And as it was almost midnight where she lives, he said she could go to bed and he would finish up and her computer would be fixed when she got up in the morning!

If you think she sounds gullible, I could tell you the story about how she left new tenants looking after her house while she and her husband went to Mexico on holidays and how when they got back the police showed up and asked if they could see their American Express credit cards. When they produced them, the cops showed them identical cards in their names, stolen by the tenants and cloned before they left. I can't remember the whole story, but it involved, among other criminality, the tenants pawning their stuff and redeeming it by selling electronics they had stolen from Best Buy. All of which was caught on CCTV and I guess that is how the cops arrested them and found the credit cards.