Is Norton any good?

Here's another good site for anti-virus data but to get the real meat of what they find you gotta by a subscription, you get the basics for free. http://www.virusbtn.com/index

[hitchface]

I am wary of anti-virus tests because they basically feed viruses to the program, some of which you are highly unlikely to get if you have safe browsing habits.

Realistically, every machine I have come across with Norton on it has had, if nothing else, a stupendously slow startup time. As soon as I get rid of it, performance goes up. Then again, not all people experience the same problem. I relate that to other software like M$ FSX. Go over to Tom's Hardware and compare a 7600GS with an HD3850 on FSX and see which card comes out on top...

[law99]

I would like eeekar to respond. If he was able to get Norton out of his computer & if it did speed it up, like my mother's.

[Negeva]

Originally Posted by usnavyretired I'm running NIS 2008 and I have no issues with it and find it has improved greatly over NIS 2007. I've never had an issue with Norton but many complain about the Norton Removal tool, I WISH over software programs had such a tool. I get tired of uninstalling a program then having to go back and manually uninstall its program folder, reg entries, decktop icon, ect. Every testing report I've read Norton always scores near the top and as far as Norton being bloated, so is Windows, but alot of us keep using it don't we. I always push the "free" programs here when people ask, never Norton unless they ask specifically about it. Lets all just use what we like and leave the bashing to the testing labs unless of course you've found a product that is a down right rip-off.

Agreed, had the great mis-pleasure of having to remove Panda AV this weekend; not only had it failed to un-install but it somehow managed to corrupt IE and network settings.

It does seem unfair that Norton gets all the bashing, and in some respects it was deserved but now it just seems a tad old and petty. Has anyone tried removing McAfee lately? And don't get me started on that site advisor they have - which now they bundle with all products.

I've noticed how much better Norton business products run - but I guess they don't need to code in the extra 'hand-holding' for professionals.

As, someone else mentioned, if you have safe surfing habits and more importantly use that god given gift keeping your ears apart even the worst AV suite should offer adequate protection.

[TwoRails]

Originally Posted by hitchface ... Realistically, every machine I have come across with Norton on it has had, if nothing else, a stupendously slow startup time. ...

Turn off scan on boot. Avast did the same thing for me on both of my machies, and simply turned off scan on boot.... I have never seen the boot time change just because of the few different AV prgs I've installed (NAV, Avast, AVG, and maybe one or two others). The only exception is some version of NAV corporate which don't offer the option to disable scan on boot up. I'd imagine other corporate versions of other brands are the same as it would defeat the purpose of a corporate system to allow the user to turn it off.

Another boot time delay is turn off auto updates and do them manually. Same with other brands, too. For example I turned that of on Avast (on this box at the moment) as I couldn't stand having to wait every boot for it to do updates...

[hitchface]

Scan on boot was turned off, the program was just always the last one to start. Performance would be way down, then it'd finally pop up as having started.

[Caskey_10]

Norton is garbage. I caught the infamous Smit - Fraud Virus and this was a bad form of it too it was blatantly obvious it was on my machine and not once did Norton recongize it. Thankfully the virus is an easy fix and I was able to find a fix on google that took less than 10 minutes to complete.

I'd reccomend running Window's Defender (Spyware) and Avast! Anti - Virus. Both are totally free and very powerful.

[eeekar]

Originally Posted by law99 I would like eeekar to respond. If he was able to get Norton out of his computer & if it did speed it up, like my mother's.

Yup.
I uninstalled the useless thing out of my PC then I got AVG free.
And I found out that my PC had a virus (3 of them) that Norton missed.
My PC is running a bit better now compared to before but I still think it's a bit slow during start up.
And I'm a she..

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by eeekar Yup. I uninstalled the useless thing out of my PC then I got AVG free. And I found out that my PC had a virus (3 of them) that Norton missed.

And the choir all sang...........Aaaaaamen!

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by Panama Red And the choir all sang...........Aaaaaamen!

I have to agree. Norton isn't that good. Case closed.

[hitchface]

eeekar,

Have you done a good check of your startup processes? Make sure that Norton hasn't left anything behind...I've had that problem. CCleaner is a good tool, if you haven't heard of it. There is a video demo on the main PCMech page, just search for it.

[Negeva]

Norton 2008 isn't that bad, actually it's vastly superior to previous versions. On my Vista test rig it slows startup by about 30-45 seconds - turning off start-up scanner helps, used 600+MB of RAM but gave half of that back after everything settled down.

Compared to my two current favourite paid-for internet security suites: Kaspersky and Eset/NOD it still has some way to go. But, Norton finally seems to have heeded the criticism that has been fired there way over the years.

[eeekar]

Did the CCleaner thingy on my PC..It's somewhat ok now..
Also I found out that my friend works for Kaspersky..Freebies! Yay!

[peekaboo]

is all of the criticism valid only for Norton or does the same go for Symantec Endpoint Protection?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by peekaboo is all of the criticism valid only for Norton or does the same go for Symantec Endpoint Protection?

I think the concensus is that all Norton/Symantec products are bloated resource hogs.

Cricket

[perkster]

the auto remove tool for norton doesnt get rid of everything either in most cases it leaves things in registry, there are some guides on the net to remove it in full but involved restarting yoru computer about 6 times.

[peekaboo]

well, i was using nod32 and pretty pleased with it until i got infected.
i wasn't careful and downloaded a very suspicious file. i scanned it with nod32 and it appeared clean. i ran the file and was immediately infected. nod32 identified the infection but could do nothing about it.

on a separate HD i installed XP and just for fun i tried symantec endpoint protection. i ran a scan of my computer and it found several malicious files.
not trusting symantec i uploaded the files to http://virusscan.jotti.org/ and sure enough, they were infected.
nod32 reported those files as clean.

i have since switched to symantec endpoint protection.
i have an amd x2 4200 with 2 gigs of ram and i don't notice any slowdown of my computer with symantec.

[matthews]

peekaboo, I love you! LOL. I use SEP at home as well, and all I can say it puts Norton and any other AV software to shame. Unlike NAV, NIS, and 360, it is not bloated and while it uses a bit of resources, not nearly as many as the other Norton products. It catches viruses right away, and offers network and other protection then just AV. I highly recommend it to people, since it's not for home usage (hehehe), hard to get a copy for personal use, but for businesses, it works great. I have used it in corporate environments with a server, and the console is quite effective and works great. Also the GUI from SAV 10 to SEP 11 is a nice change and nice on the eyes. Two thumbs up for SEP and SAV. I can't say the same for other Norton products though...

[Brad the best]

i used to have norton and before that mcaffee , the best thing i ever got was avg and zone alarm with a little bit of crap cleaner on the side . ad-aware hasent let me down eather

[eovaz]

norton slows down pc..
i use nod32 v3.0.. it works great..
www.eset.com

[law99]

It is not nice to brag/rub it in that you may have the best, but we the common user cannot have what you do. Input to good programs anyone can use is a greater input.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by law99 It is not nice to brag/rub it in that you may have the best, but we the common user cannot have what you do. Input to good programs anyone can use is a greater input.

Which post are you responding to?

Cricket

[law99]

matthews posted

I highly recommend it to people, since it's not for home usage (hehehe), hard to get a copy for personal use

[glc]

Not hard at all - anybody can buy a 5 user pack for $226 and install it on 5 machines wherever they want.

[matthews]

If you find that offensive, then I'm sorry, but honestly, you get offended easily.

It was not meant for a putdown of any kind. You guys were discussing Symantec / Norton products, I gave my OPINION on Corporate Symantec software. I was just saying that it's really good, not meant for personal usage persay, and well yes you can buy it for personal usage online, it's not what most people would go out and buy for home use. If you thought I was being high and mighty, I wasn't at all. I'm just saying that I use it at home and work, and it works great.

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Preinstalled Norton on personal machines is very problematic to say the least. Networking with that beast is nearly impossible in my experience. And I agree with glc's mention of other seemingly unidentifiable quirks when Norton is installed. Symantec Business Version is another software entirely. I have several customers using it and renew it every year. It is a bit bloated but it does the job it's intended for without causing other issues.

Hmm, seems like I agreed with peekaboo and matthews waaaaay back at post 27.

[peekaboo]

i have XP installed on an older hard drive (i need an XP installation without IE7 because i can't run Unigraphics when IE7 is installed - very annoying) and installed Symantec Endpoint Protection on it.
Everything slowed to a crawl. I uninstalled SEP and everything returned to normal speed. i don't get it - one system was unaffected and another system was severely affected.

[TwoRails]

Possibly conflict(s) with other installed stuff....

[amdalex]

I have norton and my computer is as fast as ever, logs on in 30sec flat. Also running Avast and Ad Aware, no real chance of a virus or spyware for me.

[amdalex]

I just ditched Norton and now Avast, Ad-Aware, and AVG anti spyware keep me safe. Now my computer is faster.