Norton AntiVirus 2004 Professional

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, As Usual, Norton is the Best
Review: I have used Norton for years and have never had the problems so many reviewers have. I got the PRO rather than the standard because it allows you to use it on two computers and I have two. Just be sure to uninstall any older versions of either Norton or other virus checkers first. Don't run any other programs while installing and go get all the updates before you run the program, they fix all the problems and allow it to run well.

Rating:
Summary: Great Protection, Anti-Virus, File Deletion, Data Scrub, two
Review: I installed after using Norton 2002, I uninstalled 2002, all parts including Live Update, rebooted then installed Norton Pro 2004, install ran a basic virus scan and installed with no problem. Running great no system slow down or activation problems so far. I am running WIN XP Pro with AMD Duron 1.3 Ghz. and 795MB

The version comes with two licenses, data recovery (recycle bin) and data clean (prevent others from recovering the data you delete). I have been saved numerous times from email viruses using norton. Also this version adds protection when using IM programs. Also basic adware protection.

I would recommend that you get a firewall program, Norton has a good one for novice to intermediate users. For advanced users try Sygate.

Rating:
Summary: An installation overview...
Review: I purchased this item and downloaded directly from Norton's not-so-easy-to-use web site. Previously I had used Norton 2003 which worked OK provided you did not turn on their background scanning options (unless you like your quad P-5-Million to run like a 386)

Download went smooth. Shortly after the original download, the install started. Make sure that you've disabled or closed every application and non-neccesary process on your system before you start. Make sure you read their included readme file as well to ensure that you don't have any conflicting software installed. At first you'll be asked to do a complete system scan to ensure there are no viruses that will interfere with installation. An hour or so later, the scan should be complete and you'll be ready to install. Installation is relatively painless. Some files are copied, you'll be asked to set up the software to your liking, and then you'll be prompted for a reboot. Here is where it gets a little tricky.

Reboot process seems to go along fine. Eventually you end up at the Windows XP user login screen. Click your name, and wait. Wait. Wait. Wait some more. Icons start appearing, slowly, one at a time, and then.. poof.. nothing. Complete lockup. So now you reboot and try again to see if it's just a glitch. Nope, same thing happens.. this time it didn't get quite as far. Try it again, and you'll see similar problems. Go on, keep trying. Eventually, you'll get logged in, and about half an hour later, a blue screen crash complaining about some random driver will appear. Hmm.

Finally, I managed to uninstall the software and bring the computer back to it's original state with a little help from a technician.

Two weeks later I decided I'd try again just to see if it was a fluke. This time, installation went perfectly, well... right up until the reboot, and then nothing.. well, nothing except for my background picture, followed by a total lock up. Safe mode did the same thing. Luckily WinXP has a boot to previous know good configuration option which worked well, and allowed me to login to immediately uninstall this useless software.

Buyer beware. If you're using this on a business machine, be prepared for a fair amount of downtime and lost productivity. Otherwise, just prepare for some serious frustration and a nasty headache. This is the last time I will ever purchase Norton Antivirus.

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU PLAN TO UPGRADE YOUR RAM!
Review: I ran Nortons for a year with no trouble at all. I use Nortons system works, its been great, runs scan disks, fixes errors, scan viruses etc.....HOWEVER I upgraded my memory to 512mb of RAM, and guess what???? My nortons can no longer complete a virus scan on my pc. If i attempt to scan my PC, MY PC SHUTS OFFFFFFFFFF! Reboot city. So, i informed symantics aka nortons, and the only reply i got???? "YES WE ARE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM, FOR SOME REASON NORTONS WONT ALLOW VIRUS SCAN IF YOU CARRY MORE THAN 512MB OF RAM." The original problem arouse back in June of 2003, this is now Feb. 2004, still no patch of fix to this. I find this the most rediculous thing ever! How can they charge me almost 100 bucks for something that i cant even use, but cant return either???? Its a sham. I will never ever ever buy A NORTON product again. I relied on the auto enabled virus detector to help shield me, and tho it did shield most everything, when i ran a STINGER (free virus/worm/trojan) scan last week, it detected 2 trojans, and a new worm....screw this! Now i need to find out what soft ware is the best OTHER than nortons. Damn shame too, i have never owned anything else in the 10 years ive owned a pc.

Thier loss, my dollar goes else where!

Liz

Rating:
Summary: More REBATES!
Review: I read a couple of good reviews on Norton's firewall. I'm here to buy it, but I'm not going to because I dislike rebates. Just lower the price! I'm not jumping through hoops for the privilege of buying your software for a reasonable price.

Rating:
Summary: I want my Norton 2003 Back
Review: I recently upgraded to Norton 2004 Professional. It is so slow I am considering uninstalling the program. My Norton 2003 was great and did not slow down my computer at all. Unfortunately 2004 is DOG. My advice is to buy an old 2003 Norton. Of the 3 computers I own, it runs alright on one, a new dell. My 6 month old dell and my 1 year old laptop can't seem to run the progam very well. My laptop used to boot in 30-40 seconds and now takes 3-5 minutes. I find it hard to believe they put out such poor product.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money; unreliable resource hog
Review: I upgraded from Norton 2003, which was one of the most reliable antivirus tools I've used. The 2004 version promised to catch spyware and adware in addition to viruses. To cut the long story short, I uninstalled this software and went back to the 2003 version. This is a perfect example of how some companies can take a great product and make a horrid mess out of it. The key problems: (1) unreliable, (2) slows a bleeding edge PC with 2 gigs of RAM down to a crawl...a total resource hog that made normal tasks like using Word and checking email intolerably slow, (3) it actually missed a virus and spyware (I found it with Search and Destroy). Save you money...there are better ways to spend it at Amazon!

Rating:
Summary: So Far, So Good
Review: I'm running a two-year-old 1.9 GHz Dell Dimension 8200 with Windows XP Home, no service pack. My annual subscription for "Norton Antivirus 2002" was about to run out, so I decided it was time to do an upgrade. After all, there have been several major virus outbreaks of late, and the pernicious things just keep getting more and more cunning and dangerous. I think that if I had thought to check this page for reviews before buying my copy of "Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional", I might have thought twice about it. But I've been using NAV since the 1980s and MS-DOS, and have thus far always trusted Symantec's reputation.

Fortunately, I have not experienced, to date, any of the disasters encountered by other reviewers. The installation went quite smoothly. Since I have a relatively slow wireless modem, I purchased the CD-ROM from a local store rather than attempt a major download. Because I was already running NAV 2002, the installer picked up my program settings. Despite warning me that it would, it did not do an initial file system scan, perhaps because I had just done one with NAV 2002. There was one pop-up box warning me about the inability to update a locked system DLL file, but I clicked "OK" and the installer went on to conclusion with no further fuss.

Having to type in that 20-character "alphabet soup" product key was slightly annoying, but the registration process appears to have gone without a hitch. It picked up my user information from NAV 2002. There were no problems in rebooting. Indeed, booting is now faster. My copy of "ZoneAlarm Pro 4" now launches in a few seconds, rather than a minute, so maybe it "plays nicer" with NAV 2004 than it did with NAV 2002. Who can say?

As another reviewer noted, Symantec will not transfer your subscription from one version of NAV to another. So I "wasted" about two weeks, but that amounts to maybe a dollar. Still, it's something to take into account.

The full system scan took place at the end of the installation process and probably ran for 20 minutes or so, which is about what NAV 2002 took. To save time, I always delete my Internet Explorer temporary files first. Why scan more than I have to?

I performed one "Live Update", which downloaded about 2.3 MB worth of patches. So that much is working. Here's hoping it doesn't break later.

I ran into one slightly jarring surprise when I went to click on my recycle bin, now renamed to "Norton Protected Recycle Bin". What came up was an "UnErase Wizard". This is actually a pretty nifty tool, one I remember in an earlier incarnation from years ago when I used to run "Norton Utilities". It extends the recycle bin to keep track of files deleted by program installers, and even files deleted via the system command prompt (the "DOS box"). Old-timers like me still like to do a number of things from the prompt, so it's nice to have some added protection against careless deletions.

One thing I do not like about the "UnErase Wizard" is the inability to resize it, showing more file information. Instead you have to dink around with a horizontal slide bar, and try resizing the columns. So I decided to revert to the standard recycle bin view, letting the Norton protected stuff run in the background. You can do this by right-clicking on the bin and selecting "Properties", or by going into NAV's "Options" page, under "Advanced Tools".

Along with the "UnErase Wizard", the Professional version of NAV 2004 includes "Wipe Info", which acts like an electronic paper shredder to get rid of unwanted documents. You can find this under "Advanced Tools" on the main NAV 2004 screen, the one which comes up when you launch the program. You have a choice between a standard "Fast Wipe" and an extra-paranoid "Government Wipe", in accordance to certain Department of Defense specs.

There is one recommendation I'd make when and if you go to install this program for the first time: select the "Browse CD" option, then take a look at the "README" file. It discusses some scenarios which could explain certain problems other users have been having. Of particular interest is the reference to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 819634, which discusses certain extreme performance problems. Windows XP Service Pack 1 seems to have given some people much grief, which is the main reason I'm not running it.

Of course, not everyone wants to mess with stuff like this, which is one reason why I'm not giving the program five stars. No one should HAVE to mess with this stuff. It should just install smoothly and work, without users worrying about their machines hanging on reboot.

For me, I've noticed that certain things are running a little more slowly than before, but not enough to make me really cranky. But then, I'm not making movies or running Cold Fusion to design web pages. If NAV 2004 lives up to the reputation of its predecessors in delivering solid antivirus protection, I'll be happy with what I've got.

So, should you buy this product? My best advice would be to check the other reviews, and weigh it out carefully. I'll wait a little longer before installing this on my other machine. I'm just hoping the program doesn't rise up and bite me in a couple of weeks.

But, just in case, I'm hanging on to my old copy of NAV 2002 ....

Rating:
Summary: Major problem with product activation
Review: I've been using Norton Antivirus for several years. It's been pretty solid, maybe a bit slow. I thought an upgrade to the latest version would be routine. How wrong I was! The product activation has a bug on Windows XP Professional that makes it "forget" that it's been activated. And after you activate a few times, it locks out your product key leaving your computer completely unprotected. The Symantec knowledge base acknowledges the problem but cheerfully tells you they don't know how to fix it. Testing? What testing? I think it's time to get my money back and buy a product that actually works.

Rating:
Summary: Spent 4-5 hours on non-supported product
Review: Last year 2003 and this year 2004, installation has NOT gone well. Last year I spent about 4 hours with uninstalls and with notices that I had a virus when I didn't. They never tell you you must uninstall the former versions before new products or you can have a mess on your hands. If you want support it's by email unless you want to pay more than you spent on the product for live support.
This is a letter I wrote to Norton today.
"I've been using Norton for 10 years and the last two years have been terrible experiences in installation hell. I simply am sick of it and I have uninstalled Norton for good and have bought PC cillin and it was a breeze to install. No one wants to spend 4-5 hours on installs and uninstalls with safe boots and printing out endless pages of information from the Knowledge base which don't solve one's problem. I'm pretty experienced in using a computer and Norton just isn't worth all that time. I know how to clean boot and move around the computer. I am so relieved to have the program off my computer now.

This note you sent as part of my "fix" made me FURIOUS: "Note: Symantec Store is only responsible for software that is downloaded from the Symantec Store Web site. If you purchased the Norton software from another location then please contact the site you purchased from for assistance regarding the re-download of the software.

I bought the program from Amazon.com - a CD. If you won't support your own products that are bought in the store then Norton shouldn't sell things they refuse to support. Like Amazon.com is going to give me support on virus installation...right.

Consider me a FORMER customer forever.

Andrea"