Rating: 
Summary: Large Lemon
Review: I should have given up on symantec two years ago, when I tried to buy another year of update subscription to my old NAV, and their site just couldn't handle the complexity of it. Finally got someone at phone help, and she suggested I should send in a check by snailmail. Anyway, I was stupid enough to buy this package six months ago from their online store, as a download for Windows 98 SE. After the fact, found I had to pay extra if the first download didn't work, plus I never got the promised $20 rebate. Typical. As others have said, it drags booting to a crawl. Even worse, half the time it won't completely load, so you can't even access it to turn it off, and you can't reboot because it's running somewhere in the background, useless and locking up the screen. So you have to cut main power, then turn computer back on to contemplate Microsoft's thoughts on improperly turning off the computer while it slowly scans for disc errors. Then repeat. Plus, if it does load,and the icons show ok status, sometimes the email scanning is not on. Oh, and the Help pages? Derisory, and fulfillment of Norton's apparently total allegiance to Dilbertian values: build a bad product, then alienate and insult your customer base. Great going.
Rating: 
Summary: why all the negative reviews? I like the software
Review: I have installed it for about a week and so far so great... I like it a lot and the pop up killer is way better than 2002, 2002 made you go through too many steps to kill pop up and then similar pop ups would still come through. I really like it and I had 2003 installed that I downloaded (eval. copy) to be protected while I waited for the 2004. I uninstalled the old Norton and installed 2004, it was very clean and easy. Now I am running win98SE with a 1700XP Athlon and 256 meg DDR. and I had just rebuilt my system because I formatted the whole drive, it works great. I would like to see an option to block all the ads that currently are allowed to get through, and a way to "skiiny" down the application so there would be less running in my systray.
Rating:
Summary: Internet Security Disaster
Review: I installed and then reinstalled this trash and have decided to use my previous version of Internet Security. Here are a few reasons why:> There were instances where the Antivirus portion of the software displayed an error indicating that it could not scan the email for viruses. > The Volume Control icon that was in my tray no longer appears. > The Internet Secuity icon will not display in the tray even though the option to make it display is enabled. > My computer takes forever to boot up. > The online help is a joke, just ask a question and you often get an answer that has nothing to do with what you asked. > I refuse to pay for support for a first time installation, Symantec should at least give us some free help for installation. I am sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg, so heaven help you if you buy this trash.
Rating:
Summary: I don't know how this got out of QA. Run & save yourselves!
Review: This is my personal Experience. Before I start I would also like to say that I am an experienced professional when it comes to computers. I work in a large data center with hundreds of servers (big computers), have an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Certificate) and essentially breathe computers. In other words I know what I'm talking about. So I bought two copies of this software last night. It brought a 950 Mhz machine with 512 megs of ram running Windows XP to it's knees. This software doubled the boot time of the computer (at least). Not only that but after the desktop loaded it still grinds away for a few minuets. I was going to get the properties of a large file on my PC and the computer just stopped. Then a sign popped up saying it was scanning the file and I could cancel it. I couldn't find a setting that would change the virus scanner from the "Paranoid" level to some "Sane" level of virus scanning. If that wasn't enough this morning I tried to FTP into a server (command line) and could not because it was blocking me. I then tried to see why. It was also blocking nsloookup. I could not troubleshoot because it seemed to be blocking just about everything. Since I only had 12 hours to cancel the transaction (electronically return it) I did that this morning. I previously had Norton Antivirus 2003 Professional. I think I will go back to that. On the up side it does suppress allot of pop-up ads.
Rating:
Summary: They should get sued
Review: Buy this software at risk to your security. This software was not ready for release; it is buggy and incompatible with lots of applications. The new Anti-Spam appears very troublesome. I have had to uninstall NIS after a day of trying to get it to work. A search of their support knowledge base for NIS 2004 shows over 400 issues publicly listed. Lord knows what is really going on. Little gems like: It will not work with Outlook Express 5, even though it says it will and does not check for this at installation.
It will not work with Office 2003.
Migration issues from 2002
How to uninstall 2004 (listed numerous times)
How to locate the installation log for debuging(listed numerous times)
Requires at least 16bit color at 800 x 600
Incompatible with Nvidia software Since the release of this was a month after NAV 2004, my guess is that someone panicked and threw a new product on the public in order to make the 4th quarter. Since their telephone support costs $29 per incident for a product that retails around $60 and is only available M-F, this is a new way to make money and lose customers.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible product, poor support, install only on clean hd
Review: If you have any Norton product loaded on your computer already do not install NIS. It will have way too many conflicts, etc. and as it did for me, it will cause your computer to crash and you'll need to reformat your entire hard drive. I purchased an upgrade online to NIS 2004 the other day. I had installed Norton System Works for years without a hitch. Until the upgrade. The installation didn't take, the other Norton products were in conflict with NIS and I spent a better part of a day on the phone with Symantec tech support - and they had no way of fixing the problems. After speaking to five people at their various support desks I have concluded that Symantec: (a) produces software without giving proper instructions for installation; (b) has extrememly poor customer service that is unhelpful, downright rude and snarky (c) is creating a product that is inferior and hasn't been tested properly before release (d) clearly has no respect for its customers. I'll be moving my business elsewhere. It's too bad since I was a big fan of Norton for years.
Rating:
Summary: OK Program Gone Bad
Review: I've had the last 3 versions of NIS. All in all it hasn't been a bad product. However, Symantec has taken a significant turn for the worse with this release. I'm currently running a Pentium 4 @ 3.5GHZ (C stepping with hyperthreading), 1GB of RAM, SATA RAID Array with Western Digital Raptors on XP Professional. Needless to say, I have plenty of system resources to run this application. Forgot to mention I've worked in the PC Hardware and Software industries as a Product/Marketing Manager and also am a MCSE (MS Certified Systems Engineer) and CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). I've been dealing with hardware and software for a long time both professionally and at home. Downsides I have come across: 1) This application is a major resource hog. My system slowed to a point where I began to question the state of the hardware. I uninstalled NIS 2004 and installed NIS 2003, worked like a champ. 2) Some websites suddenly became inaccessible. Symantec couldn't tell me why. I reinstalled NIS 2003, they came up without a hitch. 3) I've been asking for Trillian support for 2 years. Despite the fact that the messenger client has an installed base of nearly 10 million users and is a valid entity, Symantec seems to deem it not worth their consideration. Bottom line, Symantec is unresponsive to customer requests. I'd have better luck asking for a feature from Microsoft. 4) After spending 2 weeks exchanging email with Symantec Support, I was unable to turn on autoprotect @ bootup. No one could explain why, I tried all the solutions. I'm betting it was a compatibility issue with my RAID array since the function is integrated into Intel's Southbridge chipset. 5) Norton doesn't like to have features turned off which could be the reason why I've had so many issues. I only want to use it for privacy, cookie management, ad blocking and anitvirus. Anyone who has experience with systems security knows that it isn't a good idea to rely on products from just one vendor. I have the computer behind a Linksys router (NAT firewall is much better than the NIS software firewall hands down), use ZoneAlarm for application control and NIS for the features I mentioned above. 6) Ad blocking is partially functional. Symantec has touted it as a feature for the last 3 years and I have yet to see a decent implementation. Also, during setup and configuration, if you turn on ad blocking and go into the options, you'll find that NIS does not turn off ads from specific adservers. Kickbacks anyone? You have to manually go in and block them (under options). 7) As my other esteemed reviewers have said, the activation scheme is unacceptable. I will not buy separate versions for the 2 desktops and 2 laptops I have. I like to stay on the cutting edge of computer hardware and change out components frequenty, so only being able to activate the product 5 times is completely unacceptable. This was another deciding factor involved in my decision to return the software. Not to mention, the process to obtain a refund pretty much sealed the coffin on me every buying another Symantec product for quite some time. I would recommend you wait another month or two and hope the bugs get worked out, buy NIS 2003 or try to find another solution on the market.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid
Review: - Smooth integration with Outlook and IE.
- Better than McAfee
- A better interface would have been nice. Edit: I don't know why there are so many negative reviews. Too many DFUs I guess. I have never had a problem with this and after using it for two months I'm going to increase my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Activation? So what? It took less than 5 seconds. If you are a legit owner I don't see what the big deal is.
Rating:
Summary: Activation is not acceptable
Review: I am a long time user of symantec products and have bought several copies of Norton Internet security in the past.Upon reading that the plague of activation has reached this product I stopped the process of buying this new 2004 version for home and office.Thankfully there are still software companies who care for computer owners who like to update their hardware often and who would be penalized by the activation plan.As for the real software pirates they have no problem with it as they can easily bypass it. It is the honest folk who get punished.
Rating:
Summary: Minus 10 stars! Ourageous Activation Scheme!!!!!
Review: I purchased this product a couple of days ago and lucky me I did not open the box yet. Browsing Symantec website I realized that they added product activation to their 2004 software like Norton Antivirus, System Works, and Internet Security. I'm a legitimate System Works and Internet Security user. Every year in September I upgrade to the new version. This would have been the fourth upgrade since I already own Norton Internet Security and System Works for 2001, 2002, and 2003. This new activation scheme is outrageous!!! I did not use any pirated software and I don't intend to start now but I change my hardware a lot and reinstall applications and I find that by requiring product activation Symantec hits me as a legitimate user since the product allows only 5 activations. In 4 months I will be unable to use it if I reinstall the OS 5 times, and here I am, a legitimate user and a loyal customer who paid Symantec for 4 years unable to use software I paid for. I find it outrageous and unacceptable. This is not what I deserve as a loyal customer ! There must be better ways to stop piracy.
That said, this Norton Internet Security 2004 goes back to the store and this is the last time I buy Symantec Products. I will use my older software for a time and then find some other application suite from some other software vendor, that does not reduce me a legitimate customer to the level of a software thief. Stay away from these activation schemes if you want to be able to control what you own ! They do not protect us, they protect ONLY their revenue. I'm very disappointed in Symantec and they can bet I'm no longer a Symantec user and customer. Like the guy before me said: Avoid like the plague! We have to stand for our rights as legitimate users and the only thing I can do is to stop using these programs. They invested money in developing activation schemes instead of making the program better !!!!! Shame !
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