Rating: Summary: The worst software that I've ever tried to install! Review: Personally, I love Norton Antivirus and the other Norton products. I use Norton exclusively. I've never had much luck with McAffe at home or in a corporate invironment. Working on a helpdesk, troubleshooting systems over the phone or with remote assistance, I have seen way too many issues with McAffee to trust it (especially, when it cannot be re-activated even with the password in an admin user account).I do the Updates, religiously, and never shut-down A.V. protection, unless the Network connection is disabled. This product has protected me, very well. No complaints.... except for one : It takes too long to Open the console--even when the O.S. is a fresh install. The delayed reaction is a bit cumbersome--yet, I consider the solid protection worth the delay. One thing people need to realize is that A.V. protection is just ONE of the major requirements for running a Windows system. Currently, if you are not running A.V. protection, a Firewall (!!!), Microsoft Updates and "Spybot Search & Destroy" (or a similar Spyware / Adware removal tool that is well-tested), your system is destined for Doom. Sometimes, I must spend over an hour removing Spyware, Adware and restarting virus protection, remotely, on corporate systems (that are running McAffee and a dummed-down firewall). A good combination, for great protection, is : "Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional," by Symantec & "Zone Alarm" (firewall). However, if you do not do the Microsoft Updates, your system will be toast, regardless, and you can plan on a lot of O.S. re-installations.
Rating: Summary: Virus Free System --Great product ! Review: Personally, I love Norton Antivirus and the other Norton products. I use Norton exclusively. I've never had much luck with McAffe at home or in a corporate invironment. Working on a helpdesk, troubleshooting systems over the phone or with remote assistance, I have seen way too many issues with McAffee to trust it (especially, when it cannot be re-activated even with the password in an admin user account). I do the Updates, religiously, and never shut-down A.V. protection, unless the Network connection is disabled. This product has protected me, very well. No complaints.... except for one : It takes too long to Open the console--even when the O.S. is a fresh install. The delayed reaction is a bit cumbersome--yet, I consider the solid protection worth the delay. One thing people need to realize is that A.V. protection is just ONE of the major requirements for running a Windows system. Currently, if you are not running A.V. protection, a Firewall (!!!), Microsoft Updates and "Spybot Search & Destroy" (or a similar Spyware / Adware removal tool that is well-tested), your system is destined for Doom. Sometimes, I must spend over an hour removing Spyware, Adware and restarting virus protection, remotely, on corporate systems (that are running McAffee and a dummed-down firewall). A good combination, for great protection, is : "Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional," by Symantec & "Zone Alarm" (firewall). However, if you do not do the Microsoft Updates, your system will be toast, regardless, and you can plan on a lot of O.S. re-installations.
Rating: Summary: I disagree - rebates are great Review: Rebates are a way of life in computer product purchases. It makes my overall hobby much less expensive. I keep Norton Antivirus, in one form or another, on 4 computers for almost no net cost. I always have 10-20 rebates out at any given time. Those that buy and never get around to sending in the rebate (or can't do them right) make the whole thing work.
Rating: Summary: Extremely frustrated Review: This is the most frustrating software I have ever used. I have been happy with Symantec products until now. Never had so much frustration loading a product. After following directions & deleting other programs, I finally gave up & loaded my Norton System Works from 2003. Was getting very concerned that I would not be protected as I waited until an update was due and the software kept giving me an error message, and would not load.
Rating: Summary: Extremely frustrated Review: This is the most frustrating software I have ever used. I have been happy with Symantec products until now. Never had so much frustration loading a product. After following directions & deleting other programs, I finally gave up & loaded my Norton System Works from 2003. Was getting very concerned that I would not be protected as I waited until an update was due and the software kept giving me an error message, and would not load.
Rating: Summary: Even free isn't worth it Review: This is the second Symantec product I've purchased over the last few years. After hours on the phone with Symantec "support" and more hours surfing their "award winning" support site (who gave them this award and what were they smoking?!), I vowed never again to own a Symantec product.(...)AntiVirus may be a fabulous virus detection, prevention, and elimination product once you get it installed and functioning correctly, but doing so takes an absurd amount of effort. There is a conflict with a standard Windows XP update, so you can't even install without removing that update, installing AV, then reinstalling the update. Once installation was complete, I couldn't activate it for no apparent reason ("Not a valid A8Key"). Turns out AV couldn't get to the Symantec servers, even though I could surf anywhere else I wanted to. No solution for opening ports or anything, you just have to call for phone support (limited hours, M-F only). After 30+ minutes on hold, I had to read the product key (24 alpha-numeric chars) then write down the activation key (34 alpha-numeric chars). Now it's supposedly activated, but it's causing issues with MS Outlook, LiveUpdate won't work, the icon disappears from the system tray, and I can't launch/configure the program once the icon is gone. Solution? Uninstall and reinstall Symantec Norton AntiVirus. Avoid this product like the plague.
Rating: Summary: Even free isn't worth it Review: This is the second Symantec product I've purchased over the last few years. After hours on the phone with Symantec "support" and more hours surfing their "award winning" support site (who gave them this award and what were they smoking?!), I vowed never again to own a Symantec product.(...)AntiVirus may be a fabulous virus detection, prevention, and elimination product once you get it installed and functioning correctly, but doing so takes an absurd amount of effort. There is a conflict with a standard Windows XP update, so you can't even install without removing that update, installing AV, then reinstalling the update. Once installation was complete, I couldn't activate it for no apparent reason ("Not a valid A8Key"). Turns out AV couldn't get to the Symantec servers, even though I could surf anywhere else I wanted to. No solution for opening ports or anything, you just have to call for phone support (limited hours, M-F only). After 30+ minutes on hold, I had to read the product key (24 alpha-numeric chars) then write down the activation key (34 alpha-numeric chars). Now it's supposedly activated, but it's causing issues with MS Outlook, LiveUpdate won't work, the icon disappears from the system tray, and I can't launch/configure the program once the icon is gone. Solution? Uninstall and reinstall Symantec Norton AntiVirus. Avoid this product like the plague.
Rating: Summary: This is a trap, do not fall for it Review: This program is a total joke. Minor problems include Live Update not updating, slowing down your e-mail download into Outlook Express, creating strange pop-up windows (such as "your AOL Messenger has quit unexpectedly"), and generally making you more worried about viruses after you install it. Major problem is it really slows down your Internet speed and makes you frustrated. I had tons of problems getting streaming video from yahoo after I installed this program. Videos would stutter at first and eventually stop completely. Uninstalling the program resolved the problem immediately. Some websites also did not work while this bugware was running. A very negative user experience. I'll never buy anything from Symantec again, no mater what rebates they pretend to offer.
Rating: Summary: It's great if you keep it updated... Review: We use this at work and it is by far the best antivirus program out there. At home, I use the Macintosh version. The best I can say is that there are so many virii on the Window's platform you'd be silly not to have something like this installed. If you're tired of virii, worms, trojans, spyware, etc..., there is another solution. Get a Mac. The piece of mind you get knowing that the operating system is nearly impossible to infect or crack outweighs the tiny learning curve in switching to a different operating system. How many virii have I gotten at my Mac at home in the last 6 months? Zero. How many at work? At least one a week via email. Even our CIO (Information officer) is putting in a proposal as I write this to migrate the entire server and desktop system to the Mac OS X platform, and we're a fortune 500 company. The money saved alone in downtime from systems getting infected (if you can't work, you can't produce!), more than pays for the minor expense of making the switch. NAV is good. But unless you keep your virus definitions up to date, you're asking for a heap of trouble. And how many users really take the time to update their definitions even when the program prompts them to do so? I can count them on one hand.
Rating: Summary: Auto-Protect makes Internet Explorer 50 times slower Review: What's worse, getting a virus or using Auto-Protect? After a fresh installation of a Windows XP upgrade, and a faster processor, my PC was running great for many weeks. I then decided it was the way I liked it and installed Norton AntiVirus 2004 to finish off the installation. All of a sudden my broadband connected PC that normally loaded web pages quickly was excruciatingly slow. Hitting the drudgreport.com pages usually took about 3 seconds to complete, but had changed to over 2 minutes to complete loading of all elements on the page! It behaved this way until I disable the "Auto-Protect" feature. Leaving that feature on was as bad of an effect of any virus I could imagine getting caught with. Of course Symantec's web site is of not assistance. Earlier today my searching would not turn up any information about slow performance (except to shift the blame elsewhere). I found an Internet article that referred to a post that Symantec had on their site, but it was a broken link. Further attempts to use Symantec's support web site gives me messages indicating the support functions are not operational. Also: * No time setting for automatic scans. I guess NAV is better able than me to decide when to run. * Non-administrator users on my PC get nagged to check for updates, and are then promptly told they don't have access permissions to update. Gag! I thought NAV was the premier anti-virus product on the market :-) After Rebates, I got this practically for free, but I am contemplating whether or not it was worth it. How can they release this stuff??
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