Actually, I’m convinced that Nothing can actually be better than Norton (I capitalize nothing so you can illicit my meaning.)

I recommend Avast! for those who want a good antivirus, since it isn’t crap, but it is free.

I know that symantec has fallen from it’s supremecy in the last 4-6 years.  12 years ago, Norton was pretty amazing, i ran the 94 version for 6 years, with free updates (virus free no less).  Then they upgraded the update engine and i lost that.  I’ve been using norton exclusively for the last 12 years.  Between 2003-2005 they had alot of problems, (2004/5) being the worst.  However, i never had any problems with it specifically, other than it was pretty hard on installers.  My conclusion is this, you’re are either inept or incapable of managing your software.  And if that’s the case, well...stay off the web and keep your mouth shut, if you want software that babies the user, Get a Mac. (and as a side note i’m currently looking into Kaspersky for my primary AV/Firewall solution, since Symantec’s detection % has slipped significantly)

Mmm, extortionware.

I hate to say this, but Norton existed as an independent company, long before Symantec took it over.

Also, if you wish to be taken seriously as a journalist in the science / tech field, don’t even mention “intelligent design” (sic)

Used to have Norton, boot up took like 2 minutes and it didn’t always remove viruses properly, though it did find them all.  NOw I use Avast which is a lot faster.  The fastest is probably Nod32 for paying and it also finds a lot of wild viruses.  Kaspersky is really good, but slow (You can get Kasperky free by downloading AOL’s anti-virus, but their EULA claims you are violating their terms if you block spyware).

Your reasoning is pathetic. I could get you a counter-answer for every “point” you got there but that will make me pathetic.
Get your ... straight - don’t just blurb - people need proof.

5. On any operating system other than XP if your computer gets a virus Norton’s only defense is to initiate “the blue screen of doom�

Excuse me? Norton Antivirus has caused me plenty of blue screens of death *on Windows XP*…

Norton was great back in 98 but it just kept getting worse and worse.  I finally chucked it recently and went with FREE AVG and am quite pleased.

No more performance cut by 2/3, no more checking for updates every 30 seconds.

Try running music creation software with Norton.  It’s a no go.

‘’I hate to say this, but Norton existed as an independent company, long before Symantec took it over.’’

A lot of products were good until Symantec screwed them up. There was a great firewall called AtGuard, a whole 4 megs in size. Small, svelte, affordable and elegant. Symantec bought them out, corrupted the product, and turned it into 100 megs of bloatware. The core functions are there, but the garbage added to justify a new version number, and a new upgrade fee, are an abomination. And it doesn’t work as well as the original product.

Norton Antivirus went the same route. It’s now fat, expensive, and a house of cards that is easily broken. Uninstallation is just one of it’s major problems.

Norton is right up there with the worse things you can catch on the web!Its slows your computer down to a crawl and misses everything,it caused me more errors that a virus.Bitdefender is the best in my book!

Dear john,

I do not agree with your points. Norton AV was never amazing, and it will never be amazing. The role of an antivirus software is to detect and remove viruses. Remove meaning reverse the actions that the virus has has performed. Norton is in most cases incapable of reversing actions caused by a virus. Until recently, norton was “lost” and couldnt even connect to get its updates if the host file had its ip in it.

Bad poins about Norton Antivirus;

1) too CPU intensive for the detection rates
2) Interface is memory hogging
3) even once a virus it detected, it is hardly ever removed properly
4) bloodhound is a joke
5) too slow on updates, not accurate enough
6) gives the user false sense of security
7) extended threat scanning is poorly implemented

I have seen endless people infected with viruses when running Norton. Sometimes Norton just complains the computer is infected and can do nothing about it. “Virus Detected, Clean Failed, Access Denied”

I remember back in the old days when we used to pack BO and Netbus with PE Pack/aspack and Norton casually let it run.

So john, just because it gives you a pretty screen saying youre “Protected from viruses” “0 threats detected”, dont be so friggin idiotic and narrow minded.

There are many things I’m missing out by not using Windows, but as a Mac user since The Beginning, this is one issue I haven’t had to think about.

George

Having worked in IT for over 20 years now, I can safely say he’s been correct in each and every assumption stated about Norton, minus one. I still get BSOD under XP.

Oh, startkeylogger, stopkeylogger has to be THE biggest laughing stock part of Norton. The second that shows up on IRC, Norton shuts your internet down. (Thank goodness they had an option to disable that BS)

Alex,

people like you really annoy me.

“Having worked in IT for over 20 years now”

what makes you want to advertise that you have worked in IT for 20 years?
Which part have you exactly worked in? QA? AV Research? OS’s?

The biggest laughing stock is people like you Alex, who pretend they know what they are talking about. Obviously you dont even realise your talking about Norton Firewall, while we were discussing the AV.

Johnson,

Shut Up… Norton sucks.. bottom-line.

I still remember the time norton detected a virus moved it to the quarentine tried to delete it. Exept it missed the virus in total and was only moving 1 file, deleting it promting the user and finding the file again (newly created by the virus) and reprompting again. THE FING VIRUS WAS EASYER TO LIVE WITH THAN NORTON. And then of coarse I got avg to actualy delete it (the virus not norton), and as it turns out norton then wanted me to reinstall it’s self because it pooped its pants. And low and behold when I uninstalled it my pc would not boot. Thanks Norton 2005 gad

Norton’s, and as far as I can tell, all other AV suck for:

1. Constant reminders about trivial crap that they should have handled themselves… like some 3 year old telling me that it can pull up its own diaper!  Do I really need to be interrupted from BF2 to see “Anti virus Updated!” What imbecile wrote that code?

2. Did I mention the constant annoying pop-ups that rip you out of whatever game you were playing in order to press OK (the only action possible)?!

3. The default setups which cause most of your online games to fail horribly.

4. Did I mention the constant annoying pop-ups that have no purpose whatsoever?

5. The total lack of thought when it comes to making it possible to run LAN games - to permanently, for example, authorize all machines on your local LAN.

6. Erm, and those damn pop-ups!

7. The current version of Norton’s AV has “more info” or “help” links on most of its pop-ups and pages which, rather than bringing you to a screen with either more information or help on the topic you were just looking at (say an intrusion detection), THEY ALL LEAD TO THE ROOT HELP ENTRY.

8. Help is almost universally not helpful.

9. Its tendency (Norton 2006) to gip you about 2 mos. worth of subscription when you install it (happened on 3 separate machines out of 5 installs).  Each time I had to call them and have them give me an override code to fix the situation, and this of course only after a ridiculous line of inept support people tried to blow me off.

10. Outrageous costs.  For something as widely distributed as AV software, surely it can’t cost more than a game to update each year?!  This is plain old racketeering.

I use Norton 2003 - won’t use anything newer since they are resource hogs, and my version requires no key or activation - and it’s acceptable. Yes, it slows down my computer, but anything running in the background does to some extent. I’d rather have slow than dead, and in the 3 yrs I’ve been using it, I’ve only been infected once, due to my own carelessness.

I’ll take NAV 2003 over most others out there today.

“3. It tried to tell me that dtgeeks was giving me a virus. “

Interestingly my AV tried to tell me that the register was giving me a virus, turns out it was as their ad servers were infiltrated (I think it was falkag, don’t recall).  Its a sad state of affairs when you don’t trust your AV enough to believe its alerts.  For me, the biggest problem with Norton is the fact that its aimed at less knowledgeable users yet when it finds a virus it gives them absolutely no help with removing it.  Thats almost criminally neglegent.

From Norton 2004 on it has been downhill for Symantec.  I work for a housecall service company and if Symantec knew how many times a week I uninstalled their product they would have me shot.  It has become ridiculously bloated and nothing more than a resource hog.  You can take a brand new fast computer out of the box and bring it to its knees by installing the Symantec Security Suite to it.  Norton AV by itself is somewhat decent, but the security suite is counter productive.

Just because Norton says you are clean, doesn’t mean you don’t have a virus.

Ignorance is bliss.

free.grisoft.com - download AVG, it’s free, and works well. Norton is bloatware, they try to pack ‘features’ in to sell to idiots.

I like the fact they have to put uninstallers on their site for ‘bad installations’.. every installation I have seen has been bad.

Listen guys, stop bitching. You obviously havent got a clue about what you are saying. Most of the “annoying things” you mention can be disabled from the settings.

“Please feel free to correct me about any of these. As always I’m open to suggestion, and will correct any major mistakes. “

so here goes the corrections;

20. Having to type in your serial number while installing and then activating it within 20 days of installation.
A. Theyre protecting their intellectual property.

19. When Norton corrupts downloading files.
A. norton doesnt corrupt downloading files. it scans them after they have been downloaded.

18. When Norton uninstalls its self because a virus threatened it.
A. Norton doesnt uninstall itself. it does a scan before installing itself in the newer versions.

17. The stupid task bar tool bar thing that has pop-ups the size of greater Atlanta.
A. its not installed by default, you can disable it through the settings

16. The live update reminders.
A. to reminds the idiots to update. Whats the point having an out of date AV?

15. The CPU and RAM consuming virus scans.
A. Every new generation of software comes with new features, new capabilities and demands more resources. So if you dont upgrade your hardware and expect newer versions of your software to perform just like the old version, then frankly, youve lost the plot.

14. Its inability to delete any virus, even ones that a three-year-old wrote.
A. i think thats over-exaggerating a bit my friend

13. How it re-adds its self to your computers start up list.
A. Maybe you should uninstall it the proper way, and if that doesnt work, contact support. or maybe buy a proper copy.

12. When it says you have spyware on your computer, then does nothing.
A. you are either using a dodgy copy or you have lost the plot. if u have extended threats enabled, it works quite well

11. How when it quarantines a virus, it copies it to the folder.
A. well duh. you cant run files from your quarantine by the way

10. If you use it to delete adware it changes your homepage and locks it.
A. rtfm

9. After using Norton to delete spyware it tells you that you have to re-install it to open Microsoft Word.
A. oh just above you stated it doesnt remove spyware, now you are using it to delete “spyware”?. sometimes spyware/trojans etc overwrite critical files and/or settings which you have to reinstall

8. The virus definitions in a Mexican health clinic are more up to date than Norton’s.
A. yea ok.

7. Norton is over hyped and over-priced.
A. come off the dole and get a job.

6. Requires a subscription every year.
A. do you expect them to give it to you for free?

5. On any operating system other than XP if your computer gets a virus Norton’s only defense is to initiate “the blue screen of doom�
A. that was back in 9x days my friend.

4. If it comes bundled with a computer and you don’t run thorough set up it will pop back up every time you log in.
A. maybe 3 years ago when you brought your computer? try the settings my friend.

3. It tried to tell me that dtgeeks was giving me a virus.
A. it obviously didnt say dtgeeks was “giving you a virus”. maybe if you pasted the actual message instead of a retards perspective

2. The latest version blocks ports that are critical to 99.9% of Internet gaming connections.
A. your talking about the antivirus. it blocks dangerous ports which make you vulnerable by default. you can disable it.

1. Because after you realize Norton is crap. You will also find the folder is missing the uninstaller, just like many kinds of adware.
A. get a legal copy

Even after all that, I prefer Kaspersky to Norton.

After paying all that money you find out that freeware was always better.

“A lot of products were good until Symantec screwed them up. There was a great firewall called AtGuard, a whole 4 megs in size. Small, svelte, affordable and elegant. Symantec bought them out, corrupted the product, and turned it into 100 megs of bloatware. “

Ever heard of Sygate Firewall? They did the same to it last year or if it was in the beginning of 2006, can’t remember. But as soon as it was announced I started to look for some other firewall that might stand up to my expectations. A couple of days later sygate updated and like 45 minutes later my windows box went down with a BSOD. Never happened before Symantec took over.

Nowadays I don’t run windows at all, but I still loath Symantec. Every chance I get I remove their malware and replace it with Comodo Antivirus and Comodo Firewall or some other FREE antivirus/firewall I can get my hands on.

The two worst software manufacturers today are MS and Symantec.