Norton is it any good?

[Ace Card Jones]

Is Norton 2005 any good?
Its just that ive heard loads of things about it one of them was that norton create their own viruses so as you will buy their new products is this true?

I have a copy Of Norton 2005 and i was wondering whether or not i should bother installing it.

At the moment i have AVG-Free Microsoft anti Spyware And Swat It Trojan and bot remover

Is there a point in putting Norton on?

[PrntRhd]

No, they would not dare get caught doing that.
Another vendor got caught including lab-created test viruses in its counting of virus detections a few years back and it forced the resignation of the founder of the company.
Norton is somewhat controversial because of the resources it uses, the way it is embedded into the PC (seldom removes cleanly in Add/Remove Programs), and the high price and a subscription model that forces users to upgrade every three years.

[Ace Card Jones]

Ok from what i know about viruses they inbed themselves in your computer and your saying thats what norton lol.But now it sounds like its not worth installing at ALL lol.
Ah i probably am protected enough with what i got

[PrntRhd]

I did not say Norton is a virus or acts like one.

I said Norton places many files on a system and is difficult to remove completely. Same goes for McAffee. It has to do with the way these programs were written.

[jcnoernberg]

I've used Norton Internet Security for two years... and that is the ONLY security software on my computer, and I have NEVER have a problem with viruses or spy/malware.

[Ace Card Jones]

I did not say Norton is a virus or acts like one.

I said Norton places many files on a system and is difficult to remove completely. Same goes for McAffee. It has to do with the way these programs were written.


No No i just meant that it sounds funny i wasnt saying it was a virus or anything

[pop pop]

As someone who used Norton back in the days when it was Norton (1986 Norton Utilities, there was no anti virus) let me throw my 2 cents worth in. Norton/Symantec is not a bad company. They are a reputable company. Their products are not bad either, however their software engineering/design approach is no longer the most elegant, especially with regard to their security products. Strictly in the realm of capability to detect viruses and other forms of malware, they are pretty darned good. Their firewall and the other elements of their suite can be describe in one word...crap.

Where they have gone wrong with their AV, in my opinion, is in three areas: the "horsepower" it takes to run their applications--the resources consumed, the zeal with which they "protect" their processes running on your system, and thier pricing model. The first "problem" borders on the ridiculous, though Norton is not nearly as bad as McAfee in this regard. I've seen McAffee's suite bring perfectly good and clean machines to their knees. Flatly stated, Norton consumes too much CPU power and installs and runs too many processes. It's just not efficient.

The second "problem" is somewhat more understandable from a design standpoint, and requires that you consider their rationale for what the program designer really meant to do. Norton security programs, their AV in particular, protect themselves from modification or termination. That's understandable--you wouldn't want a trojan/worm/virus to be able to easily shut your AV off or break it. This aspect can also be a real pain the the backside when you are trying to work on your system and you can't just terminate stuff easily like you think you should. It's a balancing act, and Norton has consistently chosen to throw the design balance toward being rigid and difficult to administer at times. Still, I understand the intent. Here's the part I don't understand, and I think it's bad engineering design driven by a way too powerful marketing department: there is no uninstaller, the uninstallation sequence is not clear or intuitive, and there's almost always garbage left behind that continues to run and consume valuable resources. When you have to check a vendor's website for help uninstalling their product, that's just bad design period. And there can only be one reason for it--marketing. They don't want you to uninstall it, so they make it as difficult as possible.

Finally, there's the cost issue and their business/subscription model. Reducing this aspect to very simple terms is easy--Norton is over priced.

So even though Norton AV is very good at protection, detection, and removal I will never use it again and now never recommend it for the reasons explained above.

[jlreich]

Well said pop pop.

I used NIS and NSW for a couple of years. I agree that the AV does do a good job protecting you. But as pop pop said, the resources it takes to run it is for too much. And don't even think of using the parental controls. I ran them for a short while on my kids machine with 1GB ram and it was using 120MB ram on average. :eek: That's ridiculous.

Besides, why pay for a program when you can get a better AV and FW for free.

I will never use or recommend Norton again. ;)

[FastLearner]

Great point about the uninstaller, pop pop. About half the time, I am still left with the LiveUpdater after uninstalling Norton, the other half of the time it doesn't let me uninstall anything unles I am in Safe Mode. And yet the other half of the time (I know, that's three halves, but who cares...:D) I have to uninstall the LiveUpdate program and reboot first before being able to uninstall Norton.

Besides that, it gets really difficult to uninstall after the protective coverage period ends and they are wanting the user to update their software subscription - or else! Then a hammer is the best tool to recommend in this instance...:)

Bottom line - Symantec products are not even close to perfect. The only one I use with confidence, personally, is Norton Ghost. Other than that, I like to use the 'new threat' information found on their website - it is usually very informative.

[Puter Padowan]

I've seen McAffee's suite bring perfectly good and clean machines to their knees.


Hi Pop Pop.

Did you mean that McAffee does the same thing as Norton but worse? Or does it do anything different ?

[pop pop]

Puter Padowan,

McAfee is Norton taken to an even further extreme. The McAfee security suite bypasses ridiculous and goes straight to insane. Finsih reading what little I have to say here, and then take a look at the HJT log in this post:http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=43741

This guy has a laptop that's a few months old. A Toshiba, probably a pretty good laptop. He complains of it running dreadfully slow and trouble opening his home page. He thinks maybe he has malware, even though he has security apps running, so he posts a HJT log. Budfred looks the log over and his diagnosis is, no malware but too many "active" antispyware apps and an awful lot of processes running. Guess what around 20 percent of those processes are? McAfee. Guess what they're doing? Mostly, eating precious CPU cycles and memory.

Norton and McAfee both are bloated, adversely affect or even kill your system performance, and are a real bear to uninstall. Norton is too expensive, McAfee is cheaper but I wouldn't use it if I got it for free. McAfee is another example, like Norton, of a company that used to make a darned good product. Seriously, they were good at one time. It's just a shame what's happened.

[Budfred]

Ok from what i know about viruses they inbed themselves in your computer and your saying thats what norton lol.But now it sounds like its not worth installing at ALL lol.
Ah i probably am protected enough with what i got
What do you have?? If you are not running an antivirus and firewall, then ANY legit version of each is better than what you have running now....

[freewarer]

I prefer AVG.
Norton seems to drag your system down I used to use Norton System Works 2003 but stopped using it because it seemed to slow me down with all its checks. Hope that made sense :)

[chrisling]

Yes it's true that Norton and McAfee will absolutely slow down your computer. Especially for Norton System Works, it has multiple functions besides a anti-virus. It sounds bad for a lower requirement computer, but nothing for a high performance computer. If your pc has lower requirement, just give up Norton and switch to AVG, Kaspersky or Avast!.

[athlonfan]

AVG rocks. I've a lot of viruses while my friends were gettting them left and right. You can't beat the price, free.

Also,

I have Norton Anti-Virus, supposedly removed it using Add/Remove programs, but it left some stuff behind that I want to get rid of. Anyone know how to do that?

[athlonfan]

AVG rocks. I've stopped a lot of viruses while my friends were gettting them left and right. You can't beat the price, free.

Also,

I have Norton Anti-Virus 2003, supposedly removed it using Add/Remove programs, but it left some stuff behind that I want to get rid of. Anyone know how to do that?

[FastLearner]

Depends on what you mean by "some stuff". If there are just some extra files left behind, try deleting them while in Safe Mode (by tapping F8 at StartUp).