[Lonewuff]

For those in the know about Norton: It is time to renew my Norton Anti-Virus, but they are offering me three options. The basic like I have, an upgrade, or Norton 360. Is the upgrade or the 360 worth it or am I okay with the basic package?

 

[PMitchell]

For those in the know about Norton: It is time to renew my Norton Anti-Virus, but they are offering me three options. The basic like I have, an upgrade, or Norton 360. Is the upgrade or the 360 worth it or am I okay with the basic package?

Jerry,
I know that some of our IT Guru freak but I've used Norton for a number of years w/o any problems and even a special alert about a Trojan Horse a couple of years ago.

Anyway . . . just purchased and installed 360 from FRY's at nada cost after rebates. And yes they came through at lightening speed . . about 3 weeks. You do need to send in some kind of documentation that you have had a Norton product installed. They accepted a screen shot!
I have two personal PC's and installed the other license on the SO's.

They hummmmm!

 

[mtrevelino]

Instead of renewing, I went to Staples and purchased the Intuit TurboTax software (at $5 off) which provided rebates towards Norton and a host of other products. The Norton Internet Security 2008 listed for $69.95 with a instant $10 rebate from staples. I do not want the Norton 360. I also received a $40 rebate since buying the tax software and a $20 upgrade rebate. In the end, Norton did not cost me anything (as long as I receive the rebates). Instead of renewing online, I have been doing this for the past few years as I figure the base Norton software "should" get improved each year release. The one thing that I hate is that I have 19 days left on my current subscription. If I were to install Norton now, the one year of updates starts now. From my understanding, this is the same way as when you renew, your one year period starts instantly. At least that is my story!

 

[astuber]

I renewed my Norton last fall and went with the upgrade. I am really sorry that I did. I had a very difficult time installing the upgrade (spent about 8 hours on the phone with Indian tech support) and my computer has slowed noticeably since the upgrade. The worst feature in my experience has to do with updates. I had the previous version set to check for updates once a week. The new version initially connected to the internet several times a day to check for updates which made it impossible during this time to do anything else. I have managed to turn off that function but I still get multiple popup boxes per day asking if I want to check for updates-more of a hassle than anything else. I really like Norton Utilities but won't be renewing the Firewall or anti-virus. If you are going to renew, I would definitely go and purchase a CD version and not download the new software. YMMV

 

[bob_menton]

Shoot. From the thread title, I thought you were talking about renewing a Norton Commando. "AHA! Another Brit bike fan." No so, I guess.

- Bob

 

[PMitchell]

Jerry,
I know that some of our IT Guru freak but I've used Norton for a number of years w/o any problems and even a special alert about a Trojan Horse a couple of years ago.

Anyway . . . just purchased and installed 360 from FRY's at nada cost after rebates. And yes they came through at lightening speed . . about 3 weeks. You do need to send in some kind of documentation that you have had a Norton product installed. They accepted a screen shot!
I have two personal PC's and installed the other license on the SO's.

They hummmmm!

BTW,
I don't use the back up function (can be disabled) because it's too slow. I have a couple of 200GB external drives (USB) and do it on a weekly basis. Kewl!
:bmw:

 

[Ted]

For those in the know about Norton: It is time to renew my Norton Anti-Virus, but they are offering me three options. The basic like I have, an upgrade, or Norton 360. Is the upgrade or the 360 worth it or am I okay with the basic package?

I wouldn't - recently had a similar experience as astuber.

Below is a cut and paste of my email reply on 11/3/07 to an email Symantec sent me to "follow-up" on my recent "experience" to see if it was resolved.

No - it is not resolved. I have spent a total of approximately 10 hours (3 different sessions on different days with different techs) and nobody can solve the problem. All your techs do is uninstall, then reinstall, and mess with my registry.
The last attempt began on 11/1/07 at approximately 9:00 PM PST. This was priority ID #486133338 w/ tech Pratik (not sure of spelling). Pratik uninstalled and re-installed the software 3 times. On the 3rd attempt he assured me that it would work this time, that he knew what he did wrong on his previous 2 attempts. On the third restart, the machine would not boot - it was in an endless loop between the initial ThinkPad screen and a DOS looking Broadcom/Intel screen. I attempted to call back, but NOBODY answered the phone for 20 minutes. It was now about 12:30 AM - 3 1/2 hours later with NO RESOLUTION, and I was WORSE OFF than when we started.

I have had nothing but trouble with this software since renewing my subscription in May 2007. Only Symantec virus/protection software has been on this computer since I purchased it new in May 2005. The May 2006 renewal was fine. But, in May 2007 I learned of a conflict between Norton GoBack and ThinkPad. NOWHERE is this stated in your install routines. I spent many hours with a tech trying to remove GoBack - the computer would keep shutting down during the removal process. Each time had to restart and go a little further before shutting down again. It took about 20 iterations to successfully uninstall it.

I have been a loyal customer since the Peter Norton days of the late 1980's. No more. NONE of your techs can make this run. This version of your software does not work.

I am requesting a refund for the unused portion of my subscription which will expire in May 2008.

Of course, I never received a response, nor a refund (not that I was expecting either.)

I'm running AVG now.

Good luck!

 

[JPSpen]

Get rid of that memory hogging pile of crap.


Download and install the free avg anti virus.

http://free.grisoft.com/

Then download and install Windows Defender from the Microsoft downloads page.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&displaylang=en


This will take care of you..

Norton, Mcafee and most of the rest have just gotten too big and cumbersome and they really slow down your computer. DAMHIK !!!!!

Good Luck

John

 

[gglove]

Jerry I, that is to say, we went to an IMAC and love it. One of the many positives is not having to have virus protection.

 

[Zotter]

We deal with Norton daily at this shop.
Basic policy is to REMOVE it if possible and with permission and install AVG. Depends on when and how much folks have paid for things. Lots easier with new PCs. First boot - that stuff comes right off as a matter of course.

Only time I get cagey is if they've got Internet Security 2k6 installed. That thing has a reputation and a record for trashing systems when you try to un-install it. ugly.

Reasons:
AVG Free edition works and is free, always. No hidden gotchyas.
Updates are regular and appropriate
It has a MUCH smaller resource foot print
Customers are happy when they get their boxes back with upto a %25 increase in performance.

On my home lan - I just run ClamAV on my *nix file server (wife has an XP box for teaching). Rest of us don't care about all that stuff. All hail the Penguin!

 

[Lonewuff]

So do I need to do an uninstall of the Norton I have now and then get AVG?

 

[kdog]

I finally gave up on Norton/Symantec virus as well after several years of hating it. All their stupid little daemons that thought they had more important work to do on my system than I do really used to piss me off. The final straw was when it reported that my system didn't have Virus protection to a VPN package I need to install for work. Norton was a month away from expiring, but was in the mode where it kept reminding me that it was going to expire. So it had no business informing other applications that my system wasn't protected. I was damn sure not going to renew it with that kind of extortion. So I switched to McAfee. It's MUCH better, but not perfect. Maybe I should have tried AVG. Although I will admit I'm skeptical of freeware performing something as important as virus protection.

BTW, removing Norton from your system is no easy feat either. You actually have to download more crap from Norton to unhook all its tendrils from your system. It's just criminal that the uninstaller that ships with Norton doesn't actually remove it all.

 

[Lonewuff]

My wife has MacAfee on her machine and I hate it. Windows popping up all the time telling me my network is trying to work. I kind of liked the Norton cause I thought it stayed out of my way with the exception of the weekly check it did on itself and even that had a pause. If the experts think AVG is the way to go I have no problem with free.

 

[LodiHal]

KDog is right, go to Norton's website and download their uninstaller. That USUALLY removes all traces of the product. It's notorious for leaving bits and pieces scattered all over on your system.

FYI, McAfee also has an uninstaller piece of software available for download.

On a home computer AVG is the best solution, I believe. On business networks I like Kaspersky, as it can be centrally managed and controlled, takes a small resource footprint, and is fairly unobtrusive once configured. And the big bonus for me, runs on Novell servers.

YMMV!

 

[Ted]

Maybe I should have tried AVG. Although I will admit I'm skeptical of freeware performing something as important as virus protection.

Me too - I bought their two-year license for 5 computers for a grand total of $172.94 - that comes out to $17.29 per computer per year!

A two-year license for 1 computer is currently $69.95. They have options to buy for 2 ($94.95), 3 ($99.95), and 5 ($165.95) computers - price per computer decreases accordingly.

The extra $6.99 was for extended download time period -basically for the entire two-years (back-up).

So far so good....

 

[Steve_R]

+2 on AVG. The only reason that Norton is on the company machine is because we have a corporate license and I can't take it off. All my non-Linux machines run AVG.

 

[Zotter]

So do I need to do an uninstall of the Norton I have now and then get AVG?

Well, if it's a valid subscription for awhile - go ahead and use it til it expires. But instead of paying again for a subscription when it's due - get the freebie.

Of course, if you'd like to get the lost resources back - yea. Switch out now and punt the lost bux.

 

[Lonewuff]

Well, if it's a valid subscription for awhile - go ahead and use it til it expires. But instead of paying again for a subscription when it's due - get the freebie.

Of course, if you'd like to get the lost resources back - yea. Switch out now and punt the lost bux.

The subscription expires tomorrow. Do I just turn it off and not worry about it or do I uninstall it? I have a feeling it will keep reminding me that it is expired and come on with every boot up???

 

[LodiHal]

You need to uninstall it. If you run two anti-virus/security software programs it will cause all kinds of problems. After uninstalling it reboot the computer before installing the new software.

Here's a link to AVG's free software:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

 

[mtrevelino]

After reading the reviews of Norton Internet Security 2008,
http://review.zdnet.com/internet-security-firewall/norton-internet-security-2008/4505-3667_16-32588378.html

I took the plunge and ran the Norton uninstall tool. It worked like a charm. I then loaded AVG anti virus free edition. I also had to turn on the windows firewall as Norton was taking care of this. My only concern is the lack of antiphishing software, if it is a real concern. Now to see if I notice any difference with the speed of my Vista machine.