Customer Reviews

Norton Internet Security 2010 - 1 User 3 Computers (PC CD)

5 star:		(211)
4 star:		(82)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Since NIS 2009, I have gotten used to my internet security suite not interrupting me whilst go about day to day computing.

Norton 2010, is well how can I say, even better than 2009!

I purchase Norton every year from Amazon as its always cheaper than going through Symantec.

For all the users of NIS 2009, remember to go to the Norton Upgrade Center to get your free download of NIS 2010 as part of your subscription.

The new version is still very nippy and installed in 48seconds on my Vista 64bit machine, which I thought was very impressive, and a Quick Scan took just over 1minute.

The Anti Spam seems improved and Identity Safe and the Norton Toolbar now works correctly in the latest version of Firefox.

This new version also fully supports Windows 7. I haven't run this in Windows 7, but I am sure it runs perfectly in it as it does in XP and Vista.

I have always found Norton much more lightweight than McAfee and I do recommend existing Norton and McaFee users give NIS 2010 a try, they will surprised on how much quicker their system will boot, and how much more responsive it will be whilst using Windows.

Overall, still a great Internet Security suite with excellent protection and performance.

I highly recommend this product to any prospective purchaser. It is extremely easy to use (including install), doesn't hog resources, carries out a smarter scan of your PC, can optimize disk performance, and doesn't complain incessantly about backing up data.

I'm an ex Norton360 user who liked the 360 product in most respects but found the interface a bit clunky, and hated all the warnings and notifications that it generated, especially when the status was shown as "at risk" because pc data hadn't been backed up. I didn't want to be told when to back my data up, so when I installed Norton Internet Security 2010 I was pleased that the product didn't have a back-up facility. I wasn't looking forward to the installation - I suspected I would have to go and uninstall Norton 360 manually - but to my delight Norton Internet Security did everything for me with the minimum of mouse clicks, 360 was seamlessly uninstalled and then Internet Security 2010 installed very quickly.

The user interface is smart and intuitive to use and there is a gadget (not as intrusive as 360) that the product installs that shows the system status using an easy to read traffic light.

There are some intelligent features to the software - it can work out which files on your PC pose the most risk and it concentrates on scanning those - files that don't present any risk at all aren't scanned normally - only when a full scan is carried out. The intelligence of this product means that it isn't such a resource hog as Norton 360 - my boot time decreased after I'd installed it. The other bonus is that it seems to do more in the background without bothering to push out a stream of notifications. Oh yes, it works with Windows 7 too. And in a full week of use I've had no crashes at all. Fantastic

All in all, this is the best Norton product I've used - it includes Virus protection - including something called "pulse updates" which gives up-to-the-minute protection, email filtering, website threat analysis, network security features, phishing detection/blocking, login and personal data management, hacking protection, system tune-up tools.

Highly recommended and this is a good deal, considering you get three licences.

First off I would like to say that if you have Vista or Windows 7 they now have perfectly competent Antispyware and Firewalls. Some people don't like them but I have no problems. If you are okay using them you may just want to save a bit of cash and just get Norton Antivirus 2010 but on with the review.

Installing Internet Security (NIS) 2010 was really easy, it uninstalled Norton Antivirus 2009 without any issues and was ready after a quick reboot. After downloading the latest updates I was now fully protected so I decided to take the 'safe search' for a spin. Basically Norton adds a toolbar in Internet Explorer which tells you if the site you're on is safe or not.

I decided to go to a site I know to be VERY dodgy (google 'on nimp dot org' at your own risk) and Norton did not bat an eye - just showing a nice big green tick for 'this page is safe'. Now there are community features which means I could mark this as unsafe however on that particular site they are impossible to use due to the nasty tricks used (trust me on this).

Moving on however, NIS is very keen to point out how little resources it is using. This is actually very good and by keeping a database of all the programs users use NIS can actually ignore files which are known to be safe. I'm not sure how safe this approach is but system scans are very quick and my laptop remains totally usable throughout. The only annoying thing is sometimes it gets confused and thinks I'm not using the computer when I am - popping up a box telling me it's doing a scan. This box just sits in the corner of the screen until you close it or the scan finishes.

After a while it then tells me it has found some threats but digging down they're just harmless cookies that track where I've been for advertising purposes. When I did purposely download a virus Norton caught it very quickly with no melodrama or side effects. A standard warning popped up which you could click to find out more or just ignore if you're happy that Norton just did its job so this gets a thumbs up from me.

If you're looking for some security software then NIS2010 is actually pretty good despite some minor niggles with the Internet Explorer protection and idle scan feature. You can just install and forget it while being safe but really I was also quite happy with my old Norton Antivirus 2009. The new version is more efficient and packs in more features but unless your old version is running out there's no real reason to upgrade and even then there's no reason to pick Internet Security over plain Antivirus unless you don't trust Microsoft's antispyware and built in firewall.

The product installs sweetly on XP & Vista and gets to work fairly quickly and without fuss.

There were 2 particular threats already installed on my PC both of which were widely reported in User/Tech forums yet Norton 2010 didn't detect either, let alone remove them.

The really disappointing aspect however was when I contacted the apparantly "free support" service; they recognised the problems I described - and there is a Tech Bulletin from Symantec describing one of them written in 2007 - but wanted to charge me a £69.99 "virus removal fee".

The online support chat service is actually implemented very well but the patronising inference was somewhat grating. Net, net, Norton are trying to charge for 'value added services' to cover the deficits in their own product.

In the past, I have performed a contract for a well known anti-virus company, so have some detailed knowledge of the security software and have presented an academic paper on recognising security threats.

It is also likely, that with unfortunately necessary frequent updates to the security software that the specific problem that I found will be rectified in the near future.

The installation of the Norton Internet Security 2010 - 1 User 3 Computers (PC CD) was trivially easy, although the only customisable option was the directory in which it was installed. Everything else, including installing its own security tool-bar in Firefox, was done simply.

On installation,Norton Internet Security 2010 helps with the uninstallation of incompatible (i.e competing) products. This is actually necessary, as running multiple firewalls, or virus-scanners will make a computer unstable. After a reboot, Norton completes its installation cycle.

When it is running, it does seem to use much less CPU than the older versions - that is a real improvement, but at what cost?

Why only 1 star?

Once Norton Internet Security 2010 was installed, I decided to check that it was running properly by downloading the EICAR test viruses - which are actually non-damaging files that virus detection products should recognise. Norton Internet Security 2010 only recognised 2 of the 4, and took around 15 seconds to do it. Other products recognise these files as they are being downloaded and saved.

More minor, are the constant, irritating pop-up to use Norton's password saving application, to use Norton's bad site blocking... etc. etc. Most of these facilities are included in Firefox and Internet Explorer and other browsers now anyway, or are also available through Google toolbar products.
The phishing filter did not recognise some a known phishing site, or a set of Get Rich Quick Scam sites - all were given a nice green light by the Norton Browser toolbar. It seems that if sites aren't already identified to Norton as dangerous, then they assume that they are not hostile.

The only email products that it specifies that it will protect are the various versions of Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mail. No mention of Thunderbird or webmail applications such as hotmail or squirrelmail.

Luckily, Norton do offer a 60 day money-back guarantee.

If it can't recognise standard test viruses as they are being downloaded or scam sites, what are the chances that it will react well to genuine threats?

Later edit: Yesterday, I was helping a friend to remove a virus - This product claimed to have found it, and removed it, saying "No further action required". The virus was still there after a reboot. McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2010 Dealt with it with no problems. Evidence that Norton fails to deal with genuine threats. That experience would have prompted me to reduce the score from 1 star to none - but Amazon doesn't go that low!

Have used previous versions and they seem to have saved me from security breaches and viruses in recent years. As usual mysterious messages appear telling you threats have been warded off. It installed smoothly, and my computer seems to work faster than with the last version.

Following on from last year, when they completely re-wrote the programming code to make a much faster package, another great internet security suite has been produced. While this features the expected antivirus and firewall, it also contains spyware and phishing protection. The much faster scanning and update processes, which were introduced last year, have been carried through to this year's package. This is due to Norton insight, for the scanning, and the all new liveupdate program for the updating process. Norton insight analyzes files on your system, and then only scans them in future if they have changed, thus cutting down on the number of files it has to scan.

On top of that some new parts have been added to Norton Internet Security 2010. One of these is called download insight, which analyzes all downloads, and then informs you in a little pop up box in the corner of your screen if they are safe, or not, as the case may be. This package also offers monthly reports, which give information on scans performed, infections found, downloads etc. This is also a new feature of the 2010 package.

While I had no problems installing it, in the event anybody has, simply use the Norton removal tool - which can be found on their website - to remove any old versions. Remember to back up settings, such as log in's however first!

Overall, it's good to see that the performance gains have not been lost, and that this package still does what it says on the box.

By the way, if you want to get your copy earlier than the announced retail release date, buy the 2009 version and get the 2010 update through the Norton Update centre.

Last year Symantec pulled out all the stops to reduce Norton Internet Security's impact on system performance, historically a common bugbear among Norton users. Utilising new technologies that boost your PC's protection levels without impacting too significantly down its performance, Norton Internet Security 2010 remains the best overall security suite on the market.

2010 is has an easy, intelligent install, there's new access to "insight" data, it's antispam capabilities are very accurate and thorough and it has the best anti-malware component I've yet to encounter in internet security software. On top of this, it has a well-rounded firewall and good anti-phishing protection. The only negative I encountered is that the network map doesn't allow remote configuration or repair. That aside though, this is a very good piece of internet security software and one I can only recommend to anyone in the market for just that.

Quite surprised with my instalment of Norton Internet Security 2010, largely because the LiveUpdate doesn't work!
I have contacted their Support, and just been put off and put off. I'm frustrated and bloody angry about this and have let them know it too!
If others have had similar problems then I suggest don't bother with the Support, because it basically is worthless, and I'd go get your money back. I'm disgusted to say the least, had Nortons every year for God knows how long, but certainly won't be getting it again that's for sure!

Well given that Norton hogs the whole market with it stuff, you have no choice but to pay for it as it's the easy option.
Situation:
My brand new laptop (Windows 7) came with Norton and the whole things was very slow. After 3 months, I tried an alternative - Avast! which scanned my laptop and found 332 virus infections, not just trojans or spyware either. I contacted Symantec who were no help at all, insisting that my computer wasn't infected, so I tried "SuperAntiSpyware" which was recommended by the Microsoft website. This detected viruses and spyware as well.
Remedy:
Norton was indicating that the system is fine, so I tried another alternative, AVG. This also reported multiple infections.
I removed Norton Internet Security, and installed Avast! instead.
Results:
My computer now boots up in less than a minute. Everything is much faster, and the only thing that pops up is Avast tellting me it has been updated.
Conclusion:
DO NOT BUY this product, get Avast! Free Antivirus instead, which not only detects viruses but also Adware and Spyware. I hope that this helps you, but sorry to Amazon for the bad review - it's not your fault it's Symantec.