Is Norton Internet Security still bad?

Wathnix · Jan 8, 2012

I've factory restored quite a few laptops recently and out of habit I uninstall the Norton internet security that comes with the laptop and install something else, usually Microsoft security essentials. I was thinking though, has Norton gotten better in the last few years or so? because I havent been checking. I just remember how bad they sucked way back when.

Convicted1 · Jan 8, 2012

No.

Still overweight, bloated, dinosaur software.

Keep with MSE.

-David

G33K454URU5 R3X · Jan 8, 2012

There is no perfect antivirus. That being said, +1 to Convicted - the Symantec products I have seen / worked with are rather bloated and slow down machines. MSE is a good option for free AV. I have had positive experiences with the BitDefender line of products, 2011 on up.

Pinky · Jan 9, 2012

NIS has been fine in the 2 years I've been using at with my current employer (we use managed endpoint protection for business clients, which has some minor issues from time to time - especially the active network scan/security). I'm convinced CA and McAfee are the worse mainstream AV available. Everyone else (including NIS) fall into a middle of the pack 'meh' category.

I'm currently trying Ad-Aware Internet Secrity on my home machine after reading good reviews, and although it doesn't do a scheduled scan in the free version, it does seem to have a small footprint.

Avast served me well but only for the 1 year it was free, not worth paying for it. AVG completely misses stuff, but isn't a resource hog. MS security essentials has a habit of crashing and causing havoc when it does.

nd4spdbh2 · Jan 9, 2012

Convicted1 said:
No.

Still overweight, bloated, dinosaur software.

Keep with MSE.

-David

could not agree more.... MSE does just as good of a job as the lot of em... free not bloated... did i mention its free.... paying for AV is about the biggest scam out there.

MSE is what i install on all the peoples comps that come to me and never had any issues. Myself personally havnt used an AV in YEARS (probably since 2005) and never had a problem.

Redstone · Jan 9, 2012

Pinky said:
NIS has been fine in the 2 years I've been using at with my current employer (we use managed endpoint protection for business clients, which has some minor issues from time to time - especially the active network scan/security). I'm convinced CA and McAfee are the worse mainstream AV available. Everyone else (including NIS) fall into a middle of the pack 'meh' category.

I'm currently trying Ad-Aware Internet Secrity on my home machine after reading good reviews, and although it doesn't do a scheduled scan in the free version, it does seem to have a small footprint.

Avast served me well but only for the 1 year it was free, not worth paying for it. AVG completely misses stuff, but isn't a resource hog. MS security essentials has a habit of crashing and causing havoc when it does.

Avast is still free, or were you using the paid version?

habbajabba · Jan 9, 2012

Norton even if it were free I would not use. In fact if you bought it I'd try and get my money back

Mse is supposed to be good but never needed it myself. For a clients pc I suppose it might be perfect though.

G33K454URU5 R3X · Jan 10, 2012

Just remember that the free antiviruses are for home / non-commercial use only. You have to keep an eye on the license agreements, especially in the business world.

mjw21a · Jan 10, 2012

MSE + Comodo Firewall is all you ever need, of course a hardware firewall in your router is nice too....

hafa · Jan 10, 2012

G33K454URU5 R3X said:
Just remember that the free antiviruses are for home / non-commercial use only. You have to keep an eye on the license agreements, especially in the business world.

Microsoft Security Essentials is available for small businesses with up to 10 PCs

On the machines that are used for analyzing customer's hard drives, I use Kaspersky & Malwarebytes. MSE had a bad habit of missing things.

tRidiot · Jan 11, 2012

Avast is still free for home use, just re-register after a year. I've never gotten significant amounts of spam-mail from them, either. It works great for me.

NOD32 was the new hot one a couple of years back, but I don't hear anything about it anymore. Not sure, is it still available?

I use a combo of Avast and Malwarebytes, with occasional SuperAntiSpyware thrown in for good measure.

TollhouseFrank · Jan 11, 2012

according to both:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

and

http://www.av-test.org/index.php?L=1

Norton is one of the best out there for combination of not only protection, but for lack of impact on the system. McAfee, on the other hand (for example only) has been dinged heavily for huge system impact.

Pinky · Jan 11, 2012

Redstone said:
Avast is still free, or were you using the paid version?

After 1 year it expires. Haven't even tried installing it again to see if I can get past it, have many methods of getting good AV for free through work.

Pinky · Jan 11, 2012

TollhouseFrank said:
Norton is one of the best out there for combination of not only protection, but for lack of impact on the system. McAfee, on the other hand (for example only) has been dinged heavily for huge system impact.

Precisely my experience.

SteveLord · Jan 12, 2012

MSE needs to have been marketed better by Microsoft. Nobody beyond techies have heard of it.

mjw21a · Jan 12, 2012

SteveLord said:
MSE needs to have been marketed better by Microsoft. Nobody beyond techies have heard of it.

Thats true enough..... I believe they should build it into all retails versions of Windows 7 and if you install another AV product it disables itself.

TollhouseFrank · Jan 12, 2012

mjw21a said:
Thats true enough..... I believe they should build it into all retails versions of Windows 7 and if you install another AV product it disables itself.

After the Internet Explorer fiasco in the European Union, I doubt MS wants to get into another, prolonged legal fiasco over having something built it designed to 'quash' competition.

Mehovoric · Jan 12, 2012

I just go by, if you have to pay for it then its not worth my time. I've used, AVG and Avast with a combination of MalwareBytes and Spybot and I've never had any issues. Occasionally a couple tracking cookies here and there. But really the best prevention is just knowing the signs that a website or software will have viruses and knowing what to and what not to click on. And not installing all those extra toolbars and crapware that comes with the utilities or software helps as well.

I have McAfee at work and all kinds of things slip through even though the corporate nuts are pretty well on top of keeping it updated. On my Win7 machines its not too bad but its bogs down XP like nobody's business.

gottcha · Jan 14, 2012

I found this yesterday. Have a look.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012...?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&ca=moto

Is Norton Internet Security still bad?

Wathnix

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