Norton AntiVirus Review's and Comments

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[b]Norton AntiVirus Review's and Comments[/b]


Norton Antivirus 2008 is a full featured antivirus
and antispyware product. It includes several options that are commonly
passed over by other suites while leaving many out that would be
beneficial. The Norton scanning engine is one of the most complete on
the market, but suffers from issues with system resource usage and
overzealous integration with your computer that can cause freezing or
simple hanging application

Ease of Use:

Norton
Antivirus 2008 is very easy to use. It comes with a default
configuration that is sufficient to protect most home user systems. It
integrates with the start bar with an icon that is large and easy to
spot. The icon also includes a way to tell if your system is protected
or needs intervention from the user.

Effectiveness:

Being
VB100%, W.C.L 1 and 2, as well as ICSA certified means that Norton
Antivirus 2008 is equipped to handle all of your virus scanning needs.
The scanner has proven to 3 independent labs that it has the ability to
detect and remove viruses and variants of all viruses that the Norton
virus engine was tested against.The antispyware capabilities of
Norton Antivirus 2008 were less effective than the virus scanner. It
missed all of our tests while finding only a single tracking cookie on
our whole test system.We noticed that Norton Antivirus still
suffers from some pretty significant issues with the program eating up
resources and just slowing down our test machine overall. This is
something to keep in mind while making a decision on an antivirus
solution.

Updates:

As
of 2008, Norton Antivirus updates its virus signatures as needed. The
averages on the web have mentioned time frames between once a day and 3
times a day where we experienced updates once a day during our testing
period. This is a great improvement over the old system of looking for
and installing updates only once a week.

Feature Set:

Norton
Antivirus 2008 includes an antispyware scanner, Instant Messenger
protection for MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and Trillian, as well as the ability to
lock down program settings to help prevent other users on the computer
from changing your settings. Symantec has still neglected to include
parental controls with Norton Antivirus as well.

Ease of Installation:

While
the installation of Norton Antivirus 2008 was rather long, it didn't
require much intervention. It did require that we sign up for a
Symantec account in order to complete the install. This account is used
for downloading updates as well as keeping track of updates and other
support information.One additional thing to note is that
uninstalling Norton Antivirus did not remove everything that was
installed. There are several registry entries and directories left
behind as well as the LiveUpdate program that has to be removed
separately.

Help/Support:

Symantec
has always been hit on their help and support by reviewers. This fine
tradition doesn't end here as there seems to have been no changes since
our Internet Security Suite review of Norton Internet Security. While
they still offer free online chat and email support, their phone
support option is still $9.95 per incident. Beyond this, they estimate
a 30 minute wait time. We expect more for paid support options.The
live chat option is also much less useful than would be initially
thought. It requires Internet Explorer to function as well as requiring
an additional product install in order to get support. Once the
application is installed, you still have to wait for a rep to come
available. We stopped waiting after 25 minutes. For most people, this
will probably be a bit more than they were looking to go through for
support.

Summary:
Norton
Antivirus 2008 is a good product for keeping your computer safe from
viruses, but is not as effective as it should be against spyware. While
it has a good track record of keeping viruses off of computers using
it, it also has significant issues with slowing down computers that it
is protecting. Symantec has done a lot to fix the slow down issues by
reducing the amount of system resources used, but they still need to do
more work to make the product a contender in the modern antivirus market

[b]Norton AntiVirus Product Details[/b]


[b]Key Features:[/b]

• Detects and removes spyware and viruses.
  
• Blocks spyware and worms automatically.
  
• Prevents virus-infected emails from spreading.
  
• Rootkit detection finds and removes hidden threats.
  
• NEW! Improved performance delivers faster scans.
  
• NEW! One click access to expert support.
  
• NEW! Enhanced protection elements improve your PC security.
  
• NEW! Works quietly in the background.
  
• NEW! Network mapping provides a view of your home network.
  
• Includes one year of automatic definition updates, new product features, and access to updated versions of Norton AntiVirus™.
  
• On-going
  Protection keeps your computer protected from the latest Internet risks
  by automatically renewing your subscription at the regular subscription
  price (plus applicable tax), so you don't have to.
  

[b]System Requirements[/b]

Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 Home/XP Pro/XP Media Center Edition

Windows Vista™** Home/Home Premium/Ultimate/Business/Starter Edition

• 300MHz or faster processor
  
• 256MB of RAM
  
• 300 MB of available hard disk space
  
• Standard Web browser
  

**Must meet minimum Windows Vista operating system requirements
Platforms: Windows® XP Home/XP Pro/VISTA[b]Required for all installations[/b]

• CD-ROM or DVD drive
  

[b]Email Scanning[/b]

Email scanning supported for POP3 and SMTP compatible email clients.[b]Supported instant messenger clients[/b]

• AOL® 4.7 to 5.9
  
• Yahoo!® 5.x and 6.x
  
• Microsoft® 6.0 or higher
  
• Trillian 3.1 or higher