Norton Internet Security, Antivirus and 360 Being Retired?

Trying to find that setting in NS. Do you mean "Block Traffic for Malicious Applications" instead under Firewall Advanced Program Control? That was the only other thing I seen that you can set it to Aggressive. Unless I missed an area.

 

So, Boot Time Protection (BTP) still defaults to off. The default was originally "normal", but the feature was turned off at some point - don't remember which product version/year. I asked about this in the Norton product forums at the time and could not get a straight answer as to why it was turned off or the advantages/disadvantages of the normal/aggressive settings.

 

So you are basing your security decisions on youtube test results of unqualified testers using questionable methods and suspect malware sample sets? Good to know.

You do realize that Norton will almost always score lower in an on-demand scan of a malware folder, right? The reason is, Norton 2015 is starting to take a more Webroot approach in that a dead piece of malware in a folder is just that, a dead piece of malware. Norton is extremely potent when that malware decides to 'come alive', that's where 90% of the program comes into play (Heuristic/Bloodhound, SONAR, Insight). But isn't that really what is important in protecting a machine?

AVT tested Norton and found it one of the best for actual removal. So I assume it's pretty good on an infected machine, but realize that most of Norton's power won't likely be realized unless those infections are active, and attempting to work - that's when Norton's systems will all kick in. But simply scanning malware folders isn't where it will shine, and I wouldn't expect it to if it offers any real proactive security.

 

Strange, my boot time shows 'aggressive' but the slider is grayed out.. I never de-activated it or anything, so I assumed it was defaulting to that, and locking it out from being turned off? There are other options greyed out as well - such as the Antivirus itself.. Slider says 'ON' but the slider itself is grayed out. Anyone experienced with Norton have some insight into this? My experience is primarily with the enterprise version of Norton products. I am currently studying to be a Norton Engineer, but I am not adept with the consumer side at this point.

Thanks.

 

That's the correct setting. It basically prevents malicious, or potentially malicious files/programs from accessing the internet, and sharing your credentials, or hijacking your system.

 

Excellent. Thanks for responding!

 

I just installed NS in an XP VM. Regarding default settings, Boot Time Protection is Off, Sonar advanced mode is "automatic", remove risks automatically is "high certainty", remove risks while I'm away is "high certainty", heuristic protection is "automatic", low risks is "ask me", block traffic for malicious applications is set "normal". All of these settings can be cranked up.

 

Are any of the grayed out? I am concerned with my install that things are grayed out.

This tester clearly had things grayed out in his test, and if that's the case for my system then I really need to figure out why it would happen. Unfortunately I am not at my desktop to investigate, and won't be until later today. Is anyone else seeing grayed out settings?

 

I don't see anything grayed out.

 

I second that.

 

In the same Norton settings page, do you see "These settings cannot be changed due to a pending remediation action. Please restart your computer to resolve this issue."

You may need to scroll down to see it.

 

Nothing greyed-out for me on XP with Admin account. Are you using a Standard/Limited user account?

 

Actually, boot time protection is grayed out. Not sure if I missed it before, or if something changed.

 

Check every setting. There was a bug before that caused settings to be grey.

 

It seems to have been determined that this referenced guys Youtube test is entirely invalid for several reasons. I sent a link over to a Symantec Engineer;

1) Several aspects of Norton were disabled, or in some cases not fully updated in his video.
2) His connection was very slow, possibly unstable, as indicated by SONAR and INSIGHT being incapable of classifying the files over the alloted time.
3) He didn't reboot to remove infections when Norton isolated many of them and asked for a reboot.

Worse, he is DELETING comments pointing out his errors on this test, and questioning his ability to test these products. So it puts the entire thing into the questionable category as he appears to have something to hide, or is trying to save face in light of evidence his test is invalid. At the very least he could answer the points brought up, rather than deleting them.

 

It's disappointing to hear he is deleting comments. Never a fan of that. He should just state his case and move on, and/or admit mistakes.

As I've said prior, I don't think there was any bias on his part, but the program wasn't working in this test. Not sure if protection got shut down via malware or a bug, or if Nortons servers were not responding.

Regardless, I see this test as the outlying rather than the norm. I expect the new version to score at least as well as the old one did:

http://www.av-test.org/en/?avtest[report]=7155

 

does not like adwhearcleaner

 

That's a Bloodhound hit on ADWCLEANER. Probably means it hasn't seen it very often, and it's acting 'funny'. That's a good program to test the rollback system in Norton.

 

When my NIS 2014 annual subscription expired last week Symantec offered me, and I accepted, a 3-user renewal for NIS 2014 for another year (for $39). Will I or won't I get the opportunity to upgrade to NS 2015 at no additional cost?

 

Good Luck. Read the fiasco on the Norton Forum for upgrading. What a mess.

 

Read the thread for details. Basically if you contact Symantec via their customer chat they will likely give you some consideration, but there is no policy in place supporting upgrades from a 2014 to 2015 product at no additional cost.

 

Again poor methodology. Results should be reproducible and an effort made to make sure nothing else, such as a poor connection, was responsible.

 

There is another test (German) of Norton 2015 on Youtube. Setup correctly, and with a fast internet connection.

Norton nails it - hard. You can see Norton sandboxing stuff, then tossing it in a queue for Sonar, and when Sonar picks it up it backs off the threat. He overloaded the Sonar queue, but since his connection was good Norton eventually caught up, and backed all of the threats off his system.

 

With Low-Risk threats set to remove, Norton is nailing it on some stuff I am throwing at it, really new stuff. This also verifies they ramped up PUP/PUA detections, provided you have "Low Risk" set to aggressive, and remove.
File Insight appears effective at grabbing extremely new threats.

 

blogs and news of a dropped lawsuit doesn't constitute "being taken to court"