Moved from ESS to Norton Internet Security

After many years of using & recommending to all NOD32 & then Smart Security, I have read several tests, reviews & evaluations recently which I must say Eset has not done well in & with some sadness I have moved on.

After years of vowing I would never have a Norton product within 100 yards of any PC of mine the many glowing reports of NIS 2011 I decided to buy a 3 PC package for £24.99 after hunting on Google (But was invoiced from Symantec) which is heaps cheaper than ESS. I am very pleased with Norton & it even runs well on my ancient DELL 620 Lappy too.

Eset you need to pull your socks up as your reputation at least in UK magazines/respected forums & reviews is going down the pan at ever increasing speeds.

JMHO

 

I must admit the Norton Suite does look/sound very appealing at present!

It has been getting alot of good reviews.

I was very surprised when i found out how many updates get pushed out on Norton, something like 200+ per day!!!
People will turn that into a negative, but I think it's a huge positive.
I also like how you get access to new program updates/builds with the program.

I have 15 months licence left yet on Eset so will be sticking with them, but i feel in my heart of hearts that come my expirey i will be moving too, I just hope version 5 is something great, and not too little too (very) late.

 

You should ALWAYS buy no bigger than 1 year licence for any software . The Antivirus world is so dynamic that you will never know what product will be better next year. Having 15 months left means you have bought either 2 or 3-year-licence which is a lot .

 

Hi yes you are right! In future I will only be getting a 1 yr licence. I went for the 3yr option with Eset!

 

Hello Trollton
Just out of curiosity, in the time that you have had Eset , has there then been many Malware Infections on your system? Is this your main reason for choosing another vendor, or is the reason the reviews and forums statements.

Regards

Woodgiant

 

I think he stated the pricing difference.

 

he's talking abt reviews...

 

The fact that Trollton may had caught malware infection does not mean you will have virus and vice-verca. ESET is still good business product but lacks malware detection , active developement ... etc. You may start testing it on your own - there are various online resourses to start with Additionally , you may become working as computer tech and see various infected computers everyday and monitor how were they protected before

 

Hello 3GUSER
You presume to know alot about what I have tried, LOL

Regards

Woodgiant

 

In 15 years or so of PC use I have had to my knowledge one Virus/Serious Malware active on any of my systems some years ago, a worm 'Benjamin' which I defused myself. At that time I was running F-Prot which I used up to the time I changed to NOD32. At that time it was it seemed to me only one descent AV & that was Eset, & only Eset.

Things have changed & a recent test in the best selling UK magazine Pc Advisor put Smart security way down the list. I did intensive research & found to my dismay Eset was falling behind in many tests in UK & USA magazines when in FL recently, also many web reviews. Plus several trusted Beta testers of Norton 2011 had a major change of heart regarding Norton AV from bloated junk to a lean AV.

Eset hasn't really stopped many infections only 3 or 4 maybe in years, perhaps more. The faithful & I think best Anti-Malware product on the market Malwarebytes has often stepped in before Eset had time & as this is the full version it protects my systems and does it well.

Safe surfing IMHO is the best AV system along with regular system images of all 3 systems I own. I'm certainly not saying Eset is a bad AV in any way I would still be happy with using it. It's just that times have changed somewhat & I saved myself a packet by moving to Norton which is IMHO an amazing AV suite. (I never thought I would ever have a Norton AV on my systems & I took some convincing this time!) Eset just doesn't hold the position it did for me & it seems others.

Who knows, this time next year I may move back to Eset as I have no axe to grind with them & they have given me years of faithful service. Version 5 maybe? I hope so, as I feel I have betrayed Eset somewhat, get it right again please.

Take care

Paul

 

Hello Trollton
Thank you for taking the time to write back , I was just curious to know what thoughts you have had, or experience with Eset that made you shift Vendor. (Was it forums - test- your own experience, or in this case both).

Take Care

Woodgiant

 

Considering Moving from ESS to Norton Internet Security

In a month my ESS license expires. I've decided to test other security suits to see what's new.

*

I hope that eset will finally wake up and deliver a great ESS 5. I hope that the beta will be released before my license expires so I can decided if to stick with ESS or move to NIS.

Come on eset, show us that you still have what it takes to compete in the security suite market.

 

I'm afraid i'm with the OP on this. Whilst i agree the the AV component is very good, the firewall component of ESET Smart Security is no better or worse than the Windows 7 firewall. I didn't renew my ESS licence last month and have now jumped to Comodo Internet Security v5; like Norton its totally different to its previous versions in that it doesn't slow down your PC whilst giving you a very high level of protection. Its also updates every 30 mins and let you upgrade the software within. Oh and its free as well, though i would happily for it

RIP ESET

 

As Stem has said quite a few times in the other firewalls thread of Wilders - Windows 7 firewall with advanced security is quite good especially at the main job of a firewall - traffic filtering. And is better than many third party firewalls in suites. So comparisons in which people try to downgrade it to look as if anything is better than it are to put it mildly - ignorant.

 

The price of ESET products are almost outrageously high. When not performing best in tests anymore, it makes you wonder even more about the high price for a single license, especially since all other major competitors are 30%+ cheaper.

 

That differs among countries, for me ESS is way cheaper than NIS for example.

 

True, if you're looking for a 1 year, 1 workstation license. But for a 1 year, 3 workstation license, then NIS is cheaper.

(NIS € 74,99, - ESS € 81,47)

 

Here Eset is cheaper than NIS
Eset 3X home license :2155 INR
1X: 1199 INR

Norton IS
1X: Rs. 1,534.99
3X: Rs. 4,604.97

 

ESET Smart Security, 3 users, 1 year - 100,5 USD
Norton Internet Security, 3 users, 1 year - 70 USD

ESET is 43% more expensive than NIS.

 

Norton Internet Security 2011, 3 Computers, 1 Year Subscription (PC)
by Norton from Symantec

Platform: Windows Vista / 7 / XP
RRP: £51.05
Price: £23.00
You Save: £28.05 (55%)
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.

ESET Smart Security - 1 Year, 3 User
by eset

Platform: Windows Vista / 7 / 2000 / XP
RRP: £49.99
Price: £21.39
You Save: £28.60 (57%)
Dispatched from and sold by 7dayshop.

OR

Price: £29.99
You Save: £20.00 (40%)
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.

Other security suites are cheap too.

 

In my country (Israel) a single (retail) license for NIS is about $US27 while the cheapest (OEM) ESS single license is $US37. A full single license for ESS costs $53.

Although the huge price difference and the added benefits of NIS, I've decided to stick with ESS for another year (I need to renew my license in a few days). I hope that ESS 5 will have much needed improvements to the firewall and overall protection.

 

I wish you the best of luck with Norton. I used it on various home computers from about 1995 to 2006 and in the early years it saved me from several viruses that McAfee let through and even after I warned McAfee right away, several days later they were still letting it through.

I suspect that no single system is perfect. A few years ago ESET let about 5 viruses into my mom’s computer, that MalwareBytes removed, but the damage was permanent and I had to do a secure wipe of the hard drives and reinstall everything from a backup.

From about 1995 to 2006 I felt that I had to use Norton as it was on my mom’s computer and in order to help her with her questions, as her IT manager, I needed to have the same software on her computer as mine because I lived far away. After years of more and more nightmares caused by Norton (twice when we bought the next year’s version, the install completely ruined her computer, requiring a wipe and re-install, & and many similar nightmares over the years.) I finally could not stand it and switched to ESS which in the USA has some better prices, like for 3 computers, than other countries at times. I was living in Europe and my mom in the US.

I believe that while Norton might have had a complete purge and brain transplant and be wonderful now, during the years that I owned Norton on 3 to 5 computers at any given time, that it was worse than many viruses, in that it repeatedly ruined or damaged my computers and some of the support people that I spoke to were not trained and caused some fatal crashes.

Please don’t waste time saying that, “I’ve used blah blah for years and never had any problems.” I believe you. I am just telling you why I feel the way I do. I have owned guns nearly all my life and never gotten shot, but clearly many have. Relax, I'm a target shooter, not a hunter or a hit man.

During those nightmare years Norton got consistently good reviews by the pundits, so I would be careful who you blindly follow. Acronis Home versions of their backup software have saved me several times and I heartily endorse them, but please use at least some sort of backup, and test it. Even ESS has let things through and I have had several hard drives just fail for physical reasons, one totally. Google wrote an article that seems to say that based on their ownership of more hard drives that all but the largest nations, SMART is a nice idea, but far from reliably telling you before a drive fails. So, frequent backups are your best insurance.

Since I had so many years of nightmares, Norton or Symantec will not be on my list for some time. McAfee and Kaspersky have bitten my butt a few times too. But ESS did once. And ESS asks lots of questions about should I allow this or that and sometimes blocks things that I need to allow and then I spend hours figuring out what is wrong.

We live in complicated times, but I caution blind following of reviews (or prices). The big boy review company might be making money by being nice to other big boys and lie. Some ‘review sites’ look like they were falsely posted by the mfgr of the product that they love or some 12 yr old. So, do the best you can and then backup and cross your fingers.

And let others know how you feel and why. Hundreds of posts do sway my assumptions.

 

NAV and NIS now are very very good IMO.
With all their new tech (SONAR, Insight) and their revamped AV (Their AV used to be SLOW and sluggish before), they provide one of the best protection for everyday users and it's very simple to use

When people ask me for a paid security solution, i always recommend Norton

 

It's common knowledge you never run two AV's together at the same time. if you do neither will work correctly. That speaks me volumes of your IT ability.

As for me being worried about your gun ownership, I don't give a pigs burp if you have Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with nuclear warheads in your loft pointed at my house in the UK. That's a really odd thing to say gun ownership in a public forum & for me not to be worried? Very odd.

Trying out new ideas, such as software I wouldn't have had within half a mile of any of my PC's was difficult, putting long held prejudices away. I'm not advocating NIS just my experience with it. Next year who knows? I have built & maintained PC's since the first IBM clones appeared & my occupation puts me in Comm rooms on a regular basis.

(BTW if you had read my second post properly which it's obvious you did not, you would see I use imaging software & have done for many years. if you had done the same the many 'wipes' you did may have been averted to a five minute restore. I have up to date images of all PC's i maintain & original install images, backed up here & at an alternate location.) How you manage to damage hard drives eludes me, I can't help thinking you don't know much about PC's?

I did not fall off a Christmas tree nor was born yesterday. (At least I don't remember no Christmas tree anyway) I'm not advocating NIS in any way, it just my opinion & mine only. Try not to live in the past & move on, 2006 was some time ago & Norton seemed to have learned some lessons. I blindly follow no one, I try to make my own path through life. I expect other to agree/disagree with me & that's great, it's what makes the world go round. After a few weeks of use of NIS on three PC's though it's an excellent suite - I think: That's just just my own personal opinion, not fact. And it needs to be remembered we are talking about just an AV suite, not the destruction of the cosmos.

I won't post again on this subject as I've said all there is to say.

Kind regards, Paul

 

Re: "I wish you the best of luck with Norton" & "Since I had so many years of nightmares, Norton or Symantec will not be on my list for some time"

I think the best indicator of how these products rate CURRENTLY is to follow the forums, and read about peoples CURRENT experience with them. Yes we all know norton went through a bad few years, but if you read CURRENT posts and CURRENT tests it will point you toward a very good choice CURRENTLY for antimalware protection.

This comes from one who thought Avira was unbeatable, but has now changed to NIS2011.
I am very impressed with its speed and performance. For me its a keeper.