The Symantec/Norton Thread.

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Mayahana, Jan 21, 2015.

  1. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Personally? I rank them Trend->Norton->BitDefenderFree for Mobile as my choice. I use Trend because it's powerful remote stuff, but I love all three.
     
  2. trjam

    trjam Registered Member

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    yep, I got the 2 year license for like 54 bucks then did the chat to get a refund. He offered me half my money back if I kept it, and of course I did. :)
     
  3. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Web Agents are authorized to give up to 50% refund to keep customers - by the way. They are actually very helpful folks as well.
     
  4. coolcfan

    coolcfan Registered Member

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    Using 30 day trail NS22 on my desktop now. Yesterday and today I tried twice with the daily virus sample pack from a forum in China which contains 100 samples (not with good quality though, e.g. including old virus that can't even run under latest Windows). For each time, I disabled real-time virus protection, extracted the pack and performed manual scan.

    And I find something interesting:
    1. It took several minutes (more than five for both packs) for NS22 to process the detected files -- maybe it's because NS tries to fix some files;
    2. The detected threat number reported by NS22 was much smaller than the number it cleaned and fixed -- e.g. for one pack, 100 files scaned, 44 threat detected and cleaned as reported, but I found only 25 files remaining and 20 of them were proved fixed by double checking with EEK which can clean the pack up.
    Given the fact that the sample packs contain outdated virus samples which are not threat anymore, plus the fact that Sonar can block more, detection ratio of manual scan is not my concern. However, I wonder why NS22 reports a much smaller number than what it has actually processed.

    Any idea? @Mayahana
     
  5. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    How does this result compare with other AVs you have tested?

    Norton's strength is 'real-world' or active protection. Can you do a version of the test with real-time enabled and see what the difference is with the same sample set?

    Although results are to be taken lightly on this type of test, I still think they are interesting.


    Note: Do not take little homegrown tests seriously. Coolcfan's test included 100 amatuer samples. A recent AV-C test included 180,000 vetted samples.


    Thanks,

    -Frank
     
  6. Mortal Raptor

    Mortal Raptor Banned

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    I was chatting to one of their live support agents to get my 2 licenses merged into one then the chat got disconnected but I noticed that he did actually merge the license so I was good.

    After 2 hours, I get an international call from the USA to Dubai from another agent just to make sure that I got my issue sorted as the chat session was disconnected.

    This is amazing really! At this day and age where customer service is non-existent, this comes as a pleasant surprise to this great Security Suite!
     
  7. coolcfan

    coolcfan Registered Member

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    I've stated that detection ratio is not what I'm interested in. Since the samples are not of good quality (containing outdated samples etc.), I don't care about the result. Actually, any existing AV software could kill more than 95 samples in these daily sample packs, just like the users posted in the thread.

    What brought me to this kind of small scan test was the report pasted on a forum by another Norton user -- while the screenshots and pasted reports of all other AV softwares showes results like 98/100 or similar things, the Norton reports stated only 44 kills. When I did the scan myself, I found that 95 files were cleaned.

    That's what I'm interested in -- wondering why it reports 44 threats cleaned while it actually removed and fixed 95 samples with this manual scan. Maybe some of the samples are of the same variant so NS merged them?
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2015
  8. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    It may be due to variances of different engines applying to the activity. Norton works on a variety of interacting principles, which is why synthetic scan tests aren't good to test it. But when all of the technologies are firing off, and working together, it has pretty remarkable detection/prevention/cleanup.
     
  9. coolcfan

    coolcfan Registered Member

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    Just did another run, and I think Norton's not reporting based on number of files processed, but number of "objects" scanned and number of "threat variants" processed -- if 10 files are of the same variant of threat NS will report 1.
    I can accept that. Not very straight forward to novice users though.


    And Symantec China hasn't started selling NS22 license yet.
     
  10. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Wonder if one of us can send a Norton box to you in China?
     
  11. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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  12. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    腾讯电脑管家 99.946
    360 99.903
    Bitdefender Internet Security 99.903
    FortiClient 99.903
    Norton Security 99.769
    Avira Free Antivirus 99.728
    百度杀毒 99.518
    IKARUS anti.virus 99.513
    F-Secure Internet Security 99.430
    卡巴斯基安全软件 99.397
    Avast Free Antivirus 99.338
    NANO Antivirus 99.224
    ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall 99.027
    ESET Smart Security 98.604
    Windows Defender 98.604
    K7 Ultimate Security 98.542
    Dr.Web Security Space 98.336
    新毒霸 97.472
    Trend Micro Maximum Security 95.095
    Webroot SecureAnywhere 88.332
    Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium 65.502


    Among the strange test results, Norton did pretty well.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2015
  13. coolcfan

    coolcfan Registered Member

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    Norton performs really good here.

    I also constantly see users reporting that very new samples get killed by SONAR.


    Off topic part:

    A quick look at the Tencent PC Manager (腾讯电脑管家) section in kafan forum:

    Seems that The Chinses version of TPCM uses Kingsoft (金山毒霸) as the AV technology (especially the cloud part) provider, while Kingsoft has its own engine and Avira engine.

    In the "international" version, they might also add BitDefender engine. BTW, Tencent, 360 and Baidu, you can actually treat their Chinese version and "international" version as two different AV softwares. And don't try the Chinese version, ever.

    What's interesting is, as reported, TPCM tries to recommend and install 毒霸 to users' PCs -- an AV software promotes and installs another AV software on the same machine..... That's cool.
     
  14. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    Oh wow, you know about this stuff.

    So the winner is Tencent PC Manager?

    I've never noticed Tencent doing that well.... is it good in your experience?

    What is 毒霸?


    Thanks,

    -Frank
     
  15. coolcfan

    coolcfan Registered Member

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    Well I'm no expert in security area.

    I'm Chinese and living in China. But I usually use "foreign" AV softwares, jumping from Avast, BitDefender, fs protection to ESET and now Norton, although their reaction to new threats in China might be slower.

    Now I'm having good experience with Norton. If this good experience lasts for the 30 day trial period and they start to sell license in China, I think I will continue with it.

    On the other hand, I will never install Tencent PC Manager... Because it is annoying -- keeping promoting other softwares, even another AV software...

    BTW, regarding the Chinese names in your detection rate list:

    腾讯电脑管家 99.946 -- Tencent PC Manager
    百度杀毒 99.518 -- Baidu AntiVirus
    卡巴斯基安全软件 99.397 -- Kaspersky Internet Security
    新毒霸 97.472 -- Kingsoft AntiVirus or "Jinshan DuBa"

    See your new thread, let's go there :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2015
  16. coolcfan

    coolcfan Registered Member

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  17. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    To the best of my knowledge it does still apply. Not all language versions are affected though.

    Do contact Customer Support, I'm sure they will help you out.

    www.norton.com/chat
     
  18. Anarion

    Anarion Registered Member

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    I'm a bit unsure whether or not to renew our Avast license. Has anyone recently switched from Avast IS to Norton Security recently? How is the performance?
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2015
  19. trjam

    trjam Registered Member

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    I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the new Norton. Give it a 30 day try and see. Performance is as good as Avast and quite a few others. Honestly I cant find anything to dislike about it. Who would have thunk it.
     
  20. Infected

    Infected Registered Member

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    The latest version of Norton from Xfinity is 21.1. How is that version?
     
  21. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Older. Like my cable company provides unlimited F-Secure licenses to my home, but I won't use it. Why? They have a 3 year old version they provide.. Pretty pathetic.
     
  22. Rompin Raider

    Rompin Raider Registered Member

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    It's a miracle!
     
  23. Eggnog

    Eggnog Registered Member

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    Speaking of miracles, I bought a 5-device Norton Security subscription over the weekend after trying it out for a while. I've got it on three PCs already and am thinking about putting it on my smartphone. Me. Buying Norton. Cats and dogs living together. I never would have believed it after I swore vociferously and shook my fist at Norton years ago. It's indeed a miracle!
     
  24. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Same.. I hated Norton, for a decade. Vowing to never use it.. Now I feel it's one of the best products out there, bar none.. Trend, same way.. Bloated, slow, sub-par detections. Then 2015 arrives, and changes the game entirely.

    Miracles do happen..
     
  25. Mortal Raptor

    Mortal Raptor Banned

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    and other products seem to be going downhill after being the greatest. How time changes......it's like they swapped.....the heaviest became the lightest, and the lightest became the heaviest
     
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