Norton 2006 Product Launch

Please post somewhere regarding how NIS 2006 runs on your system, the positive and the negative, if any, so we can digest some factual real time info instead of recycled old stories. After a reasonable amount of time of course.

 

Once it is shipped to me I will be able to let you know in just a few hours of playing with it if it is worth a hoot. I could have downloaded the beta but would rather wait for the full release. I have a hunch it will be just great if the improvements are as dramatic as they were from 2004 to 2005 versions.

bigc

 

For what it's worth, the Dell I bought over a year ago came with NIS 2004, and overall I am happy with its technical performance. To my knowledge, I have never had a virus infection or other problem relating to malware e.g. firewall breaches, with the exception of spyware, and NIS 2004 does not really address that issue. I run so much AS I don't care.

Last week I did a bunch of free AV scans from Kaspersky and several other vendors, and none of them found any viruses at all, nor have they ever in the past. From my perspective, based on my personal internet experience, I am therefore satisfied with Norton's performance. I do Norton AV scans once a week at least (and specifically if I think my machine is acting strangely), and even the scans reveal nothing to be removed; all the viruses Norton has stopped incoming, and given me a warning of such. I can't ask for much more.

Does my experience prove anything? No, of course not. As some ads say, your experience may vary. Life is a crap shoot, and you do the best you can.

I can't comment on how much NIS slows down my system, since I have run it since day one. I think any time lost is minimal in relation to the time that would be lost if I had a serious system problem as a result of installed malware that could have been prevented. In the reviews I have seen, I have been unimpressed with the performance of other security suites, notably McAfee, which seems vastly overrated, but Panda and Trend Micro as well.

From time to time I have seen comparative reviews of various AV applications from credible sources, and Norton's performance always seems to be at or very near the top. The results of course depend on the set of test viruses used.

My biggest complaint about Norton is that it often fails to load properly at startup, so much so that the first thing I do at startup is open it to check that everything is working. Maybe a quarter of the time, something is off. I even get the incomprehensible status on the main screen that NAV has a problem, then when I click on it, apparently everything is fine. Even so, I restart.

By the way, I contacted Symantec about the AS in NIS 2006 because I wanted to know if it was their own proprietary product. They say it is. It fared pretty well for a new product in the AS test in PC World, Nov. 2005, using the 2005 NIS AS Edition.

In the same issue, the 'Antivirus Killers' article stated that 'the number of reported vulnerabilities in security software overtook those reported for Windows at the end of 2004'. The gist of this is that malware is now targeting AV directly, attempting to disable it by either blocking updates or shutting it down altogether. Apparently NIS 2006 is going to address this issue. It looks to be a growing problem for antimalware applications in general as the malware writers become more spohisticated.

I will also look forward to more frequent updates. Usually NIS 2004 has one AV update and one firewall update a week. By contrast, Spyware Doctor averages almost one a day during the week, and Spy Sweeper almost as many.

I am not happy with the cost of my upcoming renewal of NIS 2004 next month, so I will likely opt for NIS 2006 with its new features. I'll hold off until I read bigc's review. The best price I have seen is on Amazon.com, $42.99 (US), including free shipping. Anybody know of a better price?

For those who don't want to pay for a yearly NIS renewal, I will make this observation. A few months into my Dell, I had some problems that were apparently hardware related, and did a complete reinstall of all my software, including NIS, which I had on a disc. The year's subscription started with the new install date, not the original one. You will have to deal with the ethical issue yourself, but you may be able to uninstall and reinstall your software, and get a free extension that way. It's up to you. If you feel you've been screwed by Symantec for whatever reason, that's an option.

 

lol,

When i used NIS a few years ago, the same situation happened to me with a format and a subsequent subscription starting fresh.

I thought about it for a about 2 seconds then opted to run it out to the expiry for whatever reasons.


snowbound

 

BigC have you received your copy yet? If so how it running?

 

Hi there i though't id try the norton 2006 Av again. but its quite fast and not to bad seems alot lighter on my system and gotta b better then AVG pro R MD

 

ive tried out the product. It's definitely reliable but there are a few "weak points" nonetheless.

Would rate it 7/10

 

My subscription to NIS 2004 was due for renewal, so I upgraded to NIS 2006, but had a failure during the installation process. I think NIS 2004 uninstalled correctly, which I did via Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel. During the download of NIS 2006 the process froze up, and I had to reboot. When I did, I could not get anything to run - I could not get into Windows at all.

The error was 'autochk program not found - skipping AUTOCHECK'.

Then I got a blue screen:
'STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Session Manager Initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000003a (0x00000000 0x00000000)'

I tried using the various options on F12 at startup, but none of them worked.

I contacted Dell, and they determined that it was NOT a hardware problem, but a software problem, which they offered to fix for the outrageous sum of $99, or a one-year contract for $249 for up to four problems. No thanks.

I was VERY lucky that I had just installed as part of the renewal Norton Go Back 4.0 (which appears to be a glorified System Restore), and I was able to restore the system to just before the attempted NIS 2006 install. Otherwise it might have meant paying someone to fix my computer. I had no idea what to do.

The problems are these:

I no longer have NIS 2004 on my system, so I have no antivirus application running. (I lost the NIS firewall as well, but used the XP SP2 one instead.)

I don't know how to attempt a reinstall of NIS 2006 safely.

I don't want to attempt a reinstall at all until I am sure that this problem will not reoccur. If it does, I may not be so lucky the next time, and may have to pay to have my computer repaired.

Can anyone suggest a rational approach to this situation? Normally I would set a restore point, and if the installation failed, I would just go back to a previous point, but if I can't get into Windows, I can't use System Restore. Nor do I know how to reboot from a CD in one of the drives, although I assume it might be possible. Is there a utility I can buy to backup my system and if necessary reboot at least Windows?

By the way, Symantec Tech Support seems to be almost nonexistent, and since I do NOT have NIS 2006 installed, their automatic support assistant or whatever it is called on their site is useless. Norton seems to be famous for this kind of problem, particularly with uninstalls, and this is one more example. It's pathetic, and incomprehensible.

Thanks for your help.

 

dcdc,

As first steps, I would:

• Verify that the NIS 2004 uninstall procedure successfully completed. To do that, I would follow all the instructions here for the "manual" uninstall of NIS. When this is completed, restart.
• Print out the How do I repair Windows XP FAQ from Broadband Reports. Only use in the event the unimaginable occurs. While printing things out, also print a copy of How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP. Again, only in the event things unexpectedly head south in a hurry.
• After restarting, I would disable any other security applications that are running. I assume there are none since you've been using a suite, but just making sure here.
• Backup key files in Documents and Settings and anywhere else that user based information resides to CD. Programs can be readily reinstalled (as long as you have the key files or serial codes - make sure you have these handy as well), documents, photos, financial records, etc., can prove to be more difficult to recover - back these up if not already done so.
• Once that were done, I would download a fresh copy of NIS2006.
• Before doing anything, I would at least give myself some reassurance that everything else with the PC was fine.
• If the system checks out OK, and I have a fresh download, I'd give it another go.

Blue

 

I like the 2006 interface a bit better than the 2005 version but I don't notice any difference in the way they run. I had no issues as to the way 2005 ran. But at the present time I am running eTrust R7.1 enterprise av and am very happy with this one also. Really in my opinion there are several good av's available, it is just a matter of finding the one you and your computer both like.

 

I purchased NAV 2006 today from the Symantec online store. A little Thanksgiving Day gift to myself. Ooops, just realized it is now the day after Thanksgiving. Anyway, I have it running as I type. It's very light. I can't tell it's running unless I look at the taskbar and see the NAV icons. There was also a update Thursday through LiveUpdate. Nice to see that. So far I'm very impressed.

 

i just popped on NIS 2006 seems good too but im not sure why i got that LMAO

 

lol 869 days

 

But in general it's stupid to purchase more than 1 year subscribtion since they release new versions every year and they aren't covered by the same license (like most of other AV vendors do).

 

@maddawgz
Lol warez monkey?!

 

I was reading through this thread... and thought I could put my 2 cents here. I have tried different kinds of antiviruses out there from avast , avg to e-scan , drweb and even bitdefender. I have not checked out Norton 2006 but all before that. And I could not do anything but hate Norton. why ?
It is over-rated and lives on "marketing" . Still we see vendors installing norton in a new formatted machine and as if there are no antiviruses worldwide. Number 1 resource hog , in most cases rather quarantines than delete/remove/disinfect and I say that when I test many malwares with it.
The company has good intentions no doubt but know where everything goes wrong? It tries to own the computer when actually the ownership should be in hand of user. Its more hard to uninstall ( for a newbie) than to install itself. I repeat I am yet to try norton 2006 which may change my views ( i doubt though but i am with open mind). But till date Norton has just been too much over rated and frankly... the prices are too high too for the work it does.
For me ,
Free - avast , avg and antivir
paid - nod and kaspersky

 

All Norton products should come with a stick of 512mb of memory in every box

 

Not a bad idea. Alot of users call Norton bloatware, because their computer isn't powerfull enough to use Norton Softwares.

 

The general trend has been for Av's (including Norton) to get lighter and faster the last couple of years when compared to older versions.

 

I have a question. Can anyone that used NAV back when it bogged down the system compared to NOD32.........tell me the impact of the NAV 2006 version compared to 2003 (and earlier versions )

 

You list several AV apps here. I wonder if these are simply ones you recommend, or do you use them all simultaneously? If the latter, how do you do so?

Conventional wisdom seems to say that using multiple AV apps, unlike AS apps, can lead to problems. My one experience with multiple AV apps occurred when I tried a BitDefender AV scan of my system, and it determined that several Norton AV programs were viruses, and proceeded to delete them. (That's one way to eliminate the competition.)

I suppose you could install the various AV apps one at time and do scans that way, but that seems time consuming and awkward. Is there a standard way to 'inactivate' an entire application without actually uninstalling it? That would seem to be the way to go.

Then of course there is the problem of false positives. The old saying applies here: 'a man who has one watch knows what time it is; a man who has two is never quite sure.' By that I mean that if one AV app finds a virus and another does not, whom do you believe? Sometimes ignorance is bliss - I don't want to get all worked up about a false positive. I have had this situation happen with antispyware. One app finds some alleged piece of malware; the rest don't. Is that one app ahead of the curve, or way behind it?

 

768 mb ram and 120 gb hard disk is also not enough? I think that is not good logic because a good antivirus never should have a criterion like computer has to be "powerful enough" to use it. A good antivirus will never be resource hog.

dcdc,

I have listed those as my recommendations listing both free and paid antiviruses that I would prefer.
Not only multiple AVs but multiple firewalls also lead into problems. Regarding making "inactive" , an antivirus can have real time scanning disabled and used as "on demand" scanner but I would rather use one good antivirus than two.

 

I fully agree with that, but why is Norton always called bloatware or is Norton not bloatware ?
When users call Norton bloatware, I assume that their computer isn't powerfull enough to run Norton.
When users don't call Norton bloatware, I assume that their computer is powerfull enough to run Norton.
If Norton runs on minimum requirements and is still not a resource hog, they better stop calling Norton bloatware.
I don't know if Norton is bloatware or not, because I don't use it, but I've read it too many times that Norton is bloatware.
I don't know what to believe about Norton anymore.

 

I'ts no more bloatware then trend..i run 380mb win xp pro 80gig and manage to run NIS2006 without probs of course boot up is a little slower but nothing bad but i cuz i leave pc on all day I'ts not a drama MD


StyleWarz'

 

Norton Internet Security 2006 +
Norton Personal Firewall 2006 +
Norton Anti-Virus 2006
have these minimum requirements
Windows XP Home/Professional Edition
* 300MHz or higher processor
* 256 MB of RAM
Windows 2000 Pro with SP3 or higher
* 300MHz or higher processor
* 128 MB of RAM
apparently without being a resource hog, because Symantec has improved Norton Software.

Conclusion : Norton software isn't bloatware anymore and those who still complain, didn't read the minimum requirements and/or are still using an older version. Case closed.