Why do so many people dislike Norton Antivirus/Norton Internet Security?

[brad310]

Couple things:

1) Just because it is recommended in a magazine doesnt mean anything. Magazines pander to the big companies because guess what, they buy their ad space. You think Norton is going to buy an advertisement in a magazine that skewers them...hell no.

2) I have used a norton product on and off since they started, and i can say without a doubt they used to totally suck - but have improved in recent years. I just got done with Norton 2010 and i noticed they started doing something that really pissed me off...when my 1 year was up, the software disabled itself and wanted me to upgrade immediately. In the past it just meant i wouldnt get virus definition updates...which im fine with for a little while, but now i'll never give them one more red cent.

I got Vipre Premium from newegg a few weeks ago and it is superior in every possible way. I have a feeling that it might disable itself after a year - i dont know that for sure - but so far its impact on my old laptop is negligible, at startup or scanning. It also blocks more ads. Never going back...and that goes triple for McAfee - i dont know how they're even still a company.

 

[VirtualLarry]

2) I have used a norton product on and off since they started, and i can say without a doubt they used to totally suck - but have improved in recent years. I just got done with Norton 2010 and i noticed they started doing something that really pissed me off...when my 1 year was up, the software disabled itself and wanted me to upgrade immediately. In the past it just meant i wouldnt get virus definition updates...which im fine with for a little while, but now i'll never give them one more red cent.

Yes, this is one bad thing about Norton. Older AV software (older Norton) used to keep running, but you simply couldn't get updates. Now, when your subscription is up, your AV protection shuts off, and it starts displaying scary warnings about criminals and identity theft, in order to goad you into renewing your subscription.

 

[think2]

I got Vipre Premium from newegg a few weeks ago and it is superior in every possible way. I have a feeling that it might disable itself after a year - i dont know that for sure - but so far its impact on my old laptop is negligible, at startup or scanning. It also blocks more ads. Never going back...and that goes triple for McAfee - i dont know how they're even still a company.

How could you possibly know that Vipre does as good a job as Norton? Are there any reviews that show the detection rate etc for Vipre. Does it catch zero day malware as well as Norton? How can anyone tell which gives the best protection?

Sunbelt had 200 employees. Symantec have over 17000 employees - spread over different products I know, but with more resources they're likely to be better than Vipre.

I'm not saying I like Norton but there's no way to tell how good the protection provided by Vipre is.

 

[TechAZ]

I'm not really opposed to using Norton, but that name still leaves a bad taste in my mouth from 10+ years ago. It was such a resource hog and caused a few things to not work correctly.

Now I use MSE. It might not be the best, but in the past several years (used avira before MSE came out), I have only had a couple viruses. I'm like most guys, have been to some less than safe websites, but have been able to easily remove the couple things that have gotten through. I see no reason to switch to Norton to be honest.

 

[Duwelon]

I just got back from the Sharper Image. I bought a Mac and some Bose speakers. Going to hook them up with my Monster Cables right after I install Norton on my bootcamped Vista installation.

/wink

 

[jadinolf]

The Norton thing will never be settled.

Good.

 

[tcsenter]

I just got back from the Sharper Image. I bought a Mac and some Bose speakers. Going to hook them up with my Monster Cables right after I install Norton on my bootcamped Vista installation.

Feel better? How long did the smug sense of superiority last?

 

[thescreensavers]

Norton in my brain is bloat, god at least it isnt as bad as McAfee.

Avira is great and has been great for me.

 

[Jaskalas]

Norton felt like bloat until 2010, but I haven't been hit in a full decade of using it.

 

[Edogaa]

Norton has done some nasty stuff on a lot of the PCs I've used in the past. So, as everyone said it leaves a nasty taste in my mouth as a bloated hunk of junk.

:/ I just use any freely available AV these days, like MSE.

 

[wheresmybacon]

I just got back from the Sharper Image. I bought a Mac and some Bose speakers. Going to hook them up with my Monster Cables right after I install Norton on my bootcamped Vista installation.

/wink

LOL!!!! You sir, win a year supply of internets!

 

[Emulex]

norton = cut down version of symantec you know.

so if you hate ghost you have BESR2010
if you have their AV - you hate SEP

etc. they just cut out features from their enterprise products and call them home versions. plus they actually enforce the timers on the product - symantec business doesn't really do that for unknown reasons. i guess they believe in the honor system.

 

[Scouzer]

This thread sure is full of stupid people. I DONE USED NORTON IN 2001, IT WAS SHITTY, THEREFORE ALL FUTURE VERSIONS ARE SHITTY!!!11111

Ugh. Norton is definitely a top 3 product on the market, and anyone who says otherwise is a raging fool.

I will, however, agree that if you've had bad experiences you may not want to try them again. That being said, it is complete shit logic to use those bad experiences to say the new product is bad too.

 

[Mide]

Yeah the last Norton I used was close to 10 years ago. It ate up resources and would not let you do any def updates unless you paid. I don't like that methodology. Block version updates but not the damn defs. Just like McAfee in that regard so both can screw off.

 

[Kyanzes]

Yeah, they used to have stuffed software packages that could do anything you wouldn't normally want. A bit similar to PC Tools. I'm not entirely sure but I think it all started sometime in the mid 90s.

There was a time when that name ringed well. Surely everyone remembers Norton Commander. They also had that document store ( was it called Norton Guide??).

Anyways, it all went downwards when they started to add instrument-like controls to their applications, freezing the whole comp. That's when I, personally, stopped using their products.

From time to time, I also keep hearing complaints from friends about its resource hungry nature. Could be that most of the fringe functions can be turned off by an experienced user. Don't know.

 

[Duwelon]

This thread sure is full of stupid people. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Why would you go back to a shitty company if you have others that have been proven more competent than Symantec in the last 10 years? Sure they may have a decent product today, but so do other companies. Those other companies also didn't shovel steaming piles of hot excrement down their customers throats for several years in a row either. I'll go with a company that has a better track record, thanks.

 

[Scouzer]

Why would you go back to a shitty company if you have others that have been proven more competent than Symantec in the last 10 years? Sure they may have a decent product today, but so do other companies. Those other companies also didn't shovel steaming piles of hot excrement down their customers throats for several years in a row either. I'll go with a company that has a better track record, thanks.

You just agreed with a third of my post without even realizing it, well done.

 

[FishAk]

Scouzer says: "You just agreed with a third of my post without even realizing it, well done." From what I can see, your argument is that people are stupid for not buying/recognizing that Symantec is now among the top performers. I certainly don't see how Duwelon confirms your premise. It's not stupid to punish a company for past transgressions- in fact, it's smart, since it will reduce the chance another company will follow suit. If Symantec was far better than the competition, then it would be silly not to use them. Since they are only "as good as" their competition, why not use another outfit's product that doesn't have a history of customer abuse? But pay no attention to me... I'm just another stupid poster.

 

[Scouzer]

Scouzer says: "You just agreed with a third of my post without even realizing it, well done." From what I can see, your argument is that people are stupid for not buying/recognizing that Symantec is now among the top performers. I certainly don't see how Duwelon confirms your premise. It's not stupid to punish a company for past transgressions- in fact, it's smart, since it will reduce the chance another company will follow suit. If Symantec was far better than the competition, then it would be silly not to use them. Since they are only "as good as" their competition, why not use another outfit's product that doesn't have a history of customer abuse? But pay no attention to me... I'm just another stupid poster.

Is everyone unable to read this line in my previous post?

I will, however, agree that if you've had bad experiences you may not want to try them again. That being said, it is complete shit logic to use those bad experiences to say the new product is bad too.

I've fully acknowledged if you had shitty experiences you may not want to use it. I'm saying people are bloody fools if they've had shitty experiences, therefore all future Symantec products are shitty too.

Anyone should be able to acknowledge NIS 2011 is a damn good product, even if they choose not to use it because Symantec was shitty in the past (and it was).

 

[Duwelon]

Symantec to me is like a car company that sold nothing, and I mean nothing but lemons for years. They used marketing and retail dealing to take advantage of consumer ignorance and lack of any oversight. Know the worst part? Review sites were largely silent on all the issues people ran into. They take money from Symantec, why should they be journalists and explore negative issues for consumers? It was so easy to ignore, I mean who would believe a highly respected anti-virus company would degrade the usability of their customer's computers in ways that rival the actual viruses they tried to prevent?

Does this mean their products are still bad? Of course not, but right now Symantec is on the bottom of the list for me. They're a terrible company in my eyes and deserve every inch of bad press and word of mouth they recieve. They made their bed, now they get to lay in it. That's how the market works.

 

[LumbergTech]

they built up a pretty poor reputation over a certain period of time and I think people just never gave them another chance because of how terrible it was previously

 

[Bonesdad]

I, for one, hated seeing Peter Norton's smug face on all of their packaging. That and the bloatware

 

[VirtualLarry]

I mean who would believe a highly respected anti-virus company would degrade the usability of their customer's computers in ways that rival the actual viruses they tried to prevent?

This is webroot running on Windows 7 in a nutshell. Worse than a virus. For real.

Symantec/Norton is a godsend compared to that crap.

 

[jae]

Why do I feel Techies do not give Norton 2010+ enough credit? ..because as you can see FREE ANTI-VIRUS can hold their own against SECURITY SUITES as shown in your graph. A techie will lock down their own system, be careful not to click on unusual links/files, and install a free anti-virus.

And its true.. Norton's reputation still haunts both parties (Norton and end-users).

 

[catilley1092]

Norton dug their grave years ago. Whether they produce a decent product or not (today), the bad taste left in millions of users mouths in previous years cannot be ignored. Look, on many large OEM built computers, Norton AV or IS & their Online Backup is preinstalled, and yet still they can't give it away. When a new computer is bought, Norton is usually the first app to go, w/o even giving it a chance.

Now, for this to happen, Norton had to leave a really fucked up taste in many mouths. Word of these mouths didn't help either. I bought 2 computers in recent years, a PC in 2009, my notebook this year, they both had Norton IS & Online Backup, PC Decrapifier took care of them in an instant. And I don't run a free AV solution, although I once ran Avast Free for years, and then MSE 1 & 2. I run ESET NOD32 AV 4, it does an outstanding job, and sips on resources.

I've never ran Norton, and never will. Don't blame me, blame the millions that trashed them over the years. Word of mouth goes a long way, much further than paid ads or promos do. I wouldn't run it if it was given to me with lifetime updates.

Cat