Customer Reviews

BitDefender Internet Security 2008 - 2 Years/3 Pc's

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I had previously renewed my copy of Norton Internet protection only a few months ago. I was having a number of computer systems problems with Norton virus protection and firewall suite for which I could not find any internet help. The main problem was that Norton would not update the files. For a month, the update program would just say somelthing like, "No updates available". (I knew something was wrong then.) The only way you can talk to someone either on line or by phone about a technical problem is to pay at least $25 up front. I figure that Norton should support their product and make it work right. After reviewing several comparisons of the various Internet protection suites, I dedided to try BitDefender. It was one of the few that promised phone support. I had to clean my system of Norton first, but the instellation went fine, and I have been without problems ever since. I like BitDefender better than Norton and it has more features.

The program is quite good but beware if you need any service or God forbid need to return the product for there isn't any. There are numerous methods online to obtain service according to their site but you will never get an answer to any of them. They also use digitalriver for their collection agency ad even though digitalriver has been great i the past to work with.. forget it if you ar trying to resolve a bitdefnder problem.
This is a shame for although the software seems to be good they lose it when it comes to THE most important item.. service!!

I have previously used Bitdefender 9 and 10 of their Av products and really begin having problems with version 10. Icon disappearing, system load. Since then I have purchased licenses for Kaspersky or Kav 6 KIS 7, Avira Premium and Nod32. Used these with either the free Comodo Firewall or in the case of Kav 6 Zonealarm pro. I recently purchased Bitdefender 2008 IS and was amazed. For a sustem suite there seems less load and fast if not faster boot times than using Nod32 and Commodo. Its interface reminds me of Norton 360 and the advanced settings are somewhat hidden but thats not a problem for me. It sure beats KIS 7 in price. So far have not noticed any conficts but I did have to remove Sandboxie. Really miss that.( Overall think its a good buy.

My only wish would have been an option for Custom Install to let me choose which features I would like. Oh well.. )

I switched over to Bit Defender from Zone Alarm. With the latter, I was concerned at the effect it had on my PC - start up times became so slow. I also found that sometimes the program updated - sometimes it didn't. Bit Defender on the other hand works away quietly in the background with the minimum of interruption, and virtually no impact on system resource. My PC now starts up with virtually no lag caused by the security suite - great! I use Bit Defender on two PC's: a 2 year old 3Ghz Pentium 4 desktop and a 1 year old Dell Pentium Laptop. Bit Defender works the same unobtrusive way on both machines.
The user interface offers a very simple 'one click to fix' approach, or hidden away is a more complex array of settings to tweak whatever it is you may want to adjust. For me, I like this approach, if the simple interface works, great. If, for whatever reason, I have to dig deeper to fix something I can.
Others have complained about customer service. I can't comment on this since I haven't had the need to contact them - you can decide for yourself whether this is a good thing or not. For me, for now, Bit Defender works as I hoped it would and is a big improvement over ZA.

Buy this product at your own risk. It loaded fine, but I can't get any updates unless I register. When I try to register, it tells me that the account already exists. When I try to log on to the account, it tells me that I need to register, etc. etc. etc. That gets old fast. Call support...10 minute wait, 20 minutes later...disconnected. Tried several times...same result. While on hold, I was encouraged to log into my account to create a support ticket...yeah right. Create a support ticket without an existing account...it's possible, but it took TWO WEEKS for a response. I send the requested info. WAIT ANOTHER WEEK. Another request for data (that could have been part of the initial data request). Still waiting. Norton Utilities has its issues and is a HUGE performance hog and costs more...but it at least works. Unless you are Dirty Harry and "feel lucky" that you'll never have a support need...AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!

I've always tried to stay on top of my security, using firewalls, antivirus programs, adware programs, and the like. I'd heard good things about BitDefender, so I decided to give it a go... on my very first scan, it picked up several items that my previous antivirus and all of my adware scanners had missed. I haven't had any problems with features turning themselves off, and am impressed by the fact that it features a "Game Mode" for when I want to play games online (which with a lot of firewalls/antivirus programs you just about have to shut them off to get them to stop interfering with your games.) I don't know what their customer support is like, but that's because I haven't needed it.

I purchased a single 3-year license from BitDefender's website (as opposed to the Amazon product, which contains 3 2-year licenses; I only have the one computer, so I have no use for 2 extra licenses) after trying the 30-day time trial for about 2 weeks.

Installed this program on a newer (<1 year) XP machine and a brand new Vista laptop. Worked miserably on both computers, caused network errors, programs to stop functioning, etc. Very erratic in which programs it would stop and start. Brought the Vista machine to a crawl, had to uninstall it within a day. Very dissatisfied, would not buy or recommend.

I bought Bitdefender after seeing some good reviews on the internet. While it may be that my computer is five years old or some other factor, it was working perfectly all right; I just wanted antivirus different from Norton. Then, I installed Bitdefender on Sunday and immediately it started interacting negatively with Outlook Express. Tuesday the computer crashed, moving into a system recovery mode. I lost all software that I had installed, but fortunately my data was saved. While I could be wrong, I don't think it is a coincidence that my computer crashed two days after installing Bitdefender.

I was really surprised how easily this installed. I had no problems at all. The interface is very easy to use. The customer service was terrific. I emailed a question and they emailed me back within 24 hours a very logical and easy-to-understand explanation.

I had used NAV or Norton Internet Security for many years because of their name/reputation. In the last several years, I had so many problems with installation and getting it to work correctly. Their "customer service" sure wasn't. It should be called "customer frustration".

Anyway, I would highly recommend BitDefender Internet Security 2008 to anyone considering it.

This software suite is quite problematic. The initial install on my Win XP SP3 system went very poorly. Their servers were down and Bitdefender couldn't communicate with it when it needed to during install (for updates and registering). For this and other reasons, the result was problems with Outlook caused by Bitdefender's anti-spam module's interface with it. Outlook would not come up at times and I'd have to reboot to get it to work. The XP shutdown was quite bizarre, indicating that many modules were not shutting down properly.

What was really surprising was that it allowed the XP firewall to remain on. It didn't even tell me to turn it off, either.

Tech support via chat was useless as they couldn't quite understand my questions, but support by email was better. They wanted me to run some diagnostics available on their website and send the results to them. Their reply was quick and they recommended uninstalling and reinstalling with a special uninstaller and reinstaller also available on their website. After doing so, Outlook worked ok but my registry had many errors. Fixing the registry with Registry Mechanic caused Bitdefender to stop working completely, so I went through the uninstall and reinstall again. The registry was ok this time, and as of this writing Bitdefender is still working, but for how long I don't know.

Operationally, you don't know there's any behind-the-scenes problems such as it's firewall or real-time protection being off due to some sort of failure. The standard is that the tool tray icon on the lower right of your screen would flash or display an exclamation point or something. Even if you mouse-over Bit Defender's tool tray icon sometimes it says everything is ok but it is not.

UPDATE 10/6/08: Without warning or apparent reason, Bit Defender's interface with Outlook broke again and I will have to go through another uninstall and reinstall to get it working. But, I WILL NOT. This will make the 6th or 7th reinstall, so I'm giving up and trying Kaspersky.