Customer Reviews

Norton AntiVirus 11.0 For Mac

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This software works but it really really really slow. Really really really slow. Slows my new imac to a crawl and the slowest of antivirus scans I've ever seen. Just changed over from the PC world and as a creature of habit keep antivirus installed. All the antivirus authors seem to have free trials except Symantec. Probably because you'd be really frustrated and not buy the program... This was the biggest waste of money I've spent on software in a long time. Two stars since it probably does it's job....if it ever finishes the scan. So far six hours on a month old computer.

Update: Well, no longer is it a waste of money. Talked with their very friendly New Delhi tech support and got a refund. Bought Intego and though it's expensive, it does the job efficiently.

After installing Norton AntiVirus, I had no complaints. I've used the Norton line of products with great satisfaction since 1995. But when, for the first time, I needed to get in touch with their customer support department, I might as well have yelled into the sky for benediction for all the "support" I actually received.

It all started when my Mac stopped shutting down properly. It would get hungup, and then just sit there until it eventually hit kernel panic. An unusual problem, but Apple has an excellent facility built in to handle this kind of issue: on restart after a bad shutdown, the machine will allow you to track down the file causing the issue. In this case, a Symantec file. And one Google search later showed it was indeed a Norton AntiVirus file. I e-mail Symantec support, and receive no help. I try uninstalling AntiVirus, but the CD doesn't have an uninstaller on it. Great. I e-mailed their customer support, but never received a reply.

A phone call later to a gentleman who really did try hard to help, but whose first language obviously isn't English, and he merely told me to reinstall. Which didn't work either.

After working in IT, and spending a good deal of time using Norton to resurrect dead disks and kill of virii, it was quite a disappointment to realize how little money Symantec is willing to spend on support (of course, it's not a big surprise considering they now charge for virus definition updates).

I have only owned this product for a short while so I haven't experienced any problems. Two years ago my computer ended up with a worm which sent out bogus messages to friends to infect their Windows computers. It was embarrassing and upsetting. I had always bragged that Macs were immune. I purchased a version of Norton Anti-Virus and within a day, the troubles stopped. Since then, I never leave my Mac unprotected. This version seems to be an improvement over other versions and I feel better having it on my computer. I now have Leopard OX so I wanted to make sure the program could protect it.

i'd really like to have this installed but it brings my newer-ish MBP w/ 4g to it's knees. if you're just browsing the web and reading email you probably won't notice, but if you stress your system in any way, forget it. file system access times and memory usage went way up.

well, $50 down to drain.

everything i've read says the only reason to have antivirus software on your mac is to avoid passing on email-based viruses to PC users.

an alternative to this is software called "little snitch" that monitors and reports all network usage.

I purchased this product of the Norton website without realizing that it doesn't have support for Mac Leopard. I had to call customer service to request a refund and that was a pain in the you know what!! If it doesn't have support for your OS I wouldn't even bother. Go to the Norton website and get the info there. If it doesn't say then either call them or don't bother. Do research another brand!!!

I'm new to Macs, and couldn't find an integrated program of firewall/antivirus for Leopard. So I got this from Norton, and some other company's firewall. I'm waiting for them to conflict with each other, but so far so good.

NAV seems to be like all their other products: easy to install, easy to use, Live Update works well, attentive to details (this NAV automatically scans everything that comes into contact with the computer, such as a new CD ROM installing a program, or the backup drive being turned on. It's too much perhaps, but I appreciate the thoroughness even though I cancel such scans as a rule). The program is more expensive than I'd like, but compared to having a computer trashed by some idiot making a virus, I pay up.

On my first scan of the backup hard drive, it identified some virus, and dealt with it automatically. So much for Macs not being prone to viruses. And I'd been on the internet, with a firewall, for only about a day or two without the NAV running.

Hard drives being what they are in size these days, with bloatware, scanning is becoming immensely slow, measured in hours. I'm no computer geek or technowizard, but there ought to be some way to speed up the process. When you consider that one has to scan not only the hard drive but also backups now, going thru the entire system can take the better part of a work day.

So, the program works, but it's slow.

Since upgrading to Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac, I've had no problems at all. It's done it's job reliably without me having to think about it. It even caught a couple of Windows PC viruses in my old email archive that the previous version of AntiVirus hadn't found.

I recently completed a 1-year subscription with Norton's anti-virus for Mac.
(As I know operating system is key in these reviews, I use an iMac with a later version of Leopard.)
It seemed like a good idea when I got the computer because while Mac viruses are more rare, they do exist, and I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
After a year's trial run, I've decided to uninstall the program, not because I had any major problems with it, but because I don't feel it's necessary to have it.

THE PROGRAM

The program seemed to run pretty smoothly on my iMac.
I didn't have any problems with it slowing down or crashing the system. (Although, admittedly, I do have processor and memory upgrades. A limited amount of memory might slow down your system).
Towards the end of my subscription, it gave me annoying pop ups urging me to renew, but most subscription-based programs do that.
It will also automatically scan any hard drive or memory key plugged into the computer, which is a good feature, but it can be annoying if you're switching between the same two drives, plugging and unplugging them a lot.
Another big bonus of this program is that it also detects Windows viruses, not just Mac viruses. I plugged a memory key into the computer which I had plugged into a Windows system at work, and it detected a virus on the memory key which had migrated from the Windows computer. Upon detection it quarantined those files, and provided a detailed report on the virus, telling me exactly which virus had infected the system. From that info I was able to look it up on the internet and find out exactly what the virus did. I really liked this feature, and I appreciated that they didn't just include Mac viruses in the Norton database for this program. It makes it very useful for cross-platform, and it allows you to use the Mac as a safety net before you plug anything that might be infected into a PC system (As most Windows viruses can't infect Macs)

DO YOU REALLY NEED IT?

The ultimate thing you have to decide when considering the purchase of this program is whether or not you really need it. In my 1-year subscription, the ONLY event I had was the one described above. I never actually encountered any Mac viruses, and aside from that one incident with the memory key (which wouldn't have infected the Mac anyway) the program just sat in the background. I don't really do downloading from potentially dangerous sites, and I really only visit green sites. My e-mail automatically filters dangerous files, and I've stopped transferring stuff to my home computer from work. So after a year's trial run, I've found that I don't really need to fork over the cash for another year's subscription.

If you do a lot of downloading from insecure sites, or you are working cross-platform in a work environment, I'd definitely recommend this program. However, if you're just working on a home computer, you're not really visiting any dangerous sites, and you just browse the internet once in a while, you probably don't really need it, because you're not really doing anything that would put your Mac in danger.

4/5 - It's a decent product... if you actually need it.

Viruses on a Macintosh? No way, right?

Well for the most part I've avoided using anti-virus software on my Macintoshes at home. I'm very selective about the files I download and the e-mails I open, and feel confident that I'm fine. At work, however, it's a different story. We get files from lots of clients and I have no idea what kind of stuff they have going on in their computers, thus I felt it prudent to install Norton on the office machines.

I've installed it on a Mac Mini G4, PowerMac G4, and aluminum iMac. It installs easily, the interface is nice, and setting up an automatic virus scan, or a manual scan is simple. When you download a file, install a disc, or plug in a flash drive, Norton automatically scans the files for you. Before a scheduled virus scan is about to start a little message pops up to let you know, and gives you the option of halting it. It found a handful of corrupted files on the computers and they were easy to delete or repair. You can also select the interval that the software will check for virus updates. Included is 1 year of virus updates, after that you have to pay yearly to get the new updates.

The problem is that when you do a manual scan of the entire computer it takes at least three hours. The Mac Mini takes over four. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to slow down the computer much when it is running in the background. For some reason when it does a scheduled scan, even though I tell it to scan the whole system, it's much faster. It must skim over files that it's done before.

All in all... a necessary evil for the work place. If you're careful at home you might not need it.

I am a long time Mac user.

Reportedly in development for 5 years, this software does protect from viruses, including protecting your Mac from being a carrier of Windows viruses. However, there has never been an "in the wild" Mac virus.

My cable company is offering Norton as part of their service. Virus scanning is too intrusive. At least, this doesn't have the crappy firewall as in the Norton suite, but that's not saying much.

The only real reason for an AV on the Mac is to protect Windows users from files other Windows users may have sent you. That said, there is a much better, less intrusive product called Intego VirusBarrier that catches Windows viruses, in combination with the NetBarrier firewall which is extremely customizable. I'm now using the free Sophos AV software, and recommend it highly.

The problem: After testing Norton and deciding I didn't care for it, I uninstalled it. However, as I dug deeper into my system, I found the software did not completely uninstall. As with their Windows applications, Norton for Mac puts hidden files all over the place. After the uninstall, I found invisible Symantec files and deleted them.

On the next start-up, the Mac wouldn't start: gray screen of death. It would start up in Safe mode, and once after restarting from Safe mode, but not again. So, I reinstalled Norton, and it works again. This is shameful.

I do not recommend this software. Go with Intego or Sophos instead. Or, if Windows viruses are not an issue with you, then you're probably safe not running any AV. The Mac's built in firewall is excellent, too. If you really need to feel protected, go with the free version of iAntivirus which protects only against potential Mac threats (which really don't exist for most Internet users).

REMOVAL instructions. Symantec keeps this a secret. Amazon does not allow links, so search Google for the "RemoveSymantecMacFiles removal utility". It's on Symantec's Enterprise site.

I was finally able to remove every trace of the Symantec "bloatware." The uninstaller does not do this. Make sure you back up your entire system (I recommend SuperDuper) to a Firewire drive prior to doing this. I also recommend booting into Safe Mode to run the removal operation.