Customer Reviews

Norton AntiVirus 2003 Professional Edition

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

 

 

I used to get and SEND virus's all the time when I had McAfee Virus Scan. I was making lots of enemies. Then I bought Norton and never had another problem! I am not interested in learning all about the technical stuff, but this software scans everything coming in and quarantines ANY virus and scans outgoing mail as well, so you can be sure that what you send is clean as well. (Sometimes you can still send an old hidden virus from your hard drive - unlikely, but possible). PLUS, Norton automatically upgrades your system while you are on-line. Norton shows a little icon so you know while you are on-line that it is giving you the latest protection. Then it tells you and you just hit OK!

Also, you can improve the speed of your hard drive by having Norton erase worthless files, repeated files, or cookies. You can also defragment quicker with Norton for faster performance. I am living evidence that it is idiot proof!

Be forewarned! Don't purchase this product without taking these two steps:
(1) Call Symantec's Technical Support number to check their level of support yourself.
(2) Read User reviews on several sites.

I am a fairly technical user, who worked at Microsoft for many years. Here is a summary of my problems over the past two months:
(1) Although my subscription to NAV 2001 had 9 months remaining, the program stopped letting me download new virus definitions from Symantec.
(2) I spent several hours over 8 days exchanging messages on Symantec's Online Support, the only way to get free support.
(3) After much effort, I was able to reach a Customer Service person, who convinced me that I should give Symantec one more chance. Therefore, I purchased NAV Pro 2003.
(4) Even though I followed all the instructions, I received an error when trying to install NAV Pro 2003.
(5) I tried to find a solution in the Knowledge Base.
(6) I waited 30 minutes in cue for Technical Support. They refused to provide support on even installing their product! They wanted me to pay $30 to learn how to install their product.
(7) Symantec has lost me as a customer. I'm going to get my money back. I'm buying McAfee instead.

I've never taken the time before to write reviews like this. But, I feel that people need to be forewarned.

We had the previous version of this program and when our updates subscription expired it generated a daily pop-up that interrupted (and stopped the functioning of) any program on the computer and indicated we needed to re-subscribe to the updates. I emailed Symantec who indicated there is no way to disable the pop-up without uninstalling the whole virus protection program. One must re-subscribe online or pay a higher cost to re-subscribe over the phone. Not a big problem as long as you plan to re-subscribe immediately, but really, really irritating if you take your time researching your purchases. I don't like supporting companies that are so manipulative; I hope this doesn't become the norm.

Key Features from Symantec:

Includes license for two computers.

Data recovery protects and restores important applications and files from both accidental deletion and virus damage.

Data cleaning eliminates all traces of unneeded confidential files.

Plus all the features of Norton AntiVirus 2003, including:
NEW! Detects and blocks viruses in instant message attachments.

NEW! Exclusive Worm Blocking technology detects worms such as Nimda in outgoing mail to prevent them from infecting other computers.

ENHANCED! Automatically removes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.

Scans and cleans both incoming and outgoing email messages.

Downloads new virus definitions automatically to protect against new viruses.**

Script Blocking defends against fast-moving script-based viruses such as "ILoveYou" and "Anna Kournikova."

Worm Blocking and Script Blocking can detect new threats even before virus definitions are created for them.

Includes step by step instructions for installation, even on a computer that has already been infected.

AntiVirus 2003 Professional Edition is essentially the normal 2003 version with extra file delete/undelete functions and a two system license. If you have more than one PC to protect this is the way to go. I would suggest going to Symantec's website and downloading the trialware version of 2003 Professional first to make sure it runs alright on your specific hardware/software combo. I downloaded the 15 day trial but it gave me a one year subscription to live updates. Search for trialware and download it from them. Hard to tell the difference from the 2002 interface. Program has been working well for me for 3 weeks now. I have it installed on a HP PIII WIN-XP, E-Machines Celeron WIN-XP, and Sony P4 WIN-XP systems without any problems.

As a long time user of Norton AntiVirus software, I was looking forward to this new version after reading various reviews of it. However, this is Beta software at best. It's riddled with numerous bugs. When searching their knowledge base, their answer to these, are to turn off features or reinstall Windows. I believe that their technical support department is overwhelmed with the sheer number of problems with this release. For some reason, they have not released patches for these known problems. Skip this release and look elsewhere for your antivirus protection.

I purchased this product for installation on two computers, one running Windows XP Home and the other Windows ME. The installation on Windows XP worked perfectly and the software is running.

On the Windows ME system, however, the installation program reported that everything worked and asked for the system to be rebooted. After rebooting, it reported that several files were missing or damaged. At this point, I went to the Symantec support site. Here I found that it will cost $$$ per call to talk to someone for help.

Instead, I searched the site for information on the error message. I found a report about this problem and it said that uninstalling and then reinstalling with a "clean boot" of Windows might help. If not, a complete reinstallation of Internet Explorer might help. After doing both of these without a successful install, I sent an e-mail explaining what I had done and asking for more help.

The first response was a message telling me to do what I had already done. (Obviously, no one really read my message.) I replied saying that neither of the suggested methods had worked. The response was a message asking me to send a copy of the log file of the installation and saying that NAV should not be used until the problem is resolved. I've sent the log file twice over the last few weeks and have never received another response.

At this point, according to Symantec, NAV is unusable on my system, but no further help is forthcoming.

I would recommend not buying this product for a Windows ME system!

After purchasing a package with Firewall and 2003 Professional edition I tried installing them at home on XP and was pleased when Firewall was so simple but then distraught when Antivirus would no scan my email nor my system. I spent hours on tech support, uninstalling, reinstalling and trying to restore my system to an earlier date. I suspect that XP has something to do with it but who knows? Anyway when I was sent by the system failure message to the tech support site there were over 400 similiar problems. My solution to get another firewall and antivirus and start over. My system was clean and virus free before the installation and now I am at the library to use the web as I am reluctant to use it at home. Be careful what you get even if it does say it is compatable- maybe not so or [more] to get Norton's help to install- should not have to do that!!!

I ran Nortons for a year with no trouble at all. I use Nortons system works, its been great, runs scan disks, fixes errors, scan viruses etc.....HOWEVER I upgraded my memory to 512mb of RAM, and guess what???? My nortons can no longer complete a virus scan on my pc. If i attempt to scan my PC, MY PC SHUTS OFFFFFFFFFF! Reboot city. So, i informed symantics aka nortons, and the only reply i got???? "YES WE ARE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM, FOR SOME REASON NORTONS WONT ALLOW VIRUS SCAN IF YOU CARRY MORE THAN 512MB OF RAM." The original problem arouse back in June of 2003, this is now Feb. 2004, still no patch of fix to this. I find this the most rediculous thing ever! How can they charge me almost 100 bucks for something that i cant even use, but cant return either???? Its a sham. I will never ever ever buy A NORTON product again. I relied on the auto enabled virus detector to help shield me, and tho it did shield most everything, when i ran a STINGER (free virus/worm/trojan) scan last week, it detected 2 trojans, and a new worm....screw this! Now i need to find out what soft ware is the best OTHER than nortons. Damn shame too, i have never owned anything else in the 10 years ive owned a pc.

Thier loss, my dollar goes else where!

Liz

I decided to finally update my virus protection and purchased NAV Pro Ed. Following their installation instructions to the letter (letting their internet site scan for current viruses, uninstalling the old virus program, etc), I attempted to get it to work on my Win98 system. I was getting numerous error messages (if I closed the error messages it would restart my computer) so I followed the Symantec Support internet site instructions for solving the error messages. I successfully eradicated the error messages but when I couldn't get the program to run at all their solution was to un-do the changes I had made. Which of course gave me the error messages back and the annoying re-starts. After about 16 hours of going in circles and getting very poor support (if you can't find the answer online, you have to pay for a phone call or hope that someone answers an email at some point and then actually solves your problem) I have decided to return the program and go with AVG.

I've experimented with others and find this company to offer the best and most easy to use system. 2003 is not too different from 2002 as everything is basically the same. The layout menu has slightly changed (more so in color), but everything is the same. Newer virus definitions have been added and the update feature is easy to use and navigate. Norton makes their software easy to configure unlike their competitors which I find handy especially when I want to tell the system what I want it to do instead of the software telling me what to do. You can't go wrong with Norton!