Customer Reviews

Norton AntiVirus 2005 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(112)

 

 

I have used Norton (AntiVirus, Firewall, Systemworks Professional) for years without a problem; and I have not had to deal with viruses, breakins or stability problems. They all previously installed in minutes without a problem. I did Not upgrade my 2003 products last year but did renew my subscriptions. I'm using a P4 computer running WinXP, with 612 of RAM and 80 Gig HD. I do not consider myself beyond a computer newbie, so perhaps my experience is a function of inexperience. That said, I have reformatted hard drives, upgraded WinME to XP, flashed the BIOS, installed graphics cards, audio cards,upgraded to USB 2, regularly download and install new software, hardware, etc. all without incident (or only a brief glich).

I have NEVER experienced the BUGGY, UNSTABLE, system wide problems that I have been trying to deal with since attempting to install this product.
(1)..The first problem was that it successfully prevented my Norton 2003 Firewall from starting (i.e., it just freezes on refreshing and after about 10 minutes indicates that all firewall features are disabled (will not permit them to be enabled); knocks out registration, while acknowledging the registration is still current for a few more months).
(2)..It causes Norton SystemWorks 2003 to crash...indicating problems with Symantec Integrator, etc. so SystemWorks is also unusable.
(3).. Antivirus 2005 has yet to be sucessfully installed. As per the Symantec site, I've updated "Liveupdate", and tried to remove and reinstall the product.(I've tried both upgrade/download and full product CD, trying the typical install> restart>delete> restart...) Although it was activated at install, it crashed at the computer's restart. My experience is that once AntiVirus 2005 is installed it CANNOT BE COMPLETELY REMOVED, there are literally dozens of folders and files that remain (even working in Safe Mode with full Administrator priviledges, many of the left-overs cannot be deleted, moved or renamed, at least not without a lot of effort). A computer scan also revealed over 60 Activex\COM errors specifically relating to Norton/Symantec, missing Norton\Symantec files, etc. Unfortunately, these items seem to prevent reinstall, as Norton 2005 sees even a few of these as evidence that it is already installed and aborts the reinstall. There is no option to repair/modify. Some of the problem also seems to strongly suggests that Product Activation/Validation is at least a partial contributing factor.
(4)..It should be noted that thinking that the Norton 2003 Firewall and/or Systemworks might be contributing factors, and since Norton 2005 AntiVirus made them un-usable, I eventually removed them from the computer....and attempted to install Norton SystemWorks 2005.
(5)..To date, although I have been able to get SystemWorks 2005 to install (it refuses to install Antivirus 2005), the Symantec Integrator causes it crashe constantly. And finally had to laboriously, manually remove the various SystemWorks leftovers as well.
(6)..Being without a usable AntiVirus program or a functioning Firewall, I have spent the better part of the past week attempting to remedy these problems since I'm using a cable modem with a fiber optic connection. I have been offline for almost a week (thankfully I have a laptop that has not been touched by any Norton 2005 product).Currently it seems the only possible solution is to manually change/ remove files from the registry (Symantec does provide information on the dozens of registry entries that will need to be removed (at least from the previous version of AntiVirus),if one cannot delete Antivirus using Add/Remove Programs.
(7)..Did I mention that prior to any Norton 2005 product install attempts I could press the power button on my computer and be on a working desktop typically in less than a minute; after the first attempted install of AntiVirus 2005 the start time is now over 4 minutes. Checking some log files seems to reveal a lot of the computer's time directed to verifying product activation/ownership info.
(8)..ADDITIONALLY, AFTER INSTALL (and before restart) AntiVirus 2005 provides information relating to product activation stating: "Antivirus 2005 may cause system problems if new users are added after Antivirus 2005 is installed."

Frankly, it's begun to feel like I'm an unknowing beta tester for Norton's activation process and upgrades. It's a bit like buying an elegant new car with a history of stability, reliability, safety, that has previously offered ease of use for its owner. Except the manufacturer has upgraded the vehicle to a keyless system that now uses only the owner's fingerprint to open the door locks or start the ignition. Unfortunately, there's a glitch and one is left with a vehicle that cannot be opened and will not start. No matter how attractive, no matter the previous history of safety, reliability and stability one is forced to junk the vehicle, as even a less known vehicle that will let do what you need to is better than one that sits there occupying space.It is unfortunate that seemingly such can now be said of Norton...

I just purchased Norton AV 2005 for my Dell Dimension 8250 computer (approx. 1 year old) because my previous Norton Antivirus subsciption had expired and it was cheaper to buy this version than renew the license. What a mistake. I installed the program which seemed to go smoothly until I ran liveupdate to get the new virus definitions. The definitions appeared to download fine, but then they "failed authentication" and the program would not install them. I clicked on the link next to the error message and the Symantec website recognized the problem, but said it was either a problem with my computer or a worm or trojan causing the problem. I don't have any computer problems that I know of and the program didn't tell me what the problem was and I had been running NAV before with no problems and had purchased this after my virus deinfions were only ten days old. It seems a little too convenient that this is a problem with my computer! The Symantec link also gave me a great link to a self diagnostic tool that told me I needed to update my virus definitions -- as if I didn't know that already. I read a host of negative reviews of Norton AV 2004 but still went ahead and purchased NAV 2005 because I had used NAV in the past without any major problems. It looks like the software just keeps getting worse with every version. Don't make the same mistake I did.

I am a retired systems programmer/analyst with 12 years of personal computer experience, both professional and personal.

This product is a disaster. After a year of the successful use of version 2004 under Windows 98SE, the attempt to upgrade to version 2005 not only uninstalled version 2004, but refused to install version 2005. A great many files and corrupted registry keys were left behind making the re-installation of all Symantec products fail. I spent 9 hours on and off the telephone with a vast number of Symantec "Customer Care" people before I was finally able to speak to someone with some technical knowledge. He directed me to the Symantec site and a large number of incredibly complex documents/routines for the deletion of all Symantec products from my computer and for the correction of the corrupted registry.

The next day I waded through several of these removal scenarios and finally accomplished an install. As of this moment I may still have LiveUpdate problems. I will have to wait until the scheduled call to update the virus definitions to see if that "feature" works properly. It did not work properly out of the box, but required the deletion of all LiveUpdate settings and virus definition files before the program would install the downloaded virus definition update. Solving this problem consumed another half-day.

This software is garbage and the Symantec help staff in India is incompetent. Symantec has created a "Support" system which demands hours on hold after which the customer is connected to a non-technical person who can neither answer questions nor direct the frustrated user's call to a competent technician. I will do everything in my power to report in the public media and to all who will listen, the installation failure of this disgraceful product. Symantec should be ashamed.

I have used antivirus products since the DOS and Windows 3.1 days when antivirus protection was still an "option". Today you not only need AV protection for your PC but you also should have good antispyware and a software firewall. In the old days McAfee AV used to be free and Norton AV used to be a premium AV program that worked well at a reasonable price. These things are no longer true today and the software security industry has become a multi-billion dollar Godzilla type of monster that mostly cares about their own profits before customer interests. Unfortunately Symantec's Norton Antivirus 2004 and 2005 are evidence of one of these Godzilla monsters out of control and on the loose.

What happened to this once great antivirus program ? The answer is a combination of "bloatware syndrome" and "product activation". Norton AV 2003 and previous versions did require a faster computer with allot of system resources but they were recognized as some of the best antivirus security programs in the world. This reputation as being number one and the popularity of the internet made Norton Antivirus a prime target for the software thieves to copy, distribute, and profit from one of Symantec's best product. Unfortunately Symantec's solution, namely product activation combined with poor programming, has created a cure for Symantec that is worse than the illness. I have personally never seen, read about, or heard of a software program released on a large scale by a major software company that has corrupted and damaged more working computers than Norton Antivirus 2004 and 2005 products have. When I say "damage" I don't mean that the computer hardware is effected but what I mean is that at least ninety percent of the time when the Norton Antivirus installation does not go well then a complete restoration or reinstallation of the operating system is required. Since the Norton AV 2004 release I have heard and seen this happen over and over to people of all skill levels from regular users to advanced computer technicians. If you think you are immune to this happening to you if you upgrade or install the latest Norton AV 2005 then I wish you the best. Maybe this could be your lucky day.

I am not here to bash Symantec or the Norton brand of products. Remember that I have used and been a fan of Norton Antivirus up until Norton Antivirus version 2003 of which I have an updated subscription and I still use on my computer today. I really hope that Symantec gets its act together and improves Norton AV for future versions before it loses most of its Antivirus customers for good.

Here are some possible solutions. If you still want to use a Symantec AV product then look into purchasing the latest "corporate version" of Norton Antivirus. I have read that the corporate version is still and excellent program without all the bloatware and bugs of the retail versions. You could also simply use Norton Antivirus 2003 or SystemWorks 2003 which can still be purchased inexpensively online as an OEM version. But if you have had it with Norton for now and want to jump ship before it completely sinks then I recommend you try McAfee VirusScan 2005 or TrendMicro's PC-Cillin 2005. There are some other antivirus choices that are also supposed to be good including Kaspersky, Panda, and Computer Associate's E-Trust and EZ-Antivirus. Don't forget to install a good antispyware program such as Microsoft Antispyware or Webroot's Spy Sweeper and use a good software firewall or at the very least make sure that the standard Windows XP SP2 firewall is enabled.

Before you install any antivirus alternatives to Norton AV remember to completely, totally, and properly uninstall any and all versions of Norton Antivirus from your computer. You can find some helpful information regarding the proper un-installation of Norton Antivirus products on Symantec's web site. The sad truth is that there are so many hidden and discrete files that the retail version of Norton AV installs on your computer that some people have reported it to be harder to completely uninstall Norton AV than it is to get rid of a bad computer virus.

PROS: Program interface is attractive, the latest version has many new security features including spyware detection, the Norton Antivirus brand has traditionally had a very good reputation for computer virus detection and system security.

CONS: Serious installation problems have been reported by many users relating to product activation and authentication. It often disables or damages previous versions of Norton's security products. It ties up system resources and often causes a dramatic system slowdown. It is difficult and seemingly impossible to completely remove it from your computer once it has been fully installed. Product support is expensive and time consuming.

I really hope that things change for Norton AV in the future but as of the time I write this review the retail version of Norton Antivirus 2005 is NOT RECOMMENDED for most computer users.

The bottom line...One Star.

Make sure you read the fine print of this (...)offer. Amazon does not point out that this is a competitive upgrade only, and you must provide proof of owning a prior retail version of Norton, McAfee, or Zone Alarm. This should be more prominently displayed. The type on the printed form is very small and hard to read and I didn't spot this before I ordered. Like most people, my prior Norton version was OEM from Dell. Amazon does a huge disservice to it's customers by not pointing this out more clearly.

I bought Internet Security 2005 because Symantec charges almost as much to upgrade my 2004 version as to buy the new 2005 product. The 2005 version is a pure nightmare! I even had to reload Windows XP along with Service 2 and all of the drivers. I've been messing with this piece of garbage for several days and still get a load-stopping message, "Setup was unable to remove previous installed versions .....etc." I followed every instruction on the Symantec support website with no luck. They don't even have a specific solution for the message that their installer puts on your screen! This product sucks and Symantec support designers are a couple of lines of code short of a release version. I'm a programmer and would be ashamed of this program.

UPDATE: 1/25/2005: A bad situation keeps getting worse. There appears to be another major bug in the software's worm protection feature. If you use software that involves peer to peer communication that might occur across a range of ports (camera/chat software, peer to peer file transfers, etc.), be prepared for "Internet worm protection," which is supposed to protect you from unauthorized access attempts to your computer. Unfortunately, the software cannot seem to "remember" when you authorize selected applications to bypass this feature, so you are inundated with worm alert messages requiring you to manually permit each one. There appears to be no tried and true way to get around this, and certain other applications don't even cause alerts - the program simply silently blocks access.

The only way around this is to manually disable the entire worm protection feature while working with affected applications. This is a -major- bug and has been reported by others based on a Google search. What a disappointment.

Earlier review:

I've got to agree with the majority of reviews posted here. Norton completely dropped the ball on the 2005 edition of Norton AV. On a completely new installation with no other applications running, this program simply refused to install properly under Windows XP, Service Pack 2.

The most frequent problem was the error message: Norton AntiVirus 2005 has encountered an internal program error, which directs you to a useless support page which inevitably asks that you dredge through the registry to remove every possible vestige of the program. Gee, thanks. Apparently, certain components did not install properly, but the program won't tell you which ones. Further, even after assuming you have finally re-installed the program properly, that same dreaded error re-appears at random intervals. Unfortunately, this effectively shuts down your virus protection so you are now at the mercy of whatever might manage to make it to your system.

Despite the program updates to this date, these problems persist, and it's not just a case of a compromised XP installation.

I personally am no fan of McAfee, so my strong recommendation is to simply renew the 2004 edition of what already works, Norton Antivirus 2004 and AVOID what Norton apparently considers "progress," which is to say yet another unnecessary new annual edition. Remember, 2004 will have the same virus protection features as 2005 - you will still be protected. Who knew that we would need protection from Norton itself.

Norton use to be so good. But now, 2 years in a row, 2004 and 2005 I've had problems with the Anti-Virus - on DIFFERENT machines with Windows XP. This year the problem manifested itself after a couple of weeks. I'd get a message on boot up that Norton was having problems repairing itself and I should uninstall and reinstall. I did, and everything was fine for another couple of weeks -- then got same error message. This time on re-install it would not complete the "uninstall shortcut." So if I didn't undo the install there would be no way to uninstall later. Tried it again - same problem. So I switched to PC-Cillin 2005. I think Symantec is letting these programs out with TOO MANY BUGS. Add the pathetic support, and it's just not worth the hassle. I'd recommend you look elsewhere.

Wanted to add my disappointment w/Symantec/Norton AV 2005... I too have used NAV 2003 & 2004 very successfully in the past. Then the fateful day when my subscription expired (Feb 2005).
Made the irreversible & catastrophic choice to upgrade from 2004 -> 2005 for $5 additional over subscription... DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER NAV 2005!

The 2004 -> 2005 upgrade has made all Internet access unstable... NAV 2005 randomly crashes (MS send/dont send dialog) & brings down browser, email, etc. Often have to reboot (sometimes several times) to get back online. Not to mention several of my son's games now randomly crash w/dialog crediting Symantec... Often after 30-60 mins of building rollercoasters, etc.

As others describe, trying to remove / rollback NAV is nearly impossible, the product weaves itself into the OS & registry much like a virus.

Enough said, STAY AWAY... Consider yourself warned!

UPDATE: Based on reviews here & elsewhere, moved to "Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2005" & so far so good! Fast booting, unobtrusive... no problems so far (YMMV).

UPDATE #2: Suggestions for those who have purchased this product:

1) Start the refund process RIGHT NOW if you have had ANY problems w/NAV 2005! If you get even a SINGLE MS "send/don't send" crash dialog for Symantec NAV, do not hesitate to start the refund process.

2) If the software is/was problematic for you, drop an email to Amazon Customer Service letting them know... Perhaps they will drop this product from their offerings. It is clearly sub-par & Symantec is using NAV 2005 customers as BETA testers.

Again, DO NOT RISK INSTALLING THIS SOFTWARE, just go with a more reliable alternative. Should read "no stars" for this.

I've used Norton antivirus for many years and it has grown steadily worse with each successive release.

First there is the sheer SIZE of this product and the resource load it places on a system. There is simply no excuse to use 10X the RAM of competitive products.

Then there is the impact on system performance. Norton 2005 slows the system down appreciably. No rhyme or reason since none of the competitive products seem to do this.

Next there are the bugs. System instability (i.e. crashes), lockups, networking issues, etc. are all common with Norton 2005.

Finally, there is product activation. I have almost no tolerance on this item. I've paid for this product and am a legitimate user. If product activation causes me headaches, it's unacceptable! Well, Norton 2005's scheme seems to be designed by a idiot! It requests re-activation each and every time the system is rebooted. Ok, that's bad enough but after a few reboots it's says that it's been activated too many times and I SOL!

Enough is enough! I've uninstalled Norton 2005 and have purchased GriSoft's AVG Anti-virus. A VERY refreshing change.