Customer Reviews

Norton Internet Security 2005 Home Protection Pack - 3 Users

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Having read the reviews on Amazon, I went against everything logical, and ordered 4 licenses of NIS for computers at my place of work. You see, I've been a loyal customer of Norton Antivirus/Firewall for the last several years, and have always been happy with the product.

Alas, I should have known better. One of the machines that I attempted to install this abomination on crashed 3-4 times during the installation, and a couple of times during the consequent Live Update session. Another machine (mine) crashed once or twice during Live Update. Additionally, I spent almost an entire day trying to get SSL to work over SMTP. The traditional approach has been to disable scanning of outgoing messages. Apparently, Symantec doesn't think that's good enough, as even with outgoing mail filtering disabled, SSL over SMTP fails miserably. I've disabled the firewall, "AntiSpam", "Antivirus", even the entire suite, trying to get SSL/SMTP to work - to no avail. Some component of this asinine product keeps interfering with mail transportation - I know this, because even with all the components disabled Norton complains (with popup windows) about a "secure email connection which is not supported".

I've turned symantec.com upside-down - there's absolutely nothing about this, anywhere - short of the (useless) "disable outgoing email scans". And yet, everything was fine only moments ago, with NIS 2003.

I've now uninstalled 2005 from one of the computers - that one is fine now (though unprotected). I'm throwing this pile of garbage out tomorrow - I already have my copy of NIS 2003 to replace it with.

I have been a satisfied Symantec customer for many years. I read the Amazon reviews of the Norton Internet Security purchasers and was quite surprised. I suspect that they were expecting a plug and play format and were willing to spend the extra money thinking they were getting some sort of hyper anti-virus package. Internet Security is designed for a user who wants to define their own security system. The problems explained in the previous reviews are easily remedied by a more experienced user. If you don't take the time to learn Internet Security, you will get the tightest system possible and this will inhibit any Internet activity including e-mail. I strongly recommend the basic Norton Anti-Virus software to anyone who is not willing to learn Internet Security. To those who are experienced users or are willing to read the manual, Norton has again come out with a product that is superior to the competition. It is not a waste of time or money.

I bought the 3-user license of the Norton Internet Security. On my PC's and even my new Dell laptop it just refused to work: 1) It slowed down the PC's tremendously 2) e-mails would seem to be sending out as they found their way to the "sent" folder....but they were never really sent out 3)have been trying to work with it for over a month with technical experts trying to solve the problems without success and finally bought their competitor's software which works fine. 4) I am too late to get my money back from Norton. No more Symantec things for me, they stole my money as far as I am concerned.

I have been using Norton internet security software for several years; I suppose the anti-virus and the firewall parts of their current package work OK; certainly they never stop up-grading, almost daily, to my considerable irritation. But the "AntiSpam" is a joke! I tell "AntiSpam", in the "Rules", to treat any e-mail with "Rate", "rate", "Rates" or "rates" in the "from" space as spam. But e-mail with these words in the "from" space get through ALL THE TIME. Is it so very hard to write software to check whether any of these four little words (or any four little words) are in a "from" space? I could give several other examples of the total failure of Norton AntiSpam to do anything like it claims to do, involving equally simple tasks like the "rates" one. I use a Pentium 4 at 2.5G with oceans of hard drive space. I think some, or all the, people at Symantec should be ashamed of themselves for foisting such a less-than-worthless hoax on us, the buyers. I say "less-than-worthless" because it wastes good hard drive space which could be used for better purposes, and because it suggests a false sense of security, at least for a while. If you are thinking of buying this product, please don't. Maybe if sales go down, then Symantec will decide to try and give some value for money.

I've used Norton for many years with only minor annoyances and irritations, things I could live with because Norton is given high antivirus effectiveness ratings. This version taught me its time to find another. My three major issues: crashes, antispam, and tech support.
Crashes: My wireless laptop (just a normal Toshiba Satellite) crashes & reboots on startup, repeatedly. Workaround: disable Norton until after the system boots.
Antispam. Flat out does not work, on three different systems, my Toshiba laptop, my HP Pavillion desktop, my Dell desktop. Works for awhile, but eventually locks up outlook (both 2002 & 2003 versions). Sometimes crashes or locks up my entire system.
Tech support: A not-very-funny-joke. They take weeks, even more than a month to respond. They respond with cookbook fixes. They even repeated themselves once. I've spent over 6 months trying to get some resolution. Ha-Ha.
Bottom line, I've dropped Norton from my list. I can not trust their product or services. There's nothing left.

TERIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE. My life is too short to deal with this c$#p! I only wish I had read the reviews before I bought this junkie software. I also was a loyal Norton customer. I remember using Norton utilities in the good-old days of DOS and I never had any problems. Unfortunately, I suspect that Mr. Norton has long ago sold out to Symantec and he's on a beach somewhere. Now we have to deal with a faceless, heartless (and money grubbing) corporation. The anti-spam feature works intermittently and unreliably. Further, customer support is a JOKE. Here's the lesson I've learned: Before buying any important software or hardware, check the internet for user reviews! Ignore the "editor" reviews since that's nothing more than corporate hype.

PS. If you look at the customer reviews in this section, see if you can find the one that sounds like a corporate ad. I'll bet that guy works for Symantec. ;-)

There is a great deal of difficulty with installation errors especially with the Intrusion detection feature. Many of the home customers that I support are not sophisticated enough to go through the knowledge base solutions in order to fix these "permissions" problems. Also, sometimes they don't even work. I have to install and reinstall the software several times without success.
This is the first time in 14 years of using Norton products that I have had these problems. I am seriously considering switching to Zone Alarm Pro Security Suite.

Eats CPU time, slows down hard disk, no support from Norton. Switched to Avast eventually, has the same features for free and it doesn't block CPU and HDD.

I had Norton Internet Security installed on my computer when bought new 10 months ago. Shortly after running the computer it gradually slowed down and would not load things, freeze up etc...I thought my computer was messed up and after some trial and error, I discovered that Norton was causing my problems. I installed Computer Associates EZ trust software (which I use on my Windows XP laptop that did not experience any problems) and deleted Norton and my problems ceased. I WOULD NOT RECCOMMEND THIS PROGRAM!!! I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who have no problem, but judging by the number of negative reviews here that they are the minority.

I really like what Norton/Symantec wants to do. We need some tools to stop adware, spyware, popups etc etc. But I think Norton is going about it totally wrong.

Firstly they have a default list of blocks/permits which I think have been really badly chosen. Legitimate sites just don't work now.

Its totally crazy that a whole range of sites don't work when NIS is on. There also is no clear cut method for legitimate website developers to build around NIS because they seem to change their concept all the time.

NIS inserts javascript into every page that you open and often it inserts it in the wrong place and therefore gives errors on the browser. This will make some pages not open or not behave correctly.

If it works badly most of the time, I'd rather just turn it off. Then if I anyway leave it turned off... I'd rather just uninstall it. If I've uninstalled it... why pay and buy the damn thing in the first place.

Guys at Norton.... You've built great products in the past but this one is just nuts.