Customer Reviews

PC-cillin Internet Security 2004 [Old Box]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Yesterday, for the first time, I actually picked up a virus on my laptop. Now, you might think that it was my carelessness or opening an attachment that I wasn't suppose to. Nope... Basically, I got the virus because my (updated on daily basis) Norton antivirus software failed to do it's job. I was pretty bummed because I have so much on my laptop as a physician and besides I lecture at a university and have all my lectures on my laptop in PowerPoint format. The way I found out my laptop was actually infected was not by Norton but by a reading a warning email sent to me from my workplace, originating from Trend Micro (parent company of Pc-Cillin.) Well, most of us have never even heard of Trend Micro and it's a shame because if it wasn't for these guys I would have had been typing this on my desktop not my laptop!

After spending $50 for a Norton antivirus software I was expecting a bit of "security" at least. Well, not only did I not get that, once Norton actually found the virus 10 hrs later, it said that it couldn't delete, repair or quarantine the file, which simply means the virus was alive and well! I went to Trend Micro's site, and although I was not a customer then, they had FANTASTIC removal instructions, information on the virus and an automated repair file for download, ALL LESS THAN 2 HOURS AFTER THE VIRUS BROKE LOOSE!

Now, I don't know about you but I was VERY impressed that I was able to get rid of the virus by using their tools WITHOUT having to pay one penny. That did it for me... I deleted my Norton and bought a digital download copy of Pc-cillin and it is working GREAT!

Now about the software:
1. Installation: It was a breeze! at the time of installation it did a virus scan to make sure I am starting fresh.

2. Setup: What setup?! It pretty much comes with all sorts of settings suitable for most of us and instead of a couple small things I didn't have to do anything else.

3. User interface: B-e-a-Utiful! Very easy to use, fast to load (unlike Norton) and plenty of customizations.

4. Personal Firewall: If you don't know what a firewall is, then I will just say that it is something you MUST have to keep hackers out of home or home/office network. This wonderful piece of software at just $50 comes with a personal firewall!

One of the greatest things about this software is that Trend Micro will send you information on new viruses within minutes or hours of it first coming out. It will "silently" update your virus definition and in real-time scans your machine. It is much faster and does not hog so much system resources like Norton.

Hope this helps!

This program combines anti-virus protection with a firewall, anti-spam and spyware protection

It is a great program, but it will not load properly if you previously used Norton Anti-Virus or Internet Security.
The normal uninstall process will not remove all Symantec files from your computer (this has been a serious problem with Symantec from the beginning). In the case of Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Internet Security, the remaining files will conflict with Trend Micro's products. To remove them, go to Symantec's website and download a file named "RnisUPG.exe". Run it, and it will remove the offending files.

I had Norton Internet Security 2003 and it worked great...one of the features that I liked was the user interface as well as the ad/pop-up blocking feature along w/the logs on internet usage. I read many reviews on Norton I.S. 2004 from a variety of sources (Cnet, Amazon, message boards) and came to the conclusion that NIS 04 was a terrible product and not worth the update. In January of 2004, I renewed my subscription service for NIS 2003 but on Jan 7, everything changed. There was a Verisign problem that conflicted w/Word and Excel and was posted on the Symantec site that affected computers. The Symantec site said it didn't affect NIS but I believe it did. I also believe that when I renewed my subscription service that Symantec uploaded the NIS 2004 patch. All of a sudden everything that reviewers were writing about NIS 2004 was happening to my computer. Booting up my computer took forever!!! Then, my ad/pop-up blocking was completely gone. My file log was not responding and the program was not blocking any cookies or unauthorized sites. After extensive researching on the Symantec site I broke down and called Symantec. Again, every review written about the Tech Line is true...after waiting close to 45 minutes I finally spoke to a rep. I had to pay $29.95 just to go any further. After telling the rep and his tech supervisor the problem the only answer was to uninstall the program (which I had already done)...They sent me a link to their website to follow instructions on ridding my registry of all Symantec products so I could get a clean re-install. They didn't know what the problem could be. They said to call back if it still didn't work after the complete uninstall. I did it and it was worse the second time around...unbelievable. I gave up. Basically, I ate the cost of the renewal and ate the cost of the Tech Help.

After reading reviews of PC-cillin Internet Security by Trend Micro, I decided to give it a try. After downloading the program, I turned around and bought it. This is a great product. My computer immediately boots up, the program doesn't go through ridiculous scans and gives me the opportunity to download new updates. The program cost $49.95 but if you area previous owner of a Norton Anti Virus or Internet Security product and show proof then they will give you a $25 rebate. Needless to say, I mailed my NIS 2003 disk along w/the rebate form to them.

In conclusion, Symantec has turned a long time user into a lost customer forever. They got my last dollar. I've gone to work and told colleagues about PC-cillin Internet Security and to spend their money on this program. Needless to say, Norton not only lost me but three of my co-workers to Trend-Micro. Please, save your money...don't go through what I did. Also, read the reviews from other sites also...I recommend Cnet, Amazon, and others....Please avoid NIS 2004!!! You'll be glad you did!!!!

Good: Less of a system hog than Norton; caught 2 viruses Norton didn't; comes with firewall, etc.; scan a computer on a network; downloadable; scan on their website before you buy - I filled out a survey and saved 20%!

Bad: Had to uninstall Zone Alarm Pro 4 (a firewall, also the best, but the PC-cillin firewall is probably fine) to install PC-cillin Internet Security 2004 - was able to reinstall ZAP4 afterwards though - otherwise I would have given it 5 stars.

Bottom line: PLEASE Don't waste time or money on anything else - I did, and I regret it!

After being very satisfied with their previous version (PC-Cillin 2003), I was wondering if Trend Micro could really keep it up with their latest PC-Cillin 2004. Not only did they meet my high expectations, but the Trend team surpassed them as well. I have been having the product for over a month now and I'm very impressed with the swith.

The main window gives you access to 6 panes from which you interface PC-Cillin 2004.

1. Status Window - You can view your internet status, antivirus status and event logs.

2. System Window - Enables you to scan and clean files, specify scan tasks, configure virus scan settings and access to quarantined items.

3. Email Window - Configure settings to scan your incoming and outgoing emails (both POP and webmail) and set the level of spam filter (Yes a spam filter, and an effective one!)

4. Internet Window - Allows user to block some URLs (for parental purposes), set rules for privacy and data collection.

5. Firewall Window - Allows you to select a preset firewall profile and enables you to specify network virus preventive actions.

6. Update Window - Configure your update settings, manually update button and registration details. The Intelligent Update feature, if enabled, can download and install the latest definitions without any input from the user.

As you can see, this is a fully featured internet security suite. The interface might not be as flashy as Norton's but its nevertheless very intuitive without the added resource hogging of other antivirus softwares.

Its no secret other antivirus makers are aggresive advertiser for their products. But their products fail to meet the expectations of their users. Yes, they have high sales but equally a high number of dissatisfied customers. On the other hand, Trend lets its effectiveness of their products do the talking. PC-Cillin 2004, in my humble opinion is a far superior product that offers good value for money. Try it for yourself by downloading their evaluation version. You will be glad you did.

I have been a PC-cillin user for years, they have always been up to date with the latest virus threats and the website is unmatched with a searchable virus encyclopedia and ways to remove the virus even if you do not own the product.
This product is far superior to the others... it has everything you can ever want, including a real time scan engine to terminate any new virus, an auto-update feature, eliminates spyware/adware, can block spam mail, and has a firewall to prevent viruses altogether.

After reading all of the issues with NIS 2004, I decided to look around. After a little searching, this program caught my eye and I decided to try it.

My uninstall of NIS 2003 went flawless in WinXP and the install of this trial program was smooth. Upon the called for re-boot, I noticed something right away...My system loaded MUCH faster. I'm talking a significant boost here folks. A quick peek at my memory tracker, and sure enough, tons o' memory left after Pc-Cillin has fully loaded.

So I took my new program through all of the paces, (Shields-Up! DSL report security testing, Symantec security testing) and it passed most of the tests without much of a problem.

Hmm...I thought, this is a slick little program with not much of a memory footprint. Could I have found the ultimate security tool? Unfortunately, no. But it is good enough to try it for a year (the trial version does not let you update anything, hence, you are using 4 month old virus definitions, firewall rules, etc).

Compared straight up with Norton, here are my thoughts:

Virus protection: Have yet to really have any issues with Norton or Pc-cillin. Pc-cillin scanned my entire system 10 minutes faster than Norton.

Firewall: Both appeared to stop the necessary attacks at all of the major website testing pages.

Customization:

This is where Pc-cillin REALLY suffers. With NIS, you can customize how every website you visit is handled: custom cookie handling, active-x, referrer page handling, etc. Not with Pc-cillin. Pc-cillin also does not offer built in ad blocking or pop-up stopping. That is kind of annoying too. NIS did.

For the parents out there, this is CRITICAL. NIS updated restricted web-sites automatically into the program. Pc-cillin REQUIRES the user to manually input each website you don't want shown. Are you kidding me?! For me, that is a real disappointment. New pages are added every day and there is simply no way for any parent to stay on top of it. A simple mistype from your child can result in some embarrassing, if not disgusting results. With NIS, you were pretty well covered in the parental control arena.

So, overall I would call it a wash. Pc-cillin has less memory usage, but the overall suite of products is lacking compared to NIS. Which is probably why the load time is faster with Pc-cillin. NIS took too much memory but it came with everything you needed.

I will try this for a year since the Symantec people wanted $30 for another year and their support has really fallen off.

I had a bad experience with Norton Internet security 2004 - really made a noticable difference in performance on my brand new P4 3Ghz processor with 1Gb of ram.Also seemed to conflict with other Apps. Thought of going with McAfee but its latest version got worse reviews than Norton (which were at best so-so on average). Recently installed Pccillin- very similar interface to Norton (very user friendly) and absolutely NO problems - no system slow down etc... this is what I wanted firewall/virus/trojan horse etc. protection running without making any difference in how my PC performs. Highly recommend this software.

Bought this based on ratings by PC World Magazine and this site. Loaded easily, updates frequently, runs flawlessly. Huge improvement over Symantec's Norton Anti-virus which caused my system to crash constantly. Finally an anti-virus program that works!

PC-cillin has performed an amazing virus surgery on my computer that Norton Anti-virus and the

others could not do. PC-cillin got rid of the most deadly virus immediately after it was installed

on my computer, and without even waiting to update its anti-virus database - simply amazing!

For about six months my computer was getting sluggish. I suspected it was troubled by virus but,

although I updated my Norton Anti-Virus everyday and scanned the entire computer many times over,

Norton declared that it found no virus.

Then, one day I started using the Bluetooth wireless dial-up modem kit, but the internet connection

got disconnected repeatedly. Each time a note would appear on the screen warning that the computer

would restart in 60 seconds. I finally contacted the Zoom modem tech support, and the technician

immediately identified the problem; my computer was plagued by the Blaster.Worm virus. Now, I was

prepared to forgo using the bluetooth gadgets, but to be plagued by the deadly Blaster.Worm got me

very concerned.

I re-installed Norton, updated it, and rescanned the entire computer many times, thinking that with

this fine-tooth comb scanning, NAV might get rid of the Blaster.Worm. Not only Norton Anti Virus

couldn't do anything, but Norton publish a big splash on the website with a long lecture on how

deadly the Blaster.Worm is. Also, from then on, every time I scanned, a Norton note would appear

on my screen, proclaiming that:

1. It cannot delete the Blaster
2. It cannot quarantine it.
3. It cannot repair it.

Now, what use is an anti-virus software that boasts of its superiority but is unable to help you

when you need help desparately?

I also tried two other anti-virus software but to no avail.

Then, thanks to Amazon for this customer review feature, I chanced upon this web page on PC-cillin

and read some encouraging reviews.

I immediately ordered the PC-cilling from Amazon, and it arrived at my door step in less than 48

hours! The amazing Amazon! I had opted for free delivery, which was estimated at 7 days, but the

quick free delivery was a pleasant surprise.

PC-cillin detected and killed the Blaster.Worm plus a few other viruses the moment it was

installed. Obviously, I am now a new ardent convert to PC-cillin, and I want to thank the users

who took time to share their experience by writing their reviews on this Amazon review page.

PC-cillin - keep up the good work!

Amazon, your efficiency is simply amazing.

HY
California