Nothing but problems !!!

Strengths: 24/7 tech support

Weaknesses: Norton policy of paid support for manual virus removal.

Summary: Nothing but problems !! My computer recently was infected by Trojan Vundo and Norton 360 could not remove it automatically. When I contacted Norton they told me that I would have to pay $ 99.95 for them to help me manually remove the virus and this was only good for 60 days I think, After 60 days I would have to pay again. Well, I did find another virus protection company that would help me remove the virus manually if their software did not remove it. When I contacted Norton and told them that I needed to completely remove their program in preparation for the new programs installation they told me to run their removal tool on their web page and said it would completely remove their program. Wrong !! Again I had to call Norton and finally got through to someone that helped me remove their program manually. Come on Norton, I spent hundreds of dollars on your software subscriptions only to be treated this way.

100% of People (8/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

360 Swirl Down

Strengths: It must do something because everything slows down.

Weaknesses: See above.

Summary: I usually expect Norton's products to get better as you add the updates. You know, rush to market, etc. But so far this is a lumbering dinosaur. If you are a deep thinker, this is perfect. Expect plenty of think time between downloads.

100% of People (4/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Norton 360 - nice idea but doesn't deliver

Strengths: NA

Weaknesses: NA

Summary: Like others before me have said, this product looks good but is not as "automatic" as it's protrayed. So far, I have not had any of their "automated" scans happen without human intervention. Even their automatic backup isn't automatic. When I called support (on two tech support tickets) they put me through the usual steps. After about 5 emails when none of their suggestions worked, they started over with the first suggestion again. I gave up. I have decided that since the product "seems" to be working other than the automatic services which I do now manually everyday, I will wait until the subscription runs out and find something better - with support that is real and not a prefabricated response.

95% of People (19/20) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Steer Clear - This Will Wreck Your Computer!

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: resource hog will make small problems into large ones bad technical support disables network adapters

Summary: Since I make my living off of my computer as a writer, I thought I would upgrade my protection and as I've been a fan of other Norton Products (now Symantec) I thought 360 sounded like a great deal.

I have a computer with an 80 gig hard drive, 512ram and 1.5 GhZ. Not a hoss daddy computer but a decent one none the less and it was working just fine prior to the installation.

I downloaded the software off the net and that was the last time my computer was able to connect to the Internet. I finally called Symantec support and was instructed to remove the 360 program and then reinstall it. I did so and it was worse - the system just went into initialization mode and then rebooted again and again. The Symantec support tech said I had a problem unrelated to the software and I needed to contact Dell and my ISP. So I contacted Dell and the technician said that he had handled other calls similar to mine and he showed me where the 360 software had disabled the network adapters and couldn't connect to the Internet and therefore was attempting to connect over and over.

I contacted my ISP and upon saying I had just installed Norton 360, was taken to my network adapters page where he confirmed Norton had disabled each and every one.

Another call to Symantec proved fruitless, I was instructed to remove the 360 one more time (which we managed to do by restoring the computer to a previous date and it didn't really work but it enabled us to un-install the program) and the technician told me since I had un-installed the program my technical issues weren't going to be handled by Symantec, thank you and have a nice day.

So I contacted the VP of Investor Relations and she referred me to a guy in the Executive Consumer Relations Team who described installing Norton 360 as "like putting a nuclear submarine in a lake". He also told me if I had an existing small issue in my computer this could have aggrivated it and caused it to escalate.

It is my humble opinion that this program is garbage and was released on an unsuspecting public without much testing. I Googled Norton 360 and came up with numerous complaints very similar to my own. Please don't spend your money on this ill-designed software or you'll be buying a new computer like I am.

89% of People (31/35) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Horrible protection & support.

Strengths: The program disc makes a fine coaster for your beverages or Frisbee for your children.

Weaknesses: All support comes from an Indian office with BAD English skills. They LIE on the rebates, not fulfilling them! CAN'T contact TECH SUPPORT with issues.

Summary: 2007-10-12 16:12:54 advertised 360 with $40 rebates. I mailed them Certified Mail (they signed for it & it proved they got it). Yet after re-mailing 3 times, faxing 2 times I was told, "yes we got it, but the rebate is expired now, so sorry. Thank you for purchasing Norton!" To make matters worse, Norton does NOT operate well with ANY other security programs (spy/adware seekers). My computer then got infected with tons of ad/spyware, phishing and a virus. Tech support could NOT be reached. Whoever rated this a good program should be sent to the Middle East as a woman!

89% of People (8/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Hang on to Spybot and Registry Mechanic

Strengths: Disk Defragmenter

Weaknesses: Anti Adware/Spyware, No Registry Cleaner

Summary: Norton 360 allowed a piece of ad-ware to get by today (Apr 10, 2007). Spybot caught it thought. The PC Tuneup feature is surprisingly mediocre and does not clean up the registry. I recommend PC Tool's Registry Mechanic to keep the registry clean. My biggest gripe is that it's hard to tell what 360 is doing without going to the Task Manager.

75% of People (9/12) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Norton 360 _ Works Fine

Strengths: All In One Security

Weaknesses: N/A

Summary: I sure had my doubts about buying Norton 360 because so many consumer reviews were negative.

I decided to try it for a year and I'm so glad I did.

Norton 360 works like a charm. Have no complaints. It has not slowed my computer down.

67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Norton 360 - Saved me and I have no problems to report

Strengths: Automatic back ups to my external hard drive saved me dearly. I have none but I have an 250 internal and 500 gig external HD with a high end MB, 4 gigs RAM and above average processor so it doesn't bother me like some of the other reviewers.

Weaknesses: None and I purchased in October 2007

Summary: My suggestion, especially if you claim to be making a living with computers, is you should have better than a 80 gig hard drive and 512 ram. Come on you can't run anything these days with only 512 RAM. That review should be wiped off the system. Norton 360 can be set up to run automatic back ups. Thank goodness I did this because a couple of months after the installation of 360 I had a power surge that caused an unrepairable bug to my internal HD. I could not get the computer to boot and neither could my geek who owns a successful computer repair business. We had to install the os from scratch and I thought I lost everything. Unknowingly and to my great satisfaction the Norton 360 software backed up all of my critical and not so critical data to the external hd. We have installed on all of our business computers and have external HD's to save the back ups. Please understand that you may still lose all your valuables if you don't have an external drive.

67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Both product and techSupport are toooooo bad

Strengths: nothing but problems

Weaknesses: all over

Summary: when installing it hanging up forever, never finish the installation; called techSupport in India for 6 times, spend more that 10 hours, but problem has never been fixed.

Give up. I won't buy Norton any more.

0% of People (0/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Norton 360 is much improved over recent Norton AV products.

Strengths: Broad malware coverage with minimal user interaction.

Weaknesses: Not able to change default settings for some important features (e.g. excluding files/folders from scan).

Summary: Easy to install and economical for 2-3 PCs. Good PC tuning included. Somewhat difficult to navigate and find settings for changing defaults. Less obtrusive than previous products for most malware protection.

Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Don't Waste Your Time or Your Money

Strengths: Pretty Box

Weaknesses: It Doesn't Work

Summary: I've been using Norton 360 for over a year for two features, anti-virus protection, and an online back up service. Both of these failed.

My wife's laptop with Norton 360 installed and up to date virus definitions got infected with a virus in December. The virus took over Norton and disabled it. I reinstalled Norton, updated the virus definitions, and tried to root out the virus. Norton didn't help. I checked their online support and indeed they couldn't provide a fix.

At this point I reformatted the drive and reinstalled Windows and all applications, including Norton 360. I began receiving Windows fatal errors, which pointed to Norton. Their online support claimed it was a memory problem.

I replaced the memory, and for good measure replaced the hard drive. Another new install. Everything worked fine until I installed Norton 360. I was then receiving continual fatal errors. I uninstalled Norton, switched to McAfee, and everything works fine.

I then went about trying to restore the data from Norton's online back up site. I needed to do so from a different computer , because Norton crashed the original computer at boot-up. I could retrieve a limited amount of data, but not all of it. I spent more than 7 hours over 4 calls with Norton support. Their support was very poor and they frequently provided wrong information.

I was finally told that I could only restore the data back to the original machine from which the data came, and it had to be running Norton 360. I explained that the original machine crashed every time I loaded 360, so I need to download the files to another machine and then transfer them manually. Their plan was to completely change the settings on my new machine to be identical to the original machine, including serial number, etc. I then decided to ask for a refund.

Well, it ends up a refund is not so easy if you bought the software from a retailer. If you bought online from Norton they will give you a refund immediately, but if you bought from a retailer you need all original packaging, original receipt, everything.

I've purchased a lot of Norton products over the years and they could see when I installed, what the product key is, etc., but that was not good enough. Their answer was "don't buy from a retailer, buy online directly from Norton."

So I wasted weeks of my time troubleshooting, hours on the phone with Norton, and bought unnecessary hardware, all thanks to Norton.

Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Norton 360

Strengths: Seems to protect

Weaknesses: hard to get installed first time, and get settings like you want

Summary: It is probably the best I have had to date, but it is not the easiest that I have tried., but may be the best. Once installed it seems to update like it says, and seems to protect. Both wireless and wired computer

Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

If the only problem would be that it's a resource hog...

Strengths: none really

Weaknesses: blocks so much good software it's ridiculous, incompatibilies, slows down everything a LOT

Summary: if only norton would have kept the bad things it has been doing for years... no they added some I think. Above the rest of the problems I think there are two: false positives and incompatibility with many programs. The funny thing is that it's also almost impossible to remove (even with the appropriate tool, you'll keep a piece of it somewhere it seems)

Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Does what it should.

Strengths: Very user friendly. Have not experienced any adverse effects on PC performance - it does slow down a bit when running LiveUpdate, but that is it.

Weaknesses: After installing it on a Vista based PC, had to reinstall it twice. Was it Vista

Summary: Had it on an XP PC before the latter died (5 yo, heavily used laptop) - worked great, did not slow down PC (Unlike McAfee total protection which I uninstalled after a months use). After switching to Vista, had to reinstall it twice in the first month - whether due to Vista, or Norton, I have no clue. However, ever since (4 months) it has been running smoothly.

Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.

Does what it should.

Strengths: Very user friendly. Have not experienced any adverse effects on PC performance - it does slow down a bit when running LiveUpdate, but that is it.

Weaknesses: After installing it on a Vista based PC, had to reinstall it twice. Was it Vista

Summary: 2008-05-27 19:56:09 Had it on an XP PC before the latter died (5 yo, heavily used laptop) - worked great, did not slow down PC (Unlike McAfee total protection which I uninstalled after a months use). After switching to Vista, had to reinstall it twice in the first month - whether due to Vista, or Norton, I have no clue. However, ever since (4 months) it has been running smoothly.

Update 05/27/2008

I decided to downgrade my rating of Norton 360 after Symantec "upgraded" it to v2.0. It does come with more bugs and user "unfriendly" environment - frankly I do not know to which product to resort any more.

Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

  Report this as inappropriate.

 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.