Their web chat is really just 'I can discount that for you' or 'I will refund it for you' type of stuff. Helpdesk is pretty basic with most firms. Norton has had a string of trouble with updates over the last year, including having to roll back several updates for causing some pretty serious issues on systems. While I think Norton is one of the best of the paid US AV solutions, I still don't recommend people use it. There are plenty of other places to go in the world for better service, support, reliability and detections IMO.
Is Norton any good these days? Should I buy this antivirus?
- Thread starter francis de lorraine
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Their web chat is really just 'I can discount that for you' or 'I will refund it for you' type of stuff. Helpdesk is pretty basic with most firms. Norton has had a string of trouble with updates over the last year, including having to roll back several updates for causing some pretty serious issues on systems. While I think Norton is one of the best of the paid US AV solutions, I still don't recommend people use it. There are plenty of other places to go in the world for better service, support, reliability and detections IMO.
- Feb 17, 2018
- 870
You said before that most infections were Norton Machines
Yes, the most horrendous infected machines I have ever seen were all running Norton. One of my guys pulled around 1,400+ Malware/Traces from a Norton Security system within the last couple of weeks. We've never seen one that infected, most products sort of don't just stop catching infections and go into moron mode like Norton. Saying Norton is 'one of' the best US Paid solutions isn't an endorsement, most US Solutions are utter garbage so it's comparing garbage to garbage.
- Feb 17, 2018
- 870
- Apr 28, 2017
- 326
For personal political reasons, I will have nothing to do with Norton ever again. As long as they embrace a corporate anti gun philosophy.
I agree simply on principle, and it has nothing to do with my opinion on the specific issue. When these mega-corporations take a stand against something then we need to wonder if we've entered a DANGEROUS time for our democracy. Since the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected (REGARDLESS of our opinions on that) - corporations have taken it upon themselves to enforce policies on a protected framework. This is dangerous territory. Let me give you an example, what if Google or Facebook decided to ban Black Lives Matter, and label them a dangerous disruption to our society? Would the same people advocating a corporate ban on guns be as vehemently permissive of something like this? Because that's where all of this is heading, where a few mega-rich people, and mega-powerful corporations set policy and discourse in this country.. Very dangerous.
- Jan 10, 2017
- 1,061
after this thread and my experience and feelings ( norton is more reactive than proactive) ...i have decided to dig out a promo license from
another company (f-secure)
another company (f-secure)
- Feb 17, 2018
- 870
Why not try G-Data ? So light and look in the Malware hub for testsafter this thread and my experience and feelings ( norton is more reactive than proactive) ...i have decided to dig out a promo license from
another company (f-secure)
- Jan 10, 2017
- 1,061
you are a new user here, right? I like it.....have used gdata antivirus and I am really convinced with this antivirus
but I'm sensitive too with the impact of any av....so sometimes i look around for security-solutions, but I
come back again and again to this german company
I like it.....have used gdata antivirus and I am really convinced with this antivirus but I'm sensitive too with the impact of any av....so sometimes i look around for security-solutions, but I
come back again and again to this german company
- Feb 17, 2018
- 870
Its as light as a feather nowyou are a new user here, right?
but I'm sensitive too with the impact of any av....so sometimes i look around for security-solutions, but I
come back again and again to this german company
G Data is pretty light now.. It is slower in some cases loading larger directories but otherwise feels pretty darn lightweight. Not as light as Norton, which is featherweight, but still very light IMO.
When I bag on Norton it's mostly because of raw numbers. As I said in another thread, Norton has a HUGE footprint, so we're likely to run into it more and that includes more infected machines. 90% of every machine we see are Avast, Trend, Norton, Microsoft, Bit Defender.. In thousands of malware removals a year I've never actually ran into a machine with G Data, Dr. Web, Emsisoft and F-Secure on them. Only a few Kaspersky boxes, and some ESET systems. We've seen some tremendously infected ESET machines as well, including an entire company ransomwared with ESET blissfully unaware.
IMO, Norton excels at: Lightness, Anti-Exploit, Anti-Phising and Firewall. The firewall is one of the most powerful software firewalls I've ever seen and is exceptional at preventing lateral movement in a network from worms and such. Norton when tweaked above Default actually starts to become pretty strong. The problem is, nobody tweaks it's sensitivity, heuristics and insight beyond default, but they should. Also note, I personally feel Norton's mobile security is one of the best Android security offerings out there.
So even though I am harsh on Norton at times, I still think it's pretty much the best US AV out there. It's certainly priced amazingly well. Norton just sent me an email offering 10 licenses for 1 year for $30.. I mean seriously, that's a great price for that many devices and way way below boutique suite pricing. One could always couple Norton with VoodooShield and Heimdal and probably have a stunning security system while saving a ton of money over boutique suites.
When I bag on Norton it's mostly because of raw numbers. As I said in another thread, Norton has a HUGE footprint, so we're likely to run into it more and that includes more infected machines. 90% of every machine we see are Avast, Trend, Norton, Microsoft, Bit Defender.. In thousands of malware removals a year I've never actually ran into a machine with G Data, Dr. Web, Emsisoft and F-Secure on them. Only a few Kaspersky boxes, and some ESET systems. We've seen some tremendously infected ESET machines as well, including an entire company ransomwared with ESET blissfully unaware.
IMO, Norton excels at: Lightness, Anti-Exploit, Anti-Phising and Firewall. The firewall is one of the most powerful software firewalls I've ever seen and is exceptional at preventing lateral movement in a network from worms and such. Norton when tweaked above Default actually starts to become pretty strong. The problem is, nobody tweaks it's sensitivity, heuristics and insight beyond default, but they should. Also note, I personally feel Norton's mobile security is one of the best Android security offerings out there.
So even though I am harsh on Norton at times, I still think it's pretty much the best US AV out there. It's certainly priced amazingly well. Norton just sent me an email offering 10 licenses for 1 year for $30.. I mean seriously, that's a great price for that many devices and way way below boutique suite pricing. One could always couple Norton with VoodooShield and Heimdal and probably have a stunning security system while saving a ton of money over boutique suites.
- Feb 17, 2018
- 870
@ForgottenSeer 58943
Heimdal and voodooshield with Norton wil give awesome protection you say ?
Heimdal and voodooshield with Norton wil give awesome protection you say ?
You could use that combo with ClamAV and be protected so that isn't saying much really. But yes, that combo would be strong, assuming Norton gets along with all of them properly. As I said, Norton has many good points, and is the best US-Based solution IMO. Norton itself with nothing else should provide enough basic protection for above average tech people.
We have some strange metrics with Norton. The worst infected machines we've ever had the pleasure of cleaning up were always Norton. Granted, Norton is out there and on a LOT of machines, but it's unimaginable how badly some were infected, almost like Norton ceased functioning but still says it is functioning. We don't see this with ANY other solution.
Would Norton would fine for someone that isn't a big risk taker? Surely. Regular Joes? I doubt it, and I think it should be paired with other layers.
The thing is that Norton may have actually flagged content and tried to stop something bad, but the user could have ignored it and allowed it anyway. :/
For example, people trying to download cracks... They are told to disable their Anti-Virus and in advance that it may be flagged. They fall for the social engineering trick and then the system becomes infected, even though realistically Norton was doing what it was told to do.
If Norton rootkit up the machine and block off the users choices then there is no freedom and security is enhanced but it will become troublesome in terms of reputation and opinions because people don't buy their PC to be controlled by an AV vendor, and if they don't then a bad habit user can override it effortlessly and get themselves infected by ignoring the AV. It can happen with any vendor and not just Norton.
I see your point though and I agree Norton can add more or try some different approaches but I think the message overall isn't clear (not from you but in terms of Norton performance) because unless we can see the activities all the people did leading up to infection then we don't know if there is more to the story.
- Feb 17, 2018
- 870
Load of collegues i had always asked me to disable the AV to DL something. We had all our AV password protected. Most people dont realize the risk with Cra*ks and patchers.
How is DeepGuard performing? If you have only just added F-Secure then hold off from telling me for 2-3 weeks so you can get a good grasp of it beforehand
Not only this but on-disk patching will trash digital certificates the binary is signed with, which is designed to be there as a useful security feature... to determine whether the binary is from a trusted source or not.
If the signed binary is modified on-disk via a crack, the digital signature hash checksum will no longer match the image and now that verification for trust that the code comes from the vendor is tarnished and eliminated. Now you should not trust the binary AT ALL.
Pirated content is an easy way to become infected - even an ex-NSA contractor learnt that the hard way.
How is DeepGuard performing? If you have only just added F-Secure then hold off from telling me for 2-3 weeks so you can get a good grasp of it beforehand
I thought F-Secure might be great. I got 10 licenses for free. I get free copies from a vendor we know. But never actually used it until a couple months ago.. Then a threat managed to walk right past Deepguard on my (high risk) son. OSArmor stopped it from getting a foothold. Any confidence I had in F-Secure was blown out after this. Then we discovered amazingly high battery use from their Android App, so that went away as well.. It's all a bit disappointment to me now, thankfully I am not out any coin from that fail.
NVT OSArmor is a great creation and I am very happy for NVT, it's going to get much better and bigger I think and he deserves it for all of his hard work over the countless years.
The SysHardener as well, another great creation.
- Jan 10, 2017
- 1,061
How is DeepGuard performing? If you have only just added F-Secure then hold off from telling me for 2-3 weeks so you can get a good grasp of it beforehand
i have uninstalled f-secure. I tought it would be lighter on my system. sometimes a little "ram-eater" with about 350mb.
The GUI is still not my favourite...the intensive blue color blinds me
ok the scan speed is really impressive.- Status
