Is Norton 2009 any good?

J

jasondean98

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
278
Hi

I got given a 12 month licence for norton 2009, but does it actually find everything?
 
As much as I hate Norton/Symantsuck......well known for being a bloated package that bogs down your system so it feels like a Pentium 75 with 24 megs of RAM trying to run WinXP.......

..they did a good job making 2009 very..very light. And for the past couple of years their product has been doing well in AV benchmarks.

This product shows that they're making a comeback.
 
The only reason I see someone going with Norton or McAfee or whatever, over something you buy online, is the built in parental controls.

Windows Firewall is good and you have free spyware/malware with Defender. Just grab nod32, or avira/avast for virus/malware, and use open dns for your parental controls, save money, and system resources.
 
I would opt for Symantec Antivirus Corporate or maybe Symantec Endpoint Protection over anything with the "Norton" branding.

Perhaps I'm just living in the past, as I haven't used any of the Norton-branded products for a few years, but every past experience I've had has turned me off.
 
Norton 2009 is actually quite nice, seems even lighter than NOD32 on my system. Seems to have less problems with corruption than Endpoint/360. I've installed it on many client's machines with no problem either. Highly recommended.
 
The reason i ask is because I tried Norton first then installed Avast, which found a load of stuff (I think they were mostly false positives) and i'm not sure which to trust!
 
According to AV-Comparatives latest tests (November), you are better off with Avira or Kaspersky if you wish to pay for an AV.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/ (Direct linking is not permitted by their site - just click on the "Comparatives" link and go to the latest "Online Results" section.)

I still stick with Nod32, since I have a license, but they've been slipping as of late also. Perhaps at the end of the year, I'll become a dedicated Kaspersky/Avira user.
 
I'd take, in this order:

Avira
Norton '09
Avast with a behavior blocker
Kaspersky
Nod32
Dr Web
Twister AV
Comodo Internet Security's AV
AVG (if you absolutely must)

Pair any of these with a good antispyware like A-Squared, SAS Pro, or Malwarebytes, and either a HIPS or behavior blocker. Using Avast necessitates some sort of HIPS/Blocker, since it doesn't use heuristics (yet).

Have you thought about using some sort of virtualization or sandbox? If you're on a 32bit OS, you could use something like GesWall or Sandboxie, a behavior blocker, and a very light AV, and be protected almost completely.
 
If you already have a 12 month license for Norton, then I'd stick with that. 2009 got rid of the bloat, is fast and does a great job. Constantly installing and unistalling different AV products will add bloat and conflicts.
 
been <3'n NOD for a few years

guess Ill try Avira next time. Wish these better AV apps had the scalability we need @ VA. not many AV apps scale to 300k hosts with full reporting and managability
 
i've heard that although avira has a very high detection rate, that it is high, if not the highest in false positives.
 
If its free then you might as well use it.

I prefer avira or avast.

If you are using vista you don't even need antispyware
 
Stoly said:
If you are using vista you don't even need antispyware
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

Well, misinformation and utter bull aside, here's my input...


NOD32 is my personal choice. It's back on top of detection rates, and even when it's not it's pretty darn close. The tweakability of the app (you'll never see it again) is wonderful. You can tweak Avira (The best free AV) pretty well but it's still a PITA compared to NOD32. I mean, it's $30 a year depending what sales you catch... why not?

Norton 2009 IMO has ruined its reputation. I guess I'm still sore with having to deal with that PITA software for so long, but I don't want anything to do with the Norton brand. I'd take Avira over Norton. And NOD32 above all.


As for someone else's question on the spyware solution... The line between viruses and spyware is so thin, it's mostly been packaged up as one and called "malware" nowadays. Any good AV products you buy will scan for both.
 
As people have said, Norton 2009 is not that bad anymore in terms of resources. Also, it won a kick-ass award in a recent AV round-up on MaximumPC.

I personally have been using Avira Personal for over a year, however it has been having many false-positives latley. I just switched back over to NOD32 last night and loving it so far. I use to be a die-hard Eset fan.
 
if its free i would use it. their products are usually pretty good, with a bit of bloatware.
 
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