Norton 360 vs MSE...

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[H]ard|Gawd
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How is Norton 360...,The version before 360 was great IMO after norton revamped everything and made it use less resources and such. I then got turned onto MSE and have been using it ever since.

I am just curious as to how it compares to the 360..
thanks
 
In MY opinoin, MSE is overhyped, replaced it with Comodo Internet Security and never looked back.
 
NOT a fan of 360, because of all the bloated useless crap you HAVE to put on your computer alongside it. I'd use MSE or Avast 5 (free version) first. If Norton was free, I'd CONSIDER it, but would still rather go with Avast or MSE.
 
In MY opinoin, MSE is overhyped, replaced it with Comodo Internet Security and never looked back.

While the Comodo firewall is excellent, I've never seen the AV component recommended which prompted me to do a bit of research out of curiosity. You might want to have a look at this test by AV Comparatives:

Comodo AV should not be used as a primary AV; based on the results above, it is strongly suggested to use it only as a backup scanner. The antivirus part provided by Comodo is in its current state not good, but the free personal Firewall provided by Comodo is very good (based on independent tests).

MSE arguably isn't the best free AV out there, but based on the AV Comparatives results, it is a LOT better than Comodo.
 
If you are serious about Norton, get Norton Internet Security and forget 360. There are better options then the Norton Utilities built into 360.
 
imyourzero, that test was done in 2007, Comodo has gone through MAJOR revisions since then. Hell, when that test was done, it was still a standalone product, not an IS suite like it is now.

That being said, Comodo still is not a top flight AV, but it's nowhere NEAR as bad as it was in 2007. I'd put it around the level of AVG, Vipre, etc. Personally, I'd never use their products, just because the firewall is a PITA and unnecessary, but that's just my opinion.
 
Symantec has an edge when it comes to detection and cleaning. I've been a long time basher of Symantecs products for many years..but I have to admit, for nearly 2 years now, since they did a huge ground up rebuild of their product, it's gotten VERY light, and quite frankly, detection has been consistently tops for a long time now.

I love MSE, I've been using it for all my home rigs (and I'm an Eset reseller and have my free NFR licenses)...friends, family, the "freebie" jobs I do for people and home jobs.

It's so simple, low impact, automatic, quietly doing its thing in the background.
MSE has a pretty good track record at AV-Comparatives.org

Now, the most important test IMO, is the "Dynamics" test that AV-Comparatives came out with end of last year. It's the most "real world" test I've seen done, and when they did this test in Dec '09. It was done using more typical methods...using various computers surfing the web, and testing against todays web based threats (rogues).

Go to av-comparatives.org and look for the "Dynamics 2009" test. Symantec was on top, MSE came in at #3, edging out many other great brands.

Next point....comparing Norton 360 against MSE isn't an apples to apples comparison. Norton 360 is a full suite of products (antivirus, software firewall, system maintenance, system backup and recovery utilities, identity security, parental controls, , MSE is strictly an antivirus/antimalware product.
 
can't ask for more. FREE, at #3, very light, when it's not up-to-date the taskbar icon turns to orange without annoying popups.
 
In MY opinoin, MSE is overhyped, replaced it with Comodo Internet Security and never looked back.

Explain? How is it over hyped? it has been a great rated free AV on av-compare has it not...

imyourzero, that test was done in 2007, Comodo has gone through MAJOR revisions since then. Hell, when that test was done, it was still a standalone product, not an IS suite like it is now.

That being said, Comodo still is not a top flight AV, but it's nowhere NEAR as bad as it was in 2007. I'd put it around the level of AVG, Vipre, etc. Personally, I'd never use their products, just because the firewall is a PITA and unnecessary, but that's just my opinion.

From what i recall AVG has gone to sh*t lately, so that doesn't say much.
 
imyourzero, that test was done in 2007, Comodo has gone through MAJOR revisions since then. Hell, when that test was done, it was still a standalone product, not an IS suite like it is now.

That being said, Comodo still is not a top flight AV, but it's nowhere NEAR as bad as it was in 2007. I'd put it around the level of AVG, Vipre, etc. Personally, I'd never use their products, just because the firewall is a PITA and unnecessary, but that's just my opinion.

You're absolutely right; I didn't even notice the date on the report (I'll blame that on posting so late and after a couple of glasses of wine).

Still, I haven't ever seen their free AV product recommended. It always seems to come down to Avira, Avast, AVG, and more recently, MSE. I would be interested in seeing a more recent comparison, especially one as unbiased and informative as those provided by AV-Comparatives.

And while their firewall consistently rates extremely well in terms of effectiveness, I agree it is a PITA which is the reason I don't use it anymore. ;)
 
From what i recall AVG has gone to sh*t lately, so that doesn't say much.

Lately...lol..it went to sh*t years ago. Anyone who keeps up with av-c ratings, and can add a lot of their own experience on many many computers, should know that AVG is more useless than a pair of nice tits on a nun.
 
MSE. My nod32 license expired, so I install MSE. It found some virus that NOD32 missed it. I am suprised.
 
From my experience using Norton 360, it's just a gluttonous program that likes to nestle in everywhere it can. I find their products to be invasive (opinionated), and I can't stand it. I've been using MSE for any new PC's that I build and recommend it to all friends and family, and ZERO of them have called me with confusion on the program.
 
thanks, only reason i asked is i noticed comcast gives away norton 360 internet secrurity for free to its users, not that i would ever pay for it anyway if i wanted it :D

I think alot of the bashing is from people who have not tried norton in a few years, since 2009 they revamped it completely and it was a new product in itself, its not the hog it used to be by far.
 
I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 about 10 days ago. MSE is doing this thing where when I launch applications, sometimes it's getting stuck scanning them and the application won't launch. It didn't do this last install with the same applications. I'm thinking about giving Avira a shot when I get home. Does it still include advertising pop up windows every time you update?

*edit* Ended up going with Avast 5. It's using up 12MB of memory with nothing added to the kernel memory. I watched a couple reviews of it and the webshield was stopping a ton of stuff before it could even get to download to the disk. Avira and MSE were also tested with this stuff and Avira ended up getting locked out and destroyed by the malware. MSE did OK. MSE and Avira only monitor file activity.

The one thing I am worried about is each module you install is just one more thing that's gotta run. The good thing about MSE is that it's just file and program activity so it's light that way. Avast I chose file, program and web shield and it's still only 12MB. If it works out I might end up adding the web module to Kaspersky at work and throwing those packages out. I just don't want the systems being bogged down.
 
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