Compare these 3 Norton Products

I've not settled on Norton, but I'd like this thread to concentrate on comparing these three combinations. I'm looking for AV, ASpy, and Firewall. Don't care too much about the other bells and whistles.

1) Norton 360
I hear it's light on resources, does a pretty good job, not a lot of user flexibility, doesn't require much input from the user. PC Magazine and CNet rate it very high.

2) Norton IS 2008
I'm not sure if it is designed to be ligher on resources (like Norton 360) or not, but offers more control than Norton 360. Some threads say it's lighter on resources, some say it's still a pig. PC Magazine rates it about the same as Norton 360, CNET rates it as a pig.

3) Norton Antivirus and Antispyware 2008, combined with Windows Vista Firewall.

Is the Vista firewall any good? How does this 3rd option compare to the 2nd option?


Right now I can get a good discount on Norton AV + Aspy.


Thanks!

 

360 is a very good program if you do not want to have any input into the software. I loaded it on my wife and son's computers and my laptop because it works automatically, does an excellent job and isn't intrusive. It doesn't suck up huge amounts of system resources which is a big plus and does its job quietly in the background. It will even optimize the HDD automatically (although it chokes on a RAID array). That said I also have Threatfire installed for its superior heuristic engine and Windows Defender for additional Spyware protection. The last two are free. AVG will drive you nuts with its constant updating and huge announcements that it has accomplished such a feat. Yes it's free sort of, but you'll pay to rid yourself of it. LOL.

 

Thanks for the feedback. This is consistent with what I've been reading elsewhere. (although there are opinions all over the map on all security programs it seems like)

 

Yes there is. None are perfect but I hate programs that are constantly in your face and use up valuable memory and CPU time. 360 works well and is quiet and if you use the other two in conjuction with it then you are as airtight as you can be. Threatfire and Defender are both free, like I said, and they seem to get along very well with 360. I also have WinPatrol running which is free (although i ponied up the $20 for the plus version) as it is very handy for identifying processes and alerts you when a new startup is trying to register itself.

 

quick update: I was about to buy N360 at the store, but found a better deal on NIS2008.

On the box I noticed it says "New, with Faster Performance". So it made me wonder if it has some of the same enhancements as N360 (in terms of not being a resource pig).

So I contacted Symantec via Chat to ask if NIS2008 has many of the same enhancements as N360, which they did confirm (both have the new scanning engines), and the person said in some ways N360 is more resource demanding since N360 has other features above and beyond what NIS2008 has.

So I'm most likely going to go wtih NIS2008, even though it will be less automated (which is a trade-off for me, since I'll probably install on the other two PCs in the house, that my wife and kids use).

But even though NIS2008 is free for the first year after rebate, it looks like the renewal cost will be $49 for NIS2008 ($59 for N360), but it does cover up to 3 PC's. After a year, I'll know if it is worth it to me to renew or not.

One other note. I asked Symantec if it is ok to keep Windows Defender and UAC running with NIS2008, and the response was that Windows Defender should be disabled because it tends to prevent registry permissions for Norton products.

 

NIS2008 would be a better fit if you are more assiduous about system maintenance. 360 is more of a system wide type of setup for those that never defrag etc. and watches a lot of things. 360 would be overkill for you, as it is for me on this laptop, but as you said, it comes with three licenses so I used one on this lappie.

Defender and 360 seem to get along fine together and a couple of spyware engines is usually a good thing. Just make sure you have it disabled when installing NIS2008.

 

Try Kaspersky Internet Security. A full install takes up only 40Mb on your HDD. Unlike NIS which needs over 300Mb. And best thing of all it doesn't slow you down when scanning and working. Its fast too. I'm glad I ditched Norton.

 

Norton 360 has the NAV '07 engine. At the moment they are beta testing 360 2.0 which is based on the NAV '08 engine. I did use NIS 2008 on my Dell desktop until I found out that it was the culprit in screwing around with my USB drivers that I had been blaming on Vista.

 

Always try before you buy. Click below for 90 day trial downloads of NIS 2008 or NAV 2008.
http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/v2/...ndexPage&client=Symantec&sid=37771&cid=273172

 

Thanks. I was just looking at the download for the NIS2008 90 day trial from this link, and the file name has NIS2007 in it (so is the 90 day trial really NIS2007?). In the US free trial, which is only 15 days, the file name has '08 in it.

I basically get NIS2008 for free after rebate (when I buy Taxcut, which I use and needed to buy anyway). What I really should try is N360 guess, since I'll likely keep the NIS2008 SW no matter what (even if I don't use it long term).

 

I use NIS 2008 and I couldn't be more satisfied.

It's not in my face, lets me configure it how I want it to run, and offers great protection. I combo that with Windows Defender.

Performace wise, it's a VAST imrovement over NIS 2007.

 

You can turn off windows defender as NIS already has sufficient spyware/malware/adware protection.

 

Well I finally installed NIS2008. For the most part, things went well, and I believe it has sped up my browsing experience a lot (more time will tell). Looks like the HD space is 52MB. My guess is that the system requirement on the box of 350MB is partly to leave for a restore point to be created???

Anyway, there is only one problem I'm having so far. If I click on Network, I'm not able to see everything on the network (e.g. the router). Before NIS2008, I was having to disable the Firewall in CA Security Suite, and just use Vista's firewall. But now, even if I disable NIS2008, I can't bring up the router login anymore (perhaps completely unrelated to the NIS2008 installation???).

UPDATE: After power cycling my router, I can access it now. The problem was not related to NIS2008 installation (turns out had the same problem with desktop which hasn't changed. Power cycling the router seems to have fixed everything).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Well, after using this for a couple of days so far, I must say I'm very impressed. Doesn't happen often, but for now I think I've been converted from a Norton Despiser to a Norton fan, at least until the renewal fee comes around next year. It seems like NIS2008 is very light on resources to me. Maybe because what I was using before was so poor, I don't know. But I had also operated for a little while without any security, just to see how fast things "could" be, and I can't say I really see any difference in speed when NIS2008 is running. Plus, it isn't asking me a bunch of questions that I don't know the answer to. Plus, when browsing, it seems to not block things I don't want blocked (and I certainly hope it's blocking things that it should). So for anyone who is considering a non-free security suite, I would suggest giving NIS2008 a try.