Symantec Norton 360 Beta

Before I start I need to point out that Norton 360 is no longer a Beta product, when I requested that Ciao change this my request was ignored, and when I recommended the Norton 360 full version I was told the product already existed. So please don’t view this as being off topic as I have tried my best to rectify the situation, and I feel strongly enough about the product that I had to review it.

When it comes to Anti-Virus protection ...
...elsewhere. Having spent 2 years with them on the standard Norton Internet Security program I felt that the investment for this product was definitely worth it so what does Norton 360 do and how do I rate the features?

• Block Hackers from accessing your PC and prevent unknown threats: This seems to work quite effectively and if ever an intrusion attempt occurs you’re made very aware of the fact. If you’re away from the PC Norton will ... more

Before I start I need to point out that Norton 360 is no longer a Beta product, when I requested that Ciao change this my request was ignored, and when I recommended the Norton 360 full version I was told the product already existed. So please don’t view this as being off topic as I have tried my best to rectify the situation, and I feel strongly enough about the product that I had to review it.

When it comes to Anti-Virus protection I’ll always go with Norton, never even thinking of looking elsewhere. Having spent 2 years with them on the standard Norton Internet Security program I felt that the investment for this product was definitely worth it so what does Norton 360 do and how do I rate the features?

• Block Hackers from accessing your PC and prevent unknown threats: This seems to work quite effectively and if ever an intrusion attempt occurs you’re made very aware of the fact. If you’re away from the PC Norton will take care of the issue for, quite simply shutting the door and filling the holes.

• Remove Viruses from e-mail and blocks internet worms at point of entry: If you get an e-mail virus attachment you don’t get the chance to worry about it, boom its gone. Norton does not ask your permission it’s gone before you know about it, but it tells you in a report after the event, the same applies to worms. In the past other Norton products asked your permission, but sometimes due to energy saving issues and screen savers people were accidentally allowing these things to get through by inadvertently agreeing to view the file, when all they meant to do was get life back into the PC. While a virus scan would illuminate the threat it was still a right royal pain in the bum.

• Stop spyware from tracking you online and prevent hijacking of your PC: Again this is quickly and efficiently dealt with and in honesty its done and gone before you know about it. The only sign all this is going on is in the fact that there are little orange circles going round on your screen at different places.

• Guide against online identity theft and checking sites to ensure they are not fakes: The first part yet again is dealt with as are the other threats, simply and quickly by checking the encryption program thoroughly. The second aspect though is a thing of wonder, if you use Ebay or Paypal I’m sure at some point in time you have received a message to tell you that in order to increase security you need to log in, while 99% of us are probably aware of this type of scam some of us are not. If you click on any site through a MSN message or e-mail link at the top of a the screen the words FAKE SITE (or similar) will flash up before shutting the window down preventing you from making a mistake. I know this happens because I chose to check this out. The same applies to e-mails from your bank etc. Norton checks back to the source then uses online information to check the geographical location etc. To see if the details marry up. This is a incredibly valuable aspect of the program in my opinion, I’m sick of people falling for these scams, and Norton ensures this will never happen.

• Remove dangerous attachments from files you download: If your a fan of Limewire etc. Then at some point or another you have encountered a virus Norton is scanning the whole time you’re downloading, and if a virus appears interlaced in the file it kills the download and destroys the file from your pc.

• Allows only authorised programs to connect to the internet: Some times things find away of attaching themselves to your Dial up or Broadband connection, if you never downloaded these from the internet and installed them from a disc you may with other programs unawares subject yourself to abuse, Norton again stops this dead. And if someone else tries to install a different ISP (internet service provider) without the master users permission it will prevent this from happening too.

• Protect Valuable files from disaster, restore damaged or deleted files, with secured online storage: Primarily this seems great all your files stored somewhere safe online that only you can get too. But this is a swizz in my opinion, this online storage is just 2GB; now while it caters for other Windows programs, 360 caters especially for Windows Vista. If you use Windows Vista you may or may not be aware that on its own that all the files that make Vista what it is are already almost 2GB in size, so the first things you install on your hard drive and Norton is telling you that you have run out of space for backup, and that you should purchase more. Now a major point of sale that PC World salespeople give of Norton 360 is this online back up, they don’t tell you that you’ll fill it in a day and that to increase the size it will cost you an additional £14.99-£34.99, now this on top of the £50 you have just paid for the initial program is some considerable up sell. More annoyingly if you don’t upgrade each time you do a scan it informs you there are issues which can at times panic you into thinking something is seriously wrong, worse still sometimes it wont complete a full scan.
One little issue, if all your info is being stored online what’s to guarantee you without a word of a lie that nobody else will view your personal information. I.e. Norton representatives looking at things when board, after all if all it takes to access this info is your password, and you can request this if you forget it; what’s to stop these guys having a peak?

• Fix and find issues on your PC that make it run slower; and offers a clean sweep system for removal of redundant and unused files: This is another big plus I guess because a separate clean sweep program might cost you £30 on its own, so what you miss out on with one feature you gain in another. It’s nice to have something that gets rid of that lagging situation on a PC before you’re even aware of it.

• 24 hours a day scanning as well as a once a week in depth scan: While the program is always working once a week on a day you specify the PC will scan every single element of your PC ensuring that nothing is getting through. You can also allow your system to do this on an ad hoc basis as and when you need it.

The big deal for me is that unlike other Anti-Virus programs when it does its weekly scan you don’t necessarily notice. In the past on a Friday night from 7pm-9pm my PC was a no go area as the virus scanning was so demanding on the system you could not do anything else; pages on the internet would go so slowly, and normal files would often display page not responding messages. With 360 you honesty have no issues, everything works at exactly the same speed, no delay issues and no annoying noises emanating from your PC’s hard drive.

Norton 360 is always checking for program updates from Norton’s website, so no sooner has someone developed a new virus and unleashed it Norton is on the case and destroying it no sooner has it. So adamant that they are on top of things Norton guarantee you wont fall foul of internet demons, and if in the unlikely event that you do; they’ll pay to sort it out.

While I am annoyed about the backup situation, I ‘m really pleased by the 360 program it really takes care of your system. If your installing or downloading it asks your permission to do anything, and it will never display anything you don’t allow it took making it a child friendly product too. 360 gets a 9 out of 10 as a value product in my eyes. Please note however all your buying for your initial investment is one year’s service, renewing the program after a year is nowhere near the price, so don’t think you’ll be paying £50 a year to keep your PC safe. This one program also caters for up to 3 PC’s usage, so if your greedy and have more than one PC it wont cost you individually to keep your PC’s protected, £50 covers all three (if you have that many) PC’s.

One final point of notice, if you have ever accidentally landed on a pornographic website, either through false links or search engine requests, you might have noticed the continuous popups of varying types and the inability to push the back button. 360 puts a stop to this if more than one pop up generates from a single web page in 30 seconds of arrival it kills them all dead; and the back button always works. 

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