Norton Internet Security 2007 user reviews

Pros Strong product feature set with light demands on system resources

Cons Some features require download of add-in rather than allowing users to select product options during install

Summary Until testing this release of NIS, most of what I had to say about Norton's protection products wasn't very positive -- resource hog, bloatware, inefficient, etc. However, with NIS 2007, Symantec has turned things around in a big way.

The out-of-the-box slimmed down version of NIS is light on resource usage while providing superior protection. The antivirus, antispyware and firewall make a formidable combination, and features like rootkit detection are an added bonus.

The only negative that I see is for those that want added features (e.g. spam blocking, parental controls), they have to download an add-in from Symantec's web site. These features should be options the user can select on installation (although anyone who uses any security suite's antispam features is, by definition, using a poor solution for dealing with the spam problem).

After having downloaded and tried new versions of products by Trend Micro, Zone Alarm, Kaspersky, and others, all put a bigger drain on system resources than NIS 2007. And while a few other security suites are equally light on their feet, their quirky performance and substandard feature set rule them out as competition for NIS.

So while I can't believe I'm saying this, NIS 2007 is the best choice of the new internet security suites available this fall.

Pros Decent product performance for first 3 months

Cons Customer service tech call center

Summary After talking to NINE different service reps, and EIGHT hours on the phone, my problem was still not fixed. The service reps are all indian call center workers, who ONLY follow their onscreen script. If you try to speak to them like a person, they immediately direct the conversation back to the script. Additionally, I had a supervisor call me to see if the last solution worked, and when I reported this all to him, he asked me to please hold, then hung up on me 10 minutes later without addressing the issues. Unbelieveable!

Pros Not sure, because I couldn't get it working

Cons Missing functionality & Not working as expected (I did not pay to Beta Test)

Summary Well,

Like every year I upgraded Vs just renewing my subscription.

I did not like the fact that when I downloaded the product it automatically started the installation (I was not given the choice of download only.) I cancelled the installation when it stopped with a pop-up telling me that I had to un-install MS Defender due to incompatibility. This was just as well because it gave me the opportunity to un-install the 2006 version first.

When I upgraded last year I still had at least two weeks left on my 2005 subscription, but ended up loosing that time, despite what customer service told me, once I installed the 2006 version. In order to avoid loosing the remaining subscription time on the 2006 version, so once again I contacted customer service, who told me in I would need to un-install 2006, install 2007, and then they would add the time onto the 2007 subscription. She passed me to technical support for the un-install/install process after which I was told I just needed to run Live Update and the time would be added on to my subscription.

Well, not only didn’t the additional time show up, but I started getting error messages left and right after Live Update completed. I restarted my computer in case one of the updates required a fresh start (even though I was not prompted), and the problems did not go away, but at least I was given a message telling me I needed to run check disk due to file corruption. I ran check disk with the slash “R” option to correct any problems found and noticed the only files that had problems were from Internet Security.

Things seemed better until I attempted to look at settings and received a message telling me one of the program files was not valid. Technical support gathered information and told me they would get back to me within 48 hours. I was told I should leave my system in the current state during this time, which seemed OK to me since the only problem seemed to be changing NIS settings.

Well, my scheduled Perfect Disk 8 defrag ran and recommended that I execute an offline defrag and that is when I got fed up used my backup to restore my computer to the exact state it was in the day before I attempted the Symantec upgrade.

I have left a number of things out, but I feel this is already over done!

Pros Somewhat less bloated than earlier versions, slightly less onerous install

Cons Dropped Parental Control in 2007 version

Summary Norton is a resource pig, but it does do a very credible job of keeping bad stuff out of your computer. NIS 2007 is better and cleaner than 2006 in most respects. But one important feature in prior versions, Parental Control, was dropped without notice (just try and find that on the Symantec website). Having now tried out alternatives in an attempt to avoid the "Norton Tax" on my system, I've realized that NIS 2006's Parental Control was superior to most other products, in that correctly worked with multiple Windows User Accounts and provided easy whitelisting. So the one feature Norton had over it's competitors is the one they dropped!

Windows Vista is reputed to have strong parental control features, and Symantec they probably figured they could drop the feature now.

If you just need firewall and anti-virus, try ZoneAlarm. It's faster, cheaper. In my case, I'm sticking with NIS 2006 (to give Symantec credit, they refunded my purchase).