Norton Internet Security 2008

Pros: It encourages patience building hobbies

Cons: Computer cannot be used when its running

Summary: POS.
I could stop there. But I will share my experience.

I didn't believe all the bad reviews here on cnet. I read the first three that gave it 8 & 9's and praised it for being wonderful. I took their word for it. I hate to knock people's opinion of stuff, but they must not use their computer for anything, have the patience of Job, or worry way toooo much about getting a virus. Personally, functionality of the computer is more important than a virus protector. If your computer is so slow that it can't be used, then what's the point of protecting it.

I had Norton AV 2006 installed on my machine that has 256 MB RAM and a 1.8 GHZ processor. After turning some of the automatic stuff off, it worked ok. I would give it a B+. When I installed NIS 2008, my computer went from B+ to dropping out of school. To access the internet, literally, no joke, I would click the button and go into another room and do something and come back and the thing would still be loading. Refreshing pages brought the same frustration. This slowness even extended into opening programs and files already installed on my computer, such as pictures, word files, excel files, etc. It has cost me several auctions on ebay because I cannot bid fast enough. And I am not talking about bidding with less than 1 minute, I am talking about getting a bid in with 2 or 3 minutes left. Simple things such as reading email now take upwards of 30 minutes with the slowdown time.

I tried turning off as much stuff as I could to make it run faster. They use their proprietary trade names for options such as bloodstone heuritics, so I have no idea what I am turning off and no way to figure it out. I even searched yahoo for that same name and couldn't find any info. I basically turned off everything and I think it made it worse. Then I went into the processes on task manager and shut down stuff that I thought was associated with NIS. No help.

I then thought I would implore Symantec for help. If you go to their website, you find that calling them costs $10.00, you can download some of their software to engage in a free online chat (I don't want any more of thier stuff on my machine), or you can email them. I chose the latter, as the cheapest least invasive solution. I was informed that they would get back with me in 96 hours. Its been almost 48, and nothing. I suspect it will stay that way based on other peoples stories on here. If they do reply, I expect they will tell me to upgrade my computer or internet service. This would show their intelligence, since I have the stuff uninstalled and my computer is back up to par on speed.

I am now honestly believing that they have viruses embedded in the software or it is a virus itself. From what I have read, even though I have uninstalled, there are still traces of it on my machine. It slows your computer to a grinding halt. I have had viruses in the past, and what do you know, similar outcomes.

In short, I will never ever buy another one of their products and take the chance of ruining a machine. I believe that cnet only puts the good ratings on the front page because they don't want to be accused of bashing the juggernaut. I realize that this will be buried probably on the back page or banned, but if just one person reads it and saves themselves a headache, I will feel like I had a moral victory. Everyone who loves it is just being kind or they don't really care. If it didn't lock your machine up, it would probably be great since their are a ton of cool programs on it (which lured me in).

Now, on to find what to replace it with. My final thoughts are below:

WOEFUL, PATHETIC, GET READY FOR YOUR STAY AT THE NUT HOUSE IF YOU INSTALL! I AM NOT THE COMPLAINING TYPE, HAVE NEVER POSTED A BAD REVIEW, BUT THIS ONE PROMPTED ME TO. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, BUT DON'T SAY YOU WEREN'T WARNED.