Product Description

Norton 360¿ Version 2.0 delivers reliable, industry-leading protection for everything the computer users your family care about¿without sacrificing PC performance. Running quietly in the background, it automatically detects and blocks viruses, spyware, hackers, and other online threats, delivering comprehensive protection without confusing security alerts that interrupt your computing experience. It protects you from identity theft and phishing scams by verifying trusted Web sites and blocking fake ones. Plus, its new Identity Safe securely manages logins, passwords, and other sensitive information such as credit card numbers and fills in forms automatically when you shop or bank online. With a renewable subscription, your home network¿including up to three PCs¿is continuously protected, safeguarding family members when they play games, send email, download files, shop, or surf the Web¿even wirelessly. That¿s because the new Norton 360 network security feature monitors the security status of your wireless network and alerts you when you connect to an unsecured network. Norton 360 also keeps PCs optimized and tuned for peak performance and protects the data on them by making it easy to back up photos, music, and financial records and restore them at any time. Flexible options allow you to back up your files to CD, DVD, and USB devices and to new backup destinations, including HD-DVD, Blu-ray Disc¿, and iPod®. You can also set up convenient, automatic backups to an attached hard drive or a secured online storage service* to protect your files in the event something happens to your PC. For enhanced performance, Norton 360 automatically schedules key functions such as scans, backups, and tuneups to occur in the background so they don¿t interfere with your computing activities. And the new release features faster scanning and less memory usage, giving Norton 360 Version 2.0 an unmatched combination of speed and protection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #489 in Software
• Brand: Symantec
• Model: 13579212
• Released on: 2008-03-13
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: .55 pounds

Features

• PC security defends you against a broad range of online threats--protects your computer and makes your online experience more secure
• Identity protection safeguards you against online identity theft--protects against fraud and theft
• Automatic backup and restore protects your important files from loss--safeguards irreplaceable photos, movies, music, and more
• PC tuneup keeps your PC running at peak performance--helps your PC run faster and keeps it running the way it's supposed to
• Network monitoring--helps protect your home network

Amazon.com Product Description
Norton 360 Version 2.0 provides reliable, industry-leading protection for everything computer users care about--without sacrificing PC performance. Running quietly in the background, it stops viruses, spyware, and other online threats, delivering comprehensive protection without confusing security alerts that interrupt your computing experience. It protects you from identity theft and phishing scams by verifying trusted Web sites and blocking fake ones, and its new Identity Safe securely manages logins, passwords, and other sensitive information such as credit card numbers whenever you shop, bank, or browse online. Norton 360 also helps keep PCs tuned for peak performance and protects important files by automatically backing them up and letting you restore them at any time.

Reliable, industry-leading protection for everything computer users care about--without sacrificing PC performance. Click to enlarge.

Key Technologies

Antivirus Antispyware Email scanning Antiphishing Rootkit detection Identity protection Web site authentication Network monitoring

Firewall protection Automatic backup and restore 2 GB of secure online storage PC performance tuneups Automatic updates Embedded support Optional Antispam and Parental controls

Comprehensive, automated protection.

Enhanced performance
Provides industry-leading protection without sacrificing performance:

• Fast scan and browse speeds
• Less memory use than the average used by competing products
• PC Security with industry leading virus, spyware and firewall protection

Identity Safe
New--Protects your personal information and your identity when you buy, bank, and browse online:

• Blocks fraudulent Web sites and verifies trusted ones
• Conveniently and securely manages user names and passwords for you
• Phishing Protection guards online attempts to steal your personal information by blocking fraudlent websites and verifies trusted ones.

Backup and restore:

• Protects photos, music, and documents with automated backup
• Supports new backup destinations including Blu-ray Disc, HD-DVD, and iPod
• Automatically detects and backs up your critical files
• Includes 2 GB of secured online storage (with option to purchase additional storage)

Network monitoring:

• Lets you view your wireless network and each device connected to it
• Displays the security status of all the Norton products on your network
• Alerts you when you connect to an unsecured wireless network

Browser Protection
Protects against Web-based drive-by downloads that use vulnerabilities in your browser to insert malware on your PC

Easy protection of your PC and online activities
Norton 360 threat handling, scans, and tuneups are conducted quietly in the background:

• Automatically optimizes and maintains your PC for peak performance
• Automatically cleans up unnecessary Internet clutter and temporary files
• Helps optimize Windows¨ performance by removing unneeded registry files

One-click support
Provides one-click access to expert support right from your Norton product:

• Fast access to expert support through email, live chat, or phone

Protection updates
Includes protection updates and new product features as available throughout the renewable service period 

Ongoing protection
Keeps your computer protected from the latest Internet risks by automatically renewing your subscription at the regular subscription price (plus applicable tax), so you don't have to do it. For more information, click here.

Optional antispam and parental controls
Enables you to download antispam and parental controls via the Norton Add-on Pack

Free Technical Support
NEW! Free tech support delivers the help you need, however you need it.

Which Norton Solution Is Right For Me?

Customer Reviews

So close, but so far
This is my revised review of Norton 360 version 2.0. I previously had given a positive review and my review was rated as "The most helpful favorable review". However, after extended use of the product I have to remove my first review and mark this product as DEFECTIVE. I believe that if the professional review sites that have given this product positive reviews were to run extended trials and followed a policy of revising their initial ratings that they also would drop their ratings after they find that the product starts failing after extended use.

I installed the Norton 360 version 2.0 trial edition downloaded from Norton's website and ran it for 13 days on my Windows Vista SP1 PC before activating it. During that time my system did not have any noticeable computer slowdowns and it ran in the background without any need for intervention. It also ran just fine for another 7 days after purchasing a license and activating it.

Sounds great, right? Well, in my second week of owning it, Norton 360 v2 suddenly started having "Service Framework" failures and told me I should reboot my PC to ensure stable operation. I found that I better heed the warning and reboot, because my Quad core PC with 3 GB of RAM would turn into a brick that barely functioned. This is really, really annoying when you are in the middle of doing something and suddenly you have to interrupt your work to reboot the computer... oh and saving your work takes about 10 times as long since the computer suddenly doesn't want to function.

I went through tech support and they had me try a lot of different fixes, including doing a complete uninstall and reinstall of the product. Doing a reinstall actually seemed to make things better for a few days and then suddenly Norton 360 decided it was time to start failing at random intervals again. I looked on message boards and found that some people claimed that there might be a corrupt file on your system that Norton was scanning and failing on. The problem with that claim is that is 1) Reinstalling the product and doing a "comprehensive" scan didn't cause a failure so I don't think that is really the root cause and 2) even if that was the root cause, if a security product like Norton is going to crash when it finds a corrupt file, then exactly what value does the product provide? Do you really want to go on a witch hunt for corrupt files on your computer every few days when Norton starts failing on you?

BOTTOM LINE: I wish I could recommend the product, but I CANNOT RECOMMEND. It simply is DEFECTIVE. When it works, it works great, but it is NOT STABLE and I believe that any installation of it WILL EVENTUALLY START CRASHING EVEN IF IT SEEMS TO WORK AT FIRST.

If you decide to buy anyway, here are a few notes:

- By default eavesdropping protection is turned off. You can enable it via the settings page. I saw in a professional review that they really recommended turning this feature on.

- You need to ensure that any other virus or firewall programs that you have installed are fully uninstalled before installing this product. Having multiple competing products installed can really mess up your system. I used the Norton removal tool from their web site to fully remove the trial version of Norton Internet Security that I was using prior to installing this software.

- If you are uncertain about this product, download the free trial from symantec first, but note that my problems with the product didn't show up until about day 20 of having it installed.

- If you choose to download the full version of the software from symantec, they place a copy of the full version under C:\ProgramData\Symantec Temporary Files on Windows Vista. Just grab a copy of the software and back it up. This way you don't have to pay to have an "extended download period". Or just keep a copy of the trial version around since it allows you to activate it using the product key that the symantec store gives you.

- If you are deciding between purchasing the shipped package from Amazon or Symantec, I would choose Amazon in a heart beat. Amazon customer service rocks. You also could probably download the trial version from symantec, buy the package from Amazon, and then just enter the product code from the Amazon package in the trial software once the Amazon package arrives.

Norton 360 is a resource hog
I am a Norton Utilities and Antivirus user from way back in the DOS days. I was actually more of a fan of Norton products. They were great. Reliable. Efficient. They did the job.

I migrated over time to many version of Norton products. I really liked that earlier version of Systemworks that ran on W95 and W98. With the Systemworks that was designed for XP, I noted a reduction of functionality. My last version of Systemworks was version 2003. An okay version, but not as useful as 2001.

I decided earlier this year to upgrade to Norton's latest utilities. After all, I was loyal and I trusted Norton. I went with Norton 360 2.0.

Prior to making my purchase decision, I did research the reviews on many sites. I saw mixed reviews that ranged from "works great" to "I had so many problems that I had to uninstall it". The reviews were for version 1. At the time there were no reviews for 2.0. I needed to upgrade to something and decided to take a plunge with 2.0. Remember, I was a loyal Norton user. I figured/hoped that Norton would have addressed the problems and criticisms on version 1. It was Norton after all!

My loyalty and blind faith in Norton was a blunder. This program is a pig. It uses enormous quantities of resources, When it runs scans you can just forget about doing anything else. It often will take a huge slices of CPU time just check the status of its components. It is not a good neighbor with your other applications. When it wants to run, it runs and takes everything with it. It acts like it is the most important application on your computer. Its just a utility and needs to accept that status and run in the background at a lower priority.

It is very difficult to minimize its impact your system. You can set some functions to manual including updates and scans. However, it is always trying to reset everything to automatic. Hit "fix" on one of the warning flags and all of the automatic settings are restored.

I had to go into Task Manager or Services on occasion to kill Norton 360 processes in order to get things done that I needed to do at that moment. If I didn't stop the offending Norton 360 process, some of my applications that did real work for me would not run properly (they would run excruciatingly slow). I can not imagine what users that did not have the systems background would do. They were/are just screwed.

I have decided to go elsewhere for my security needs. The Norton that I trusted and liked does not exist anymore. RIP.

-- August 18, 2008 addendum --

I tried to submit the next comment as a separate post. I can only have one post so I am adding this to my earlier review.

Are you a gambler?

There appears to be a segment that love the product and an equal or slightly greater segment that hate the product. While the numerical standing of the reviews are not necessarily statistically accurate, they do form a image of the level of satisfaction for the product. Any manufacturer that gets the responses that this product received should be very concerned.

It is believable that those that have had a good experience with the product had a system at the time that worked well with it. Was it the quantity of processes running on their system, their systems resources or any other particular quality that makes their system unique. It does not matter to them or us what it was since it worked acceptably. It should matter to the manufacturer so that they can determine what works. Hopefully for the happy users their experience will continue to be good.

Some of the unhappy customers reported good results after the initial install. However, things started to go in the wrong direction after a few days or weeks.

I find that the overall apparent level of technical expertise was on the higher end for the unhappy customers. Most likely, these customers have tried various approaches to remedy the poor performance that they experienced. Reinstalls. Calls to customer service. Tweaking the system settings in Windows. More calls to customer service. These are not the steps that should be undertaken by any user except for very specific or rare situations. As mentioned earlier, the manufacturer should be very concerned about this product and the effect that it may have on their reputation.

This is a product advertised for mainstream distribution and usage. As such, it should install easily and run without conflict with the majority of other applications. It is a utility and should be in the background 99% of the time. If a productivity application is actively running, the utility should release resources and assume a lower priority. It should be able to detect idle periods and run resource consuming processes at those times.

So what do you do if you are considering purchasing this product and you reading these reviews? Are you going to be one of the lucky and happy customers or are you going to have problems? How much of a gambler are you?

With Proper Setup Runs like a Charm
While I can review a computer game after "beating it" - often a week or two after purchase - with Norton 360 I waited several months after installing it to come to any judgement. There is always a learning curve with any serious software product where you tweak the settings, learn what combination works well for you, and so on. I really feel a serious package like this should be tested out for many weeks - not days - before a decision is made about it.

I run Norton 360 on my main home PC, from which I run several websites. This means I am running database development software, graphic editing software, video editing software, logging software and much more on this machine. Plus I'm a game reviewer, so I'm running some pretty intensive games on it as well. My machine does a great variety of things. You would think if an issue was going to trigger, that I'd probably trigger it.

I definitely agree that you need to spend a little time setting up the software to work well with your surfing and net patterns. Someone who does a lot of networking operations might need ports more open than someone who just reads email and wants their computer locked up tightly. Now, that being said, the interface is rather straightforward to do this. Once you set it up, you're all set.

I haven't run into any issues with Norton 360 once it was set up well. Yes I had to do some tweaking to get my various POP mail accounts working - many of which are customized and using non-standard ports. It was a one time operation, and has been set since then.

In terms of the quality of the anti-virus software, I always give Norton very high marks. Our cable company provided free anti-virus software as part of our cable bill. Virusses got right through their "shield". When I put on Norton, Norton instantly spotted those virusses and eliminated them without any fuss.

I completely agree that some systems out there might have issues with this software package, just like some people are deathly allergic to peanuts. Where an XBox 360 is a perfect clone of every other XBox 360 out there, every PC is unique. Every person has different internet settings, different mail software, and perhaps most importantly, different virusses and spyware that have snuck on your system. Undoubtedly there is always going to be some unique blend of these things that causes a system to crash - with OR without Norton 360. In general, though, I really feel Norton 360 should work extremely well on most systems.

Well recommended - but as always, back up your system before beginning, and have your network documentation handy so you know which specific ports you happen to be personally using, to keep those open.