Symantec/Norton AV

[Kodiak]

Symantec is made by Norton correct? I have heard people say Symantec is the best and in the same breath they say they wouldn't have Norton AV on there machine because it is a piece of junk. Is this true and what is the difference or are they the same only different in looks ?

[t34b4g5]

There the same company.

wouldn't have there stuff on any of my machines, resource hog amongst other things.

Beside's why pay heaps for something when i can get the same result from a free program..

[NooNoo]

Kodiak, some people adore Norton, others hate it.

I have had to remove it from machines which were too low spec to support Norton/Symantec AV or Internet Security or whatever they are calling it this week.

Norton does a reasonable job for the price... it's problem is that being one of the best known that it gets attacked and turned off, while appearing to be on. As a result, the machine is screwed over. Norton's other problem is that it does not uninstall cleanly and leaves virtual devices which can prevent the system from booting at all.

Most people are happy with the job it does.

[CeeBee]

Norton = "home" products
Symantec = "enterprise" products
I've been using the Symantec AV for the last 6-7 years, both at home and at work, 0 infections to date.
Although they are supposed to share the same engine and defs, I've seen by far more issues with "Norton" than with "Symantec".
They both put a strain on your system, by far more than AVG (for example), but I prefer it over AVG as I have a "defs updater" that I wrote which updates the definitions on the server every hour... that is 24x more frequently than all the free ones And indeed, this thing has saved my butt MANY times when our mail server was receiving infected messages that were already filtered by a paid service with a 4-hour max definition update.

[Niclo Iste]

I have a "defs updater" that I wrote which updates the definitions on the server every hour... that is 24x more frequently than all the free ones

NOD32 natively checks every hour as I've seen my own update 3 times in a 4 hour span due to them adding dat files that dealt with a threat that was upcoming. Not to mention there is a setting to tell it how frequently to check for updates.

[BOB IROC]

I see a big difference in Consumer level products and enterprise level products. This has held true for both Symantec and McAfee. I use McAfee enterprise at work and at home and it is a much better product than compared with their consumer line. It seems like they try to make their consumer lines more flashy and graphical in an attempt to I guess make them more user friendly but they just end up eating up more resources and causing more problems.

[Ferrit]

Up till about 2 years ago Norton antivirus was a resource hog.
The last couple versions have been significantly better.
That's not to say I haven't had some issues with installs going bad or upgrades messing up. They all have their issues it seems. Symantec AV is what I use for businesses as it has somewhat better pricing for the licenses and it uses less resources. BUT and I do say BUT. These computers are not surfing the net as a home computer would. I have had zero issues with the symantec antivirus. None of the other products like NIS or Norton 360 is even worth looking at. They are hideously bloated, complicated pieces of trash software. Nothing but issues and far too complicated for users.
So i thought I will try this new antivirus "Viper" which counterspy claims is the smallest footprint. Bought 2 licenses. Installs nicely, looks good, updates and stays out of my face. Well till I try to use my Thunderbird email. Then it turns into the slowest antivirus on the planet. It's almost always easier to shut off the av, then call for the mail. Very stupid thing as usually its email where the issues are. They are apparently fixing it. I should also mention it worked perfect on the downloaded version but they updated it and then broke it.
Sound familiar? Hehehe
They all have their problems and issues

[slgrieb]

Symantec is made by Norton correct? I have heard people say Symantec is the best and in the same breath they say they wouldn't have Norton AV on there machine because it is a piece of junk. Is this true and what is the difference or are they the same only different in looks ?

Back in the Ancient Days (about PC-DOS/MS-DOS 2.0) Peter Norton Computing hit it big with the Norton Utilities, and programs like Norton Commander (basically a DOS shell) and eventually Norton Antivirus. Around 2000, Symantec bought them. For a smile and an Attaboy, who remembers what Symantec did before they bought Norton?

Anyway, Symantec's AV products have remained about as good as any product on the market at detecting traditional viruses, but still need help from a tool such as Spybot. Unfortunately, while resource usage for Norton AV has gotten less intensive, scan times are still really lengthy, and I see more installation/uninstallation problems with recent versions.

Symantec's corporate products are still the easiest to deploy and manage for a network, but I think NOD32 is fairly close, and it provides a more detailed level of reporting, and is just a more effective product.

[Kodiak]

When someone say's their pc is running real slow and they have Norton it's one of the first piece's of software I remove and have always installed Avast but recently I have been doing side work for a un named mobile service and they give symantic to me for free and it seems much less of a resource hog then Norton which I have never had on my machine but I see what it does to others. I never see sym. in the ranking's of any comparison tests so I was wondering just how good it is.

[NooNoo]

Symantec is corporate, a whole different ball game. You won't see it on domestic software review sites. Even independent labs such as cascadia are sponsored by the big AV companies.... so which is best? All you can do is evaluate each product in a given scenario.... and no, one product does not fit all scenarios.

[Guts3d]

Symantec corporate edition works well for me and my customers.

[Matridom]

I`ll toss in another vote for symantec. I use it at home and i`ve never had a single issue, always up to date and most importantly, it`s not in your face telling you how good it is, unlike the home version.

[rgharper]

Add another vote for Symantec Corporate version. Very good software, extremely unobtrusive, highly stable; unlike the retail "suite" products they also sell.

[Kodiak]

I don't see any auto updating, does this require manual updates to be performed?

[Matridom]

I don't see any auto updating, does this require manual updates to be performed?

File - Schedual updates

There is never a prompt and/or indication that it`s updating. I just does so.