Product Description
Nowadays, it’s absolutely necessary to protect your PC against viruses. Norton Internet Security 2009 is strong on protection and light on system resources, so you’ll be protected without dealing with hang-ups on your co… More >>
$15.99
Norton Internet Security 2009
May 9th, 2010
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After years of running Norton Antivirus products, with ever increasing demands on system resources, as well as slowing down the machines these products were installed on, the completely rewritten version of Norton Internet Security 2009 has gone a very long way towards correcting years of bloatware code that was made worse with every new release.
This version installs fast, runs fast, and is almost entirely unobtrusive, with one very major exception.
This software will break your home or small business network.
In a well-documented bug first discovered in October 2008, Norton interferes with, and eventually blocks access to other machines on your home network. Norton admits there is a problem, and has been stalling customers for months with promises for a fix, yet keeps pushing the release date out further and further.
Install Norton 2009, and eventually all of the computers on your home network under My Network Places will disappear, and will eventually be blocked from access. While you can frequently manually reach your other networked machines by typing their addresses directly into an address bar, software that depends on access to your other networked machines directly (index, backup, small business collaboration tools, etc.) usually cannot work this way, and you are effectively cut off from using those applications. Worse, over time, Norton will begin periodically cutting off access to your networked machines. Suddenly file copying between machines fails, extremely long delays in accessing other computers on your network occurs, and your frustration level mounts.
Norton admits the only current solution to this problem is to completely uninstall Norton 2009 Antivirus/Internet Security products. There is no other workaround.
Worse yet, the responsiveness of the company to major software bugs has been less than acceptable. It literally takes months for even the most urgent bugs to get identified, corrected, and then put through a laborious test procedure. To add insult to injury, it then takes up to six additional weeks for the fixed code to be incorporated into their slow update release schedule and finally reach every customer.
This truly mars an otherwise promising product and makes it an unacceptable option for those dependent on networked machines, such as a home or small business network. If you are dependent on your network to access remote hard drives or collaborate in an office environment, Norton 2009 products are absolutely not acceptable for use and I strongly recommend you look elsewhere until the company finally fixes the problem.
A very lengthy discussion about this problem can be found on the Norton Community Forum. Simply search for “NAV blocks access to hard disk.” The later discussions in the thread contain the most pertinent information.
Rating: 3 / 5
(Product same as one that says ‘No operating system’, but can be installed on 3 PCs)
I have been using NIS since 2006 for both my desktop and laptop for virus protection. While none of them have given significant problems to me, this is by far the best NIS yet!
Installation: Installation was a real snap. It was amazingly quick. Removal of NIS2008 (automatic) took a few minutes and with one restart the whole installation and live update was finished in under 10 minues (My PCs dont have the latest processors: one is a pentium D 3.0G/1g memory and the other is a centrino 1.8 with 2G memory).
Interface: The interface looks very similar to NIS2008, but more sleek and informative. The phising protection and log=in key cards in your browsers look better than before. much smaller though!
Configuration: NIS2009 retained all my configurations regarding which networks are safe and all other preferences from NIS2008. This was great! I didnt have to reconfigure anything (except the add-on; see below), saving me a lot of time. For new users, there are many options configured by default and easy to change.
Anti-virus and internet protection: After installation, I just browsed a number of websites that I usually do. In one website, I got a download installator warning from NIS and the problem was immediately resolved with out any damage to the computer. Looking at the ‘history’, I could see a number of Low risk issues resolved by NIS with out any annoying popups. Ofcourse, you can set NIS to popup for every risk (even the low riks ones) if you like.
More than anything, it retains your subscription to NIS2008. So you dont have to use your new key until your current susbcription expires. You will continue to get NIS2009 virus updates as well. (I recd a couple of comments: Use Norton online account for saving your keys rather than entering the new key during installation) – Read my comment below.
Add-on package: If you used the parental control and privacy protection add-on package with 2008, it gets uninstalled and NIS 2009 does NOT automatically update it!! So, you need to manually install the add on package which can be done from the config window easily. User-specific parental cotrols are carried over from 2008 though! NIS 2009 offers custom parental control settings as well, a little better than 2008 version.
Performance: This is really not a resource hog which use to be one major con of Norton products. It does virus updates more frequently and when the computer is idle. So you dont feel its presence. Only thing that takes long time and consumes resource is the full scan which you dont have to do that often or can schedule it during lunch time!
So I really like it so far!
Rating: 5 / 5
For awhile Norton products went downhill, they lost a lot of their customers due to bogging down a user PC, which made most look elsewhere for system security, I was one of them that looked at other alternatives, but I took the plunge and bought the new Internet Security 2009, and I must say I’m very pleased with what they did, they made this sucker very responsive, and the interface has a nice elegant look. I looked under my task manager and noticed it takes up about 3 to 6 MB of resources, that’s very impressive especially since they include so much with this package. Norton is back in the game after so many years of pain staking slow downs, ESET, AVAST, AVG, TREND MICRO, and others now have something to worry about, because this new version is now doing a better job than the rest, when it comes to speeds. Everyone who is hesitant to go back to this Symantec product should no longer worry, because the new version is a major improvement, If you’re going to buy this wonderful software, I suggest you do it…it is worth every penny.
Another thing I would like to point out, this package includes a handful of features, such as Antivirus, Identity theft protection, Firewall, Browser Protection, Network Maintenance, and free support and upgrades from Symantec, Etc… this includes a one user license and can be installed on 3 user PCs…yet again worth every penny, where can you go wrong with a great package that gives you hardened security and a speedy system. This new version is fantastic, I’m glad I gave Norton a chance again, they’re back in the game, the Internet Security 2009 package packs a punch that’ll make the competition a little bit more nervous. Get this package, you won’t be sorry.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have been using NIS since 2006 for both my desktop and laptop for virus protection. While none of them have given significant problems to me, this is by far the best NIS yet!
Installation: Installation was a real snap. It was amazingly quick. Removal of NIS2008 (automatic) took a few minutes and with one restart the whole installation and live update was finished in under 10 minues (My PCs dont have the latest processors: one is a pentium D 3.0G/1g memory and the other is a centrino 1.8 with 2G memory).
Interface: The interface looks very similar to NIS2008, but more sleek and informative. The phising protection and log=in key cards in your browsers look better than before. much smaller though!
Configuration: NIS2009 retained all my configurations regarding which networks are safe and all other preferences from NIS2008. This was great! I didnt have to reconfigure anything (except the add-on; see below), saving me a lot of time. For new users, there are many options configured by default and easy to change.
Anti-virus and internet protection: After installation, I just browsed a number of websites that I usually do. In one website, I got a download installator warning from NIS and the problem was immediately resolved with out any damage to the computer. Looking at the ‘history’, I could see a number of Low risk issues resolved by NIS with out any annoying popups. Ofcourse, you can set NIS to popup for every risk (even the low riks ones) if you like.
More than anything, it retains your subscription to NIS2008. So you dont have to use your new key until your current susbcription expires. You will continue to get NIS2009 virus updates as well. (Use online validation to get this advantage rather than entering the key or upgrade from http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/support/special/upgrade2007/
and then use the new key when your current subscription expires!).
Add-on package: If you used the parental control and privacy protection add-on package with 2008, it gets uninstalled and NIS 2009 does NOT automatically update it!! So, you need to manually install the add on package which can be done from the config window easily. User-specific parental cotrols are carried over from 2008 though! NIS 2009 offers custom parental control settings as well, a little better than 2008 version.
Performance: This is really not a resource hog which use to be one major con of Norton products. It does virus updates more frequently and when the computer is idle. So you dont feel its presence. Only thing that takes long time and consumes resource is the full scan which you dont have to do that often or can schedule it during lunch time!
So I really like it so far!
Rating: 5 / 5
I have been using NIS 2009 for the past days, and it is has been great so far! This is the best version of Norton Internet Security to date. Three things you will notice about this version of Norton:
1) It is super light. Symantec reputation of having bloatware and slow products are long gone. They have try to turn the table with there 2008 product lines, but Symantec hit the nail in there 2009 products. It is amazing to have a Norton product install on my computer, while not even noticing it. Even with its updating the definitions [etc] (which is very frequent, I will get to that in a moment), you will not notice any slowdown.
2) It is fast. Scanning is fast. By using the newest technology of “Norton Insights”, which is basically a “whitelist” feature, scanning has been reduced. On my computer, quick scan was quick [less than 3 minutes], while the full scan was longer [about 1 hour 30 minutes]. Please note that the full scan was done before I started “Norton Insights”. Either case, the amount of data one’s have in there computer determines the amount of time a Antivirus/Antispyware take in scanning. On a side note, Norton Internet Security 2009 was faster in scanning in comparison to other Antivirus I have use (i.e., Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, Avast, etc).
Boot time was faster as well. Norton Internet Security 2009 started in about 30 seconds or so, which is by far faster than Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 which sometimes took more than a minute to start up on my computer.
Installation was also fast. It took over a minute to fully installed on my computer.
When Symantec was during there 2009 product lines, there main motives was creating a NAV and NIS that will be fast and light in everything it do and it has certainity achieve that very well. To see this in a Symantec product is almost unreal! Please note: I am using a somewhat old computer, about 4-5 years old, and yet Symantec is running smoothing and fast.
3) Pulse Updates. Symantec is now delivering definition updates every 5-15 minutes, which are “small” updates (the bigger updates are downloaded and install every four hours, but LiveUpdate can be started at any time). This is amazing to say the least. Kaspersky was the pioneer in offering updates every 1-2 hours, but Symantec has taken it to a whole new level by offering updates, on average, every five minutes or so. Pulse updates are downloaded and install without a “hag” in the system. Till date, I do not notice Symantec updating and installing the updates. One can see what was the last time Symantec updated the virus definitions by opening Norton Internet Security 2009.
These are three noticeable differences in Symantec new Norton Internet Security 2009. There are many other improvements and features that was added, but these three main differences is what giving Symantec it’s reputation back.
On a security prospective, Symantec is still delivering top-notch protection and security [detection rates was never the problem with Syamntec Norton]. One can see all the test results online. On the latest Virus Bulletin 100, only McAfee, Symantec, Microsoft and Sophos passed the test, while several others, including F-Secure, Kaspersky and Computer Associates, fell short of the certification [...]. As for as Virus Bulletin is concern, one have to go back to 1999 to find a time when Norton didn’t pass the VB100% test.
I am enjoying Norton Internet Security 2009 and many others are as well. I even dumped Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 for it. Now, those who are Norton Haters will always bash Symantec Norton no matter how well Symantec has improved and perform. It’s in there nature. The only ones who have given NIS 2009 bad ratings are Norton Bashers who are still living in the past. I guarantee you that these haters have not try NIS 2009 but are just basing there judgments on past experience and Symantec Norton Internet Security past reputation of being Bloatware and Resource hog.
It is incredible to say the least, but while they basing there judgments on past experience with Symamtec Norton, I and many others, are basing our judgments on the present reality of Norton Internet Security 2009 which is fast, lightweight, and has great Antivirus and Firewall. People change, companies change. Give the product a chance for crying out loud. This is the best version of Symantec Norton Internet Security till date. Try it out, and you will be impressed!
Thanks Symantec for giving this wonderful product! Keep up the good work!
Rating: 5 / 5