Norton Internet Security 2009 - €37.49

Pegasus15 · 30-11-2008 11:08AM #1

I was up in PC World in Airside Retail Park recently purchasing Norton Internet Security 2009. On the shelf, it was marked as €74.99, but when I took it to the till the cashier told me that it was half price at the moment and as such €37.49. She didn't specify how long it'd be half price, but she did say she was going to get the price on the shelf changed so the offer might only be starting.

Hope this is of interest.

SQDD · 30-11-2008 11:50PM

Or you could try AVG, free and miles better than Norton, no annoying popups reminding you to re-enter your credit card for their scam anti virus!

boopolo · 30-11-2008 11:58PM

No offence, but I wouldn't even put it on my computer for free.
AVG is good but some problems with VISTA for some users.

cute_cow · 01-12-2008 12:08AM

boopolo wrote: »

No offence, but I wouldn't even put it on my computer for free.
AVG is good but some problems with VISTA for some users.

+1

I had it on my laptop and wouldn't pick up the virus that was on it, took it off and installed AVG and all was well.

Stay away from it, you're far better off!!

bk · 01-12-2008 02:27AM

Norton Internet Security suite has been completely re-written this year and has won numerous best security suite awards.

Check out the detailed review here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330018,00.asp

AVG is absolute rubbish in comparison.

This can be installed on up to 3 PC's so this deal is great value for money. I picked up two copies today for my family and I, thanks very much Pegasus15.

yoyo · 01-12-2008 02:45AM

Avira imo is a good freeware antivirus, came out top in av-comparitives poll, and is lite on resources,

Nick

BostonB · 01-12-2008 03:07AM

Norton has been getting great reviews in the computing mags for years. Yet in my experience its complete crud with lots of problems. So you have to wonder about the Mag reviews. Maybe this 2009 version is better, but I'm very skeptical. The free alternatives have a much better track record, and are well free!

daftdave · 01-12-2008 03:26AM

anything that makes you download a "removal tool" to be able to remove it from a pc is a no on for me - sensible browsing and downloading coupled with a few free apps from the net has kept my machine's clean for the last 8 yrs s!!

bk · 01-12-2008 10:25AM

BostonB wrote: »

Norton has been getting great reviews in the computing mags for years. Yet in my experience its complete crud with lots of problems. So you have to wonder about the Mag reviews. Maybe this 2009 version is better, but I'm very skeptical. The free alternatives have a much better track record, and are well free!

Honest to god, hand on heart, it is excellent.

I use to absolutely hate Symantec products and I thought the exact same way about their products as you guys, they have been the bane of my life for many years. Norton Systemworks use to do the complete opposite of what it was supposed to do (speed up your PC) and uninstalling it and Norton AV use to be the first step in significantly speed up PC's.

The only good product I've ever used from them is Ghost and that was bought from another company.

However recently I had to install it for a friend on an effected PC and I was blown away by how much it had improved and how good it was now. It installed very quickly and didn't need a reboot. It used very little system resources, far less then my combination of separate apps (Nod32, Zonealarm, etc.) and is extremely clean and easy to use interface (great for non technical family and friends).

I suppose there is only so long your product can be absolutely despised by people like us in the IT industry before you are forced to re-write your app from the ground up. Honestly you guys should give it another try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

SQDD · 01-12-2008 12:52PM

Seriously man, do you work for synamtec?! I work with laptops all the time, generally for people who are unfamiliar with computers and the first port of call is always removing the crapware virus that comes preinstalled - generally norton or mcafee. Honestly they must be paying manufacturers a bomb to put their rubbish onto a computer that misleads customers out of cash. Honestly, let's say you're paying E100 for the windows license, why in gods name would you pay nearly half that again (or E75 snigger) just to "protect" it, make no mistake, all those antivirus companies are in the scam business. You're way off calling avg crap. There are plenty of free alternatives, I was just giving an example. NOD32 is very good too. No wonder their UI is good, they're marketing themselves to exploit suckers who don't know much about computers.
Why is it a bargain, it's still over E35. It isn't worth E75 and it's not worth E35, like previously mentioned by another poster, i wouldn't install it if it was available free.

AVOID!

rubadub · 01-12-2008 01:13PM

bk wrote: »

Check out the detailed review here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330018,00.asp

AVG is absolute rubbish in comparison.

They give norton 4.5stars, and AVG 4 stars, not exact rubbishing it.

I got rid of macafees on my fathers and it speed up hugely with AVG, he was all set to get a new PC it was so slow, it was like a new machine again. Another mate did the same with norton, might have been an older version. I hate all the popups on macafee & norton telling you how great they are "oh we got another virus, you would be screwed without us, hope you keep up the subscription, now that we have scared you sh-itless not to", I do not see nearly as many pop ups etc with AVG or AVAST, if they do come up they go quickly. I have yet to try avira but hear good things.

So you have to wonder about the Mag reviews.

Adverts keep these mags alive, of course they praise their advertisers, I am surprised they give free software decent reviews at all, it is in their interest to put people off them.

bk · 01-12-2008 02:03PM

rubadub wrote: »

I got rid of macafees on my fathers and it speed up hugely with AVG, he was all set to get a new PC it was so slow, it was like a new machine again. Another mate did the same with norton, might have been an older version. I hate all the popups on macafee & norton telling you how great they are "oh we got another virus, you would be screwed without us, hope you keep up the subscription, now that we have scared you sh-itless not to", I do not see nearly as many pop ups etc with AVG or AVAST, if they do come up they go quickly. I have yet to try avira but hear good things.

If your looking for a free AV, then I highly recommend Avast or Avira over AVG. Avast and Avira are far better, the latest versions of AVG use a lot more resources then in the past and they have done a few things recently that has pissed off a lot of folks in the IT industry:

AVG Virus Scanner Removes Critical Windows File
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/10/2319209

AVG Fakes User Agent, Floods the Internet
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/03/1411254

SQDD wrote:

Seriously man, do you work for synamtec?!

No I don't, I do work as a Software Engineer and many people here on boards know who I work for and it has no connection with the computer security industry.

SQDD wrote:

Why is it a bargain, it's still over E35. It isn't worth E75 and it's not worth E35, like previously mentioned by another poster, i wouldn't install it if it was available free.

Because, it can be installed on 3 PC's and it isn't just an AV prog, it also includes trojan/spyware detection and removal, an excellent firewall and anti-phising system.

Sure, you can get much the same effect for free with:
- Avast/Avira
- Zonealarm
- MS Defeneder, similar progs
- Firefox (built in anti-phising)

But I have found that this suite uses significantly less resources then these separate apps put together and importantly for non technical users, is far easier to use and maintain then these separate apps.

I use to always install the above apps on family and friends machines, but I use to get constant calls from them about Zonealarm asking about a program needing to access the web or needing to remind them to do a full scan or update (often the free version of these apps don't do scheduled scans or automatic updates, you need to buy the pro version for this).

Since switching them to Norton I don't get these calls any more and I've had no complaints about slow machines or virus/trojan infections. It has made life much easier for me.

I'm certainly not saying it is right for everyone, if you can't afford €37 then certainly, go for the free ones, it is better then nothing. But what I am saying is that Norton has improved massively from the past, it is probably the most improvement I've ever seen in an app in one year.

If you don't believe me, why don't you go and try out the 30 day trial for yourself, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

boopolo · 01-12-2008 02:12PM

bk wrote: »

Norton Internet Security suite has been completely re-written this year and has won numerous best security suite awards.

Check out the detailed review here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330018,00.asp

AVG is absolute rubbish in comparison.

This can be installed on up to 3 PC's so this deal is great value for money. I picked up two copies today for my family and I, thanks very much Pegasus15.

You are entitled to your opinion. So you bought 2. That will do six computers. My Avg will do 1,000s of computers for free. But I have experience of both over many years and wouldn't waste my money.

The only PAID such software i have any time for is PC TOOLS Spyware Doctor anti spyware/adware. This together with AVG imo is the best.

boo

bk · 01-12-2008 02:29PM

boopolo wrote: »

You are entitled to your opinion. So you bought 2. That will do six computers. My Avg will do 1,000s of computers for free. But I have experience of both over many years and wouldn't waste my money.

Again I highly recommend Avast or Avira over AVG.

Note Avast includes anti-spyware for free, but I'd recommend using it in conjunction with other spy-ware apps like MS defender.

I suppose there is an important lesson for all programmers/software companies to learn here, even if you completely re-write your app and it is excellent now, it will be very hard for people to overcome and forgive the bad experiences they had in the past with your software.

Get it right the first time and listen and respond to your customers complaints. Had Symantec done the re-write years ago, they might have a much better reputation today or any positive reputation at all.

CiaranC · 01-12-2008 02:33PM

boopolo wrote: »

You are entitled to your opinion. So you bought 2. That will do six computers. My Avg will do 1,000s of computers for free. But I have experience of both over many years and wouldn't waste my money.

The only PAID such software i have any time for is PC TOOLS Spyware Doctor anti spyware/adware. This together with AVG imo is the best.

boo

If you are running AVG on 1000s of computers you are required to pay for it.

Also, PC Tools Spyware Doctor is a Symantec product.

Fighting Irish · 01-12-2008 04:24PM

Kaspersky > *

and fook paying for software

Fighting Irish · 01-12-2008 04:25PM

bk wrote: »

Again I highly recommend Avast or Avira over AVG.

Note Avast includes anti-spyware for free, but I'd recommend using it in conjunction with other spy-ware apps like MS defender.

I suppose there is an important lesson for all programmers/software companies to learn here, even if you completely re-write your app and it is excellent now, it will be very hard for people to overcome and forgive the bad experiences they had in the past with your software.

Get it right the first time and listen and respond to your customers complaints. Had Symantec done the re-write years ago, they might have a much better reputation today or any positive reputation at all.

Are avast and NOD32 the same thing?

bk · 01-12-2008 04:32PM

Fighting Irish wrote: »

Kaspersky > *

and fook paying for software

Kaspersky is not free, you have to pay for it.

And if no one pays for software, who will write it?

Fighting Irish wrote: »

Are avast and NOD32 the same thing?

Yes basically, they are both well regarded anti virus and anti spyware applications.

However Avast is free for personal home use, while NOD32 is not (however it is reasonably priced).

Anan · 01-12-2008 04:51PM

bk wrote: »

I suppose there is an important lesson for all programmers/software companies to learn here, even if you completely re-write your app and it is excellent now, it will be very hard for people to overcome and forgive the bad experiences they had in the past with your software.

Get it right the first time and listen and respond to your customers complaints. Had Symantec done the re-write years ago, they might have a much better reputation today or any positive reputation at all.

Well said. We used to have NAV at work and the scheduled scan starts at 12:00. It was scheduled so that people will be away for lunch. But there has been several occassions when you are trying to finish off something important at 12:00 when the scan starts and literlly brings the system to a ginding halt. Unfortunately we had no admin rights to change the scan times and we used to kill the process all the time.

I will need several re-assurances before I ever use Norton again.

boopolo · 01-12-2008 05:39PM

CiaranC wrote: »

If you are running AVG on 1000s of computers you are required to pay for it.

Also, PC Tools Spyware Doctor is a Symantec product.

It is free for home users.

Spyware Doctor is a PC Tools product. It was developed and is still being updated by PC Tools.

The fact that Symantec has recently bought out PC Tools is not relevent as they had nothing got to do with its development.

Having said that I will apply a wait and see aproach before trying Norton again.
I have managed to get AVG and Avast running together (not recomended) on my VISTA Ultimate machine. My only complaint with Avast is I hate the user interface.

Boo

bk · 01-12-2008 06:34PM

boopolo wrote: »

It is free for home users.

FYI the free version of Spyware Doctor will only detect spyware, not remove it, you need to buy it to get it to remove the spyware.

Now that Symantec has bought them, I assume there spyware detection engine, etc. will end up being integrated into Norton Internet Security, if it hasn't been already (would explain the very good results NIS gets for finding spyware).

Varkov · 01-12-2008 06:40PM

AVG for XP

Avast for Vista

bk · 01-12-2008 07:18PM

Anan wrote: »

Well said. We used to have NAV at work and the scheduled scan starts at 12:00. It was scheduled so that people will be away for lunch. But there has been several occassions when you are trying to finish off something important at 12:00 when the scan starts and literlly brings the system to a ginding halt. Unfortunately we had no admin rights to change the scan times and we used to kill the process all the time.

I know exactly what you mean, we get given Symantec Corporate Edition in work to put on our home machines which we sometimes use for working from home.

The whole scheduled scan thing drove me mad and this is why I actually went and bought the consumer version, which is completely different.

I can't understand why two different versions of functionally the same app from the same company can be so radically different. Corporate edition being a pain in the back side with a very unfriendly user interface while NIS is the complete opposite.

boopolo · 01-12-2008 07:38PM

bk wrote: »

FYI the free version of Spyware Doctor will only detect spyware, not remove it, you need to buy it to get it to remove the spyware.

Now that Symantec has bought them, I assume there spyware detection engine, etc. will end up being integrated into Norton Internet Security, if it hasn't been already (would explain the very good results NIS gets for finding spyware).

The OP and I were talking about AVG free.
I never said my Spyware doctor was free. The free edition does not remove spyware after a scan (as you state) but it does provide realtime protection without updates.

Symantic have not intergrated Spyware Doctor into their NIS and they say they do not intend to do so (for now).
" PC Tools will maintain separate operations within Symantec’s consumer business unit, with Simon Clausen, PC Tools, Chief Executive Officer, leading the team and reporting to Janice Chaffin, Symantec Group President of Consumer Products. PC Tools will continue to offer their products under the PC Tools brand and serve its customers through its existing partners and channels. PC Tools is a privately held company headquartered in Australia, with offices in USA, UK, Ireland and the Ukraine. Their customers are located across the globe and their products are available in more than 196 countries. "

Boo

bk · 01-12-2008 09:23PM

boopolo wrote: »

Symantic have not intergrated Spyware Doctor into their NIS and they say they do not intend to do so (for now).
" PC Tools will maintain separate operations within Symantec’s consumer business unit, with Simon Clausen, PC Tools, Chief Executive Officer, leading the team and reporting to Janice Chaffin, Symantec Group President of Consumer Products. PC Tools will continue to offer their products under the PC Tools brand and serve its customers through its existing partners and channels. PC Tools is a privately held company headquartered in Australia, with offices in USA, UK, Ireland and the Ukraine. Their customers are located across the globe and their products are available in more than 196 countries. "
Boo

Wow, I've never heard that before.

Work in IT as long as I have and seen as many buy out and mergers as I have and you will know that the pointy hair bosses always say that right up until they integrate the code and integrate the development teams and lay off duplicate staff.

Hopefully they will hold onto most of the development staff from PC Tools, they seem to do a very good job.

BTW I can point you to similar statements that Symantec themselves made about similar purchases like Ghost and Partition Magic, technology from which are now integrated into other Nortn products like NIS.

art · 01-12-2008 10:36PM

Pegasus15 wrote: »

I was up in PC World in Airside Retail Park recently purchasing Norton Internet Security 2009. On the shelf, it was marked as €74.99, but when I took it to the till the cashier told me that it was half price at the moment and as such €37.49. She didn't specify how long it'd be half price, but she did say she was going to get the price on the shelf changed so the offer might only be starting.

Hope this is of interest.

That's very good value indeed. The main criticism these days of Norton is the price but at 38euros I'd have no complaints at all. If my local PC World has it at that price, I'd certainly pick it up too - cheers for the 'heads up'

Davy · 01-12-2008 10:44PM

[Link]

Downloads:
Norton 2009 £29.99 €35

360 £35.99 €42

Fighting Irish · 01-12-2008 11:39PM

bk wrote: »

Kaspersky is not free, you have to pay for it.

And if no one pays for software, who will write it?

Yes basically, they are both well regarded anti virus and anti spyware applications.

However Avast is free for personal home use, while NOD32 is not (however it is reasonably priced).

I don't care who writes it, as long as some people are paying then someone will write it

I was wondering about that avast/nod32, i had nod32 for a while and it was great resources wise, then a friend got avast and i thought it was a facking piss take

bk · 02-12-2008 12:37AM

Fighting Irish wrote: »

I was wondering about that avast/nod32, i had nod32 for a while and it was great resources wise, then a friend got avast and i thought it was a facking piss take

Avast is actually a very good AV engine, independent testing finds that it finds most virus, with few false positives and with fast scanning. However you are right, the user interface is pretty terrible. Which is a pity, as writing a god AV engine is the hard bit, writing a decent UI should be relatively straight forward.

BostonB · 02-12-2008 08:55PM

bk wrote: »

Honest to god, hand on heart, it is excellent.

I use to absolutely hate Symantec products and I thought the exact same way about their products as you guys, they have been the bane of my life for many years. Norton Systemworks use to do the complete opposite of what it was supposed to do (speed up your PC) and uninstalling it and Norton AV use to be the first step in significantly speed up PC's.

The only good product I've ever used from them is Ghost and that was bought from another company.

However recently I had to install it for a friend on an effected PC and I was blown away by how much it had improved and how good it was now. It installed very quickly and didn't need a reboot. It used very little system resources, far less then my combination of separate apps (Nod32, Zonealarm, etc.) and is extremely clean and easy to use interface (great for non technical family and friends).

I suppose there is only so long your product can be absolutely despised by people like us in the IT industry before you are forced to re-write your app from the ground up. Honestly you guys should give it another try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Well Just for the crack I downloaded the demo. Ran it to see if the download was ok. Theres no cancel button on the install on the first few screens which is handy.

Keano · 02-12-2008 09:52PM

I'll stick with Avast on my laptop and Kapersky on my pc.

Norton Internet Security 2009 - €37.49

Comments