Am I Too Hard On Norton Products?
Here very recently, I had a concerned Gnomie ask me why I have such a beef with Norton products. And you know what, they brought up a great point: If I am to spend so much time ripping on them, would it not make sense to explain the specifics as to why? Works for me…
Just a few years ago, I was a huge fan of their software. An avid user of Norton System Works, I wanted to tell anyone who would listen about their great suite of software. Then about two years ago, I decided that it was time to uninstall that current version of Norton, that way I could upgrade fresh. Thinking little of it, I began the process. Unfortunately, that did not go over so well and I was forced to do a repair install of my OS. Figuring I must have had a software conflict, I did not give it a second thought.
Shortly after that whole upgrade event, I had found a number of instances on client machines where viruses were being missed completely. Figuring that they must be running with old definitions, I went to upgrade the software. As luck might have it, the program was hosed. Most likely this was due to the virus infestation and I made the necessary repairs. During the research to clean some of the damage out of the registry for one of the PCs, I began to see a pattern of forum posts and even a few articles with regard to security exploits in the Norton software. Concerned enough by the sheer volume of what I read, I felt that I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. I made the switch on my Windows boxes.
Now understand two things right away if you please: First, no antivirus is perfect and I don’t expect them to be, either. Also, I am well aware that we cannot believe half of what is said in forum posts and in some cases; even from the articles of respected publications. Still, there was a growing pattern that I simply could not ignore.
My next headache came from Norton’s firewall program. On the surface, it seems effective enough even though I put very little faith into software firewalls as a whole. The reason behind that thinking is merely because it is only as secure as the OS you are running.
At any rate, the Norton firewall is notorious for blocking good traffic and confusing users how to make the needed change to allow desired IP traffic to come and go. Worse than this, is the number of articles sounding alarm bells about the fact that they have more security flaws than competing software firewalls.
But you know what, let’s stop for a minute. All of this might just as well be hot air. No, each of you needs to come to your own decision. Below are some links to inform you of the facts and then and only then, can you come to an informed opinion on the matter:
Hope the previous info was helpful, see each of you Monday…
[tags]activex,antivirus,norton security,firewalls[/tags]
