Why I Dislike Norton Security Products

Earlier today I discovered that I had received an email with regard to my rather jagged opinions about Norton products. Today, I am going to take a few moments to reiterate why I dislike anything that Symantec puts out.

First off let me state that their antivirus is not so much the problem as their security suite itself. See, all one has to do is browse a few minutes on Google to discover the vast amount of security holes, software conflicts and never-ending connection problems given by their firewall program. I am sorry, but you are way better off with Sygate firewall and another choice altogether for an antivirus program.

The Norton antivirus program is a conflict waiting to happen. Yes, I have heard that things have improved in the 2005 and 2006 versions. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, believe the reviews and even say that people can safely try it. But why would I use a product that is bundled with that joke of a firewall application? I should also not be concerned that even AVG antivirus pro version was not being disabled as easily as NAV when attacked by a setting changing exploit. But no, I am to trust NAV 2006? Um, I think that I will pass on that one, thanks anyway.

In my opinion, I believe that PC-cillin provides a stellar software suite to be considered. Not only has their antivirus never failed me personally or and any of my repair clients, the suite comes with a decent spam filtering package as well. Besides, I do love a program that checks for wireless intrusion, phishing scams and spam. The spam filtering, while far from perfect, does a fair job with a 3 point punch - blacklisting, whitelisting and Bayesian filtering.

So for those that choose to use Norton products, more power to ya. Just keep in mind that I have a folder full of Gnomies who have expressed their concerns about Symantec’s products over the years as they have apparently been let down time after time. I am all for giving out second chances, just not with my security software.

[tags]norton,symantec,bayesian filtering,gnomies,blacklisting,whitelisting,pc-cillian[/tags]