Norton Internet Security 2002
by Symantec
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List Price: Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $55.00 (79%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of Norton Internet Security 2002
Customer Review: Runs perfectly on my Windows XP system.
Summary: 5 Stars
I installed Norton Internet Security 2002 on my Windows XP system recently, and it runs very smoothly. I read previous reviews on this program, so I knew I needed to follow the packaged instructions exactly. Be sure and prepare your computer before you install NIS 2002. Disable the Windows XP Firewall, and remove any anti-virus programs you have running before installation. It's also a good idea to create the emergency rescue disks. These are very easy to make, and the included instructions will guide you through this process. Overall, I am very pleased with this program, so I have given it a five-star rating.Customer Review: Awesome Program
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased this software and I have recieved no problems unlike some of the reviews here. It's an easy all-in-one security package! It walks you through every section for set up. I love the little alerts that pop up when an outsider attempts to intrude my laptop. It even performs live updates on virus protection and many more! Must buy for PC users.Customer Review: Fatal Parental Control Flaw
Summary: 2 Stars
I use this product with Windows ME and XP. In many ways, it is a great product--if only it did not fail me in the one area for which I selected it--parental control. Much of the time, the Parental Control feature does not bar my children from visiting restricted web sites. Symantec admits on their support site that they are aware of the problem, but offers no substantive solution. That flaw is substantial to a home with children. For that critical reason, I don't recommend this product to families.Customer Review: So complicated that we had to return it for refund
Summary: 1 Stars
I love Norton's products. I've been using Norton Anti-virus and SystemWorks for years. So I was so excited when I learned they had an Internet Security product. Within the first day after I installed it, I was ready to throw it out the window! I am well-versed in technology. I was a network administrator for a university department, and I've written technology books...so I know what I am doing. But I found this piece of software one of the most frustating exercises in futility EVER. Once installed, it began conflicting with other programs. It blocked many legitimate sites, even though the setting was "low sensitivity." Several times after restarting the machine, it wouldn't even allow us to connect to the Internet. After 24 hours of playing with it, adjusting it, and reading the Help feature, I gave up and returned it for a refund. I wouldn't use it even if it were free.Customer Review: Good concept, MANY pitfalls...
Summary: 2 Stars
I have always loved Norton software. I've used Norton AntiVirus for the past few years, upgrading yearly. I purchased Norton Utilities and Norton CleanSweep, also finding them quite easy to use and very helpful. However, Norton Internet Security 2002 (NIS) has caused me quite a few problems. For reference, I have a Pentium III (650 mHz) laptop with 192 MB RAM running Windows XP, and I use a high-speed internet connection.First, the good news. NIS's firewall is easy to use and works well. There are plenty of customizable features, good protection against intruders, and awesome cookie-blocking. The Ad Blocking feature is wonderful, though it has issues, as I will soon explain. Norton AntiVirus 2002 (NAV) is, as any Norton user knows, a great antivirus program, and it integrates perfectly into NIS. If NIS could manage to keep all of these components working, this would be one fantastic suite of software.
As other reviewers have noted, NIS has some bugs that Symantec has yet to fix. There is nothing more annoying than having a problem, visiting Symantec's Tech Support website, and finding a lovely "We have no solution to this problem at this time" message. Very polite, Symantec, but not helpful at all. One bug in particular that's causing me some problems involves the Ad Blocking feature. It suddenly does not work anymore... Apparently this has something to do with an update I downloaded with LiveUpdate. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't updates supposed to *improve* one's software? Hmm.
Another bug involves Norton AntiVirus (NAV). Sometimes, AutoProtect will not be enabled when I start up Windows. If I right-click the tray icon and select "Enable AutoProtect," nothing happens. If I attempt to enable AutoProtect using the NAV menu in NIS, I get a wonderfully useless "Internet Script Error" message. The same thing happens if I try to enable AutoProtect using either the NAV menu in NAV itself or the Options menu for NAV. I found a fix at Symantec's site, but really... What a pain.
Now, for the really messy stuff. The following complaint only applies to Windows XP, as I never had this problem before I upgraded my laptop's OS from Win 98 SE to Win XP. I'm rather good with computers, but know this: Don't even try to uninstall Norton software unless you're a pro. It took me about four hours to uninstall and reinstall NIS after it decided I wasn't allowed to install NAV. Apparently even though I uninstalled NAV using the uninstall tool of Windows, traces of NAV remained. Therefore, whenever I tried to install NIS, it informed me NAV was already installed, even though I had "uninstalled" it. So, I tried using the "Remove NAV" option on the NIS CD after installing NIS without NAV. This didn't work. I uninstalled NIS completely, tried to reinstall it again, and, *surprise*, NAV was supposedly still installed after I supposedly removed it TWICE. At this point, I debated chucking my laptop out the window.
I went to the Tech Support website, desperate for a solution. The only solution I found was to use RNIS.exe and RNAV.exe, two removal utilities available for download at Symantec's site, to remove NIS and NAV from my system "completely." Interestingly, Symantec doesn't provide tech support for people using RNIS.exe and RNAV.exe to remove their products. After using these utilities to remove NIS and NAV, there were *still* traces of these programs on my system. I had to run regedt32.exe (Windows' registry editor) and manually delete all registry keys for NIS and NAV. This took *forever*, and, somehow or another, deleting the registry keys for NIS and NAV messed up my other Norton software programs, Norton Utilities (NU) and Norton CleanSweep (NCS). How fun.
Boiling with rage, I uninstalled NU and NCS, then searched my registry for every single Norton registry entry by searching for the words "Norton," "NAV," "internet security," etc. I also found keys for Norton Personal Firewall (NPF) in my registry, which is interesting since I "uninstalled" NPF before I upgraded to XP. So, now my system was *completely* purged of all references to Norton. Finally, I was able to install NIS, with NAV, completely and without problems. Then, I reinstalled NU and NCS. After hours of work, my computer once again had its once-beloved Norton programs! The big question is, was all of this toil worth it? If the problems I mentioned before I began detailing my uninstall horror did not exist, yes. However, NIS has issues with NAV AutoProtect and Ad Blocking, so I feel cheated.
Everything except Ad Blocking works right now, so I'm fairly content. I'm just glad I have virus protection once again, although I'm angry it took so long to get the stupid thing running! For the everyday Joe who doesn't know much about the inner workings of computers, this product gets one star. You're stuck if you start having problems... Unless you want to give your first-born child to the tech support people, who demand millions of dollars in ransom for solutions to problems their software causes! Thankfully, I've never called that hotline, aware of the garbage involved. For more advanced computer users, I give this product three stars. If you can get past all of this nonsense and get the software to work, the features are great.
To amazon.com customers, I say, "Purchase at your own risk." To Symantec, I say, "Shame on you for lousing up such a great product. If software isn't fully compatible with Win XP (and yes, that includes uninstallation!), don't claim it's compatible!" Sigh. (...)