Norton 360

Norton 360

Nikhil Rastogi, Mar 07, 2010 1000 hrs IST

An all-round system suite that will keep things secure

Fantastic and friendly user-interface, efficient scanner, phishing filter, manages private data such as passwords, online backup, works during idle time

Shady way of making a sale, not for advanced users' who'd like to tweak under the hood, a little more performance impact than Norton's Internet Security Suite 2010, no admin privilege elevation for limited users

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Expert Review

Norton 360 is an all-round system suite. It has Norton's fantastic Internet Security Suite, which has been reviewed before (Anti-virus + Anti-spyware + Firewall + Spam filtering), coupled with a fine PC tune-up and a feature-rich local and online backup system, with remote access and file sharing in this version. Today we'll be reviewing everything but the Internet Security Suite part of it and concentrating on the extra features that make Norton 360 a complete package.

Who is the product for?

Norton's 360 line is typically for the average Joe; this means for your mom and pop. Norton 360 is meant to be a "set it and forget it" application and it does this job admirably well. Not once did I get a pop-up asking for permission to some inane application dll/exe trying to access the internet or memory. Norton handled it all in one fell swoop!

Now before you jump to conclusions, this can be a very good thing or a very bad one. Knowing what's happening in your system is always a good thing, but it requires skills of a different nature, one that many people don't have or care about. After all, no one wants to get stuck with what program wants to connect to the internet or is accessing a protected directory. Geeks and security conscious individuals may raise their eyebrows, but really, would you like it if your security guard kept coming up to you to ask you whether it was safe to let someone go in and out of the building every time he came across a new person? After all you are paying him to do his job of securing your building not for bugging you!

At the same time expect something you don't want (or care about) to connect to the internet without your knowledge, such as an application update or worse a new virus/malware. This is the price to pay for such a "set it and forget it" program. But thankfully, Norton being very efficient, these scenarios are very few and far between.

Downloading and Installation

You wouldn't believe how much the installer weighs, 1GB? Nope. 500MB? No. Only 80MB! That right 80MB for an entire System Security Suite is a fantastic job by Norton. Not only is the installer file small, but the actual installation is also around the same size overall.

Here is the direct download page where you can try your copy of Norton 360 and other products free for 30 days. The link is not apparent on Symantec's website, and only after much searching could I locate it.

Don't Opt for Opt-Out!

One thing I must criticize Norton for is the complete jumbled way they let you download trialware. Tested on both US and India site, it's not clear as to how to obtain a 30 day trialware to test out. In fact the most obvious links lead directly to their store where credit card information must be entered just to try out their copy!

What's the logic?

Well it's simple from Symantec's point of view. In order to download and try a copy, enter your credit card details and at the same time agree to their "Opt-out Trial". What it does is, your credit card doesn't get charged immediately but will if you don't "Opt-Out" after a 30-day trial period. Voila! A direct sale for Symantec as they are counting on people to definitely forget. Symantec's certainly not the only one doing this but that shouldn't stop them from employing such cheap tactics just to get a sale, it isn't befitting for such a good company with such a great product. Of course they do clearly tell you what the ugly "Opt-Out Trial" is all about if you click on this link.

Don't believe it, this is the page where you need to enter information to download and this is the explanation of the horrid "Opt-out Trial" right from the horses mouth.

Do you agree with this Review?

Norton 360

An all-round system suite that will keep things secure

Fantastic and friendly user-interface, efficient scanner, phishing filter, manages private data such as passwords, online backup, works during idle time

Shady way of making a sale, not for advanced users' who'd like to tweak under the hood, a little more performance impact than Norton's Internet Security Suite 2010, no admin privilege elevation for limited users

Expert Rating :

30

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