When it comes to Antivirus products I am particular on using few brands only. I look
for three parameters:
-
Protection (Detect and protect against latest threats)
-
Performance (not slowing the machine)
-
Ease of use (normally an antivirus should be invisible)
My first choice for individuals will be K7
Total Security. It is the fastest and the least intrusive Antivirus out there.
In our office, we have been using Symantec
Endpoint protection for several years. Our system administrators love the central
deployment & management of the Antivirus client, updates, etc. from the central
server.
When I got my Windows Vista x64 Desktop few years back, I went with Norton
360 v1.0 as I got a good deal from them. And it offered an online backup of 2GB
free with it, which was an added advantage to have safe backups for ultra important
files. Over the years I have stuck with Norton 360, though at times it has given me problems
with Firewall configuration. And Symantec support has been good, whenever I had
issues I could reach them by email or web site or their online chat. Once there was
a problem at their end, they apologized and gave 30 days extension in the subscription
as a token gesture. My complaint at the product (especially Norton 360 v1.0 and v2.0)
is that at times in one of the 3 PCs I have, it will suddenly refuse to get Live Updates
– a quick uninstall and install will fix it.
Recently I was prompted to update free (subscription is valid) to their new version Norton
360 v3.0 which contains their newly optimized version of their core engine that
greatly improves on its speed and resources utilization. Though Norton was the leader
in protection its sore point was its drag on resources. This new version is supposed
to have improved on that. I downloaded and installed the new version, it did an in-place
upgrade pretty smoothly. I disliked the earlier interface of Norton 360 v2.0, now
in v3.0 they seem to have made it more streamline and configuration settings are easier
to find. Overall I will recommend this product.
In Norton 360 the online backup and how it handles it was always a mystery in v1.0
and v2.0. In v3.0 they have given many interface options to see what is being backed
up, where and when (in fact the UI tabs are named with the same words as shown below).
Using the new interface shown below (accessed from Home->Backup-Backup Details->Manage
Backup sets) I figured out that I had over 3 years of backup taking nearly 5GB of
storage which I can get rid of and reduce the online storage size.
After using the option (Delete previously backed up files) shown in the bottom left
of the screenshot below I realized you can only delete by selecting individual folders
and files; not the entire backup set. I wrote to Symantec support and they promptly
responded back with this option. It turned out even that was less optimal. Accidentally
I discovered that there is an integration of Norton backup to Windows Explorer. You
can use Windows Explorer to navigate to “Computer\Norton Backup Drive\Backups
on Secure Online Storage”. There you can see all the backup sets, you can
right-click and delete the one you don’t want. It takes a bit of time, but it works
and is much easier than the product’s user interface. As always, be careful when you
are deleting backups.
Read the complete post at http://venkatarangan.com/blog/2009/08/15/Norton+360+V30.aspx