Support
Symantec has dropped its over-inflated per-call pricing schemes of the past; all regular telephone technical support calls are finally free. That's good. But the bad news is finding that free telephone number.
Symantec encourages all users to use some self diagnosis tools first; that's understandable since common problems can be self-remedied. In our tests, however, after answering no to "Does this resolve your problem?" we still didn't get a telephone number, but an online form. Only after supplying a first name, last name, email address, and phone (information you previously gave when setting up your Norton Account; why the two can't be linked is unclear) are you offered a support phone number, and a help ticket is created.
Another observation: One Click Solution, Symantec's self-diagnosis tool always defaults to Internet Explorer, even if you don't have it set for your default browser.
Prominent on the technical support page and competing for prime eyeball space are Symantec's premium and fairly pricey technical support services such as the PC Tune-Up Service which costs AU$99.95. Each service requires a technician to remotely control your PC while you watch them solve your given problem. It's true no large software company provides consumers with free technical support, however, given the gigantic size of Symantec, it would be nice if the consumer-based Norton technical support could be a loss-leader for the company. Short of offering a free version of its Norton Antivirus product, by providing truly free technical support, Symantec might engender more positive feelings from former Norton customers who paid for such support in the past.
The Norton in-program Help is better than in past years. Within the Help file, more terms are explained and less jargon is used this year, but it's still not as thorough as other Help documents we've seen in competing products. And user options when changing configuration settings, long the bane of this reviewer, are once again not adequately presented to the end user: you still have to trust Symantec's opinion on many things.
And the 38-page online manual, although indexed, is not very comprehensive, and leans heavily toward installation and the creation of the Recovery Disk.
Only by accessing the Symantec website do you see the free community forums. That's a mistake. Despite the company response that the Norton community forum is still in beta, these open communities provide more technical support than the canned responses offered through Symantec's One Click Solutions process.
Conclusion
Norton Internet Security 2009 hits all the right security notes and its award-winning protection technologies should start to win back even jaded anti-Symantec folks. We love its sleek build, performance speed, and array of quality security tools. Our only fault — and it is a serious one — is its legacy of overpricing on its consumer technical support.
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6%
My self not being a fan of norton for years have come home to norton again. 2009 is really a good on the resources only uses extra few mb than other common IS.
The good: Light on resources a very informative a easy to use a live update a
The bad: Didn't notice any yet but maybe more details needed on the firewall section. maybe i couldn't find it but i found it difficult telling it what to block and what not to .... but for a average user... this is perfect