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Norton 360 v 3: Could this be the definitive Consumer Protection Solution?
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Image courtesy of Symantec Corporation
There has been a huge paradigm change in professional software versus consumer software. The former has become more user friendly and the latter more powerful. The distinctions that once existed between the two are blurring. This is a good thing for consumers seeking options that are comprehensive and value packed.
Taking a lot of criticism online and off for creating resource hogging applications, Symantec, makers of the Norton product line, decided that a serious reconsideration of their product line was in order.
Feeling the pressure from some seriously weighty competition offering high end features that did not slow your system to a crawl, Symantec opted to revamp their whole outlook on protection software with emphases placed on being user friendly and light on your computer’s resources.
That approach can really be felt in Norton 360. Having produced two previous versions, this iteration, now version three –obviously—feels like the culmination of promises made when this product was introduced. For those familiar with the software, this is not so much a radical rethinking, but a true refinement of what was a very solid product.
Installation times are not only fast, they are swift. The days when Norton products demanded lengthy installs, reboots and such are indeed over. Literally plop the disk in, install and in moments your system is protected. Rather than rely on promises and other data, I opted to install the product on my laptop.
Operating with a Celeron processor, 512 megs of ram, windows XP and a 60 gig hard drive, this is definitely not a power system by any standard. I wanted to see for myself if Norton 360 was as a lean and mean a virus fighting machine as claimed.
The program worked flawlessly. The system hit was minimal.
The installation was also a breeze. One salient feature I noticed was the file backup feature. I encountered problems using it on previous versions. This time it worked without issue.
The guiding premise behind 360 is that this is not only a total virus and firewall protection suite but also a utility suite. Back in the day when a utility suite meant purchasing yet another program to protect your system, Symantec wraps them all up in a convenient one stop shop approach.
The major feature list includes antivirus and spyware protection, Norton Identity safe( a way to see if sites you visit are safe to visit), a firewall ,network protection system to monitor the security of your home network, PC tune up utilities, automated backup and file restoring, Norton Insight ( a way to scan your system faster by overlooking safe files recognized and categorized by Symantec), Norton Pulse Updates ( more frequent updates of file definitions) Smart Start up manager, 2 GB of online file storage and 24/7 free support.
Little is over looked here, including a well designed, but basic, registry cleaner. By and large I am always leery of anything that automatically cleans that sensitive system area. This one is on that is not intrusive. It keeps to cleaning the unnecessary without tampering with more sensitive areas. However, I would ideally like to see more detail here.
Another nice feature is the password protection. Much like Robo forms, this form filler works with IE 8 and Firefox 3, the latest version. While not as detailed, this is a great value and should work well. Another wish list item is that I would like to see it work with Robo forms data, but that maybe asking for too much to support the competition’s file saving system.
On the subject of detail, 360 covers all of the bases, and you can purchase additional online space for file storage. All of which is great. As comprehensive and as complete as 360 is, I wish that Save and Restore was thrown in as well.
While file backups are fine, with any system a way to completely store the contents of a hard drive and put them back should the day come is always beneficial. Symantec’s excellent Ghost 14 and Save and Restore 2 are both solid solutions for providing that type of data protection.
Factoring in quality, ease of use and the powerful Norton antivirus and firewall engine, this is a solid package, but not a dirt cheap one. At nearly $ 80.00, this is not a bargain basement program, but the feature set and the way the parts work together make this a compelling product.
With the ability to be installed on 3 pcs is something of a standard now, this is one of the few programs that works well on lower powered systems as well as state of the art ones. As a total package, it is hard to argue against it, even if it is a bit pricier than the competition.
Quality never comes cheap, and the differences are not huge when you factor in the Norton name and the fact that this software uses the same powerful structure as its professional counterpart. Plus, you won’t need to purchase a utility suite being that everything you could need and should want is here, just minus an image backup utility.
As a one stop comprehensive solution, Symantec has delivered the goods and to a large degree remains the “King of the Hill” when it comes to software protection.
Basic System Requirements
- Windows Vista and Vista SP 1 support all editions and Windows XP SP 2 and SP 3 Home and Professional versions
- 32- and 64-bit platforms are supported
- 300 MHz or faster processor
- 256 Megs MB of Ram
- 300 MB of hard drive space
- IE 6 and up and Firefox 2 and up
- CD-Rom Drive for installation or DVD Drive
- An Internet connection for file updating and storage
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