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Norton Antivirus 2010
CNET Review & Rating
Product
summary
The good: Norton AntiVirus 2010
has a leaner footprint, improved speed, white listing,
and other technologies to mark clean files as trusted,
and free technical support.
The bad: Despite its free telephone
support, Norton AntiVirus 2010 lacks adequate online
technical support and, intentional or not, it drives
users to its paid technical support services.
The bottom line: Norton AntiVirus
2010 hits all the right security notes, and its superior
protection technologies might even win back some jaded
anti-Symantec folks, though for some, technical support
may continue to frustrate.
Symantec has been listening to its
users, and this year the company delivers a slimmed-down
and faster Norton AntiVirus 2010. Almost all the security
vendors have recognized the changing threat landscape
and have rethought traditional protection. We especially
like the Insight feature, which identifies "trusted"
files and applications and doesn't waste time rescanning
them unless there's been a change. No other product
does this. The redesigned logic behind Norton AntiVirus
2010 clearly shows in CNET performance testing: it
is faster and considerably lighter than last year's
version. Norton continues to win awards in third-party
effectiveness testing. Lagging behind, though, is
Symantec's technical support. While Norton users now
have free telephone support, Symantec still doesn't
provide enough of a knowledge base, or even an adequate
user's manual. Once again, this year it emphasizes
its premium services a bit too much. That said, Norton
AntiVirus 2010 presents a remarkable transformation
of a product and is worth a second look.
Installation
On our test system, we downloaded Norton AntiVirus
2010 and installed the product within a minute. Instead
of relying upon Microsoft's installer, which Symantec
has blamed for much of its past product bloat, the
company started over, designing its own installer.
There is the added advantage that as criminals target
MSI files (say to prevent you from installing a security
defense product on your already compromised machine)
Symantec won't be affected--for now. The new installer
process works fast, borrowing streaming technology
from its Norton Ghost product. On both Windows Vista
and Windows XP test machines, we were up and running
in one minute and without a reboot.
Should you want to uninstall, Norton
includes an uninstall option. In the past, Norton
left a mess. Now, after rebooting our machine, what
is left behind is licensing information.
Interface
Speaking of a mess, we didn't like last year's Halloween
colors on the user interface. This year's redesign
is much cleaner and more sophisticated, one befitting
a major security product, and the colors used on the
Interface can be changed if you want. Also gone are
the tabs reminding you that you can purchase other
Norton products. Specific tools can be turned on and
off easily without diving into the configuration settings.
The configuration settings page itself is always one
click below the main page. The interface also offers
a pop-up dialogs to explain specific terms, although
thorough explanations of the choice users have in
changing the settings is still lacking.
In the lower left-hand panel are
two bar graphs representing the overall Windows resources
used and one for the specific resources used by the
Norton product. Compared with the resources used reported
within the Task Manager in Windows, we noticed a slight
sync problem between what Windows reported and what
Norton reported for the overall system. Symantec confirmed
that while Norton AntiVirus 2010 is looking at the
Windows Task Manager, it is doing so at different
intervals. We like the transparency, and think the
presentation here is better than the line graphs used
in some other security applications. Should you want
line graphs, an icon will reveal how the system and
Norton CPU usage has been since the system was last
rebooted.
Features
Norton has, in the past, included some sophisticated
technology from its enterprise products, which is
good because it's cutting-edge, but it's also bad,
because it doesn't necessarily integrate with the
product, nor is it necessary. In Norton AntiVirus
2010, they seem to have found the right balance.
Whitelisting, the buzzword of security
products for 2010, is included, and by marrying it
with other technologies, Symantec makes it more suited
for the user. Files on a whitelist are deemed trusted,
and thus do not need to be scanned as often. Not all
"safe files" make it onto the whitelist.
For those, Norton uses a community process, called
Insight, similar to that used by other security products
such as Haute Secure. The thinking is that if thousands
of other people are using this suspicious file, chances
are it's not a new piece of malicious software but
a new application. On the other hand, if only a few
are using it, then maybe it's worth it to take another
look to see if it's malicious software.
Malicious software signature updates
are provided much faster, in some cases within five
minutes of the last update.
Gone is the awful LiveUpdate component
of past Norton products. With 2010 products, Symantec
is providing antimalware definition signatures every
few minutes or so. On the interface, you'll see a
notice indicating how many minutes since the last
update. We didn't see definitions older than four
minutes in our testing.
Missing still are the various security
utilities provided in other products, namely McAfee
VirusScan. We would like to see, for instance, a secure
file eraser or the capability to trace potentially
malicious IP addresses within Norton AntiVirus 2010.
Nor is there any mobile-specific security solution
provided within Norton AntiVirus 2010.
Performance
In CNET Labs' performance tests, Norton AntiVirus
2010 scored better than last year on our test Windows
XP systems. In third-party, independent AntiVirus
testing using live viruses, Norton products have scored
in the upper ranks, although not always in the top
position. On the CNET iTunes test, Norton AntiVirus
2010 scored close to the test system result at 271
seconds, 5 seconds faster than the standalone version
of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010. On the CNET Microsoft
Office test, Norton AntiVirus 2010 finished at a respectable
1,443 seconds, placing near the middle. In a test
scanning a single folder with compressed and media
files, Norton AntiVirus 2010 came in at 191 seconds,
which was the upper end of middle. In terms of boot
speed, once again Norton came at a fast 31 seconds.
To find out how we test antivirus
(and now Internet Security suite) software, see CNET
Labs' How we test: Antivirus software page.
In terms of how well Norton AntiVirus
2010 will protect your PC, we cite results for Norton
AntiVirus from two leading independent antivirus testing
organizations. In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org,
for on-demand scans Norton AntiVirus 2008 earned an
Advanced + (highest) rating, catching 97 percent of
all malicious software tested. However, for the Retrospective/Proactive
test, Norton AntiVirus 2008 earned an Advanced rating,
with Norton falling behind the others, proactively
blocking only 18 percent of the "new samples"
in the test. From CheckVir.com, Norton AntiVirus 2008
received its Standard award.
In antispyware testing on CNET,
Norton AntiVirus 2008 scored in the upper half of
our top 10.
Support
Symantec has dropped its overinflated per-call pricing
schemes of the past; all regular telephone technical
support calls are finally free. That's good. However,
its online manual and knowledgebase could be more
robust, and an in program link to its community forums
would be wise.
To take advantage of the free offerings,
Symantec encourages users to use its One Click Solutions
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, e-mail 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 help ticket along with an option
for a free online chat, free technical support phone
number, or an e-mail address. Once contacted, a technician
may remotely control your PC while you watch them
solve your given problem.
Our first encounter with Symantec's
technical support ended in frustration. Prominent
on the technical support page and competing for prime
eyeball space are Symantec's premium technical support
services: Spyware and Virus Removal (prices range),
PC Checkup Service ($29.99), Green PC Service ($14.99),
and PC TuneUp ($69.99). These premium services are
also mentioned when you call for technical support.
But in subsequent testing, we found neither the call
nor the chat technician tried to steer us toward these
premium solutions. Of course, that depends on what
specific problem you have and which technician you
get.
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 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 Web site 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 AntiVirus 2010 hits all the right performance
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
remains with the products lackluster online consumer
technical support.
This review was written by CNET.
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about other pieces of software visit: www.cnet.com
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