Review: Norton Internet Security 2009 – no, it didn’t slow down my computer!
By John Pospisil
I’ve been a bit skeptical about products like Norton Internet Security after a bad experience last year, when a previous edition* of this venerable security suite made my computer all but unusable. The computer slowed right down and Outlook became very unstable.
Out of sheer desperation, I uninstalled Norton Internet Security and installed the free edition of the AVG antivirus suite. That sped up my computer, but didn’t offer the same level of safety as a full security suite (though I’m aware I could have upgraded to AVG’s full strength offering).
So I was quite curious when given the opportunity to review the 2009 edition of Norton Internet Security since it features the tagline “Smart Security, Engineered for Speed”.
According to Norton, the Norton 2009 products were designed with a “zero-impact” performance goal. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who experienced problems with slow down.
For this review, Norton Internet Security 2009 was tested on a circa-2003 desktop (Windows XP, 3GHz Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM) and a two-year-old notebook (Windows XP Media Centre Edition, Intel Duo Processor T2250, 1.5 GB RAM). No doubt Norton Internet Security 2009 will work well on the latest computer equipment, but what I really wanted to know was whether it would work with older computers, which I’ve found, are the ones most badly affected by these types of programs.
Norton Internet Security 2009 was quick to install, even on my elderly desktop. It took just a few minutes, and provided accurate information about how much longer it would take to install the software. Updating the virus definition during installation was also quite speedy.
During the installation process you’re invited to join Norton Community Watch, which is basically an initiative where security and application information is collected from your computer and submitted to Symantec to help the company identify new threats.
The good news is that once installed, everything worked fine. There was no need to tinker with email settings, or to set up the firewall. It just worked. The only user involvement required was to reboot the computer.
I was little nervous about installing Norton Internet Security 2009 because I did it at the beginning of a work day, and I really didn’t want to have to spend time to get my computer working again (as I’ve had to do in the past when I’ve installed security programs on my computer).
I’m pleased to report that there was no loss of productivity as a result of installing the software. Time is money, after all.
The main control panel is easy to use and well laid out, as you can see below:
Norton Internet Security main control screen (click for detail)
This screen allows you to turn on and off, and control, the various modules, including:
Computer
- Antivirus – real time monitoring of virus threats
- Antispyware – scans, monitors and deletes programs that try to monitor your activity or steal personal information
- Advanced protection – monitors your computer processes to detect suspicious behavior
Internet
- Smart Firewall – prevents unauthorized access to and from your computer
- Intrusion protection – detects threats already on an infected computer
- Email/Message scanning – blocks threats from email and instant messaging
Identity
- Identity Safe – allows you to auto fill logins and forms, and to store sensitive information.
- Antiphishing – warns you when you’re visiting a fraudulent website
The first time you load a browser, you’ll be presented with the ”Norton Tutorial Overview” web page, which provides some information about the Norton Toolbar and how to use it.
The Norton Toolbar appears at the top of your Internet browser, and provides a visual warning about whether a website is safe or not. A green tick indicates no phishing is detected.
When you arrive at a site where you need to login, you’ll be invited to use Norton Identity Safe to automatically fill in your login. If you prefer to enter your login manually, that’s easy,simply click “Never for this Web page”.
One very nice feature is the Pulse Update, where definition updates are delivered every 5 to 15 minutes. This means your computer is continually updated with the latest virus definitions, and what’s even more impressive, there is no noticeable slow down as a result (even on my very old desktop).
As you would expect, as far as quality of protection, Norton Internet Security 2009 does well. It performed competently in a recent test of security packages by AV-Test. Yes, there were higher scoring programs, but in the great scheme of things, the scores were high enough to demonstrate that Norton Internet Security 2009 does provide a high-level of protection.
Overall I’m very impressed with Norton Internet Security 2009. It was easy to install, didn’t noticeably slow down my computer, and provides a high level of protection. It’s nice to see Symantec get its act together and provide a security solution for users of older, as well as newer, computers.
Review copy provided by Symantec.
Estimated retail price: $AUS99/ (includes 3 user license, and as we’ve all come to expect, only offers 1 year of protection)
- System requirements: Windows XP with SP2, Vista; 300 MHz processor or better; 256 MB of RAM; 200 MB of available hard disk space.
- Email scanning works with standard POP3 and SMTP email clients.
- Supports AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and Trillian instant messaging clients.
- Antispam works with Microsoft Outlook 97 or higher, Outlook Express 6.0 or higher.
- Browser protection and phishing protection works with Internet Explorer 6.0 (32 bit only)
*The version of Norton Internet Security that I had problems with was 2007, though I do understand that the 2008 edition was better.
Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section.
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Entry was posted
on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
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October 19th, 2008
Yes, works better for me. Some of the old versions of Norton were shockers.
October 20th, 2008
yeah sounds like you were paid to say this, dont believe a word of it. I was hacked in realtime when using a norton firewall product, ill just say it was not me who was using my mouse and bringing up the task manager, had to yank my ethernet hardwire connection. I will never trust any norton product on my systems, ever, have better lighter more powerful software than norton can provide, and if I were to ever get norton, the hell if im paying for it, or any other software.
October 20th, 2008
@Anon – I definitely was NOT paid to write about Symantec; as I say in the review, I’ve had lots of bad experiences with Symantec’s products, and this is the first time I’ve had a positive experience. I’d be interested in hearing more about what happened to you, so please email me at john@blorge.com. We have no relationship with Norton (or any company for that matter) so I’m very happy to pursue this if you can back up what you say with facts.
October 20th, 2008
After trying several firewall / antivirus combinations on my old 1.8Ghz Pentium 4 running Windows XP SP3, NIS 2009 was the first one to not slow down my computer…
October 21st, 2008
2009 works really well… i have been using it for the last month or so and I never had any problems… did not notice any slow downs.
October 27th, 2008
Downloaded the upgrade from 2008. Have already noticed a very significant improvement in system performance. Install was a breeze.
The only gripe would be that symantec, while nagging me to renew ‘08 a month before it expired, never told me I could get ‘09 for only four bucks more. I had to sniff that out myself.
but I like the product a lot so far.
November 4th, 2008
“NORTON” and “speed” – these two words are the antonyms.
And if I am asked, I must say that Norton itself may be a bulky virus/ware for the system where it has been installed.
Plainly, Norton just sucks…
Guys who vote for Norton will die from the wrath of bio-virus!!!
November 20th, 2008
Norton 2009 has completely slowed down my pc. When using the internet it is constantly hanging and then I get error messages being sent to microsoft. I called the technicians and all they could say was that the pc needed more memory!
December 1st, 2008
You’ve got to be kidding me; how much are they paying you? lol
Good for them.
December 16th, 2008
I just finished installing Norton Internet Security 2009 on my Asus 2.3 ghz 2ghz ram. My system has slowed down, at least a 2 minute delay opening anything on my computer or surfing the web.
December 18th, 2008
I installed the latest version of Internet Security on my lap top and 4 office PC’s….at times we are at standstill!!! This is our worse ever purchase and we will remove it. I would advise anyone not to go near it. Clearly this person works for this company…no one I know has a good word to say about this product.
December 18th, 2008
I didn’t have any slowdowns with the 2008 version, the only problem was that i didn’t disable autoscan feature, which is just plain annoying when playing games or watching movies.
January 14th, 2009
The truth is much of the function of the suite is redundant if you are running XP SP2 or later. Firefox and other browsers allow for encrypted password management. My Windows machines use AVG and Spybot which has become a decent tattle tail for cheeky programs that want to become the most important thing on your computer.
January 23rd, 2009
I installed NIS2009 on my computer and my mother-in-law’s laptop. We were both using pre-2009 versions of NIS and Norton Systemworks. We found out the hard way that 2009 Norton products are not compatible with pre-2009 products: On her machine, NSW kept complaining that she didn’t have any antivirus, because it didn’t recognize NIS2009. I wasn’t even able to install NIS2009 on my computer until I contacted tech support and they told me I needed to replace the old NSW with NSW2009. They did allow me to download it free, but in trouble-shooting NIS2009 (more on that in a moment) I lost NSW2009, only to find that I couldn’t re-install it because it wouldn’t validate.
Anyway, shortly after installing NIS2009, we both realized that it took FOREVER to shut down our computers. After clicking START>TURN OFF COMPUTER, it takes several MINUTES before we’re presented with the choice of standby, shut down, or restart. After choosing one, it then takes several more MINUTES before the computer actually shuts down.
There is nothing common to our computers except NIS2009, and we didn’t have this problem before, and there is at least one other poster on the Norton forum who has the same problem, so it’s not something unique to my system. I’ve worked with Norton tech support, uninstalling, reinstalling, over and over, and it’s obvious that this shutdown problem is beyond them. I’ve been working with the Norton forum, and so far no luck. I think that most people agree that there’s something left over from a previous Norton installation that’s causing a problem, but I’ve been trying to remove all traces of previous Norton programs from my machine, and so far I’m coming up short. I asked on the Norton forum how to get all the Norton “gunk” out of my machine, and one of the Norton “gurus” said something to the effect of, “re-install Windows!” I shouldn’t have to go to all that trouble just to un-install a program!
As it stands now, the situation is absolutely unacceptable, and I’m afraid I’m looking at a complete re-install of Windows just so that I can take MY computer back from Norton. I’ve been using Norton programs since the time when they were actually written by Peter Norton, and this will be the last one for me. Norton programs are just too much trouble.
January 25th, 2009
Norton? Symantec? Pieces of crap, I know very well, since I worked for Symantec! For years I was a trainer and second line at one of their helpdesks – symantec will never get on my computer!
The only product symantec gets right is Ghost, and then again, there is a free version that uses linux and works just as well … I never even install ghost, just boot off the cd.
Norton SystemWorks versions prior to 2000 were ok, since they have only removed features – now it is useless!
Norton Crashguard was a joke, caused more issues than it solved.
Internet Security is a joke, never trust that ;-). Switch your ADSL modem into router mode and you do not need a firewall!!!!!!
Norton Antivirus is a resource hog, avast is much, much better, we even use that at my work (we have purchased licenses!!!). Test 2009 against avast … ;-)
Better even, migrate to linux!
BTW: The use of linux for the virus scanner that is used when you boot from the cd was my idea!!!
January 25th, 2009
@Psnak
the whole idea of autoprotect is to have it run all the time … it might be ok to disable it when you start a game, but do not forget to enable it afterwards.
PS: ONLY EVER USE ONE ANTIVRUS product at any given time
February 4th, 2009
It would not surprise me if norton got better since they have been trashed for many years on resources, that they decided to rid that name.
I trust the review but, i still dont trust norton (free avast for 90 days, renewable at that too, i like)
Just give it time and the flaws in the program will begin to show themselfs soon enough.
February 6th, 2009
I got it running right now, mates. Took off Online Armor and Webroot. John is correct. It’s lean and mean without sacrificing protection. Try the free trial.
February 16th, 2009
NIS 2009 update version over NIS 2008, what a catastrof, internet slow down, it take long time when sites opens. Never norton…Never norton…Never norton…Never norton…Never norton…Never norton…
March 22nd, 2009
Have tested ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee, AVG, Avast, Bit Defender, and now NIS 2009. NIS 2009 is decent, I can’t say that it slows my 4 GB Vista HP laptop. Internet browsing is not slowed down either. Firewall is OK, failed an outbound leak test but stealths successfully the PC. NIS 2009, btw installed quickly and smoothly, more quickly than any other suite I’ve used. Until recently, I was also totally unwilling to use Symantec products, but after I got rather disappointed with Kaspersky 2009, I decided to give NIS 2009 a try, and so far I am pleased–light on resources and quick to update.
March 24th, 2009
Norton Community Watch= BIG BROTHER.
March 25th, 2009
Its feckin horrid, the only good thing about it
is takin it off, it is unbearable
i would rather stick stones in my under pants and go horse riding than have to sit here and wait for internet to come up, its worse than a modem, it maybe be fine for machines that have vista and vista ram spec but not every1 has the money and resources to get the most up to date machine, once again norton has released another waste of money and time, and poopooed their own name!
March 27th, 2009
I have a half gig of RAM on my machine and I installed NIS 2009 a couple of weeks ago. It is KILLING my machine. I ordered another half gig (my machine only supports up to 1 gig) and will install that. I hope it fixes this problem. ccSvcHost.exe is horrible. Also, I think there’s a memory leak in there because I keep getting Virtual Memory Low warnings if I leave the machine on for too many hours. I’m running XP and this is the first time I ever had a problem with performance. I contacted Symantec support and they were entirely useless. It took more than one email for their support guy to even understand what I wrote, and I was very clear. Even then I don’t think he knows what my problem is since the response seemed to have nothing to do with the complaint.
I won’t renew my subscription if the extra RAM doesn’t solve this mess. I’ll go with Trend Micro, which my company’s admin likes.
March 28th, 2009
I decided to take a chance and see if what I’d read by somebody was true – that Norton had smartened-up and become light. In fact it has worked fine on my old Compaq 866 mhz machine running 512MB’s RAM; XP Pro. None of the slowdown I was thoroughly expecting. In fact I agree with someone else who said Kaspersky has now gone downhill and makes a computer slower like Norton of yester-year. I won’t start suggesting people use it just yet (as its only been a couple of weeks I’ve used it) but I have stopped recommending Kaspersky. It just goes to show you: brand loyalty is rubbish. Things change, even bloatware software companies.
March 28th, 2009
I decided to take a chance and see if what I’d read by somebody was true – that Norton had smartened-up and become light. In fact it has worked fine on my old Compaq 866 mhz machine running 512MB’s RAM; XP Pro. (I tried the standalone antivirus not N.I.S.). None of the slowdown I was thoroughly expecting. In fact I agree with someone else who said Kaspersky has now gone downhill and makes a computer slower like Norton of yester-year. I won’t start suggesting people use it just yet (as its only been a couple of weeks I’ve used it) but I have stopped recommending Kaspersky. It just goes to show you: brand loyalty is rubbish. Things change, even bloatware software companies.
March 29th, 2009
I have Norton Security Suite 2009. I had to have tech help for both installations, yet I’m pretty tech literate. I am happy with the service and the product now. Just have a quick question: Should I update my Yahoo Internet Security when my isp update manager requires it or will this be in conflict with the Norton’s? Do I need any other software like Spy Sweeper, which was recommended when I bought just an antivirus software a couple of years ago or is Norton Security Suite taking care of those issues too?
April 1st, 2009
I have just purchased a Norton Internet Security 2009 on 28/02/09. When I installed it that day on my computer,it took more than one hour to initialise and when the product key was given, a new message appeared to inform me that the product is installed but with errors and I was asked to visit the Technical Symantec site to solve the problem. When the site was visited I had to download the Norton removal tool to use it afterwards to remove all the Norton traces from my computer and I was asked to install it again but not from the CD provided but by downloading it from the internet. What was that? Yesterday I updated my XP Windows and installed the NIS 2009. It was installed in not more than 3 minutes. But now the problem is that my computer has tremendously slowed down. I have to wait for 3 mins at start up and at shut down. Till a program is opening I can do another work, and when back program not yet opened. I have 330GB Hard Disk+DDR 2 512 MB RAM on a Pentium 4 CPU 3.20Ghz. Please someone advise what to do to solve my problem?
November 19th, 2009
Norton 2008 worked well with Vista because it gave you an option to minimize performance impact. 2009 does not give you that option and it slows my computer down.
Simple tasks like opening a folder take a long time to process. It’s almost as if I am downloading something and must wait for the green bar to reach the end of the folder before I can do anything.
Norton 2009 on Vista is not faster. In my case, it’s bull.