Norton AntiVirus Professional & Personal Firewall 2004 Bundle review:
5 stars (Way Better Than Trend Micro PC-Cillin) - I was using Trend Micro PC-Cillin and kept having viruses. I could not figure out why until I read an article in PC World that told that Trend does not detect or remove spyware/adware. Knowing that viruses can come in with spyware/adware I realized that my problem was in part the protection I bought. Taking a friend's advice who sets up computer systems and networks them for a living I bought the stand alone Norton Bundle of Anti Virus and Personal Firewall. I must say I have never been more pleased than I have with Norton. It has kept me protected solidly and I feel it was worth every penny and do not forsee ever switching again. Being told by a co worker i was not smart to have switched from Trend I decided to double check some of Norton's scan reports by doing the free scan at the trend site and the program that before was telling me i had all these viruses was now backing up what Norton told me and saying i was totally clean. Go figure. It might be not as easy to install or use as Trend claims to be but when you want computer protection you want SOLID protection not just the easiest thing to use.
1 stars (Buggy and tech support is virtually non-existent.) - Buggy buggy buggy! On one computer, I can only get NPF to load on 1/3 of all boots (warm or cold). On my other computer, the central (yet separate) updating program -- Symantec LiveUpdate -- automatically CHANGES its connectivity options ITSELF nearly every day, which causes the "LiveUpdate settings" to become "corrupt," making updating either NPF or NAV impossible unless. . . .One goes through a cumbersome process of scanning the entire hard drive(s) for LiveUpdate's configuration settings, removes them manually, goes to the control panel to reconfigure NEW settings, and then reboots. This works (temporarily) to fix the problem, but it takes about 10 minutes. Do that 10-12 times per week, and you can imagine the frustration factor. Periodically, this "quick" fix fails, and I have to go through a bizarrely convoluted "uninstall" process for Symantec LiveUpdate. This LENGTHY process is outlined in a "repair" document that, when the screen type is set to "smallest," requires 6 (SIX) pages of paper to describe and about 45 minutes to actually execute. When that "repair" no longer works, Symantec tech "support" suggests uninstalling and reinstalling everything (that's their solution to nearly every problem -- they seem to have next to zero troubleshooting expertise or, perhaps, zero WILL to help), a process that can take as long as an hour and a half, depending on your CPU clock speed.I've mentioned the near-uselessness of their email "tech" support. Frankly, I see no "tech" in their "support." Invariably, one is directed to one of a gazillion lengthy online documents that spells out a time-consuming process to keep the customer running in circles, only to find, ultimately, that there is NO way to fix the problem other than UNINSTALLING everything (remember, there are three components here -- NPF, NAV, and LiveUpdate) and then reinstalling ALL THREE. A 1.5 hour process, at least, as I noted above.I'm completely fed up with Symantec, especially with their repeated "apologies for any inconvenience. . . ." What? "Any" inconvenience? How about the very REAL and repeatedly tangible wastes of time caused not only by buggy software but by their inability and/or unwillingness to actually troubleshoot an issue or fix the bugs in their software rather than simply playing their default "uninstall and reinstall" card. If they truly were sorry, they'd fix the software rather than directing the customer to "keep. . . running" (hat tip to Ralph Ellison).I'm no programmer, but even I could give that "techincal support advice" (I use the terms loosely). I have no alternative software solutions to suggest, but I strongly warn users to avoid this software like the plague that it is. Ironically, the anti-virus software works like a charm (it has intercepted dozens of viral emails), and the firewall is impressive in its capabilities and has been excellent. But the inability to keep the products updated because of unauthorized software auto-reconfigurations and subsequent file corruptions thereby, added to the dozens of hours needed to keep that update component functioning properly have made this software and Symantec's lack of useful tech support infuriating.Update to Symantec 2005?Not while I'm alive. . . .
4 stars (It's great if you keep it updated...) - We use this at work and it is by far the best antivirus program out there. At home, I use the Macintosh version. The best I can say is that there are so many virii on the Window's platform you'd be silly not to have something like this installed. If you're tired of virii, worms, trojans, spyware, etc..., there is another solution. Get a Mac. The piece of mind you get knowing that the operating system is nearly impossible to infect or crack outweighs the tiny learning curve in switching to a different operating system. How many virii have I gotten at my Mac at home in the last 6 months? Zero. How many at work? At least one a week via email. Even our CIO (Information officer) is putting in a proposal as I write this to migrate the entire server and desktop system to the Mac OS X platform, and we're a fortune 500 company. The money saved alone in downtime from systems getting infected (if you can't work, you can't produce!), more than pays for the minor expense of making the switch. NAV is good. But unless you keep your virus definitions up to date, you're asking for a heap of trouble. And how many users really take the time to update their definitions even when the program prompts them to do so? I can count them on one hand.

Norton AntiVirus Professional - Personal Firewall 2004 Bundle is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around  79.99USD.