Norton AntiVirus 11.0 For Mac

NORTON FOR THE MAC IS EXCELLENT. THIS PRODUCT IS GREAT AND WELL WORTH THE PRICE.
Rating: 5 / 5

I recently completed a 1-year subscription with Norton’s anti-virus for Mac.

(As I know operating system is key in these reviews, I use an iMac with a later version of Leopard.)

It seemed like a good idea when I got the computer because while Mac viruses are more rare, they do exist, and I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

After a year’s trial run, I’ve decided to uninstall the program, not because I had any major problems with it, but because I don’t feel it’s necessary to have it.

THE PROGRAM

The program seemed to run pretty smoothly on my iMac.

I didn’t have any problems with it slowing down or crashing the system. (Although, admittedly, I do have processor and memory upgrades. A limited amount of memory might slow down your system).

Towards the end of my subscription, it gave me annoying pop ups urging me to renew, but most subscription-based programs do that.

It will also automatically scan any hard drive or memory key plugged into the computer, which is a good feature, but it can be annoying if you’re switching between the same two drives, plugging and unplugging them a lot.

Another big bonus of this program is that it also detects Windows viruses, not just Mac viruses. I plugged a memory key into the computer which I had plugged into a Windows system at work, and it detected a virus on the memory key which had migrated from the Windows computer. Upon detection it quarantined those files, and provided a detailed report on the virus, telling me exactly which virus had infected the system. From that info I was able to look it up on the internet and find out exactly what the virus did. I really liked this feature, and I appreciated that they didn’t just include Mac viruses in the Norton database for this program. It makes it very useful for cross-platform, and it allows you to use the Mac as a safety net before you plug anything that might be infected into a PC system (As most Windows viruses can’t infect Macs)

DO YOU REALLY NEED IT?

The ultimate thing you have to decide when considering the purchase of this program is whether or not you really need it. In my 1-year subscription, the ONLY event I had was the one described above. I never actually encountered any Mac viruses, and aside from that one incident with the memory key (which wouldn’t have infected the Mac anyway) the program just sat in the background. I don’t really do downloading from potentially dangerous sites, and I really only visit green sites. My e-mail automatically filters dangerous files, and I’ve stopped transferring stuff to my home computer from work. So after a year’s trial run, I’ve found that I don’t really need to fork over the cash for another year’s subscription.

If you do a lot of downloading from insecure sites, or you are working cross-platform in a work environment, I’d definitely recommend this program. However, if you’re just working on a home computer, you’re not really visiting any dangerous sites, and you just browse the internet once in a while, you probably don’t really need it, because you’re not really doing anything that would put your Mac in danger.

4/5 – It’s a decent product… if you actually need it.
Rating: 4 / 5

Although Macs have less of a problem from viruses, it is still important to stay protected, especially if – like me – you travel and use a variety of insecure internet connections.

Norton Antivirus for the Mac 11.0 is a necessary evil, but boy is it evil. It’s interface is barely functional and it has a huge range of tiny inconveniences that would be easily corrected by Symantec if they weren’t so obviously taking the Mac market for granted.

Here’s one of a myriad examples: if you open your laptop and Norton tries to update its virus definitions before the internet connection is established you get an error message. All you can do is click ‘okay’ at which point the program quits. There is no ‘try again’ option to use once you have the connection established. Instead you have to dig down and manually relaunch Norton. Minor? Yes but merely one of many frustrations.

Worse is the annual subscription for virus definitions. The rapacious $24.95 price aside, the interface again shows near-contempt for the Mac. When it’s time to renew you are given the option of going to a web page. However the custom page omits any standard Safari or Firefox headers, so if you want to use 1Password (a ***** program) or an auto-fill feature, you are out of luck. Symantec obviously thinks nothing of having you waste huge amounts of time filling in standard fields. Try going to the Symantec/Norton website. There is simply *no* way anywhere there to buy the subscription for the Mac. Nowhere, Catch-22.
Rating: 1 / 5