Cons: VERY poorly written, crashes OS, causes many more problems, bad support.
The Bottom Line: DO NOT use Norton Internet Security 2003. Stay with NIS 2002 and just upgrade the subscription if you have to do so. This program WILL crash your system.
jelston's Full Review: Symantec Norton Internet Security 2003 (10024885) ...
I have been using Norton and Symantec products for nearly 20 years. They have been the cornerstone of PC utilities, diagnostics, and repairs. I have recommended them to thousands of my clients and customers over the years and made it a priority to install on my own equipment.
Today, I announce the end of my journey with Symantec. It is not the same company nor is it the same quality products that they used to be. About seven years ago, I noticed a sudden change in the philosophy of Symantec’s customer service and quality. They no longer seemed to care about how they treated their customers. And as the years have gone by not only has their customer service evaporated but the quality and stability of their products have gone from the top to the bottom of the industry.
Norton Internet Security 2003 is the most horrifying example yet of what has become of the once accountable company. I was a user of NIS 2002 and enjoyed for the most part a good year of service. But when I upgraded to NIS 2003, the problems began. It crashed my Windows 2000 PC, killing everything in its path. If I had not made a backup of that entire system beforehand, all would have been lost. I then tried to seek customer support from Symantec. But I quickly learned that they will not even talk to you at all, regardless of the issue or problem, until they have charged your credit card $30 first. They will also try to trick you by telling you that “if it is a problem with our software, we will not charge your credit card”. But you then learn that even when it is a “known bug” in the software, they find a loophole to charge anyway, knowing there is little you can do to fight it. The tech support technicians are rude, condescending, and attitude ridden when they talk to you. It is obvious that they don’t care if they are able to help you or not, they just want your money. If the issue takes longer than a few minutes, they will try to get you off the phone and stop trying to help at all. After all, they have your money, what do they care? One way they do this is by telling you that you must go to their web site and seek out your own solutions on their great “knowledge Base”. But when you do, you find that they provide very few answers and lots of useless information that does not help your problem. Finally, the end all answer to their program bugs is that you buy an upgrade to solve the problem. After spending considerable time on their web site trying to seek out the answers, I found none. What I have found is HUNDREDS of complaints from IT users and Network Administrators who have had similar problems with NIS that I did. And they are all just as frustrated too since they cannot get any help from Symantec.
Symantec, cold and unwilling to be accountable for their products will leave you in the dark. Norton Internet Security 2003 is clearly one of the worst builds yet they have released, filled with bugs, problems, headaches, and crashes for your unsuspecting system and/or network. If you have any doubts as to what I have written here or feel that my opinion is biased in some way, I strongly suggest you check out the Symantec KB and support center and read other customer comments for yourself. It is a real eye opener.
Meanwhile, I have decided to pull all Norton/Symantec products from my systems and no longer recommend them to my customers.
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