Symantec Norton AntiSpam 2004 Full Version for PC (10099566)

Pros: Uses a combination of spam filtering technologies w/excellent results, integrates into your email program.
Cons: Doesn't coexist well with Activesync, Ad/Popup blocking controls are limited

Norton AntiSpam 2004 (NAS) is one of the newest options for PC users who want to put a serious dent into the amount of spam and advertisements being sent to their web browsers and POP3 email clients (like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, ...

Pros: Absolutely nothing!
Cons: Feeble, slow, hides your rules with no way to backup, destroys your rules on reload.

I got Norton Antispam free with Norton Internet Security PROFESSIONAL (?) and got much less than I paid for. It is the most ineffective, feeble, slow, and minimalist piece of imitation, me-too antispam fraudware I have ever seen. Here is a short list of ...

Pros: None
Cons: Doesn't work with Outlook 2002

I trusted this product because it was from Symantec - what a mistake.

Norton Anti-Spam prevents Outlook 2002 from sending or receiving emails - Technical support is literally a waste of time - 1 hour wait, 45 minutes with a tech who spent more time research his response than solving the problem.

When I escalated the problem, his supervisor recommended that I uninstall SR-2 (for XP)because it may be affecting the performance of the anti-spam software.

I've spent about 6 hours in total, installing, trouble shooting and re-installing - now all I can do is turn it off

I really wish I had never purchased it

Pros: Does block some unwanted email
Cons: Ineffective product, very poor customer service, complex website. Overall straight-arm perception of their customers

What a bad experience with this Anti Spam product. Immediately upon downloading a trial version of this product I noticed how slow my Outlook Express responded to the burdensome coding. Most important the spam I am most interested in blocking is totally unaffected by the software.

Calling for help was a joke. Almost one hour on hold, a representative that was hard to understand (when I asked if I could speak with someone in the US I was told to try by calling back), rep did not seem fully knowledgeable about the product. After working for 45 minutes with the rep. the spam still comes through.

Glad I tried it, would never buy it.

Pros: Catches approximately 70% of SPAM
Cons: Slows down my computer system

I am running on a 2GHZ w/1GB RAM, Window XP.

They have activation requirement. Only allows you to active the same software 5 times. Even though I am a legitimate owner of that software, I have to make sure my system does crash more than 5 times....

The more spam I get the slower it runs. Adding emails to the spam list is painfully slow and I had to turn back on my Outlook rules because it missed so much spam.

When I tried to contact their tech support, they will not help me unless I pay for "support" service. Well, I wrote them emails and no reply (maybe they treat my complain as SPAM)

Pros: Catches majority of spam, good interface (when it works)
Cons: Incompatibility with Outlook/ActiveSync, rotten support.

Thanks to the tip above, not thanks to Symantec's pathetic online support, found the answer to why the AS toolbar goes away in my Outlook 2003. That's highly irritating and there's no indication if Symantec is even working on it. Another weird issue is that about 2/3rds of my spam winds up in the Outlook Junk Mail folder (labeled as "Anti-Spam" suspects), and the rest in the Anti-Spam folder.

Installation went smooth for me and overall, it's doing what it should. This is on a brand new machine with fresh software. I just can't say enough bad about Symantec's automated support system, no free warranty support, and $30 a pop for a real person (in India, probably). I guess the days of quality are over in this business.

Pros: Catches a large number of spam messages and only costs $30-40.
Cons: Should work with Outlook and doesn't. Filter and feedback not sophisticated enough.

I purchased this product in January 2004. After installing I began to receive error messages in Outlook 2002 (0X8004210A) - 'the operation timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server.' This error only impacted one of the seven email accounts set up in Outlook. Removing the affected account from Outlook only caused the problem to transfer to another email account. The Microsoft knowledge base describes the same problem related to other Norton products that do email filtering. The only way to fix the Outlook problem was to uninstall Norton AntiSpam 2004.

Excluding this problem, I would rate the filtering as average. About 10% of spam was getting past the filter. About 1% of legitimate email got falsely caught as spam. The user can click on a 'this is spam' button to tell the software that a message that slipped through is spam. I don't know what kind of association is built into this process, but it doesn't work as it should. After such identification messages that looked identical, but were from different addresses would continue to slip through the filter.

Pros: It did correctly recognize spam.
Cons: The software is extremely buggy, and tech support is scant.

I bought Norton AntiSpam on Sunday. It is Monday. I have uninstalled it from the two machines I tried it on. On each machine, both with XP and Outlook, the spam was marked but not automatically placed in the spam folder created by the software. It also conflicted with my Norton Antivirus software and Microsoft Word, causing them not to load, and slowed my computer up considerably. I spent the better part of 8 hours reading online about the product, reading how to fix various conflicts and bugs, trying the few suggestions Symantec itself had that were somewhat related, and finally realized that this software was not fit for releasing.

Now I wanted to be helpful, so I went to the Symantec site to give them feedback, and found, what a surprise, that the feedback form would not load. How fitting.

Pros: Filters SPAM well
Cons: Totally shuts down web browsers.

After installing the antispam software my Explorer browser works for a few minutes and then will not connect, same for Netscape. The program works great for filtering SPAM but will not allow my browsers to work. I have tried all of the setting and have uninstalled and reinstalled a number of times. The internet works till I get mail and then works no more. I am good with software and this so far is among the worst.

Pros: THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN SOLVED SEE ABOVE
Cons: NORTON SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS PROBLEM AND ADJUST THE PROGRAM ACCORDINGLY.

I have bought the Norton anti-spam program and I am very disappointed. There is a fault in the program. I want to be able to speak to someone on line help does not help in this case. If the problem cannot be solved then I want my money back please

Norton anti spam conflicts with the server unless I reboot each time I want to down load my email.
outlook express becomes locked when pressing the link send and receive mail

UPDATE

SINCE WRITING THE ABOVE I HAVE DOWNLOADED A PATCH FOR WINDOWS 2000 PRO VIA MY SON IN CANADA. THIS HAS IMPROVED THE PERFORMANCE AND OVERCOME THE "LOCKING" EFFECT ON DIAL UP THE PROGRAM IS WORKING SATISFACTORILY. I AM AT PRESENT COMPARING WITH OTHER PROGRAMS

UPDATE

Further investigation and a root cause of the above problem is the sister program norton anti virus 2001 professional having changed to AV 2003 "Bingo" no more problems and no patches.

Pros: Wonderful Banner Killer
Cons: Horrible AntiSpam identifier. BRUTILLY SLOWS THE COMPUTER.

Wow, I'm usually a fan of Symantec/Norton products, but this one needs to go back to the drawing board. I was using a different company (Cloudmark), but it didn't remove ever persistent banners. I found AntiSpam 2004 and it did and Yes, it does. That is all it does well. AntiSpam 2004 does not block any of the porn, nor mortgage companies, etc, from inundating my Inbox. No matter how many Subjects or Senders I identified as Spammers, I still received these in my Inbox. Keywords weren't recognized and Inbox was a haven for subject lines which had "Porn and Sex" on the subject. When trying to send the multitudes of Spam to the Spam Box, the computer slowed to a crawl. When emptying the Spam box, it took repeated attempts to get all of it to the Delete Box. Reminder: None of the Spam box messages were items this program put there; I put every one of them in the box.

My computer 2.4 Intel ran slower than my older 600 once this program started gobbling up memory. There are plenty of other programs out there which work better. Shameful!

Pros: Easy set up for Domino. Works fine for anti virus on email.
Cons: Anti Spam ineffective.

Symantec antivirus/antispam for groupware protection is fine except it doesn't catch much spam. Manual update doesn't seem to make much difference. No sign of an automatic update like the anti-virus. Sadly the anti-spam is not in the same league as the anti-virus. Customers are seriously wondering what they have paid for.

Pros: Updates Effective Fast Simple to use
Cons: Simple controls

Boy do I disagree with the previous posts about Norton Antispam 2004 (actually anti spam). I was somewhat uneasy about the simplicity of the user interface. There is very little to tweak or adjust compared to some similar products (McAfee for example) However, the product just plain works. I found it much faster and more effective than previous program I used (Spam Inspector) I believe that its effectiveness is HIGHLY dependant on keeping its spam definitions updated. Until I did the first update, it did seem to be substantially less effective than I expected. However, now that I keep it updated it is really very effective. I bought it because I am a Norton fan and because I trusted them to have up-to-date spam definitions and not to disappear from the scene. It seems to me that the SPAM definitions are 90% of the product. THe spamers will keep developing new strategies, so if your software doesn't come with first class updates - forget it.

Pros: Automatic filtering
Cons: Manual setting a received email as spam crashes OE, requiring the computer to be rebooted.

Frequently crashes Outlook Express V6 on windows 2000 requiring it to be rebooted in order to get new email. This happens with the common task of marking email as spam using the "This is spam" command. How could Symantec release this product with out testing this feature? Thier web site acknowledges this problem, but still does not have a fix for it. Rather it states not to do this operation!

Pros: None
Cons: Buggy program, not compatible with all systems.

I purchased N. AntiSpam 2004 last night, came home and installed it on my XP system. After installation I no longer had access to the internet through my router and cable modem. I worked for a half hour to no avail and finally uninstalled the program. Afterwards I was once again able to access the internet with IE 6.0. I didn't check last night, but this morning I found I could no longer access my email accounts via Outlook nor Outlook Express. I've worked on it all day without success.
I made an inquiry on one of Microsoft's Newsgroups and received the following reply:

"Many other OE users share your pain, John. I'm afraid this is something Symantec will have to assist you with (and don't be shy about demanding a refund)."