Review by S.Trasny

In 2007 I was given Norton’s new protection software, called 360, to evaluate and review. I liked that so much functionality was bundled together: virus protection /detection, phishing protection, maintenance and backup all in one. I bought licences 2008 through 2013 and especially liked when the option to buy it for multiple devices was introduced. In 2014, shopping around to find a good renewal price, I learned Norton was pushing renewals to Security, that 360 was being phased out. I went with Security and remained happy; from my perspective, I couldn’t tell any difference except for the product’s name change. This year I was approaching the deadline to renew and was still trying to find a discount. I’ve learned that software is an item that can vary widely in price; it’s not unusual to find it from 3rd parties for as much as 75% less than buying from the manufacturer. Obviously, I jumped on the chance to get the 10 Device version of Security free to evaluate. However, I’d have happily bought it for the price it was being offered at that day (still that price today). I like everything about the product, but have some issues with the degree of preplanning and extra steps necessary to not pay full price, but that’s my hangup. For convenience, Norton will happily store account information and automatically walk customers through the annual renewal process for which they bill whatever the full price is at the time. Personally, I hate software renewals setup to auto bill and download. Therefore, I don’t agree to it and choose to do it manually. Norton doesn’t make it as easy. In the last few years I’ve become accustomed to using Norton’s removal tool to get it off each device on the day I’m going to review. Then I do a complete install of the latest year’s version and reconnect each device to my Norton account. It’s a hassle, plain and simple, but worth it to me to save some money. People whose time is worth more than mine can avoid the hoops I jump through to save a buck; just sign up for Norton’s EZ-PZ auto renew process. In the years that I’ve been using Norton, I’ve not had any intrusion, virus, etc issues. Some fiends that use freeware have experienced the opposite; one’s pc was completely taken over because he proceeded to a site Norton would have warned me away from. I love Norton Security for all it does and because I can work around their auto renew process and save a buck, or opt for convenience and let them do the heavy lifting automatically for full price. It’s all about options and functionality for me, and Norton delivers consistently.