 Potects, but at what cost? |
| Review Date: February 18, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Red Green, |
I am a long time Mac user.
Reportedly in development for 5 years, this software does protect from viruses, including protecting your Mac from being a carrier of Windows viruses. However, there has never been an "in the wild" Mac virus.
My cable company is offering the Mac part of this suite as part of their service. I installed it, and discovered it was too intrusive, and blocked some programs from accessing the Intenet. Unfortunately, there is no customizable firewall. It's either off or on. Virus scanning is too intrusive, too.
The only real reason for an AV on the Mac is to protect Windows users from files other Windows users may have sent you. That said, there is a much better, less intrusive product called Intego VirusBarrier that catches Windows viruses, in combination with the NetBarrier firewall which is extremely customizable.
The problem: After testing Norton and deciding I didn't care for it, I uninstalled it. However, as I dug deeper into my system, I found the software did not completely uninstall. As with their Windows applications, Norton for Mac puts hidden files all over the place. After the uninstall, I found invisible Symantec files and deleted them.
On the next start-up, the Mac wouldn't start: gray screen of death. It would start up in Safe mode, and once after restarting from Safe mode, but not again. So, I reinstalled Norton, and it works again. This is shameful.
I do not recommend this software. Go with Intego instead. Or, if Windows viruses are not an issue with you, then you're probably safe not running any AV. The Mac's built in firewall is excellent, too. If you really need to feel protected, go with the free version of iAntivirus which protects only against potential Mac threats (which really don't exist for most Internet users).
If you have a dual boot system, I suggest using Microsoft Security Essentials, Online Armor firewall and Threatfire (all free) on the Windows partition, especially if you use Windows more with VMWare Fusion or Parallels, due to their effectiveness and small footprints. |
Works fine in the end
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| Review Date: January 26, 2010 |
| Reviewer: David Calif, |
| Installation worked fine in the end. As another reviewer mentioned, you do get a repetitious odd error message when installing on the Mac side, but if you just continue with the installation (it lets you) everything works out. Everything worked flawlessly on the PC installation. |
Snow Leopard and Norton Dual Protection Ver 4.0
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| Review Date: September 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Imtiaz, Canada |
| I have upgraded my mac-book pro to snow leopard and then installed Norton Internet Security Dual Protection 4.0 on both the mac and the windows partition. Windows version works great but mac side sucks- virus definitions do not update and always give "Microdefs error" Liveupdate had an error updating the virus definitions. Norton Confidential installs but with none of its elements like phishing protection, file guard, information guard, etc. I have tried to install and update it about 5 times and always get the same error messages. |
Mac Internet Security
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| Review Date: August 16, 2009 |
| Reviewer: gadget hoarder, NY, NY United States |
Mac Internet Security was a bit of a let down. Some folk say that its unnecessary as their aren't many cracker targeting the Mac, but they are out there. So best to be safe than sorry, but unfortunately Norton's software seem a bit half baked. The firewall sucks as compare to the windows version as there isn't as much control or details. On windows, Norton provides details about the port and the ip of the connection so that you can define robust rules, but the Mac version has none so it is only able to have blanket program rules in the firewall. Come on Norton, even iptables provides more control than that and I didn't have to shell out 60 bucks. Stick with Mac's built-in firewall until Norton comes out with something better.
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Norton Internet Security Dual Protection 4.0 for Mac
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| Review Date: May 29, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jack Geren, Lexington, KY |
| As with most Norton products this one works with little effort on the user's part. You do have to actually read the instructions (one page) in order to install it correctly. This amounts to installing the program on both the mac side and the windows side. Once installed, 15 minutes max, the program works as advertised. |
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