Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Makes everything run slower
I am running a P4 with win ME and I downloaded this product off of the net. When it is installed, my computer takes forever to do basic tasks (open files, run programs, etc). Even when the product is disabled, as long as it is installed, I get these delays. I admit that I haven't gone to a lot of effort to troubleshoot. But, a search of Intuit's online help and their first response to my email were not helpful. It sounds like it works great for many people, so perhaps I'm in the minority. It is easy to install and set up and it seems to work well except for this problem. However, because of the compatibility issues, I have decided to use a router with a firewall instead.Update: I corresponed with Norton Customer Service via email several times. They were unable to solve my problem. However, an unrelated upgrade of my video card produced a dramatic improvement. There is still a performance hit in a few places, but the software works well enough to use it now. I have no idea why the video card was causing the problem.
Rating:  - Completey Research Your Options Before Purchasing NIS 2003
Bottom Line: NIS 2003 CD would not install on a brand new DELL 4550 computer with a NEC CD/DVD player running Windows XP SP1. You must manually uninstall previous versions of NAV and/or NIS if you are planning on upgrading. Symantec Support costs [money] per incident if you decide to try to call them. Symantec Knowlege Base is lacking, links mentioned in the install guide for install tutorials where non-existant, so was the link on the NIS box to get a 60-day guarantee refund.I had a 90 day trial subscription to NAV 2002 that came with my DELL. NAV 2002 actually saved my PC when I received 3 infected emails. So, when it came to the end of my subscription, Symantec offered to either renew the subscription or upgrade. I chose the upgrade through Symantec directly and bought the NIS 2003 for [money]. When I began to read the installation guide my first surprise was that if you had an older version of NAV or NIS you had to manually uninstall the old software - sorry but NIS 2003 should be smarter than that, and seamlessly upgrade it without manual intervention. When I got to the point of doing the actual installation the CD never autoplayed (my PC earlier in the day autoplayed and successfully installed Adobe Photoshop Album).
I tried to get to the CD/DVD player via My Computer so that I could install via cdstart.exe on the CD, or copy the install files to disk and install from disk, but the Symantec CD just hung and the whole PC froze up and I couldn't even manually push the eject button to make the CD eject. After several reboots I got the Symantec CD out, however previously auto-playing CDs did not autoplay anymore and I couldn't eject them either. Several reboots later, "My Computer" worked again and the CD ejected. Then out of the blue about 3 or 4 Symantec screens started popping up saying the program was not responding, want to end the task, which I did. Like with anything, you have to take everybody's experience with a grain of salt. There may just be a compatabilty issue with my system, or the CD was just plain bad, but from reading some of the other negative reviews here, I'd have to advise others to thoroughly research your options before getting NIS.
I've had problems with older versions of NAV hosing up backup software or causing other software installations to fail. As a matter of fact when I used to work at the 2nd largest computer company in the world, one of the first things the helpdesk asked when somebody called with a software installation problem of another product, was "do you have NAV installed, if so unintall it". I guess for me this experience is a "shoulda known better" and I should not have tried Symantec again, especially since I've known about problems with Symatec for a long time. ...
Rating:  - Definitely a good product, but Install can be troublesome.
Being a long time user of Norton products on other PC's, when my new PC, running XP Pro, arrived with Norton AV pre-installed with a free 30-day subscription, I was quite pleased. When the subscription ran out, I decided upon NIS 2003 product, as I was also running Zonelabs as my firewall. My first install attempt was a disaster, almost everything locked up and no applications would launch. Finally, after about 2-3 hours of fiddling and research, thankfully, a safe mode reboot and the usage of the XP System Restore facility (run msconfig), I was able to back out my system to prior to the install. Then it took another 3 reboots to fully get rid of the NAV 2003 install, including having to go into the Services function to stop the system portion of the product. After that, the re-install of the NIS product went fine. The Firewall configuration was a breeze as well. So, if you are running any Norton product at all, be sure to uninstall EVERYTHING and check your task lists that everything is really uninstalled. If you don't, your will run into problems --- which will be very daunting to a novice user. All in all, a good product --- just be very careful if you are currently running ANY anti-virus or firewall product.
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