Norton Internet Security for Mac [Old Version]

I am running on a early 2009 MBP. I had the previous version of NIS for several years and now the most current version. I find it odd that so many people have had problems with it. I had zero issues with the install. I've had zero issues with it running in the background. I've had zero issues with its updates. In fact, the only time I see it is when it flags some virus or malware attached to an Email and picks up something in what looked to be an innocent download. I've also see it's firewall block intrusion attempts from the script kiddies trying to get into my Mac. So all in all, I'm more than satisfied with the product as it does what it says it does.I will second the motion that Symantec is, how shall I say this, "over-aggressive" in their renewals. In fact, my experience has been that, once they have your credit card number, they will auto-renew your license even if you tell them you are not interested. If you ask for a refund, it will never be forthcoming. You'll have to go back to your credit card holder and work a refund thru them for a fraudulent charge.The way I handle this is to use a temporary, one-time use card. A number of the credit card providers have this benefit. I use it all the time for those "one of" purchases. Using this method puts YOU in control, not the vendor. Symantec can try to renew all they want against this one-time use number but it will all be for naught. I get all kinds of Email from them saying the world is coming to an end, can't renew, card declined, renew now, blah, blah, blah. I just smile and ignore it. I also know that I can generally get better prices from Amazon than I can renewing from Symantec. Don't know why that is so but it is what it is.4-stars (instead of 5) is because of their overly aggressive renewal policies.

I have been relying on Norton products for PCs since back when Peter Norton himself was shown on the front of each box. I find the products easy to use, easy to understand, and they have kept me safe from viruses since my first dial up connection circa 1995.When I bought my first MacBook Pro about a month ago to experiment with Xcode and Objective-C (iPad and/or iPhone development will hopefully follow,) I wondered if I needed to install an antivirus package. But I find myself online with this machine much more than I expected, and I decided to purchase Norton Internet Security so that I wouldn't have to worry.The installation was a breeze and within 30 minutes I had the product installed and fully updated. The UI is different than my PC based Norton products, but everything is easy to find and the software has been running without any issues. Better yet, my machine is running just as fast as it was before the installation.My only knock on Norton products is that just after the installation you'll need to run LiveUpdate several times in a row to get all of the latest updates. The Mac installation did not tell me to do this (I am nearly positive the PC Norton 360 installation does) and I needed to run it 3 or 4 times to update every area of the product. But this is a minor quibble. I am very happy with the software.

I got my first Mac about 20 years ago and Norton has been there through all of them - although I was very disappointed when Symantec cut back the services on the basic Norton Utilities for Mac. I used to enjoy watching the man in the lab coat going through several colorful applications and felt that a good, thorough job was taking place for my Mac. Symantec changed over the years until many Norton apps were omitted for Macintosh users. Though I am now using my internet service provider's security for my iMac, I purchased Norton Internet Security for my old G4, which is beyond the point of upgrading and is used primarily for scrapbooking projects and is online less, but still requires online security. I chose Norton Internet Security as a reasonably priced alternative for that purpose.

It stays out of my way, most of the time, and that is why I consider this product good. Considering that security suite is not as crucial for a Mac as it would be for a PC, not getting in my way is an important consideration.What I don't like about it is that the toolbar takes away too much screen real-estate in Safari. Given the toolbar's function, which is really not that important, why would you put these huge strip over your screen. They could've just made a small site-safety-indicator as a button on the existing toolbar or the status bar. It would've been much wiser. Fortunately, the toolbar can be disabled, but since I paid money for the product I would have liked a better substitute rather than having to remove it completely.

This does not work, as is, with 10.8. If you bother to view the readme file, it tells you to go to the community (forum) to get help on getting the download installer. The forum is useless. This is a known issue - Norton should have a web page addressed to it, so you don't have to fumble around in the forum!!Eventually, I got to "Nathan," an automated "chat" automaton, which directed me to download the latest file and use the product key with that version. It worked. Why not just put that info on a web page! What a pain, Norton!Do not under any circumstances ever give a credit card number to Norton. I have heard that they will automatically renew your license and charge it to your card. I don't know if they still do that or not.Two stars may be too harsh, but I just now did all this and I might be a little irritated! :)

Contrary to Amazon's warning, the current version of Symantec Internet Security for Mac is now (November 20, 2013) Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks compatible. I originally included a weblink from Symantec's website where they state this news but Amazon does not permit external weblinks. If you go to Symantec's website, you should be able to confirm my statement. Amazon, please remove the Warning.By W. McKelvy (Memphis, TN)