Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Jan
Comment: Norton Internet Security 2009
I read many mixed reviews about this product and became worried because people had complained that they had experienced difficulties deleting a previous version and adding the new one. This was not the case for me, I loaded the new one and it detected the old version and automatically upgraded. 2009 is certainly lighter and less noticeable that 2008. I would recommend it.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Buyers of Norton Internet Security 2009 beware!
Comment: I have used Norton Antivirus/Internet Security products for many years and have usually purchased a 'new edition' which is normally cheaper than subscribing to Norton for an 'on-line' renewal of an existing product. This was the case when I decided to purchase the 'Norton Internet Security 2009' from Amazon; the item being replaced was the '2008' version of Norton Internet Security.
My operating system is XP 'Home Edition'.
Having carefully followed the very limited but seemingly simple instructions contained in the CD container, I arrived at a point where the software detected the previous edition and having asked me to authorise its removal, started to remove the 2008 version. Following several warnings regarding allegedly missing files I ended up in an 'impasse' where the programme could neither continue with installation of the 2009 nor completely uninstall the 2008 versions. I then attempted manually uninstalling both versions with the intention of starting 'afresh' but this was soon followed by a fatal corruption of my system whereby the majority of programmes migrated to files with a '.lnk' suffix, rendering most of my system unusable. As a result I was forced to employ a consultant who eventually managed to fix the problem having employed a removal tool, allegedly 'deeply buried' within the Norton website, that 'scours' the system of all residual Norton products.
Although the programme has been working well since being successfully installed the overall experience was both frustrating and expensive. This, combined with an 'unhelpful' rsponse from a Norton telephone helpline operator who dismissed the problem out of hand as a 'system error' suggests that I am unlikely to use similar Norton products again.
Without doubt the major contributory factor was the extremely limited installation instructions provided with the product.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Looks fine - difficult to rate
Comment: Installed on 3 PCs. 2 PCs are XP and one is Vista.
Sorry to hear that a couple of people are having speed problems.
Mine are all fine.
Installation and operation seem pretty slick to me.
So was last year's version.
How do I rate it? I can only assume it's doing it's job as I've never had a virus or other nasty.
So I've rated it on speed of installation and operation. That's all I can do. And , fingers crossed, it does the job.
Why did I choose Norton?
Two reasons, 1. Bad experiences with Macafee a few years ago and 2. I've never had a problem with Norton. So, nothing scientific.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Avoid if you've got mobile broadband
Comment: If your connection to the internet is a mobile broadband service then don't use Norton! My 2008 version of Kaspersky expired and judging from reviews in PC magazines and on Amazon, I thought Norton sounded the better for 2009 - I was totally wrong.
Part way through installing Norton it was at the stage where it wanted to activate my account so that I could download updates. I was connected to the internet using 3 mobile broadband, and yet Norton kept saying "We are unable to activate your account because you are not connected to the internet, if you are then please check firewall and parental control settings". I had parental controls turned off and of course the firewall wasn't so high that it stops me from connecting to the internet. And the bit that annoyed me most was that other parts of Norton were acknowledging that there was an internet connection, so why couldn't the account activation part?
Having not been able to activate my account and download updates, the virus definitions I had were around 180 days out of date.
I went on to spend about 2 hours on the internet doing what I had to do and in that short space of time my computer became seriously infected. The first virus I saw was one that tried sending approximately 250 e-mails about christmas gifts. Another virus was something to do with Generic Host Process for Win32 Services.
I then took my laptop to a friend with a normal broadband connection and tried activating my account through that and it worked. I then tried seeing if it would let me do downloads with just my mobile broadband, and still it wouldn't even though it acknowledged the connection in other parts of the software.
Not knowing how to fix computer problems, I took my laptop to PCWorld and paid £30 for them to format it and reinstate everything. I also spent another £34 on Kaspersky. Kaspersky has installed with no problems at all - using mobile broadband has not been an issue.
Conclusion:
If you've got mobile broadband - avoid Norton and go for Kaspersky
Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so bad
Comment: I removed Norton IS 2008 and replaced it with IS 2009 a couple of days ago. Suddenly my internet is running much more slowly and I am having a difficult time rectifying the problem using Symantecs online help service. Now I may have to buy a rival software package just to bring my internet back to the speed level I had before. Disappointed.
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