Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Updates: your subscription may include product, service and/or protection updates, and features that may be added, modified, or removed, subject to the acceptance of the License & Services Agreement. Overall, Norton has one of the best antivirus-bundled VPNs on the market. It’s not as good as a standalone VPN, but it provides encrypted web access across a variety of servers around the globe and has a strict no-logs policy, an easy-to-use interface, a kill switch, and unlimited browsing data.
You can also set access rules for every single program on your PC, as well as traffic rules for all of Windows’s built-in programs, like Network Discovery, File and Printer Sharing, and Remote Desktop Connection. However, most users will just want to let the firewall run on its defaults. Additionally, Norton provides a list of 136 uncommon protocols that can be used by malware to communicate between devices on a network. Norton’s firewall automatically monitors all of these protocols for suspicious activity and notifies users if they should disable any of these protocols due to a network-based malware threat. Norton also offers a premium support option called Norton Ultimate Help Desk. It allows Norton’s customer support agents to take remote control of your PC and help troubleshoot any issues, assist with device diagnostics, network setup, and more. This service is ideal for beginners, but I tend to be wary of premium support services; their costs can be hard to justify for users with a basic technical understanding. That said, I like how Norton provides options that cover multiple devices and that you can call them an unlimited number of times on the top-tier premium support plan. However, Norton Secure VPN’s connection speeds aren’t the best. Since VPNs route your internet connection through another server (sometimes around the world) and encrypt all of your data, this process is always going to cause some slowdown, no matter which VPN you use. But because all VPNs handle these tasks differently, all VPNs have different speeds. In my tests, Norton’s VPN wasn’t nearly as fast as some antivirus competitors like TotalAV or Bitdefender, but it wasn’t the slowest either.Unfortunately, Norton’s parental control app has a few issues. It doesn’t work on Mac computers or Chromebooks, and it’s way too easy for a tech-savvy kid to bypass the web filter and YouTube and search monitoring on Windows. You can monitor an unlimited number of devices with Norton’s parental controls, which is great. Other top parental control apps like Qustodio only let you monitor up to 15 devices — so Norton is an excellent choice for large families or families with lots of devices. I really like that Norton’s phone support is available in dozens of different languages, including English, German, Dutch, Turkish, Mandarin, and Arabic. Some of these languages are only available for phone chat during regional business hours, but I was able to chat with a surprisingly large number of agents in different countries 24 hours a day. By comparison, competitors like Malwarebytes only offer support in a few languages. Norton’s malware scanner is one of the best around. It uses a massive malware directory, heuristic analysis, and machine learning to detect all types of threats and provide an excellent level of virus protection. It also offers a variety of virus scanning options plus real-time protection to keep malware from Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. Furthermore, dark web monitoring is always active once you enter your information— the moment any of your data is discovered floating around the internet, Norton’s dark web monitoring team will give you a notification and instructions on how you can make the necessary changes to protect your identity and accounts.
As a side note, Norton for Gamers is bound to have less of an impact, seeing as it’s designed to improve a device’s performance. AV-Comparatives The biggest problem with Norton’s basic plan is that it only covers 1 device (or 3 in the US). However, Norton 360 Standard is an excellent choice if you don’t have many devices to cover. If you want coverage for more than a single device, Norton 360 Deluxe is where it’s at, as this suite supports up to five devices. It’s a bit more than twice as expensive as AntiVirus Plus, but if you need that extra device coverage, it’s obviously worth it– and the parental controls are also great for those who have a family. Norton’s parental controls are some of the very best on the market — Norton ranked as the #1 best antivirus with parental controls in 2023, and it’s currently one of the top standalone parental control apps. The parental controls are available for Windows, iOS, and Android. Norton’s dark web monitoring scans for an impressive array of personally identifying information(PII), such as:Of course, this is a service you would hope not to use. But if you find yourself in a position where you have no idea what to do once identity theft has taken place, having a dedicated expert available throughout the week is always a big perk to have. Verdict After executing a malicious file, Norton 360 immediately alerted me that it had detected a threat and removed it. There’s no option to move it to quarantine when alerted; Norton removes the malicious file from harming your device. That’s an efficient antivirus. Norton’s built-in system tune-up tools are pretty good, but for users that want their systems running at peak performance, buying the Utilities Ultimate upgrade is an excellent low-cost option. My only issue with Norton’s Utilities Ultimate feature is that it’s only available as a paid add-on with most Norton plans — Avira offers its very similar System Speedup Pro feature as a built-in feature for its premium plan. The updater uses a database of more than 50 million malware-free drivers— all vetted using Norton’s antivirus. Avast uses a similar-sized database, but in my tests, Norton proved to be slightly faster than Avast when scanning for outdated drivers. I also really like the customization aspect of Norton’s Data Protector. By default, it’s set to protect all of your most important files and folders, but it’s easy to add extra files and folders you want to protect.
Great Deal 
New Comment