NORTON 360 V6

T

he war against Trojans and malware has been one without an end. We have seen a crazy escalation in these unwanted pests in the recent past but there has also been a slew of antivirus products in the market. Norton recently released the new version of their all round security suite Norton 360.

INTERFACE

The first roadblock that distinguishes a good antivirus program from a great one of the interface. Imaging puling your hair out just to find out where the infection is and how exactly to remove it. Yes it should be as simple as a few clicks. With Norton 360 v6 symantec have upped the ante on how simple a security 2012 and installation is quite a breeze. Pop in the CD enter the key and within minutes and we are done. As for the software itself there is a nice choice of colors which gives it a sophisticated look. The main panel gives you an overview of what’s protected and what’s not and all basic scanning and backup functions can be accessed from there itself. The windows 7 widget allows you to access the most important features required on the go. For newbies there is a dedicated help section in the top of right corner so if the setting and the detailed features intimidate you a bit you know where to go. Navigation through the interface is a breeze and there’s adequate detailing and explanation throughout the various sections to keep you well informed of what you are doing.

FEATURES

Norton 360 is your one stop shop for all PC safety related requirements. It covers everything from online identity theft, phising, spyware, spam and virus to even loss of photos, music and other files. The PC Tuneup function allows you to monitor your PC’s speed and take effective measure to get it working at an optimum level. The version we got for review provides protection for three PC’s for upto a year.

The four main tabs are PC security, identity, backup and PC Tuneup. PC security as the name suggests helps you run scan and updates and manage firewell setting. It also lets you Norton insight which monitors applications you install and informs you if they are harmful or unstable. Another fearure is the ability to scan your facebook wall. We have seen a lot of malicious links on facebook in the recent past so this one is a welcome addition.

The identity safe tab lets you security store addresses login details passwords and creit card numbers. It works in tandem with the ‘Norton safe web’ feature which wars you if you happen to land up on a fake website. It has check site option as well.

The backup tab allows you to create sets of data you want to create backups of. These sets can be stored in their secure online storage or anywhere on your hard drive.

The last is the PC tune up section that lets you optimize your disks, clean up files, check startup entries and view a diagnosis report.

PERFORMANCE

At the software uses barely 7 MB of RAM which is pretty good considering Norton internet security 2012 took around 15 MB. CPU utilization was noticeable at good 4 to 5 percent. While scanning CPU usage fluctuated between 20 and 52 percent which is quite high. We tasted it on a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5. Multitasking might be sluggish if you are running a couple of memory intensive applications but if it is just the scan running you are not going to run into problems.

CONCLUSION

Norton 360 v6 is priced at Rs 3,085 for one year of protection for upto three PCs and Rs 1,649 for one year of protection for one PC still you get a lot of more features so if you want one product that does it all, this ia a good buy.