I'm running Symantec AntiVirus at work, what is the equivalent Norton version?

Question

I'm running Symantec AntiVirus (i.e. Norton AntiVirus) at work:

• Program: 10.1.6.6000
• Scan engine: 91.2.0.30
• The About box says Copyright 2006 (not a good sign)

As a home user, I've never been a fan of Norton/Symantec from a speed point of view but I hear that things improved a lot from Norton AntiVirus 2009 onwards.

• Is my Symantec AntiVirus install an up to date enough version to include these improvements?
• What's the nearest Norton AntiVirus equivalent version in terms of the core engine?

If I can prove that this version is out of date then it'll be easier for me to persuade my boss to upgrade our installs (we are fully licensed already but may not have the latest program version installed).

Answer 1

As Randolph mentioned, Symantec Antivirus is currently at version 10.2.

I'm not entirely sure what the objective of your question is? Are you trying to get your boss to put Norton Antivirus 2009 on your work computers, instead of Symantec Corporate? I would advise against this.

Symantec Antivirus (and all the other corporate versions of their product, are truly great products. Norton Antivirus 2009 is quite good, but it simply cannot hold a candle to Symantec 10.2. Having used both products extensively, I was truly impressed with:

• The lack of bloat. We installed it on some old Pentium 4's, and it was barely noticable.

• The lack of user interference with the product - since all the machines were taking directions from the server, configuring and installing the product was a snap.

• Speed of scans - pretty quick, considering the age of the computers.

Instead of going with Norton 2009, I would be inclined to make sure you have the latest version of Symantec Antivirus, next time you renew.

Edit: Based on your comments, I have the following to add:

SAV 10.2 is reasonably recent. I'm willing to bet that the scan engine in 10.2 is comparable to anything you'd find in Norton 2009. This is because consumer products typically move much faster than corporate products.

Consider what really changes in Norton:

• Does it get significantly better at removing Malware? A little.
• Does it get prettier? Yes.
• Does it get some new options / features that may not be required in a business environment? Yes.

In my opinion (having a significant amount of experience in Symantec products) the two are comparable in terms of the technology they would use. Of course, this is just my opinion. Take it with a pinch of salt, I may just be talking out of my rear end here :)

Answer 2

Symantec Antivirus and Norton Antivirus are two entirely different things. They're often confused. Norton has a very bad reputation, it usually comes already installed and is difficult to get rid of, etc. Symantec is quite a decent antivirus application.

The Symantec AntiVirus 2006, is fine as long as the virus signatures are kept up-to-date by running the Symantec Liveupdate which comes with it, this will also keep its core up to date.

Answer 3

From Wikipedia: "Norton AntiVirus runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Version 16.5.0.135 is the latest Windows build".

On Symantec's site, Corporate AV is on version 10.2.

It would appear you're running a (fairly) recent version of Corporate.

Answer 4

The current version is Symantec Endpoint Protection for centralized antivirus/antispyware/network threat protection/software firewall. There are more advanced technologies in the home version as it has to worry less about broad application and OS support while some businesses are slower to upgrade.

edit: norton is targeted at the home user. the current version is much better than the 06/07 versions which really tarnished their reputation.

Answer 5

I user the "Gamer" version of Norton AV. It's lighter weight than the entire AV suite and stays out of the way (e.g. doesn't start full scans) when an app is in full screen mode.

I found Symantec AV to be much more of a resource hog when I used it (way back in windows 95 days.) It's likely much better by now but I have no recent experience with it.