Norton 360 Premier includes all of the features and internet protection abilities of Norton 360 with the addition of a generous 25GB of free online backup. This amount of storage is enough for most consumers to save their entire collection of images or music – up to roughly 7,000 photos or 6,000 songs. The 25GB of storage provided by Symantec coupled with excellent security makes this premium internet security suite an outstanding value.
Symantec, the provider of Norton security products, has been in the software and technology business for nearly 30 years and has grown into one of the largest software companies in the world, employing over 18,000 people in over 50 countries. They have drawn upon their decades of experience and talent to create one of the best-performing security suites. They have passed all recent third-party tests, and AV-Comparatives awarded Norton a score of 99.3%, which was the best score of any product in the July 2011 whole product tests.
Norton 360 Premier, our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award winner, provides flexible, mobile parental controls that can help you protect your children while using a PC, Android phone, iPhone or iPad. Children constantly want to go online to research homework topics, interact with friends and access news and entertainment. In fact, most kids will complain that the "computer is broken" if they cannot get online. Symantec understands the desire for kids to go online and the need for parents to keep their kids as safe as possible. Their parental controls can be fine-tuned to allow your children to access only approved websites when you allow it. Should you need to adjust your kids' schedules or change their permissions, you can do it even if you are not home via your mobile device.
Norton scores consistently high alongside a short list of elite performers in third-party tests. In the latest AV-Test, Symantec tied with the best in protection in the September/October 2011 tests. Their repair scores match with other leading competitors at about 83% or 5 of 6 points, well above the industry average. In the July 2011 full product tests, they received the highest protection score of 99.3% and earned an Advanced certification from AV-Comparatives. Though we do not rank entirely based on third-party tests, we do use them to give us an idea of how well they can be expected to perform in real-world situations and how dependable they are long term. The Norton suites continue to perform above average. In the last six AV-Tests, they average over 87% in their protection scores. This is exceptional. They have proven to be dependable and to have the ability to react to unknown zero-day threats.
Another aspect we considered in regard to protection is what avenues of potential malware access the security suite can lock down. Norton 360 Premier has all pathways covered. It has a two-way configurable firewall, provides file sharing protection, keeps social media and chat conversations safe, can scan USB drives and controls network access. Any way that malware might try to sneak in is blocked by this Norton suite. It will even monitor your children to make sure they do not download files or alter applications.
This security suite is a premier product and includes the premium features we were looking to find. With Norton 360 Premier, you can configure up to 25GB of selected files to automatically update online so you never have to worry about your images or documents being lost should your computer crash or be stolen. The backup tools can also perform scheduled backups to other locations such as an external hard drive. This security software even has a password manager. A password manager can help you create and securely save complex passwords and will enter them into websites automatically out of the reach of keyloggers.
Norton 360 Premier includes simple tools for keeping your PC running smoothly with little effort on your part. It can completely erase deleted files, clean the registry, manage startup applications and erase internet files. It will also monitor your CPU activity and will alert you when an application is bogging down your system. To get a quick overview you can run a diagnostic report, which will check your security, operating system, resource utilization, startup programs, installed programs, hardware, network, restore points and running processes. With this report, you can easily decide changes that you may want to make to improve your system's performance.
Identity protection tools restrict selected information from being shared online, in an email or through an instant messaging conversation. Using Norton you can create a list of information that you do not want distributed, such as full name, address, phone numbers, credit card numbers and social security numbers. The identity protection filters can also stop other users of your computer, such as your children, from sharing the restricted information as well.
Norton 360 Premier includes all standard security suite features. It can run custom scheduled scans, provide safe browsing, warn you about suspicious websites, control applications and reboot your PC. It also includes powerful parental controls for your PC and mobile devices. There are fullscreen and laptop modes, which can restrict or pause scans until resource usage is lower. This software provides safe search, which will rate all websites in search results before you visit them to help you make better choices about which sites you visit. Norton also provides website reports. Website reports provide threat information, visitor comments, eCommerce safety information and general information.
Parental controls are especially convenient. With Norton you can use your iPhone, iPad or Android phone to edit, monitor and manage your children's profiles. You can also manage their profiles via a web browser. This means if your teen is at home and has earned extra game time, you can give them more allotted time remotely. You can also set filters based on your child's age or by your own preferences. For example, you may decide to block instant messaging applications for your 9-year-old but allow chat for your 17-year-old.
This Norton product provides more comprehensive application control than most other suites. It supplies an application rating for your installed software with a trust level rating, how often it is used, resource usage and installation date. Files deemed "trusted" can be restricted from scheduled scans so the scans run more quickly and use fewer resources. It also has a startup manager that will allow you to set which applications are allowed to start automatically and which ones you want to delay startup.
Norton is always available should you need assistance. Like their security products, they work 24/7. Though using their support does require a bit of patience. We waited three minutes for chat support and six minutes for telephone support, and they report 24 hours for an email response. This is about an average customer service wait time.
Indirect support includes access to full user guides, embedded help, FAQs, updates, a forum and a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants are increasingly replacing standard search tools in an attempt to put a friendly face on search results. We used the virtual assistant to try to find answers to our questions. When the assistant could not answer our question, it referred us to direct support. Direct support, via online chat, answered all of questions.
Norton 360 Premier has proved that they have the ability to keep your PC and family safe. Remote parental controls and the ability to install the software on three PCs make it one of the best suites for families. The tools that come with this suite can also keep your identity safe and your files securely backed up online. Symantec has created an exceptionally complete, capable suite and you can depend on it for consistent, dynamic security.
