I apologize for the long absence. I've had a lot of ideas to blog about, but interestingly, I've daunted by the flood of ideas and how best to present them. Like I always end up solving dilemmas like this (i.e. a lot to do and being at a loss for how to tackle tasks), I take it one step at a time. I've twittered about my woes with Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 and how I started a trial of Norton Internet Security 2009. Well, I'm here to let you know that I'm now a bonafide customer of Symantec once again.

I once used (back in 2005) Symantec Client Security and it bogged down my computer. I have had such a horrible experience with Symantec products, ranging from being a resource hog to being plain impossible to uninstall. Fast forwarding to 2009, I find that the installation experience for Norton Internet Security 2009 is remarkably smooth and very unobtrusive. I mean, I didn't even have to restart the computer!! This was mind-boggling to me after coming off Bitdefender Internet Security 2009's rather clunky installation method. According to a review on CNet, this streamlined installation process is indeed new and borrowed from another of Symantec's flagship products (Norton Ghost). Scanning my laptop (a full scan) does not leave my system hanging although in fairness to Bitdefender Internet Security 2009, a full system scan didn't bog my laptop down.

There are a few things I miss about Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 and I wish these things would be incorporated into Norton Internet Security 2009:

  1. Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 automatically integrated itself into the right-click menu of Windows Explorer. I could instantly scan individual files or folders and with Norton Internet Security 2009, it's a 4-step process to scan a single file or folder. Don't believe me? Check out short video of the process (made with the excellent Camtasia Studio 6 tool!)
  2. Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 has a better (in my opinion) home network management interface in the sense that I could actually initiate scanning (full or quick scans, etc) on any computers that were on my home network as well as check on the security status of that computer and so on. I really miss that aspect of managing my home network although truth be told, Bitdefender IS 2009 got more finicky as I installed more items on my laptop. It kept "forgetting" that my laptop was part of a home management network and I got tired of "tricking" it into "remembering". *sigh*
  3. This might sound weird, but Norton Internet Security 2009 is almost too quiet for me. I am a tinkerer, okay? Bitdefender IS 2009 was very vocal and I could customize alerts and such. Anyway, I trust the NIS 2009 is working. :)

Without further ado, here's the video:In a quick side note, I would love for the maker of the Embed Video with Link plugin for Wordpress to resume development of this plugin, but I totally understand where his stand. I will probably have to pick another plugin to do what this Embed Video with link plugin does for me. I love Blip.tv's easy video hosting service which preserves the quality of my stuff! I've moved away from Youtube since finding about Blip.tv last year.

Now, as much as I miss certain aspects of Bitdefender Internet Security 2009, I have to call them out on their customer support. It's been over 2 weeks since Bitdefender IS 2009 refused to install on my Vista laptop. I had a nice chat with an online representative who had me re-run some test and then, he forwarded me to a page that had me run all sorts of tests on my laptop. I sent the requested information to the developers or support personnel and that's the last I've heard of the issue. I got so disgusted & frustrated that I decided to try out Norton Internet Security 2009 and I fell in love with its ease of use! So, another one's loss is Symantec's gain! Hopefully, someone from Bitdefender will read this post and maybe give the support folks a little push. I did pay for the software so I'm feeling rather cheated that I essentially paid for a piece of crap.

In another random aside, there are a lot of spam blogs that masquerade as sites that may be affiliated with Bitdefender. *shudders* Some quick tips to avoid giving shady people money for doing nothing but putting up spam blogs, do the following:

  1. Always look at a link's destination by hovering on the link for ~ 2 seconds and then looking at the Status bar, like the  image below.
  2. If you are trapped in one of those sites that uses text ads, you are SOOL (shit out of luck), but in those cases, I simply search for the item the link is referring to.
  3. Even better, install Adblock Plus which will get rid of those pesky text ads and other web annoyances. :)

Adios!