Norton good or bad

So unless the tax specifically targets mining no such laws AFAIK you should be safe, because you don't actually own anything before you transfer funds out of your mining wallet. Norton should post an official statement to clarify this to all parties involved sooner rather than later. Totally disagree on irresponsible behaviour. A lot of users mine. Safe mining benefits everyone, not just miners. Mostly disagree on green electricity issue. There is no progress without demand.

There is a huge demand for green electricity now in crypto industry. It is now becoming the main driver for green electricity in the world. There is nothing perfect in it. I dont see so much risk if it goes at this low level GPU is TI. It shows positive hashrate of around 30 mh in app and at the website. Also there is no credit in wallet for many hours of mining.

Not sure if I will receive any credit. But it's supposed to be expected of EAP and norton having zero experience in crypto. So having norton antivirus do a little extra mining is a small plus for me, and a possible big plus for everyone if it's done right obviously not there yet, sorry Norton. Norton should release a version without this feature and allow customers to choose which version they want to use.

Modern PSUs are very smart about power saving. In sleep mode they only use around watts. At full throttle it may be using several hundred watts. So it really makes sense to put your PC to sleep when you are done for the time being - otherwise it's just burning money. With an SSD drive coming out of sleep should be almost instantaneous. Even if you do have it on, power usage depends on what you are doing. So your computer just left switched on doing nothing will use a lot less power than when crypto mining.

Pretty much, yes. Unless it's more convenient to leave them on and I know they have very low standby consumption. We all have our individual responsibility to do our bit, while still getting a life. But I'm not getting at individuals - my point is that Norton has a wider responsibility.

This is going to encourage a whole lot more people into crypto mining. Currently it's something of a niche activity for those really into it. Norton endorsing it makes it safe, mainstream, something anyone might consider. It will mean a whole lot more PCs being left on chewing up power. For what? I said it's useless. Leaving aside the debate whether crypto is actually useful in its current form what can you do with it other than speculate?

That depends on the balance between what you spend in electricity and what you get back in earnings. But you are competing with specialist mining systems with huge setups, custom ASICs and cheap or stolen electricity. Add in Norton taking their cut and is anyone going to make a profit?

Good luck.. Fact: A digital computer performing computations uses more energy. The binary values 0 and 1 are represented by voltages, nominally 0V and 5V, but typically require voltage transitions from 0.

Changing the voltage in a circuit expends energy, regardless of how efficient the device is. The more transitions per second the hash rate the more energy is expended and the hotter the device gets. This is why overclocking causes the device to overheat. Then there is the secondary result of that energy being used. The heat has to be dissipated. So unless you rely of totally passive cooling systems, the fans in your computer run faster and use more energy. Obviously, mechanical devices cooling fans, HDDs are going to wear out faster the more they are used.

But so does solid-state silicon - it's known as silicon aging. This is particularly noticeable in flash memory devices SSDs , which have a limited rewrite lifetime before the memory cells start to leak sufficient electrons to cause instability. Running any silicon at an elevated temperature causes faster aging. Read the specs. Most manufacturers don't want you to know that your expensive computer has a design life of maybe 5 years max, without replacement parts.

Using a bare bones crypto-mining rig might just turn a small profit, as only the essential components are used in a not very elegant enclosure.

Using a high-end laptop almost certainly won't, once wear and tear is taken into account. It wouldn't even pay for a new lithium battery. Hmmm, I have that Porsche sitting idle in the garage most of the time. Maybe I could make some extra money by signing up with Uber Driver? And keeping the engine warm will mean less wear from cold starts.

Why not just make it in the end a separate full-featured product that would do it right? Maybe even extend functionality and partner up with hardware wallet manufacturers for a even better effect?

That would totally solve the issue of cybersecurity, as well as tons of people disliking the crypto functionality in the security software. If you do a separate program you have to pay an additional subscription Furthermore, those who do not know that there is a separate program would continue to use dangerous programs and disable Norton If somebody doesnt want to use this function, he can deactivate it when the program is complete.

Though we can certainly disable this feature, I just don't want a potential mining program to exist on my computer and take up space on my hard drive. However, don't worry, it takes up a maximum of MB of disk space. So if you have a drive of at least GB it fits. Otherwise, just delete some kitten photos Firewall can be difficult to disable. Depending on product level, there may be a limited number of licenses available.

You may have heard this one before: Norton protection may slow down my computer. Norton protection has been rated No. Security software protects your computers, tablets and smartphones from getting malware and viruses.

Overall, Norton is the best all-around internet security suite you can find — it provides unbeatable malware protection, it bundles almost all of the internet security tools available on the market into a single program, and it provides an excellent value for virtually all types of users.

Norton Security Scan was a free software based tool that helped you scan your PC for viruses, vulnerabilities, malicious cookies and similar threats. That being said, I think that most users, including parents and families with 5 or fewer devices, will be really happy with the huge variety of security features included with Norton Deluxe. Norton for Gamers offers all of the features included in Norton Deluxe , plus a couple of extras for gamers, including a game booster Norton GO. Norton GO automatically detects when your device is running games and then it reallocates running processes to optimize processing power for games.

In my testing, Norton GO performed really well — while I was playing Destiny 2, Norton allowed me to increase my graphics settings without sacrificing framerate! Norton Premium only costs a little more per year than Norton Deluxe, so if you want to add more than 5 devices to your plan, buying Norton Premium is a pretty low-risk investment.

For international users with more than 5 devices to cover, Norton Premium is the best antivirus software on the market. Norton with LifeLock Advantage offers coverage on up to 10 devices, GB of cloud storage, and improved identity protections from LifeLock, including:. However, the concrete benefits of LifeLock Advantage are apparent in the numbers — users get coverage on twice the amount of devices, 4x more identity theft insurance payout, and GB more of cloud storage than on the LifeLock Select plan.

If you have a really large family, a significant amount of assets that need protecting, and you absolutely want the utmost in cybersecurity protection, both online and offline, then Norton with LifeLock Ultimate Plus is the best internet security package on the market today.

Just like with any large software, there is a learning curve when it comes to using Norton — the company made some pretty good design choices to make the program easy to figure out, but there are also a few pretty poor choices that make some features more difficult than they need to be. Norton is simple to download and install. Just choose your operating system from the my. Once you have Norton installed, it gives you 2 options for the user interface: My Norton, and Classic.

I found myself repeatedly clicking on the Parental Controls button or LifeLock protections with no success. The my. I was able to configure my parental controls, access my password vault, look at my cloud storage, and check out my identity theft settings with a few clicks. Overall, Norton is easy to use and intuitive, and it has more features than almost any other competitor.

The App Advisor for existing apps lets you know which of your apps have no privacy risks, which apps are installed in the last 30 days, and which apps are using more battery than normal.

Norton should include the password manager, LifeLock, and Safe Family app in a single app. In terms of overall device security, Norton provides some of the best mobile antivirus apps on the market. Norton offers customer support via telephone, live chat, and email. Some of these languages are only available for phone chat during regional business hours, but I was able to live chat with a surprisingly large number of agents in different countries 24 hours a day.

By comparison, competitors like BullGuard and Malwarebytes only offer support in a few languages. My customer service experience with Norton was both good and not good. First, I spoke with a support rep in Bogota, Colombia who was able to access my Norton subscription and add LifeLock to my account when I encountered a bug on the Norton website.

However, I also had one of my most annoying customer service experiences a few days later. This experience was out of the ordinary for my overall experience with Norton, and I was messaging them during a particularly busy time of the year. For the most part, I was connected with a phone or live chat representative within a couple of minutes, and most of the people I spoke with were very knowledgeable and courteous.

But even then, in my experience with Norton, this is uncommon. Norton stands above the competition in terms of malware detection, internet security tools, mobile protections, useability, and value. Norton detected every single malware file in my testing — including newer malware threats like ransomware files, cryptojackers, rootkits, and adware. Its anti-malware engine uses a vast malware directory, advanced heuristics, and machine learning to synthesize the best parts of traditional and modern antivirus detection.

Norton also has comprehensive parental controls, a good password manager, and excellent dark web monitoring which uses real people to discover data breaches. However, the VPN is good for secure browsing, the dashboard is easy to use, and it costs less per year than most standalone VPNs. Overall, Norton is the best all-around internet security suite you can find — it provides unbeatable malware protection, it bundles almost all of the internet security tools available on the market into a single program, and it provides an excellent value for virtually all types of users.

You can try out Norton risk-free with a day money-back guarantee. For users on a budget, the Norton Standard plan offers excellent antivirus protection for a single device.

Norton offers a pretty good first-year discount and you can try all of its features risk-free with a day money-back guarantee. For real-time protection and virus scanning, Norton provides a multi-layered approach, including:. Most antivirus software uses a malware directory, cross-referencing the code of each scanned file against hundreds of thousands of known malware files.

Norton also uses heuristics and machine learning to detect zero-day threats. Heuristics analyze the code of new files against known malware, flagging potentially unsafe files that contain similar code. Norton Deluxe is the best choice for most users.

Users looking for the very best protection, with the most identity theft insurance and coverage for unlimited devices, should invest in Norton with LifeLock Ultimate Plus. Norton provides mobile apps that work for iOS devices, Androids, and even Chromebooks. Norton provides a good value for both individuals and families, and you can try it out risk-free with a day money back guarantee. Ben Martens is a cybersecurity journalist with a background in internet ethics, malware testing, and public policy.

He resides in Oregon, and when he's not advocating for the rights of internet users, he's walking with his dog and inventing stories with his daughter. Home Best Antivirus Norton Reviews. Professional Reviews. Affiliate Commissions. Reviews Guidelines. Ranked 1st from 67 antivirus companies. This article contains. Norton — Frequently Asked Questions. Norton also has: A firewall. Anti-phishing protection. Parental controls. Secure VPN virtual private network. Cloud backup. Privacy protection.

Webcam protection Windows only. Identity theft protection US only. Free Trial. Read More. Norton Deluxe. Norton Premium. Was this article helpful? Please tell us what we can improve This field is required. About the Author Ben Martens is a cybersecurity journalist with a background in internet ethics, malware testing, and public policy. Share this Review 0. Check the top 3 alternative antivirus programs 9. Norton User Reviews Show first. English Italian Polish Spanish French German Russian Portuguese Danish Turkish Arabic 9.

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