KEY POINTS:
My relationship with Norton internet Security 2009 did not begin well.
Symantec, owner of the Norton brand, has a marketing campaign that promises the latest version of its security suite takes less than a minute to install on a PC.
But despite ongoing assurances that there was "less than a minute remaining,"15 minutes into my one-minute install I was stuck with the message that a "necessary file could not be loaded".
The problem seemed to be something to do with having another Norton security product, 360, already loaded on my machine. And sure enough, going through the tedious process of shutting down the PC, restarting it and then removing 360 meant that my second attempt at installing NIS 2009 was indeed a one-minute wonder.
But why, if you're a software company, would you set yourself up to frustrate customers by making promises of fast installs? Surely computer users are used to - and indeed almost expect - the software installation process to be time consuming?
Before experiencing NIS 2009 first hand I had spoken to Rowan Trollope, Symantec's senior vice-president of consumer product and solutions, and the man responsible for the one-minute install marketing drive.
Trollope said he pushed for a redesign of NIS so that it could be installed quickly as part of a wider revamp aimed at overcoming the perception that security software in general (and, presumably, Symantec's in particular) is sluggish and a drain on a computer's resources.
Symantec says it has spend 500,000 hours improving the performance of the security suite, making it less of a burden in terms of memory usage, processing time and the engagement required by the computer user, as well as cutting the time it takes to install.
And, initial installation frustration aside, my experience has been that the software does indeed work away quietly and unobtrusively in the background.
A new feature in the 2009 edition is a nifty display you can call up to tell you how much of your machines processing capacity is being used at any one time, and how much is attributed to the security suite's activities.
"We put that there because the experience was the customer would install our product, or another security product, and at some point later they would be working and they'd find their computer was running slowly," Trollope said.
"And in this industry it's been commonplace to blame the security software, so we had to have a way of demonstrating to users, and being very transparent about, how much CPU we were using."
All this comes at a cost: a recommended retail price of $99.95 to run NIS 2009 on up to three machines for one year.
The annual subscription includes free technical phone and/or email support, making this a good option for computer users who want a dependable security option and are prepared to pay a premium for a hassle-free solution.
While it's a powerful solution, for those who don't want to part with $100, there are good free or cheaper security alternatives without the gold plating, bell and whistles Norton offers.
Unfortunately, (both for Symantec's revenue base and for the victims of lax internet security), a high percentage of computer users seem indifferent to the danger of neglecting computer security, free or otherwise.
Telecom says only 51 per cent of internet users have up-to-date internet security on their computers.
Its approach is to try to circumvent the reluctance-to-pay syndrome by incorporating a free security package from Symantec rival McAfee into its broadband plans.
With the Telecom/McAfee option there's no one-minute guarantee, in fact the Telecom website says allow 20 minutes to download the 50 megabyte McAfee suite.
But if you don't want to splash out on NIS 2009, and you're already a Telecom customer, and have an extra 19 minutes to devote to protecting your computer, then it seems like a good option, especially since it's free.
