In theory, 360 2.0 is a comprehensive all-in-one security package that frees the user from the need to remain cognizant of maintenance needs, especially if one has multiple PCs to be serviced, and for newer units with mid to upper range capability that is the case.

After months of ambivalence (and waiting for the supposed automatic offer), I decided to upgrade from version 1.0 to 2.0 on three computers: One desktop with 4 GB of memory with Vista Ultimate, a laptop with Vista home premium and 2GB memory, and an 8 yearold but highly reliable CPU with only 256MB memory. Version 1.0 ran adequately on the first two units and from all appearances this version 2.0 is not as resource intensive as the earlier version however, LiveUpdate remains an annoyance.

Similarly to version 1.0, it appears the only other Norton product that is compatible with 360 is Norton Ghost.

In the case of the older unit, performance of Norton 360  was consistently problematic so I was not surprised to encounter difficulties with the upgrade however I had no inkling of the extent of encumbrances I would face in what from a cursory view appeared to be a rather benign installation.

Like security suites offered by other vendors version 2.0 includes virus protection (unfortunately still updated via LiveUpdate whereas NIS 2009 is migrating to real time updating) firewall, spyware and intrusion protection, email scanning, parental controls and anti-spam filtering. The latter mentioned features are available as add-on packs accessible from Symantec's website. This version also enhances network monitoring capabilities and expands supported media for backups. Curiously, and incongruently, while network attached storage devices like the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Netgear-RND2150-ReadyNAS-Duo-500-GB-Desktop-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B0013G04AQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage</a>&nbsp;are discovered by network monitoring, automatic backup to the same device is not supported. It should also be noted the only qualitative difference I can see between the standard version and the premier version of 2.0 is the increased online secure backup storage of  10GB in the case of the premier edition. Standard edition availability is 2GB and in my opinion neither is sufficient. As an all in one product, some compromises in user control could be anticipated however it would have been an advantage if the user was offered the capability to backup individual files rather than continuing the limitation to classes of folders. Essentially, while backup to ipods is intriguing, I see little advantage to employing this backup facility over the functionality existent in both XP and Vista operating systems.

The network monitoring feature is beneficial but is flawed to the extent multiple devices connected to a single access point  like the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/NETGEAR-HD-Gaming-5-GHz-Wireless-N-Networking-Kit-WNHDEB111/dp/B00126R3P6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">NETGEAR HD/Gaming 5 GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit (WNHDEB111)</a>&nbsp;are not individually distinguishable. Only the mac address of the access point is identified therefore from my primary computer I cannot fully monitor a second PC or my NAS.

This version also includes registry cleaning as a component of the PC tune-up facility and "identity safe security" of personal information like social security, bank account and credit card numbers. The phishing filter is an improvement over version 1.0 however it still lacks the comprehensiveness of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/McAfee-Site-Advisor-Plus-2009-1-User/dp/B001EJQTUG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">McAfee Site Advisor Plus 2009 1-User</a>&nbsp;in as much as it does not offer advice search engine results. Significantly, the phishing filter does not work with Safari or Google chrome.

And then there was the upgrade on my older PC...

In spite of Norton's representations, I would not recommend installation on any PC that meets only minimum system requirements. At every step, I encountered difficulties that severely constrained the process and after 24 man hours devoted to installation the process is still incomplete.

First and foremost, upgrade is not automatic. Although 360 offers three PC licensing, I could not download the upgrade via my existing account. Only after email inquiry was I provided  an address that facilitated download to my second and third PCs. In the instance of my oldest unit I made the mistake of running the recommended system scan before installation. It occurred to me as well, this does not generate a great deal of confidence in Norton if in fact one is upgrading or replacing an existing Norton anti-virus program. I received a message indicating this version was incompatible with Windows Defender so I had to remove that program before proceeding. I did not pre-scan with the other two PCs and no compatibility issues were identified nor I have experienced any since the upgrade or have I ever encountered issues in the two years I used 360 version 1.0.

Although during install procedure on my first computer I was advised existing add-on packs should be backed up using another program that must be downloaded from the Norton site, the same message was not received for either of the later installs and the add-on pack itself appeared on my desktop upon completion of the preliminary stages, but I get ahead of myself. The install aborted three times because LiveUpdate was running in the background and could not be terminated even manually via msconfig or the task manager. When I finally managed to disable it, I later discovered another version initiated by Norton Ghost could not be removed, so I had to uninstall Ghost before proceeding. Degradation of system performance was clearly evident as at least five hard stops were required and in each case the difference in boot times was visually perceptible without Norton running. Eventually, the install was completed but start up would not progress past the call to explorer.exe which was visible but the desktop icons were never painted...another hard stop via task manager and restart.

Finally, the configuration wizard appeared and I was able to setup the program...only to discover Norton had identified un-removable cookies,an un-repairable virus and my virus definitions from version 1.0 had not updated via LiveUpdate for more than 8 months. Following program instructions to contact online support for more information, I reached site catch 22 as the more information could not be gleaned until I defined the problem inhibiting installation...After removing the cookies with spybot and determining the virus was most likely Norton Ghost LiveUpdate, and  running a new version of LiveUpdate for more than two hours to acquire all of the missed updates, I received an email from support advising I should download a software removal tool to wipe out any residue programs, which of course would also wipe out my latest install and render 14 hours of effort pointless.

So now, I have version 2.0 installed and running with significantly greater degradation than version 1.0 as it applies to response time for Explorer or Firefox so I'm using Safari as the default browser and it performs with blazing speed even on this under resourced box with Norton installed. Of course...my install of Microsoft Office suite has been damaged so I have time to type this on another computer while I wait for the re-install to finish...
In theory, 360 2. 0 is a comprehensive all-in-one security package that frees the user from the need to remain cognizant of maintenance needs, especially if one has multiple PCs to be serviced, and for newer units with mid to upper range capability that is the case. After months of ambivalence (and waiting for the supposed automatic offer), I decided to upgrade from version 1. 0 to 2. 0 on three computers: One desktop with 4 GB of memory with Vista Ultimate, a laptop with Vista home premium and 2GB memory, and an 8 yearold but highly reliable CPU with only 256MB memory. Version 1. 0 ran adequately on the first two units and from all appearances this version 2. 0 is not as resource intensive as the earlier version however, LiveUpdate remains an annoyance. Similarly to version 1. 0, it appears the only other Norton product that is compatible with 360 is Norton Ghost. In the case of the older unit, performance of Norton 360  was consistently problematic so I was not surprised to encounter difficulties with the upgrade however I had no inkling of the extent of encumbrances I would face in what from a cursory view appeared to be a rather benign installation. Like security suites offered by other vendors version 2. 0 includes virus protection (unfortunately still updated via LiveUpdate whereas NIS 2009 is migrating to real time updating) firewall, spyware and intrusion protection, email scanning, parental controls and anti-spam filtering. The latter mentioned features are available as add-on packs accessible from Symantec's website. This version also enhances network monitoring capabilities and expands supported media for backups. Curiously, and incongruently, while network attached storage devices like the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Netgear-RND2150-ReadyNAS-Duo-500-GB-Desktop-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B0013G04AQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt? ie=UTF8">Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage</a>&nbsp;are discovered by network monitoring, automatic backup to the same device is not supported. It should also be noted the only qualitative difference I can see between the standard version and the premier version of 2. 0 is the increased online secure backup storage of  10GB in the case of the premier edition. Standard edition availability is 2GB and in my opinion neither is sufficient. As an all in one product, some compromises in user control could be anticipated however it would have been an advantage if the user was offered the capability to backup individual files rather than continuing the limitation to classes of folders. Essentially, while backup to ipods is intriguing, I see little advantage to employing this backup facility over the functionality existent in both XP and Vista operating systems. The network monitoring feature is beneficial but is flawed to the extent multiple devices connected to a single access point  like the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/NETGEAR-HD-Gaming-5-GHz-Wireless-N-Networking-Kit-WNHDEB111/dp/B00126R3P6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt? ie=UTF8">NETGEAR HD/Gaming 5 GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit (WNHDEB111)</a>&nbsp;are not individually distinguishable. Only the mac address of the access point is identified therefore from my primary computer I cannot fully monitor a second PC or my NAS. This version also includes registry cleaning as a component of the PC tune-up facility and "identity safe security" of personal information like social security, bank account and credit card numbers. The phishing filter is an improvement over version 1. 0 however it still lacks the comprehensiveness of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/McAfee-Site-Advisor-Plus-2009-1-User/dp/B001EJQTUG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt? ie=UTF8">McAfee Site Advisor Plus 2009 1-User</a>&nbsp;in as much as it does not offer advice search engine results. Significantly, the phishing filter does not work with Safari or Google chrome. And then there was the upgrade on my older PC... In spite of Norton's representations, I would not recommend installation on any PC that meets only minimum system requirements. At every step, I encountered difficulties that severely constrained the process and after 24 man hours devoted to installation the process is still incomplete. First and foremost, upgrade is not automatic. Although 360 offers three PC licensing, I could not download the upgrade via my existing account. Only after email inquiry was I provided  an address that facilitated download to my second and third PCs. In the instance of my oldest unit I made the mistake of running the recommended system scan before installation. It occurred to me as well, this does not generate a great deal of confidence in Norton if in fact one is upgrading or replacing an existing Norton anti-virus program. I received a message indicating this version was incompatible with Windows Defender so I had to remove that program before proceeding. I did not pre-scan with the other two PCs and no compatibility issues were identified nor I have experienced any since the upgrade or have I ever encountered issues in the two years I used 360 version 1. 0.

Although during install procedure on my first computer I was advised existing add-on packs should be backed up using another program that must be downloaded from the Norton site, the same message was not received for either of the later installs and the add-on pack itself appeared on my desktop upon completion of the preliminary stages, but I get ahead of myself. The install aborted three times because LiveUpdate was running in the background and could not be terminated even manually via msconfig or the task manager. When I finally managed to disable it, I later discovered another version initiated by Norton Ghost could not be removed, so I had to uninstall Ghost before proceeding. Degradation of system performance was clearly evident as at least five hard stops were required and in each case the difference in boot times was visually perceptible without Norton running. Eventually, the install was completed but start up would not progress past the call to explorer. exe which was visible but the desktop icons were never painted... another hard stop via task manager and restart. Finally, the configuration wizard appeared and I was able to setup the program... only to discover Norton had identified un-removable cookies,an un-repairable virus and my virus definitions from version 1. 0 had not updated via LiveUpdate for more than 8 months. Following program instructions to contact online support for more information, I reached site catch 22 as the more information could not be gleaned until I defined the problem inhibiting installation... After removing the cookies with spybot and determining the virus was most likely Norton Ghost LiveUpdate, and  running a new version of LiveUpdate for more than two hours to acquire all of the missed updates, I received an email from support advising I should download a software removal tool to wipe out any residue programs, which of course would also wipe out my latest install and render 14 hours of effort pointless. So now, I have version 2. 0 installed and running with significantly greater degradation than version 1. 0 as it applies to response time for Explorer or Firefox so I'm using Safari as the default browser and it performs with blazing speed even on this under resourced box with Norton installed. Of course... my install of Microsoft Office suite has been damaged so I have time to type this on another computer while I wait for the re-install to finish...