Norton Secure VPN

The world is beautiful and peaceful—until it's not. While are thieves and invaders trying to get access to our homes and properties in the physical world, cybercriminals and hackers are lurking around in our online space too. But we have come to rely on security measures such as fences and alarm bells to keep us safe physically, just as we depend on VPNs to keep us safe online.

Norton Secure VPN is one of such. The service provider that has been in the industry for a long time. From the early years of its inception in 1982, the company has continued to be a force to be reckoned with. Expectedly, its VPN’s launch in 2016 was met with bated breath and high anticipation.

Sadly, the VPN has failed to live up to its reputation. But are things different now? Is the VPN all a VPN should be—secure, safe, private? We will provide all the answers in this detailed and exclusive review of Norton Secure VPN.

Norton Secure VPN Features

Privacy	Low
Speed
Platform
Servers	800 +
Locations	30 +
Unblocked Services	HBONetflix
Ad block
User Usability	Hard
Game Consoles
Smart TV
Browsers Extensions
Torrenting
Server option	Rented
Maximum Devices	10
Log Policy	Low
Data Leak
Decrease Speed	43%
Support
Trial	60 Days money back guarantee
Payment Methods
Pricing	1 years $19.99 / mth 1 month $4.99 / mth

Get Norton Secure VPN

Is it’s a free or paid service?

Amazingly, Norton Secure VPN is one of the very few service providers that offer a free trial. The best part of it is that users can access all the features of the VPN. That's not all, you also get to use it for 30 days.

Performance

The performance of a VPN is what ultimately tells us if the VPN is worth it or not. Here, we peruse two important features—speed and stability.

Speed

Since VPNs function on additional servers, it causes a reduction in browsing, uploading, streaming, and downloading speed. We put the VPN to test to check how much impact it will have on speed.

For this review, we used servers around the globe, with all the tests done on a 500 Mbps connection from the US.

We weren’t able to select cities for the speed test as only countries were available for use. Hence, we started with the United States, we connected to a New York server and were able to get about 52 Mbps. We also tested a server in Canada and here we recorded a higher speed of about 85 Mbps but was still far from our 500 Mbps baseline speed.

We moved on to test a server in the UK. Sadly, we recorded the worst speed ever, barely getting 8 Mbps. Lastly, we tested the VPNs speed in Germany and were able to get 45 Mbps.

Generally, the speeds gotten aren't very great, and this could negatively affect online activities such as online games, uploading, downloading, streaming, and other activities. Hence, if speed is a priority for you, we suggest you consider other options. Its highest speed at 85 Mbps is still a far cry from the baseline speed of 500 Mbps.

Stability

We can’t say much about the VPN’s stability either. We experienced connection instability with the VPN booting us out after every few minutes.

Streaming

After a long day at work, all most people want to do is sit back, Netflix and chill and since VPNs gives you access to the streaming platforms and many others, everyone wants to be a part of it. But does Norton Secure VPN enable you to access these streaming platforms? let’s find out.

Netflix

One of the best gifts a VPN can give you is to enable access to Netflix. While it's true that Netflix blocks VPNs from accessing its platform, most VPNs find their way around. Fortunately, Norton Secure VPN is one of such.

With the service provider, we were able to stream U.S Netflix, which is great seeing as most VPNs are unable to do this. However, we were unable to access Netflix Germany. Note though that accessing Netflix with VPNs is not guaranteed as the streaming platform is known to blacklist IP addresses related to VPNs.

BBC iPlayer

Disappointingly, Norton Secure VPN doesn’t work with BBC iPlayer. When we tried it, we couldn’t access the popular British streaming platform.

Others?

Overall, Norton Secure VPN can access a limited number of streaming services. This includes HBO Max, UKTV, and HBO NOW. Sadly, you won't be able to access Hulu, Amazon Prime video, ESPN+, and Disney+.

Security

A VPN could be everything fancy and nice, but if it's unable to deliver on its primary assignment—which is providing security, privacy, safety, and anonymity to online users, then it has failed. Does Norton Secure VPN live up to its name? Read on to find the answer to this question.

Where is it based?

After a 2019 merger, the service provider changed its name from NortonLifeLock to Norton Secure. However, before then the company was known as Symantec and was at the time owned by Broadcom Inc. This brief background information is needed to understand the VPN and its history.

 The VPN operates from its base in California, USA. While the state is a perfect host for Disneyland, Hollywood, and the Golden Gate Bridge, it isn’t ideal for housing a VPN company. Why? Because the United States is a member of the Five Eyes international surveillance alliance. But beyond that, the country also has very intrusive surveillance policies.

This is not to say every VPN with a base in the US gives up their users' data. The trick to surviving in the United States and keeping your users’ data intact is operate with a zero-log policy. With this, even when government policies mandate you share a client’s data, there is nothing to share.

The big question then is, does Norton Secure VPN log users’ data? That’s what we are about to find out.

Log policy

Like other VPNs, Norton Secure VPN claims to behave a strict zero-log policy—however, this is far from the truth. Its privacy policies (there are three privacy policies to be precise) are alarming.

Although we are glad the VPN-specific privacy is brief and straightforward, nonetheless, it does have its drawbacks.

The VPN's privacy policy admits it logs some forms of data including:

• Name of device
• Type of device
• The version of the device's operating system
• “URLs of websites visited that the software deems potentially fraudulent”
• Likely security risks
• Corrupted files likely to contain personal-identifiable data (you can deactivate this manually)
• “Other information that is used for purposes of analyzing and improving the functionality of Norton products”

While this seems quite a lot, they are none identifiable data. Regardless, we are concerned that the VPN logs “URLs of websites visited that the software deems potentially fraudulent” and would prefer it doesn't keep any such data, to begin with (not that we support fraud though). We also find the part where the VPN says "other information” vague and evasive as there could be a lot of possibilities embedded in it. more clarity will go a long way in reassuring many users.

Also, the company says its NortonLifeLock collects data such as:

• User information such as IP address and ID serial number of the device
• Provisioning data such as device type and name, OS version of the device, and language
• Security data including cumulative bandwidth usage

For a service provider that claims to be a no-log VPN, it logs too much data, hence, we recommend you stay away.

Protocols

VPN protocols are sets of instructions that determine how information is routed between a mobile device or PC and a VPN server. To ensure a secure and stable connection, service providers depend on protocols, and the more the protocols, the better.

Seeing how important protocols are to the safety and security of a VPN service, we expected Norton Secure VPN to offer tons of it but it fell short. For starters, you are only offered L2TP/IPsec protocol and OpenVPN protocols. Although the protocols aren’t bad, other VPNs offer more options such as WireGuard and IKEv2.

That said, OpenVPN is the best and most versatile protocol there is and we are glad this VPN offers it. Norton Secure VPN also uses AES 256-bit encryption, which makes every encrypted data impossible to brute force or hack into. This encryption also works in TCP and UDP modes. The latter checks the integrity of every file even though it’s a slower protocol, while the former while fast is unable to check a file’s integrity.

The L2TP/IPsec protocol on the other hand is much slower on iOS devices than OpenVPN. It also has a more complex setup and is prone to failure and not as secure as OpenVPN. Overall, these protocols ensure safe, secure internet surfing, hence you can be sure your data won’t get into the wrong hands.

Protection against leaks

It's important to ensure the VPN being used isn’t leaking any form of data. The most common data leaks are IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks. We carried out tests to check if the VPN leaks data. The test enabled us to see if Norton Secure VPN would expose our data. The result from the leak test was positive, we didn't experience any IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks, our IPv6 was also completely blocked and our data was concealed as well.

Torrenting

Many want to be able to download and upload files without so much stress and since VPNs offer such services, users are craving it more. However, not all VPNs support torrenting. Let’s see if Norton Secure VPN does.

Does Norton Secure VPN allow torrenting?

While many VPNs allow peer-to-peer torrenting over dedicated servers, Norton Secure VPN is a terrible choice for torrenting. The VPN has does not permit torrenting on any of its servers. It goes further to cut off your connection if it observes any peer-to-peer activity.

When we reached out to the service provider, they told us that torrenting “leaves your computer vulnerable to security threats and attacks”, this they say could lead to “loss of your personal information and data.

However, we do not completely agree with this. Torrenting is just as risky as downloading files from any online source. If torrenting is a major priority for you, then we advise you consider other options.

Is there a kill switch?

A kill switch is known to shut down your online activities should you lose a VPN connection. This way, your data are kept safe and do not leak. Most times, VPNs feature automatic inbuilt kill switch. Despite how important having a kill switch is, Norton Secure VPN did not offer this feature in the past, this has changed now though. However, note that it offers a kill switch on Android and Windows devices only.

Bypassing Censorships

Believe it or not, there are countries where internet access is restricted or banned. Therefore, residents and visitors to these countries depend on VPNs to help them bypass these censorships and enjoy all the internet has to offer. Let’s see if Norton Secure VPN pulls any weight in this area.

In censored countries

Bypassing the Great Wall of China is no small task as it requires the use of obfuscation tools. This is because most Chinese Firewalls can easily detect VPN traffic and block it off.

Norton Secure VPN does not work in China owing to its lack of obfuscation tools. The lack of this feature also prevents the VPN from being able to access other censored countries including Turkey, Russia, UAE, Iran, and so on.

In restricted networks

While many organizations and schools allow free access to the internet, some put restrictions on the internet. This can be frustrating and limiting. The good news however is that Norton Secure VPN can bypass these restrictions, granting you access to various websites and social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on.

Countries and servers

The number of servers offered by a VPN as well as the spread of these servers across various regions of the world creates the condition for the successful operation of a VPN. In accessing VPNs, we consider those with the largest footprints as this means there are multiple servers within a small region to connect to. This, in turn, can increase the connection speed, making it easier and faster to surf the internet, stream contents and torrent files. Is Norton Secure VPN a large VPN? Let’s find out.

Countries covered

Norton Secure VPN server network is quite underwhelming. It features only about 2 800 servers which are spread across 31 countries of the world. These servers are present in North America, Western Europe, and some Asia-Pacific areas.

There is only one server each in South America (Brazil) and Africa (South Africa), we hope this improves in the near future. Overall, you will find servers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, and Poland. There are also servers in Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and of course the United States.

The VPN provides no information on whether the servers are bare metal or virtual. The VPN, however, says its servers are not self-owned. They are all managed by third-party agents, this is not unusual though. If you reside in a region with no Norton Secure server, we advise you consider other VPNs present in your region, that way you get to experience the fastest speed.

Servers

Some VPNs have dedicated servers for activities such as streaming, torrenting and so on. This helps users connect easily to task-specific servers and help experience fast connections. Since Norton Secure VPN does not allow torrenting on any of its servers, it's safe to say it does not have dedicated servers for the purpose.

We were unable to determine if the VPN offers dedicated servers for other activities, although we doubt it does.

Compatible devices and simultaneous connections

A VPN can be great but unable to work with your device, and when this happens you would have wasted time, energy, and resources. Hence, it’s important to determine the compatibility of a VPN before investing in it. We did that for Norton Secure VPN and here is what we got:

What devices can I use with Norton Secure VPN?

The service provider offers support for four major software which includes:

• Android
• IOS
• Apple macOS
• Microsoft Windows

That’s all the support you will get with the service provider. Norton Secure VPN doesn't support Linux or any other software. Also, the VPN doesn't offer a manual configuration for routers. We aren't happy about this as it means there is no protection for streaming devices such as game consoles, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and so on.

That's not all, the VPN does not provide a browser extension for Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, or Opera.

How many simultaneous connections?

Most VPNs offer the industry standard of five simultaneous connections, while some other go over and beyond to provide as much as seven, ten, and even 15 simultaneous connections.

Norton Secure VPN takes a different approach to this. It offers one, five, and 10 simultaneous connections for its monthly, and annual plans.

Client support

While using a VPN, you are going to need support at one point or the other, have questions that need urgent answers, and issues that need resolution. This is especially true for those starting to use VPNs for the first time. Hence, VPNs need to offer a robust and helpful support system. Let’s see if Norton Secure VPN cares enough for its customers.

How to contact Norton Secure VPN?

Excitingly, Norton Secure VPN offers 24/7 Live Chat support. However, it's one thing to offer live chat support, it's another thing to get timely, responsive, and helpful responses. When we contacted the VPN via its Live chat channel, we waited for about 12 minutes before we got a response.

Is it good?

Although we are glad the VPN features 24/7 live chat support, we would love a timelier response to inquiries. Not only did the reps take a long time to respond, when they did, the answer they gave to our question also weren’t helpful.

From all clear indications, the customer representative lacked the technical know-how to handle issues on VPNs—they also didn't have enough knowledge of Norton Secure's features. Answers to basic questions such as server locations and the presence of kill switch were vague and evasive. So, if you have technical issues, you are likely not to get a response from the team.

FAQ/tutorials

Although Norton Secure does not provide an email address with which you can reach it, it does provide other contact options. The service provider has an FAQ section with questions on the VPN and how to protect your identity and answers to them. Also, there are video tutorials to help you get started and other resources to explore including how to download and install, how to avoid technical support scams, and content on purchase and renewal. Furthermore, users can join Norton Forum, a community of VPN users where helpful discussions are held.

Value for money

VPNs have varying prices and potentials clients are often interested in how much a VPN is worth and what they stand to get when they subscribe for a plan. In this next section of our review, we will discuss the VPN’s plans and prices.

Price comparison

Seeing as the VPN isn't a sophisticated one, we didn't expect it to be expensive and we weren't disappointed. It's relatively cheap, but the price is dependent on the plan subscribed for (as is the case with other VPNs).

The VPN is cheaper when you subscribe for a longer period and more expensive with shorter plans. Also, it's more expensive subscribing to its 10-device annual plan than it is for the five-device annual plan. The same is true for its five-device plan. Here is a breakdown of the subscription plan:

• Monthly plan:
• 1 device connection is billed at $4.99 per month
• 5 device simultaneous connections billed at $7.99 per month
• Norton 360 with LifeLock Select: Billed $9.99/month. You get $5 off for the first 12 months. It also allows 5 simultaneous connections
• Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus: Charged at $29.99/month with $5 off for the first 12 months. The plan allows unlimited simultaneous connections
• Yearly plan:
• 1 device connection billed $39.99 per year at $3.33 per year. You get to save $40 when you subscribe to the plan
• 5 device simultaneous connections charged $39.99 per year at $3.33 per month
• Norton Antivirus Plus: Billed $34.99/year at $50 off for the first year1 device connection billed at $4.99 per month. The plan comes with 5 simultaneous connections.
• Norton 360 Premium: Charged $49.99/year with $75 off for the first year. The plan comes with 10 simultaneous connections
• Norton 360 with LifeLock select: Charged $99.48/year with $50.51 off for the first year. You get 5 simultaneous connections with this plan

Means of Payment

You can pay for the service provider using any of the payment methods below:

• PayPal
• Debit Card
• Credit Card

Sadly, you can’t make payment with cryptocurrencies neither does it support international payment options such as Alipay.

Money-back guarantee

This is where it gets interesting. The VPN offers a whopping 60-day money-back guarantee on all its annual plans and a 14-day money-back guarantee on its monthly plans. So, if after subscribing to any of its plans, you find it unsuitable, you can request a refund. Note though that terms and conditions apply.

Any Extras?

Extras are like spices to a meal; they make it more interesting and valuable. In our review of Norton Secure VPN, we found one extra feature we liked.

Split Tunneling

A recent development with Norton Secure VPN is the introduction of Split Tunneling, a feature that enables users to connect to a VPN and at the same time connect to a local network. For instance, you could be out having coffee, while streaming Netflix over the shop's wireless connection and at the same time connected to a VPN to protect an online business transaction. We are glad Norton Secure VPN offers this excellent feature, but sad it's only available for Windows and Android devices.

Final thoughts

Norton Secure VPN offers a below-average service. Yes, it comes at a cheap price, and is able to access US Netflix, but that’s about it.

It can’t be trusted to access streaming platforms, disallows torrenting, and is unable to access restricted countries. Also, it has a lackluster speed and log data.

If you desire a VPN with sophisticated and high-quality features, we suggest you consider premium options such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, you will get your money’s worth that way.