Norton VPN Review

Norton Secure VPN claims that it does not keep logs — our research has found this to be untrue.

Most importantly, it logs your originating IP address. Your IP address is unique to your network and, as a result, is one of the worst things for a VPN to store.

After contacting Norton, we were told that the VPN logs this information so it can “gather your actual location to change it to a different place.”

This is false and very disappointing from Norton. A VPN doesn’t require your originating IP address to connect you to a VPN server. If any location information is required, it can be processed on-device and doesn’t need to be stored elsewhere. Mullvad, for example, doesn’t even link subscriber email addresses to their Mullvad VPN accounts.

One positive is that Norton Secure VPN doesn’t keep connection timestamps or the websites you visit. This at least makes it harder to link your activity to your stored IP address.

Based in the US

Norton Secure VPN is based in the United States, which is the worst location for user privacy. The US has very intrusive surveillance laws and is a member of the Five Eyes international intelligence-sharing alliance.

The US has troubling data retention laws, including the Stored Communications Act (SCA). In short, this means Norton has to hand over all the information it stores on a user if requested by the US government.

It can be acceptable to be based in the US if the privacy policy is minimal enough — Private Internet Access is a great example of this. Otherwise, you should look for a VPN based in a more private jurisdiction.

Sometimes Streams US Netflix

We were able to unblock American Netflix using Norton’s US VPN server. However, it was far less reliable than the very best Netflix VPNs.

In our tests, Norton Secure VPN worked with US Netflix 60% of the time. Frustratingly, the VPN doesn’t offer city-level server locations, so you can’t cycle between servers if it’s not working. Instead, you’ll have to wait for Norton to restore functionality.

Streaming US Netflix with Norton VPN.

The VPN doesn’t work with any other Netflix region other than the US. We tested it with over 25 libraries, including the UK, Japan, and Australia. Norton VPN failed to stream a TV show or movie from any of these regions.

Reliably Accesses US Content Platforms

Norton Secure VPN is far more reliable at streaming other US-based video services. Using it, we could unblock Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Max from overseas.

Unlike with Netflix, we were always able to access these streaming services with Norton. Norton Secure VPN’s US server speeds are fast, too, so you can expect high quality video streams.

Norton VPN always worked with HBO Max and other US content platforms.

Works Well with UK Streaming Services

We also tested Norton Secure VPN with UK streaming services. The VPN worked with all of them, including BBC iPlayer, All 4, and ITV Hub.

Norton’s VPN also doesn’t have any city-level servers in the UK. That means you won’t be able to get a new IP address if it stops working.

The VPN works reliably with UK-based streaming sites.

All the videos loaded quickly and streamed in the highest possible resolution. Using it, we watched Sherlock in HD without any buffering.

We were pleasantly surprised by this outcome – based on Norton Secure VPN’s poor performance in other main areas we had low expectations for using it with streaming. However, we rate it lower than the best streaming VPNs mostly due to its lack of supported Netflix libraries and its inability to unblock Disney+.

We connected to Norton Secure VPN servers on six different continents. We use a 100Mbps internet connection, similar to your baseline speed at home.

Here’s a table showing Norton Secure VPN’s speed test results from around the world:

Even at its slowest when connecting to a nearby server, Norton Secure VPN is still pretty fast. Our New York, US, server tests confirmed it Norton Secure VPN only slowed down our internet speeds by 11%. That’s not a number to rival the very fastest VPNs, but it’s impressive for a less popular service.

Norton Secure VPN’s speeds start to drop off when connecting overseas, though. We never knew what we were going to see next when testing it, as some locations were very fast while others were much slower, with no real indication as to why.

On a connection thousands of miles away to Brazil, for example, we actually recorded speed faster than when connected to our closest server.

This randomness and inconsistency makes Norton Secure VPN tough to recommend if you want dependable speeds, although it’s still fairly fast across all locations regardless.

A Solid Choice for Lag-Free Gaming

Norton Secure VPN is also a good VPN to use while gaming. When connected to a nearby server, we recorded a ping speed of 69ms. This is low enough for multiplayer games like CS:GO.

Norton VPN was even fast enough for cloud gaming services, like Xbox Cloud Gaming. Using it, Fortnite ran as if it was installed directly onto our PC. It took us just 20 seconds to find a match and we didn’t notice any input lag.

Norton VPN’s ping is fast enough for online gaming.

However, we don’t recommend using the VPN to access gaming lobbies from other countries. When connected to a server in East Asia our ping increased to 145ms. The response time was too slow and we were removed from some lobbies.

No DNS or IP Leaks Anymore

In our latest round of testing, we were pleased to discover that Norton Secure VPN no longer has any issues with leaking data.

Better VPNs than Norton often struggle with IPv6 – this is a very pleasing result.

Using our VPN leak test tool, we confirmed it properly secured our IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6) as well as our DNS and geolocation.

New Kill Switch Works as Intended

Until recently, Norton Secure VPN didn’t have a kill switch — the most vital security feature for any VPN.
It now has a kill switch included in every application on all platforms. We put it to the test, and the results can be seen below:

A non-functioning kill switch can expose your IP address as if you weren’t using a VPN at all.

Our kill switch testing tool confirmed that Norton Secure VPN did not leak our true IP address when changing servers or when disconnecting and reconnecting our PC from the internet.

Properly Encrypts Traffic with a Variety of Protocols

Norton Secure VPN doesn’t let you choose which protocol to use on any device or platform. By default, desktop connections use WireGuard and mobile connections use IKEv2.

While this is an improvement from Norton, and is technically acceptable, we still feel strongly that there should be greater transparency from its apps – plus a choice of protocols on all platforms. WireGuard, in particular, should be available on mobile to match desktop. Most of our highest-ranked VPNs offer this (alongside a broader range of extra features, like first-party DNS and added obfuscation).

While we’d prefer it if we were offered a choice of protocols, our testing can confirm that Norton Secure VPN properly encrypts your traffic no matter what device you’re using.
Below you can see what web traffic looks like when protected by Norton Secure VPN — the Wireshark packet sniffing tool confirms that it’s all safely encrypted:

Inspecting our Norton VPN traffic using Wireshark.

66% of Norton’s VPN servers are in Europe. We prefer VPN server networks that are dispersed over a wider area. That way, more users have access to nearby connections.
There’s only one country each for South America and Africa, and three for Asia. Some major regions are not available either. There are no servers in India, South Korea, or Indonesia. If you’re connecting from any of these regions, you can expect slow speeds and high latency.

Norton VPN doesn’t provide any information about server load or latency.

We are also disappointed that it doesn’t offer any city-level locations. This means we aren’t able to bypass US sports blackouts by connecting to a particular city or state.

Norton also wouldn’t tell us whether these servers are physically located in the region, or whether they are owned or rented by Norton.

If you live in a country that isn’t included in Norton Secure VPN’s network, it’s worth paying a little extra for a VPN that provides coverage to experience the best possible speeds.

Proton VPN has 6,587 servers in 112 countries, and 100% of them are physically based where they say they are.

Norton’s VPN service might be easy to use, but we did discover some differences between the interface on different devices, which can be confusing.

Here are some opinions on our experience using the VPN on each different platform:

Desktop & Laptop (Windows & Mac)

Norton Secure VPN’s Windows app has more features than any other platform. It includes a kill switch, split tunneling, and a tracker blocker.

As the VPN can be used in the Norton 360 app, there’s no learning curve for existing Norton users. It can be enabled and configured similarly to all of the app’s other features, like device scanning.

The VPN section of the Windows app differs slightly from the Mac version. You can still connect using the simple Turn On button, but the Windows app uses a basic pop-up window when changing servers or configuring settings.

By contrast, the Mac app behaves like a more traditional VPN app. In all, Norton’s Windows app is better than all of its other versions. It includes all of its features and additional security protection.

Norton’s macOS application doesn’t include any security features, although it did recently add a kill switch (enabled automatically — you can’t actually find a toggle for it in the app).

It doesn’t have split tunneling, but we do think it at least looks slightly nicer than the Windows version overall.

Mobile (iPhone & Android)

Although Windows and macOS allow you to use the VPN in Norton 360, you’ll have to use the standalone Norton Secure VPN app on mobile devices.

Norton’s iOS client is as simple as it gets. The app appears as if it’s been quickly designed, with not much consideration for how it looks or works — the background is white regardless of whether or not your iPhone is in dark mode, for example.

We also didn’t like how you have to switch between tabs to perform common functions, like switching to a different VPN server. Most VPN apps allow you to connect, change servers, and change basic settings from a single home screen. We’d like Norton to do the same.

The app is nice and easy to use for beginners, though. Just press the Turn On VPN button from the app’s home screen. This will connect you to the nearest server location.
Norton VPN’s Android app is by far the most fully-featured mobile app. Unlike iOS, it includes split tunneling, while as of late 2022 both apps now have a kill switch.

As P2P traffic is supported on Android, you also have the option of connecting to its dedicated server for torrenting. As we found on Windows, though, this just redirects you to the Netherlands server location. P2P speeds were the same as on Windows, too.

Apart from that, the Android app looks and works the same as the iOS version. The color theme can’t be changed and its design is extremely basic.

Other VPN review websites claim that Norton Secure VPN doesn’t support torrenting. But we found that it allows you to download P2P files on its server in the Netherlands.

If you try torrenting while connected to a different server location, the VPN app will block the download and show an error message. To connect to the Netherlands, choose the Torrent-Optimized Region option at the top of the server list.

Norton Secure VPN blocks torrenting outside of the Netherlands.

There’s no good reason for Norton to restrict P2P downloads to the Netherlands. Although it was previously legal to download copyrighted material there, this was stopped in 2014.

We’d like to see Norton expand its P2P server network to at least include an option for North American users.

P2P Speeds Depend On Your Location

Norton Secure VPN performed very well in our P2P speed tests. On our 10MiB/s test connection, we recorded a bitrate of 9.2MiB/s. This meant our torrent files downloaded almost as quickly as our regular internet connection.

Norton VPN downloaded our torrent files quickly.

Here’s how quickly we were able to download a 20GB torrent file compared to when the VPN was disconnected:

The closer you are to Norton’s P2P server in the Netherlands, the better your torrenting speeds will be. You’ll experience less impressive speeds if you’re connecting from further away.

If you’re not located in the US, TorGuard is a good alternative as it has fast P2P speeds and supports port forwarding.

Here are a few differences between Norton’s VPN apps:

We’re glad that Norton is edging closer to feature parity with its VPN but, with so few apps on offer, there’s little reason why there should be any difference at all at this point.

Depending on which pricing plan you choose, Norton allows you to install its VPN app on one, five, or 10 devices at once. A device will count towards this even if it’s not connected to the VPN, which can be frustrating.

This is an approach that Norton uses with its other products as well, not just its VPN. It’s confusing and unnecessary when compared to almost any other VPN, and we wish it would update its practices and simplify its device plans.

Not Available on Many Platforms

There’s no way to use the VPN on any other devices, including Fire TV and Linux. There’s not a manual workaround for routers either.

Norton doesn’t offer Smart DNS functionality. That means you won’t be able to stream geo-blocked content on devices that don’t support VPNs, like Smart TVs.

Norton Secure VPN doesn’t come with any browser extensions for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox either.

With the amount of resources the company behind it has, we strongly believe that Norton Secure VPN should follow the lead of superior competitors like NordVPN and at the very least introduce apps for streaming devices and Linux. Given that Norton has completely ignored Linux for its flagship antivirus product, though, we aren’t feeling too hopeful.

It’s also a great shame that there’s no way to use Norton Secure VPN with your Smart TV or streaming devices, given that unblocking streaming sites is one of its few strengths.

Works in China Without Obfuscation

After contacting Norton support, we were told that “Norton Secure VPN will not work in China.” Despite this, we were able to bypass the Great Firewall on every VPN server we tested from our server in Shanghai.

We connected to a server within 10 seconds each time, too, which is much faster than some other VPNs we tested.

In the video below, view our tests examining how well Norton VPN worked in China:

There are also VPN servers available in nearby locations, like Hong Kong, so you can connect with fast speeds and low latency.

The one downside is that the VPN doesn’t include any obfuscation or anti-censorship technology. We’d like to see Norton add an option to connect via Shadowsocks or Obfsproxy.

Split Tunneling for Android & Windows Only

Norton VPN includes split tunneling on Android and Windows. This feature allows you to exclude specific apps from the VPN tunnel, like a banking or weather app, for instance.

One of the Worst VPN Ad Blockers

All of Norton’s VPN apps include an ad and tracker blocker. This feature is designed to prevent websites from monitoring your activity and following you as you browse the web.
We tested Norton Secure VPN’s ‘Ad Tracker Blocking’ feature and found that it only blocks 48% of all ads and trackers:

The very best VPN ad blockers score over 90% on this test.

While certainly better than nothing, this makes it one of the least effective VPN ad blockers by far.