Norton Internet Security 2004 Review Handling the Basics Better Than Ever Eric Grevstad
The centerpiece of Norton Internet Security, as always, is Norton AntiVirus, and the 2004 edition remains a world-class bulwark against worms, scripts, Trojan horses, and malicious code of all kinds. This year's edition keeps watch for spyware, adware, and keystroke-logging programs as well as conventional, e-mail, and instant-messaging infections (the last supporting recent versions of AOL, MSN, and Yahoo Instant Messenger as well as Windows Messenger, but not other clients such as Trillian or ICQ).
Norton AntiVirus scans both incoming and outgoing e-mails -- in the latter case, Symantec boasts, blocking new worms from spreading to other systems even before virus definitions have been updated. The sending scan causes a noticeable two or three seconds' delay, as does this year's release's new real-time scanning of compressed file archives, but otherwise both the program and its LiveUpdate downloading and installation of new definitions are almost forgettable in the background. As usual, the purchase price includes a one-year update subscription.
Norton Internet Security still doesn't include the secure file-deletion and Internet cache and cookie cleanup of other Symantec bundes, but its Personal Firewall 2004 component has been polished with the ability to change cookie-, pop-up-, and banner-ad blocking on the fly for specific Web sites, via a pull-down menu in Internet Explorer. A Norton Parental Control module lets moms and dads set up different Web-site and newsgroup access privileges for different members of the household.
The privacy-protecting and ad-blocking features work smoothly, albeit sometimes preventing a pop-up or Javascript browser-window launch meant to show additional content rather than an ad; power users can tweak permissions for individual sites from a long list, though it's a more complicated process than that of Iolo's System Mechanic.
The firewall presented a perfect stone face, making our cable-modem-connected PC undetectable, to Gibson Research Corp.'s Shields Up online security probe (as well as, to no surprise, Symantec's). A welcome new feature helps you save, then automatically switches among, firewall settings for different networks, such as your wireless network at home versus the Ethernet-and-T1 setup at the office.
The snoop-stopper provides a welcome mix of brief but reassuring alert or status messages and detailed drill-down info for those who want it, and did a neater job than last year's version at automatically creating or offering to configure access rules for Internet-active applications -- although, as we noticed last year, even power users may want to stick with the default settings; turning on the security-freak feature of monitoring individual program components soon spams you with nonstop alert messages.
As in years past, we won't hesitate to describe Norton AntiVirus and Norton Personal Firewall as, if perhaps not unmatched, clearly unsurpassed in desktop PC protection. And after last year's modest beginning, we applaud Symantec for getting serious about the war on spam with a promising Bayesian-analysis product. But Norton AntiSpam 2004's few stumbles, and the addition of product activation, keep us from giving Norton Internet Security 2004 our highest praise. It'll be interesting to see if shoppers agree with us.
