Symantec Norton Internet Security 2004

Editor's Choice - Personal Computer World.

Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2004 is more than just a firewall; it includes tools for spam control, parental controls and anti-virus, though you can choose which options are installed, and here we concentrated on the firewall and privacy controls.

As with the McAfee product, installation ends by downloading updates to the software, and rules are automatically created for common applications, to allow them to pass through the firewall. On that front, it did better than any of the competition, working happily with Netobjects Fusion and even recognising Putty, an SSH application on the PC. It happily let us receive files via MSN Messenger, too.

Network access was more problematic - we could connect to other machines but not share files with them without changing the rules, which was not as simple as in, say, Agnitum's Outpost. A good touch here is a Location system, so you can have different rules when a computer is in the office, at home, or connecting via a wireless hotspot.

The privacy controls can stop information being sent out over the net, but apparently they don't apply on secure connections, which could be a problem.

Alerts give you a clear idea of the risk involved, but the visual tracking of attackers relies on a Java applet, which may be a problem for some users. The system detected our test portscan and fingerprint attempts, and the default options will block attacking machines.

For many people this is a great solution, with sensible defaults that mean you won't be forever configuring new applications. Our only reservation is the fiddliness of setting up custom firewall rules. However, the inclusion of all the other features, notably the anti-virus and parental control functions, will justify the extra cost for many.

Contact: Symantec
www.symantec.com

System requirements:

• Windows 98/ME/2000 Pro/XP
• 200MB of free hard disk space

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