norton internet security
Most of us have a love-hate relationship with our security
software. Though we love the protection from
online and other threats,
but hate the way the software drags down our daily activities and slows down our computers. Recently,
symantec,one of the best hands at
antivirus software made an all-out effort to reduce the suite,s impact on performance.And, what do you know-it
worked,Norton internet security 2009 affects performance less than any suite we,ve tested. And there,s more good news: The user interface is streamlined and simplified. most security tasks
happenn in the back ground during idle time,
eentireely with out user intervention.
even the
installlation process is streamlined. the
onlly thing you need do is
click one big boutton that says you agree to the license-after that the software is fast and a half when i timed it ; activation took another minute ; and the initial
livee update of
malware difinationns required one more minute. fromm zero to 100 percent ready in under 4 minute? that's amazing!
Performencesurprisingle, when compared to past
norton suites this editions is all about
performence . the utility is designed from the
botton up both to stay out of your way and to demonstrate that it's staying out of your way. the main windows includes a big CPU usage meter
thatseparately tracks syestem-wide usage and usage specific to Norton when the
syestem seems bogged down, you can see at a glance what's to blame.
Tasks like
downloading new virus definitions or scanning for malware can take processing power away from user applications, so the
product perform these duties only when the syestem has been idle fora while-10 minutes, by
defult. a link above the CPU meter opeans a huge chart of CPU and memory usage over the last 90 minutes. typically you 'll see a spike in norten-specific
CPUuse during times marked on the chart as idle the software also supplies a table showing when various background tasks last.
a link below the
CPUmeter launches another performence tool, norten insight which speeds malware scanning by
indentifying files that don't have to be scanned. it
checks all
executables on the computer against a data base of trusted programs and displays a big meter showing just how ,any files it has exempted. A full scan is proportionally faster after insight completes its analysis. if you dont't force this full syestem check by activaly lunching the tool, it will completes its analysis during idle time.
Norten's liveupdate runs every 8 hours to get new malware difinitions and any other needed updates. But in the fight against rogue software,8 hours is a long time-a modern threat can spread
woorld wide in that times . so norten 's "pulse updates " feature checks for
newmalware signatures every few minutes and streams in any that are available.
The Test
We installed norton on a syestem infested with malicious software of many type, among them adware, spyware, rootkits, Trogans, worms, and rogue antispyware. its speedy installatiion was a great boon, as was the fact that it doesn't require a reboot after installation. that post-install reboot is a stumbling block for many suites.. if the programes's real- time protection partially disables a kernal-mode malware sample the syestem may crash on reboot before there's any chance to run a full scan. norton's installation went smothly on all of the infested test syestem, though there were a couple of hiccups during the cleanup process.
scanning a standerd clean test syestem took the suite 50 minutes, quite a bit longer than most. usually 30 minutes is about. usually 30 minutes is about averag. However, that was before norten insight had finished processing. after norten insight indentified 90 percent of the files as trusted, a rescan took just 5 minutes.
Norten quarantines most threats automatically during the scan process. Other threats get removed at the end of the scan, after the user has had a
change to close any open programs. in a number of cases, the scan reported that full cleanup would occur after reboot, but as long as the malware was completely deacitivated it did not insist on rebooting immediately. your machine wouldn't find the port close to attack ; he wouldn't find them at all because norten puts them in stealth mode. that's a good thing , but windows firewall can do the same.
The flips side of personal firewall protection is program control-keeping programs on your syestem from abusing access to the internet or network. early personal firewalls asked a million questions. every time a program attempted internet access for the first time, they'd ask the user wheather to permit it or not often in confusing terms. the user just isn't really qualified to make that decision, so norton handles handles program control completely on its own . it destroys known bad programs on sight and grants access to knowns and block them only if their actions appear malicious to be fair, ZoneAlarm (the original too-many-questions fire wall) has all but aliminated those confusing querise in its latest editi.
Network controlNorton's Network security map
aerves a number of purpose. it shows all the devices connected to your network and report
wheather your wireless network is secure;that is wheather it's encrypted . if other computers on the network are also rurunning norton, you can easily configure remote monitoring just turn on each using the same password, and they'll quickly find each other. by default norten protects your computer from attacks and unexpected traffic even within your own network . theb setting should be
finr forcomputer, but it could
conceivabely cause trouble for other type of devices. if it does and onely if it does, you can set that devices's trust level to "full trust." you can also lock out specific devices by setting their trust level to restricted, in the rare event that you've allowed an
untrustworthey devices into your network
parantal control
many user dont't need
perantal - control software, so
symantec doesn't include it in the suites 's
standerd installation package if you do need this feature, it's easy enough to install-just clicks a link and follow the instructions. the parental control pack is about a 20MDlive update . but do keep in mind that
norten's parental-control solutions is limited in scope. it doesn't offer the internet time- control feature found in kaspersky, F-secure, and bitdefender. but atlest it does its on e task well; its categroy-based site blocking is browser-indeprndent, and the kids can't tamper with it.
Privacy controlif you instell the add-on pack you also get norton's old privacy control like many other suites , norton lets you records private information and prevent its transmission and prevent its transmision out of your computer via web forms , outgoing smtp e-mail or specific instant-messaging client . it's nicely implemented with a sport forn each item to define a list of URLexception. the exception feautere lets you define a site's password as private yet allow it at the actual site, so you can use it but not lose it. the saved data is completely exposed to anybody who has the privacy/parent password. that seems like a big mistake . here the approach used by Zone Alarm is great ; it stores private data using one-way encryption . when privacy control dedects that private data is about to be transmitted, norton pops up an alert and asks whether to allow or block the tramnsmision. no password is required, so you can't use privacy control to keep your kids from sending out privaye information. if you do choose to block the data norton replaces it with asterisks.
