Symantec has re-launched its Norton Internet Security 2000 suite with Windows 2000 support, a choice of packages, and a price hike. NIS Version 2 now comes in three flavors: "Personal Firewall" -- safeguards against being hacked, provides cookie controls, and prevents surreptitious access to your personal information. The "Internet Security" edition adds advertising blocking and Norton Antivirus to the Personal Firewall version. The "Family Edition" adds parental controls to the Internet Security version.
Norton's product formerly was WRQ Inc.'s AtGuard, which was a
TNPC featured product (TNPC #2.15). I found the NIS firewall to
be relatively easy to set up, lower maintenance than Black Ice
Defender, and it tested well on Steve Gibson's "Shields Up" site.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/317/tr.cgi?util1
You set the security levels you want and it pretty much takes care of itself. As new Internet connections are made on your system, Norton brings up a wizard to assist you in setting up a "rule" to govern that connection. I found it particularly helpful in blocking Web site and HTML-formatted emails that were trying to access my email address and like information.
The good news is that Personal Firewall is a straightforward solution for users who already have Norton AntiVirus and don't feel like paying for it twice. Likewise the kid-safe features were unbundled into a separate package. Tom Powledge, Symantec's IS product manager, said that the company's research showed that nearly half the expected purchasers for the software did not have kids and did not want to have blocking features on their systems.
The bad news is that in unbundling the different components into three separate products they've hiked the price. Personal Firewall will cost you a little over $40. That's about what you paid for the entire Version 1 NIS package, which had all the features of the new Family Edition. The new Family Edition will set you back around $70. Given that Zone Alarm is free to individual users, Symantec may be charging a higher price than many user will want to pay.
Powledge, in any case, was a refreshing spokesman for his product. He acknowledged that the software's interface had some kinks and that the Help files were weak. These issues are being addressed in the 2001 version. For now, he said, the priority was to get Windows 2000 support on the market, and when asked if owners of Version 1 gained anything from Version 2 other than Win2K capabilities, he said no, and advised users not to upgrade. Let's hear it for a software manager with genuine candor.
[Norton security products are only being shipped within the USA]
Norton Personal Firewall 2000 2.0
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/317/tr.cgi?util2
Norton Internet Security 2000 2.0
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/317/tr.cgi?util3
Norton Internet Security 2000 2.0 Family Edition
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/317/tr.cgi?util4
Zone Alarm:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/317/tr.cgi?util5
