From Scot Finnie's newsletter
Review: Norton Internet Security 2003 *Top Product!*
Story Revised November 9, 2002
Want some good news for a change? Scot's Newsletter now has three software firewalls on its Top Product! list. The newest one is Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2003, which includes Norton Personal Firewall 2003 with intrusion detection, Norton AntiVirus 2003, Norton Privacy Control, Norton Parental Control, Norton Spam Alert, and improved ad blocking.
This past June I reviewed Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2002 Pro, and I added it to the Top Product! list at that time. But Norton Internet Security 2003 is a much better deal than NIS 2002 Pro. Buy.com sells it for $61, plus there's a $30 rebate coupon in the box that's redeemable whether you're upgrading a Symantec product or a competing one from McAfee, Network ICE, or Zone Labs. Amazon.com has an even better offer. It sells NIS 2003 for $70, and in addition to the Symantec $30 rebate (good through 12/31/2002), it's offering its own extra $30 rebate (good through 1/12/2003). Your net cost is just $10. Amazon will even ship the product for free if you're willing to wait a few extra days for it.
Norton Internet Security 2002 Pro had fewer features than Norton Internet Security 2003, and its suggested retail price was $99 (also offering a $30 rebate). Bottom line: NIS 2003 is every bit as good as NIS 2002 Pro and then some. But it costs at least $30 less.
The intangibles, though, are what I like best about NIS2003. It includes the best version of Norton AntiVirus (NAV) ever. Norton's virus-protection product went through some growing pains back in 2000 with the introduction of NAV2001. A lot of people had problems, including yours truly. Symantec straightened out my problems, but many readers didn't get the kind of treatment I got. I wrote about how my problems were solved, but my experiences didn't help everyone.
I started looking around at the competition, and tried some of them for a while. But I came back to NAV with the 2002 release last August. I was still annoyed by UI miscues, issues with LiveUpdate, and some operational behaviors. One of my biggest complaints -- concerning the lack of an ability to silently delete or silently quarantine email-borne viruses -- was quietly fixed via LiveUpdate earlier this year. I've been pretty happy with NAV2002 since.
Although I don't do in-depth, lab-based testing of antivirus products, many of my email addresses are published in multiple places on the Internet and I have hundreds of emails rolling into my mail package daily (from work, the newsletter, personal correspondence, other newsletters, so forth). In other words, I get dozens of virus-laden emails each day. From that real-world experience I can tell you that Norton Antivirus works. It has saved my bacon many, many times. There are other products that are quite good too. This is the one I use currently.
NAV2003 is mostly a refinement release. It does add the ability to detect and block viruses in instant message attachments, which works with AOL Instant Messenger for Windows 4.7 and higher, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger 5.0 and higher. I haven't used this extensively because, while I use AIM, I use an older version of the product because the newer versions of AIM don't actually exit when you close the program window. They stay in memory and continue to send out presence information about me. (It is possible to close down the presence portion, but it's a nuisance.) Users of the AOL online software have no way at all to turn off Instant Messenger while the client is running (so far as I know). I hate this about IM. MSN/Windows Messenger is the same way. This is the biggest privacy threat I know of, and Microsoft and AOL Time Warner couldn't give a hoot about it. Don't even get me started about Yahoo, a company I've come to hate over the last year or so. Even though AOL owns ICQ, it's probably the best instant messaging solution on the market. Unfortunately, it also has the smallest market share, so NAV2003 doesn't support it.
Back to NIS2003, Symantec is also claiming "exclusive worm-blocking technology" that "detects worms such as Nimda in outgoing mail to prevent them from infecting other computers." In the press briefing I received, Symantec went to pains to explain that NAV2003 can detect worms not just by specific signatures but by checking for worm patterns. But let's keep this in perspective: NAV2002 had outbound mail scanning. They cranked up worm detection, which is a good thing, but let's wait for the next Nimda to come along before we go ga-ga.
The best things about NAV2003 aren't new features, but improved operation. For example, under NAV2002, I used to turn outbound mail scanning on and off, because performance was an issue on outbound scans. I found the feature unusable in NAV2001, partly usable in NAV2002, and perfectly usable in NAV2003. I leave it on all the time now.
The other operational refinement worth mentioning is that NAV2003 does a better job of automatically, without the least input from the user, removing viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other menaces from your system as they arrive in email. NAV2002 wasn't always good about this.
NAV2003 isn't perfect either. Symantec has already fixed a bug that caused NAV2003's inbound email scan to delete mail before it even arrived in your mailbox. I noticed this behavior and didn't really consider it a terrible bug because I'd rather have a deleted email than a virus. Still, it was a little annoying. The behavior was fixed via Norton's online software update feature, LiveUpdate.
Also, during the last three months while I've been testing NIS2003, I helped Symantec identify another NAV2003 bug. On a certain type of email-borne virus (which I'm not going to name), I was getting literally scores of pop-up OK boxes from NAV. I had to click through these OK boxes all day long, even though I had "delete email viruses silently" configured in Options, and the virus in every case had, in fact, been deleted. It turns out that the email portion of NAV was deleting the virus payloads automatically, but the main NAV scanning engine was picking up on the presence of the virus too, and it was prompting the litter of OK dialogs. The main NAV engine is supposed to function that way, and I prefer it to pop open a dialog box when doing a system-wide scan of my drives. But it shouldn't double-detect the virus when the email scanner has already gotten the job done. Symantec promises a fix for this that will be slip-streamed into the product via LiveUpdate as soon as it's ready.
Do you get the sense I'm picking at nits? Because I am. The main thing about NAV2003 is that it's smooth, real smooth. This application has really come into its own. No other antivirus product I've used has anywhere near as good an interface as Norton AntiVirus. Other products may detect a handful more obscure viruses than NAV, but give me the product that works well in the real world, day in, day out -- and never mind the laboratory comparisons.
The Firewall Stuff
But I digress, this is a firewall review after all. Let's get to the good stuff: Norton Internet Security 2003 absolutely aced the ever-growing Scot's Newsletter Firewall Test Suite battery of tests, which now includes PC Flank's Stealth, Trojan, and Exploits tests.
When you toss the marketing aside, the Sygate and Norton products performed equally well in my tests. And I turn their automatic IP blocking features off to run the tests, a feature ZoneAlarm doesn't have. There are some things about the Sygate product I like better, but it's difficult to argue with the fact that NIS2003 is much, much easier to use than Sygate Personal Firewall 5.0 Pro. If we could take the ZoneAlarm firewall, graft on all of Sygate's intrusion-detection and networking features and controls, and then give the whole thing the NIS2003 interface (oh, and NAV2003), we'd have the perfect security product. But the thing is, any one of the three products has the stopping power to protect you. Clearly, NIS2003 is the best value of the three.
When you compare NIS2003 to Norton Internet Security 2002 Pro, it's not the extra bells and whistles, like Norton Spam Alert (covered in a previous issue of the newsletter), that stand out. What stands out is the new, much cleaner user interface. I don't 100-percent love it (there's something sort of sterile about it), but it's much better than previous versions. It's not immediately obvious where you have to go for advanced settings, but once you figure that out, it's easy to find the next time. Program options are still located in a completely separate place from module configurations (a distinction that continues to seem artificial and confusing to me). Even so, the whole thing hangs together much better. The program controls dialog has been de-emphasized, a good thing. The overarching effect might be summed up as a feeling of simplicity, but it also gives me the sense that I'm driving a well designed minivan. It's comfortable, but you don't look forward to driving it. The fact that controls for NAV2003 and NIS2003 can share the same overall UI is an added benefit.
Decisions, Decisions
I keep returning to this point throughout this review, Norton Internet Security 2003 represents an excellent value. Everyone needs an antivirus program, and NIS2003 has one. Given the rebates available, it's cheaper than the Sygate product to boot. NIS performed well in my vulnerability tests. It's easy to install. It's easy to configure and use. Safety, value, usability, what's not to like?
Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm 3.1x is also on the Top Product! list. I still like that product, but some people do have problems with it. I've seen them myself on some PCs. One of the best things about ZoneAlarm is that the freeware version is absolutely excellent. It's not the easiest to use in a networking environment, or with a VPN. But for straight ahead serious security, the free-for-personal-use version of ZoneAlarm product is tough to beat on the value scale. It also aced all the same vulnerability tests.
Sygate Personal Firewall 5.0 Pro, placed on the Top Product! list last issue, costs $40 for a single-user license. If you want the very best in security, I continue to believe Sygate offers a bit more protection than the other two. You may never need the little bits of extra power it offers, but for some people knowing that they're there brings peace of mind. It is the hardest product to use, although it's especially good with VPNs. In my VPN tests, NIS2003 was nearly as good. All in all, it's no trouble to make the case for Sygate, especially for more experienced users.
One of the less visible value-robbing factors for Norton products is that the company charges an annual fee for the ability to keep updating many of its products. This is true NIS2003. The first year is free, but after that the company charges $24.95 a year to update both NAV and the firewall's intrusion-detection signatures, and a few other things. (The standalone version of NAV2003 costs $14.95 annually.) Yes, you're getting something worthwhile in return for that $25-a-year outlay. But it's an added cost you have to factor in.
But there's also something offsetting that. Symantec has been on a 12-month product cycle with NAV, NIS, and SystemWorks for several years now. New versions come out every August or September, and they always include one-year subscriptions in their purchase prices. Their boxes always contain $30 rebate coupons too. The retail prices are fairly reasonable. The products improve every year. So the upshot is that it's really just cheaper to upgrade, assuming the new software is better than the old (and the trend has been good there the last two years).
What happens if Symantec is a little late with the next version? Might you have to renew your subscription services? But then what if you want to upgrade? Would you have to pay twice? Symantec's Tom Powledge tells me that Symantec will refund the cost of any subscription upgrade payment made up to 60 days prior to the purchase of a new version of NIS2003. This is part of the company's 60-day money-back guarantee. SFNL subscriber Carol Haynes who bought NIS2003 and is "very pleased with it," points out that she had a lot of subscription time left on her previous Norton version and when she called the company to see if she could carry it over, they did extend that courtesy to her. Only problem was that she had to uninstall NIS2003 and then reinstall it to get her software to recognize her extended subscription period. Long term, Symantec has you spending money every year, one way or another. That's not true of the other guys, at least, not necessarily. It's something to keep in mind, be aware of, to expect. With a product like this one, I think it is fair to expect to pay on an ongoing basis, especially since you are getting an improving product in return. But that kind of business arrangement isn't for everyone.
Last Thoughts
Symantec came through with NIS2003. To be honest, I had anticipated a possibility that this one might get knocked off the Top Product! list. But Norton's 2003 product line is pretty slick. Norton SystemWorks offers a similar refinement improvement this year (and I may review this product during the early part of the new year). NIS2003 is the right choice if you just want something that works and don't want to mess around with security. I think that describes a lot of people these days. Look out ZoneAlarm. |
