Norton Internet Security 2009: Fast and Effective, It Really Isn't Bloatware Anymore
Written: Nov 30 '08 (Updated Jan 10 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Effective, highly rated malware protection, fast, small resource requirements, improved anti-phishing features
Cons: Mediocre support, rebates almost always required to get a good price
The Bottom Line: Norton Internet Security 2009 is a pleasant surprise. Always an effective product, but now it uses a minimum of resources, and is quick and quiet.
nc10's Full Review: Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 for PC (3 U...
Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2009 (NIS 2009, $60 list) is just one of an almost overwhelming number of PC Security software packages that Symantec sells. If you want buy Norton Antivirus, you'll find it can be bought in at least six different boxes from Symantec, as a standalone product ($40 list) or as part of one of their security/PC maintenance product bundles, including Norton 360 (standard, $80 or premier, $100), Norton Internet Security, or Norton Systemworks Standard and Premier. Although I usually run a free antivirus package (avast!, AVG, Antivir, or PCTools Antivirus) on the PC's my family members use, I had recently read some good reviews of the latest version of Norton Antivirus, and decided I'd pick one up if I found it at a good price. When I noticed the 3 user version of Norton Internet Security 2009 on sale for $10 (after a $20 and $30 rebate), I decided to try the product again. I received both rebates in less than three weeks, about as quick as I've ever received rebates.
At first glance, NIS 2009 appears to be one of those "everything but the kitchen sink" security bundles that Symantec and McAfee are famous for. While those packages are fairly effective, they've developed a reputation for being resource hogs, having weak secondary components (antispam solutions, for example), and sometimes actually making it more difficult for users to access hardware on or run software across their own (home) network. Closer inspection reveals that NIS 2009 adds only a few features over Norton Antivirus 2009, primarily:
a "2-way firewall" a password/login/identity manager keylogging/phishing protection and protection from non secure websites antispam and parental controls
For the most part I found these additional features to be "secondary" in nature, certainly competent, but best described as "mediocre". If you have a router and use Vista or XP's firewall, I'm not sure Norton's firewall makes your life any easier. Symantec's antispam feature isn't impressive, and doesn't show much improvement over the antispam package I tried a few years ago from Norton. The password manager is interesting and can be useful, though it works nowhere near as well as the best standalone password manager (Roboform). I found Norton's Safeweb browser plugin, to be the most useful of the NIS 2009's secondary features. Safeweb monitors your websurfing, and warns you before loading any websites it considers to be malicious. For example, if you tried to load a web page that is "spoofing" you bank's login page, it loads a warning and gives you the option to proceed.
Installation
Norton Internet Security 2009 comes on a single CD with the license key on the cd envelope. The software can be installed on 3 cd's and includes 1 year of updates. The clock starts on all three installs with the first installation, even if you make the 2nd and 3rd installations months later. (Symantec says in the very small fine print: 1 Year Protection: With this service, you receive the right to use this product on one PC or on the specified number of PCs during the service period, which begins upon initial installation.)
I've installed NIS 2009 on two PC's. The installation on both went mostly smoothly and incredibly quickly. Symantec has widely advertised how fast this new version of NIS 2009 is, and how few resources it uses. Symantec has clearly got the installation right with this version, it installs much more quickly and easily than has been my experience with previous versions of Symantec software.
I first installed the software on a desktop PC running Vista Ultimate with an expired version of Norton 360. I uninstalled Norton 360, put in the NIS 2009 cd, and started the installer. After entering my license key, the installation ran AND completed before I knew what had happened, much faster than I expected. I ran into no conflicts from the previous installation of Norton 360. I also installed the software on a Dell M1330 laptop running Vista Home and PCTools Antivirus. After uninstalling the PCTools antivirus, the NIS 2009 installation proceeded quickly on the laptop also.
During the installation, I registered the software with Symantec. Once you create an account, you can log into the site at any time and see how many of your 3 installations have been used, and when the software expires. After installation, NIS also prompted me to download the latest (beta) version of Norton's Safeweb plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer, which I did.
Using Norton Internet Security 2009
The first thing I noticed after installing NIS 2009 was a small Norton gadget in Vista's sidebar notifying me of the security status of my system, with the single word on a green background, "Secure". If there's a problem the gadget turns red, with the words "Fix now".
Since Symantec was very prominently touting how few resources required by this new version, I ran a few benchmarks on my PC with and without NIS running in the backround. I ran the SiSoft Sandra 2009 arithmetic and multimedia processing benchmarks in triplicate. (To disable NIS 2009, I ran MSConfig and disabled the NIS 2009 service.) While the numbers varied slightly from run to run, in no case did I see more than a 1% improvement in the benchmark numbers when NIS 2009 was disabled.
Browsing
NIS 2009 adds yet another toolbar to Internet Explorer and Firefox, for two new buttons, to access the login/identity manager and the SafeWeb browser plugin. You'll need to download the latest version of SafeWeb to use all its featurers. Safeweb will warn you about malicious content on web pages you request to be loaded. If you were to click on a link in a phishing email masquerading as Paypal or your bank or Ebay, Safeweb will warn you before the page loads. Safeweb also provides security data on web pages, user comments/reviews on many webpages, and even adds warnings (or a secure label) to the results of google and yahoo searches. Safeweb optionally collects data from users to help strengthen its database of good and malicious websites. Safeweb is pretty new, so user comments are missing on a lot of websites, but I hope that improves over the next few months. Given the increase in number of phishing attempts I've seen, and the improved tactics of "phishers", Safeweb is the one new feature I really appreciate.
The second button NIS 2009 adds to your web brower accesses the NIS password manager/form filler. While it doesn't offer all the features of roboform, it does work with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. NIS makes it easy to manage your internet passwords, and save multiple "identities", that is, the data you use when you fill out forms when making purchases, signing up for offers, etc.
I've not picked up any while using this product, to the best of my knowledge. I've only been using the product for a month, and have fairly safe computing habits (don't click on links, work behind a router, etc). Other professional testers rate NIS highly also. Virus Bulletin gives Symantic a 100% rating for Antivirus protection.
Symantec has changed how they provide signature updates this year. Rather than daily or weekly updates, updates to protect you from the latest malware are supplied every few minutes. A new scanning technology has also been added, called Norton Insight. By eliminating files that are digitally signed or on Symantec "white lists" (a list of friendly files), Norton Insight allows the time required for disk scans to be reduced, though users can adjust how aggresively NIS chooses to include or exclude files it scans.
User Interface
The NIS 2009 interface is deceptively clean and simple. NIS 2009 can be accessed from the start menu or from an icon in your system tray. The home screen provides access to three items, system protection (antivirus, antispyware), internet protection (firewall and network settings), and Identity protection (password manager, indentity data). Opening the configuration page for any of those areas brings an almost overwhelming amount of user adjustable settings and access to help files, including how often scans occur and how aggresively, if the antispam and parental control features are enabled, firewall settings and much more.
Other Comments
Norton Antispam (included with NIS 2009) only works fully with Outlook and Outlook Express. It adds a spam folder to your email folders and routes spam to those folders. It learns what you consider spam based on your feedback, and I've found previous versions to be 85-90% accurate after a month or so of use. Norton Antispam will "tag" the subject line of suspect spam in other email programs, but doesn't file the spam in spam folders. The two way firewall protects your system from threats, and also keeps threats from being sent from your system. The Parental Controls feature requires a download which I did not try. NIS 2009 will monitor and provide feedback on other Norton protected computers on your network. A clean graphical view of your home network is provided, along with a description of the devices, and control over how much you "trust" each device, allowing you to better control device, data, and file sharing.
Support
I had some problems getting Safeweb to work on one PC, it wasn't reporting warnings with my search results. I eventually had to uninstall and reinstall NIS 2009 to get Safeweb to work correctly. Before I did that, I tried to get help from the Symantec website, by searching the FAQ's and other information. I found the FAQ's not very useful, and none addressed my specific problem. There may be a way to email for help, but it wasn't clearly marked, everything seems to steer you to using the automated help. Symantec's support is not very impressive, and using it can sometimes be frustrating. Fortunately, at least, the help files in NIS 2009 are pretty good.
Conclusion
Anyone who hasn't used Norton Internet Security for a while will be surprised at how much the product has slimmed down, and how few resources it requires. Those improvements appear to have been made without impacting security. If you avoid Norton products because you think they're bloated, NIS 2009 is now worth another look. Particularly if you are looking for a clean, fast 3 user security package that provides more features and user options than most of the 'free" antivirus solutions, NIS 2009 should be high on your list.
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