I have officially entered Geek World: after delaying the inevitable for too many months, I am now the proud owner of Norton AntiVirus 2000 v 6.0 by Symantec and I feel so much more secure.

Two days ago, I received the Norton AntiVirus 2000 as a gift...and what a perfect gift! The email protection alone causes me great relief! I can't tell you how many times I've assumed the "wince position" when I've opened an attachment to an email mail. Each time I clicked on the email's paper clip icon, I would always ponder, "Hope this one's okay..." I had already narrowly avoided catching three viruses sent unknowingly by close friends before receiving this program. All three came my way as an automatic email attachment but I had delayed opening them -thank goodness! Panicked pleas of "WAIT!! DON'T!!" arrived after the accidental attachments and, because I was simply lucky enough to have been tardy in reading my mail, my computer remained unaffected. However, it disturbed me.

Now, because of the new email screening feature of the Norton AntiVirus 2000, I no longer must be suspicious of the content of the many emails that I receive. The email protection causes my email to be scanned for viruses by this program before the info even reaches my mailbox. When I see an attachment to an email, I can rest assured that it came "clean" to my computer and won't be infecting the Inner Sanctum of my files. The email products supported by this program include MS Outlook, MS Outlook Express, Eudora Pro, Eudora Lite, Netscape Messenger, and Netscape Mail.

The Norton AntiVirus 2000 also includes live web updates for newly defined viruses and this is a welcomed feature. I'll admit that I'm not an "update junkie" and part of this stems from being wary of any Internet content that might be corrupted. (I had a disaster with an update for Microsoft Outlook once -had to start from scratch on the CPU- so I stopped using the Internet Update offerings that came with my many programs.) My former behavior in this regard has now changed since I feel more secure with this program so I won't have to concern myself with attached viruses from the other website updates anymore.

Another wonderful feature is the Quarantine section designed to sequester files that I believe might contain a virus yet one has not been detected by the program: if I am suspicious of a file, I can send it for analysis to the Symantec Antivirus Research Center. If Symantec finds a virus, they will eliminate it and return to me an improved update for its future detection. That is service at its best.

The program download was pretty quick: less than five minutes. As far as installation, the total time needed was about twenty minutes as the Norton AntiVirus 2000 scanned over my 43,000+ files in its initial virus sweep. I was thrilled to find that none of my existing files were corrupted. Since this was a gift, I don't know how much was paid however I located a price of $32.22 from a Lycos Shop search. Not pricey at all! Makes me wonder why in the world I waited so long to feel so good. I must find an appropriate card for my friend thanking him for this perfect addition to my peace of mind.

Need a great gift idea? Here it is: if you are looking for the latest and best in antivirus protection, I highly recommend Norton AntiVirus 2000 for a friend or as a wonderful gift for your own system. Available for Windows 95/98, Windows NT and Windows 2000, the program is IBM PC or compatible with a 486-25MHz processor. It occupies only 45 MB of hard drive and is a very efficiently designed utility for home or office.

Feel safe and protected every time you power up knowing that the Norton AntiVirus 2000 is working for you. I know I do!


AUTHOR'S NOTE: I posted this under Norton AntiVirus Deluxe because no Norton AntiVirus 2000 category was offered. However, this is clearly more deluxe!



Recommended: Yes