Norton Internet Security 2006

To avoid conflicts, NIS won't install when another low-level security product is present.

NIS makes a quick antivirus and system integrity check before installation.

The user can choose to install Parental Control or not; this choice can be changed later using Add/Remove Programs.

NIS's activation scheme, like that of Windows XP, locks the product installation to a particular computer.

NIS offers to replace Windows Firewall and the Windows Security Center.

During install, the Home Network Wizard detects and configures the local network.

The Norton Protection Center summarizes the overall health of security protection, both from NIS and from Norton SystemWorks.

Here the NPC shows partial coverage under Performance, because modules from Norton SystemWorks are not installed.

If there's a problem, the NPC will display an attention-grabbing red warning message.

For less urgent trouble, NPC shows a yellow warning.

Whatever problem NPC is reporting, you can cure it by clicking the Fix Now button.

If everything's OK, at startup the NPC will simply report that all's well.

You can click a link to see more details of system status.

The main screen offers fast access to the firewall configuration, as well as to all of the program's modules.

The firewall's configuration dialog lets you set the overall security level as well as going into detail on program control, network locations, and advanced firewall rules.

Under firewall options you can turn on advanced features that block techniques used by malware to evade normal program control.

Firewall statistics include recent intrusion attempts as well as content blocked by the privacy feature.

Here the firewall has detected and recognized a port scan attack, which we triggered deliberately as a test.

The firewall has blocked a leak test program; hovering the mouse pointer over the cut-off program name reveals the full path and filename.

Sometimes the firewall is too enthusiastic; here it offers to block another module of Norton Internet Security.

The built-in security inspector scans your system and reports on specific security vulnerabilities.

By default, it checks your Internet Explorer settings, IM antivirus configuration, HOSTS file, and system passwords.

The security inspector quickly checks all selected items for any security problems.

In this instance it found problems with shared folders and with weak passwords.

For each found problem area, the inspector offers detailed information and, in some cases, an automatic fix.

Until you've updated your virus definitions and made an initial full scan, the antivirus won't be happy.

Until you've updated your virus definitions and made an initial full scan, the antivirus won't be happy.

You can schedule a full, quick, or custom scan to run daily, weekly, monthly, at startup, r when the system is idle.

On detecting a high risk threat, the antivirus immediately removes it.

You can submit suspicious files to Symantec for analysis.

When submitting a suspicious file, you can check off standard symptoms or enter specific information directly.

You must supply your name and e-mail address when submitting files for analysis.

An antivirus scan automatically removes high-risk spyware and adware.

The user gets to choose whether to remove lower-risk items; also listed here are items the antivirus was unable to remove.

In some cases the antivirus can't remove a particular threat, but will offer a link to manual removal instructions.

Sometimes manual removal instructions include small utilities built to remove a single specific threat.

NIS can block programs that attempt to hijack your home page.

Besides filtering spam from e-mail, the antispam module optionally blocks popups and Web ads.

Among the many configuration options are automatic blocking of e-mail messages containing specific suspect features like images and scripts.

When NIS detects a supported e-mail client launching, it offers to integrate antispam support with that client.

Spam messages get marked with [Norton AntiSpam] in the subject line and shunted into a separate folder.

You can optionally turn on blocking of popup ads and banner ads.

When the e-mail scanner finds an actual virus, it halts processing to report the fact by default; you can configure it to fix the problem and continue.

You can record private information such as passwords or credit card numbers and have NIS prevent them being sent out of your system.

For each private datum you can specifically block sending by e-mail, IM, or Web forms; you can also define sites as exceptions to the Web forms limitation.

Advance users can take detailed control of privacy options, specifically which standard browser information elements will or won't be transmitted to sites.

When multiple user accounts are enabled, you can configure the privacy control level separately for each; private data, however, is global.

Here privacy control has blocked the sending of a fake social security number to Google.

You can configure parental control separately for individual users.

The parental control wizard starts by letting you choose whether to use existing Windows user accounts or to define accounts within NIS.

You assign each user one of four account types, from Child to Supervisor.

A supervisor restrict each user from viewing undesirable Web sites in 31 distinct categories.

If a user attempts access to a blocked site, NIS displays a warning and also logs the event.

The supervisor can also limit the types of Internet-aware programs available to each user; disallowed types will simply fail to connect.