Virus protection is now as vital a cog in your computer’s functioning as any other software, writes David Shapshak. A virus can debilitate your machine or, worse, annihilate its data, rendering all the other productivity tools or Internet software pretty useless.
Fortunately virus packages themselves have come a long way. The biggest problem with them a few years ago was that a week after you downloaded them all the viruses had evolved. To combat this all the software makers changed tack and began offering updates of the definitions files that tell the program what the latest viruses are and what to look out for. This generation of programs was a step in the right direction but was hardly smooth sailing. The definition files tended to be huge and slow Internet connections meant the updating had to be attempted several times before it was complete.
Later versions, however, solved this with much smaller definitions. Some manufacturers have also bundled a variety of other online protection components into the package. One of these is Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2002 (R999), which includes a personal firewall, privacy control and parental control.
Symantec, one of the largest manufacturers of virus and security software, has consistently won awards for its virus software and could do it again with this one.
Although it took some time to update the virus scanning engine the first time after I installed it, it has worked quite seamlessly in the background since. That it updated the engine was a great recommendation, as changes to this crucial part of the software occasionally happen and need to be done.
Whenever it has run updates it does so quietly while I’ve been online, drawing no attention to itself with irritating pop up windows as with previous versions. In fact, the whole package is a revelation for me, after spending years using corporate virus software that updates itself from the server automatically, this is as hassle-free. A Live-Update feature lets you go and update all of these manually; but its own “recommended” settings do this in the background for you.
The user interface for the whole protection suite is clear and easy to use, offering a left hand navigation for each component.
The AntiVirus defaults to its “status”, which tells you when the latest definitions were downloaded and when the latest scans were done. It defaults to the automatic settings, like all the other aspects, so tech-illiterate users need not worry about changing settings if they don’t know how. These include an auto-protect feature, one that scans incoming mail and another that blocks scripts (mini-programs used by viruses to propagate themselves).
Under Internet Status, it tells you what level of security you have activated as well as any attempts to hack or intrude into your system; while the Ad Blocking option lets you turn off banner ads in your browser and prevent them from being downloaded.
The firewall and privacy control, however, have numerous options to safeguard your computer but need some configuring. It’s fine if it is a stand-alone home machine but may be problematic if you run a small office, home office (Soho) network. Fortunately a companion bundle of software, Norton SystemWorks 2002 professional edition (R899), provides many similar components but is designed for these small businesses.
It includes the AntiVirus, Norton Utilities (for optimising your computer and fixing some of its problems), a nifty component called CleanSweep that cleans out the “Internet clutter” (temporary files and other bits and pieces downloaded into your computer’s cache), a recovery tool called GoBack and the popular faxing software WinFax Basic.