Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional Edition

by Symantec

Product Features

• Brand new item sold in a white paper sleeve.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005UP0H
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 11, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #20,897 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

If you are concerned about virus protection and keeping your personal data private, consider Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional Edition. This version is appropriate for home, home office, and corporate users, and offers a number of slick features to keep you and your data protected.

The package contains four key components: managed settings, productivity control, a personal firewall, and virus protection for both desktop and handheld computers. Our main interest was in the firewall security. We found that the default settings were a good middle-of-the-road approach, although your usage may vary. Accordingly, you can customize your firewall preferences to increase your security level (three grades, from minimal protection to block all until you give permission). You can also manage the applications allowed to access the Internet and how, as well as limit the use of Java applets and ActiveX controls that are prevalent on the Web today. Automatic Internet Access Control works in tandem with these options, maintaining a list of programs that are recognized safe applications (such as Netscape, Microsoft Outlook, or instant messaging software).

The firewall also protects you from port scans, in which attackers scan the ports of your computer to see what they might be able to find. Following such an attack, the AutoBlock feature will stop all inbound communication from this attacker for a half-hour. Norton Internet Security does have a flaw in this area: some users (including us) experience a complete or partial blocking of Internet access due of AutoBlock. Norton is aware of this potential and provides a handy document to troubleshoot this problem. (Our problem was resolved after rebooting our computer a second time after install.)

Other features that make this package shine include Productivity Control and the administrative settings and capabilities. If you are in charge of several computers, you'll be able to manage and monitor your group's usage of the Internet. With Productivity Control enabled, any incoming information from restricted Web sites or outgoing information from Internet applications can be blocked. The settings are linked to user accounts, allowing protection while that user is logged on. The list of blocked Web sites is managed directly by Symantec, so you won't even have to think about it (although you can block additional sites or allow for exceptions, and customize it to the application or by topic).

Bringing all of the package's resources together is Security Assistant, available only to administrators. From here, administrators can change any aspect or preference of Norton Internet Security, including Internet "zone control," intrusion-detection options, and productivity controls. Our favorite feature of the entire package is also managed here: Ad Blocking. Norton Internet Security can scan for ads and remove them from Web pages, speeding up download times and helping you maintain your sanity while surfing. And if Norton Internet Security misses an ad, simply drag the ad to the trash can icon and the ad will be remembered, and will never appear in your browser again.

Overall, the Norton Internet Security package is a good all-in-one solution to potential Internet woes. --Emilie Herbst

Product Description

Clean out Internet buildup with Norton CleanSweep¿ from Symantec. Its powerful tools improve your PC¿s performance by removing unwanted programs and other files that waste disk space. Internet Sweep cleans away the clutter accumulated by Web surfing, including cookies that track your Internet activities. Fast & Safe Cleanup automatically removes files you no longer need, while Safety Sweep¿ prevents the accidental deletion of critical files. The Uninstall Wizard guides you safely step by step through removing old programs. Now Windows¿ XP users can also enjoy the benefits of this award-winning program. Trust Norton CleanSweep 2002 for safe, easy, complete hard drive cleanup.¿¿¿¿¿

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Norton beats McAfee easily, March 5, 2002

By	John P. Kjeldsen (Kokomo, IN.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional Edition (CD-ROM)

I've used both products for many years on PC & MAC(Apple) systems,and Norton has always had better products. The other antivirus, etc are usually slower, less effective, and over priced. This program is very good, and comes at the right time, because I've been checking the reviews for an effective security program. I'm very pleased with this one. As usual with Norton products, it installs easily and performs as advertised.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Secure yes, but usability is very poor, September 9, 2002

By	Erik Sargent (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional Edition (CD-ROM)

I used NIS2002 for about 4 months as a software firewall for my cable connection until I got a Wireless LAN and had a hardware firewall/router in place.

For security - it gets good marks. It did its job despite my ISP's inability to stop all sorts of Trojan and DDOS attacks - which is a real problem in a cable network's shared segments. Configuration was pretty easy with their wizards, although the admin runs slow on my P3-700 w/256MB RAM. It often would take 10-12 seconds to load the menu screen.

But that just begins the problems with the product: The pop-up alerts for "training" the product do not provide the type of granularity needed for a firewall. While you can configure it manually, the only option you get on the pop-up is either allow this packet, allow this application forever or forever block - and it is per application, not per IP address, unless you run the customization wizard each time, which takes you through about 5 steps to simply "trust" an IP/port. Tiny and ZoneAlarm allow you to do this with just one mouse click. Imagine if you run a local web server of file or printer share at home and want to restrict access to only the internal network or perhaps a few Internet IPs of friends, or your office. It will be a big job with NIS and I suspect that non-technical users would either do it wrong and leave unwanted holes or give up trying because after you get out of the standard wizards that NIS provides, you are pretty much on your own.

Reporting is also poor and almost impossible to find in the product. It isn't on any menu choices. Again, Tiny and ZoneAlarm are far better. Reporting is important because you often want to see what activity is happening that the firewall is catching for you or, more importantly, what is getting blocked that you want to give access for.

Most egregious however, is that when I tried to remove NIS after installing my hardware router/firewall, my XP Pro started freezing almost anytime it had to access the internet. There were many registry keys, including low-level driver left behind. MSCONFIG also confirmed this. I had run the special rnis.exe that Symantec provides, but this didn't work either. Because of my experience, I was able, after much difficulty, to stabilize the system, BUT, this is unacceptable in any product, even a firewall and is so huge IMO, that although I would give the overall product a 3, it earns only 1 STAR because of its poor behavior. Understand, that I never had this happen with XP before the uninstall.

I had used Tiny Software's Personal Firewall until I upgraded to XP and would have had to pay for their upgrade. Since I had Symantec's Norton Utilities, I figured to just buy the whole Norton suite. Tiny's admin was fast and easy to use comparatively and I really wish I had stuck with them. My limited experience with ZoneAlarm, combined with positive reviews from friends and magazines would lead me to recommend it before NIS as well. Overall Norton NIS2002 did the job, but wasn't worth the steep hassle factor.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not recommended for professionals running NT, August 30, 2002

By	David Smith (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional Edition (CD-ROM)

I have used the Family edition of Norton Internet Security at home for two years. I have been very happy with the Family edition.

Symantec misleads end users when they advertise that Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional edition (NIS Pro) provides a "User Access Manager (that) lets you set different Internet access privileges from a single workstation for members of your workgroup also running Norton Internet Security Professional Edition software on their PCs." Reading that, I thought I could set up Internet access privileges for everyone in the office from one workstation. Not so! Instead, the manual tells you to configure one workstation, export the settings to a file and then import the file to the other workstations. After spending a fair amount of time configuring the "Master" machine, NIS Pro would not export the settings and neither their manual nor their website offered anything helpful on the subject. After almost three hours on Symantec's paid telephone support line (no free installation support is available), their experts could not help export the settings to the other workstations. Now I need to configure another workstation manually (and perhaps eight more if the "User Access Manager" fails again). This will take many hours.

Furthermore, since NT server installation is not supported, my network consultant tells me the installation of NIS Pro's firewall module on the workstations but not the server is seriously flawed. It's like closing the windows but leaving the front door wide open!

I don't recommend this product for professionals with NT servers. I also don't recommend it to anyone hoping to take advantage of a helpful "User Access Manager".