Norton Personal Firewall 2001

Richard Price
26 June 2001

It's a fair bet anyone who has no idea what a firewall is has no use for this sort of software.

In a nutshell Norton Personal Firewall 2001 stops "hackers" in their tracks and protects a PC from Internet threats by controlling all Internet connections to and from the computer --- by setting up a barrier known as a firewall.

The program is aimed at the home user, no serious network administrator is going to rely on a AU$100 program to protect the company system. However, once the novelty has worn off I suspect most home users will just ignore it.

The Internet does indeed present many risks. One of them is that users are likely to be coerced into buying totally unnecessary software.

However, any user needing reassurance that PowerPoint presentations and Microsoft Money files are safe from attack will find relief with Norton Personal Firewall. It's an easy to use piece of software with a wizard that should get the average home user up and running with a minimum of fuss.

I installed the software easily on a Pentium III laptop running Windows ME. Minimum requirements for the CD installation are: a 150 MHz Pentium class or faster processor, 32 RAM, 10 MB disk space, Microsoft Internet Explorer and a CD.

Privacy controls in Personal Firewall ensure users can take some steps to protect confidential information. With the aid of a simple slider control, users can select minimal, medium or high privacy settings

Personal Firewall provides several levels of control over cookies as well as preventing browser information from being disclosed (e g the last site visited or types of browser used)

Once installed, I logged onto the Internet and opened Internet Explorer 5.5

Norton Personal Firewall immediately spat out an alert that went something like this:

Internet Explorer is trying to access the Internet. What do you want to do?

• Automatically configure Internet access (recommended)
• Permit this application to access the Internet
• Block this application from accessing the Internet
• Customise Internet access for this application

I am sorry, am I supposed to take this sort of nonsense seriously?

Norton Personal Firewall needs to know how to react when different applications attempt to access the Internet. This means a lot of alert messages.

Enabling Automatic Access Control helps eliminate these messages, as does temporarily disabling the program.

Norton Personal Firewall provides four types of protection:

• An overall Security Level setting that makes adjustments throughout the program
• Internet Access Control sets rules for particular applications
• nternet Zone Control to access trusted computers or block restricted computers
• Intrusion Protection monitors hacker attacks and blocks attackers from further access

However, I am now driven neurotic by an "Internet Explorer is trying to access the Internet" warning every time I boot up.

Leaving aside the definition of who and what a hacker really is, the idea is that any malicious individual who wishes to "hack" into a computer uses a few tools to scan the Internet for vulnerable IP addresses. Norton Personal Firewall protects a computer by making it "almost invisible" to such a scan.

I suspect making sure File and Print Sharing are switched off would offer a similar --- and much cheaper --- level of protection to any Windows user.

Someone permanently connected to the Internet via cable modem or DSL connection may find Norton Personal Firewall useful. Average home users looking for some sort of protection would be better off with anti-virus software. Norton Personal Firewall seemed to work ok with PC-cillin 2000.

Norton Internet Security 2001 Version 3.0, which includes Personal Firewall and Norton Antivirus, sells for AU$129.00. If nothing else, it might help get rid of that hahaha@sexyfun email.

Price Aus AU$99.00 (including GST)
www.symantec.com

By Richard Price, Editor, EnergyME.com

For information on getting a product reviewed email richard@energyme.com