1.Introduction

Norton Antivirus and Internet security from Symantec Corp. had got a bad name a few years ago for being a resource hog, a pain to uninstall and being fast overtaken by competitors in detection rate and removal of viruses, spyware and malware. But in the 2009 version of these products, users saw a revolution, both in terms of robustness and detection method. Norton introduced SONAR (Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response) last year. It simply tore apart detection systems of other companies, using least resources and detecting most threats. This year, Symantec gave us another revolutionary reputation based detection system named ‘Quorum’, an engine which detected threats based on feedback by millions of users around the world regarding the dangerousness of files. This meant threats being picked up very fast, but also quite a lot of false positives. The 2009 versions of Norton Antivirus and Internet Security changed the way users looked at Symantec products and kept Symantec at the top of the Antivirus pack, in both reviews as well as in market.

2.The Interface

Norton Antivirus and Internet Security 2009 users will feel right at home with the 2010 version.

The Interface has been tinkered with, very mildly, only changing colors of the background and adding a few new items.

The components, such as Antivirus, Antispyware, firewall, and SONAR can be easily enabled or disabled in the main window, with just a couple of clicks. All settings are easily accessible and the vital settings can be safely adjusted easily by new users too.

Moving the mouse pointer over to the small ‘i’ symbol near every component describes the meaning and functioning of that component in short, very useful for new users.

The clicking the ‘Performance’ button flips over the screen of the main window to show the overall CPU usage and CPU usage by Norton.

The ‘Application Ratings’  button opens a new window showing the trust level of the running processes, all files, the various modules, startup items and more, according to the option selected. This helps the user see how many users around the world use that file/ run that process and how safe they feel about running it.

The background theme of the main window can be changed, to one of the four other options but i liked the default theme the most.

Overall, the user interface is quite pleasing and will not be disliked by most.

3.Performace Impact

While Norton Internet Security did not have the least addition to boot time, the products which added lesser time to boot come nowhere near this product in terms of detection rate or overall usability.

Installation was the fastest of any security suite till date, not even requiring a reboot.

Bootup takes a few seconds longer with this product installed, but considering the importance of the product, it is not much to bother any user.

Expect very little additions to file extraction and copying times too. A test conducted showed that only 2 seconds were added to a file copying procedure when the antivirus was active.

The CPU and memory usages are low, though not lowest and i could even play some older games when the system scan was running at full priority.

4.Firewall

The Firewall in Norton Internet Security 2010 is one of the best i have used yet.

It tackles everything that comes in its way very effectively, without even alerting the user and asking the user to take action.

It is as effective as Checkpoint ZoneAlarm’s firewall, which was considered to be unmatchable till date. It detects ports and networks quickly and blocks intrusion attempts with ease. It does not have to be pre-configured to allow or deny any application, it automatically is set to a learning-type mode where it initially allows applications and games to run or use internet and ports, and stifles them if they do anything suspicious.

There is a provision for advanced settings and program control, as in other firewalls where you can add rules for various programs or change the automatically created rules for programs. There is a button to quickly block all network traffic too.

The firewall is undoubtedly one of the best available on the market and is not a factor which will ever have to be considered second best to any other product’s.

5.Protection : Antivirus, antispyware, detection rates and scans

Norton Antivirus remains near the top in every antivirus test and comparison you will find.

It detects most of the threats quickly, including active and inactive rootkits.

Scanning engines is one of the fastest yet, with the file insight rating making future scans faster.

It identifies and skips the safe files in the future scans, only scanning files which are vunerable, have been modified or added newly.

Heuristic protection can be said to three modes: Aggressive, Automatic and Off.

While the third option is obviously not recommended, automatic level is sufficient for normal users, as aggressive level can increase the number of false positives.

Most of the detected threats are removed automatically, leaving a few sometimes for the user to take action on, during or after scans.

One major flaw is that you cannot add the file to quarantine easily. When the scan engine detects a threat and asks the user to take action, there is only one option which is user has: To delete the infected file, even if it is an archive. If you wish to disinfect it, you cannot do so.

Renaming, too not possible. If you wish to move the file to quarantine, you have to ignore the threat after the scan and later select and add the file manually.

Antispyware detection rate is good, near the top of the pile too.

Silent mode is a useful feature, which prevents any popup windows or automatic tasks when you do not want to be interrupted, while playing a game or doing something of importance.

Now, coming to the most painful aspect of this product: The false positives.

SONAR is fast and effective but it gives a lot of false positives, at least it did for me. So many files i used to use, which i know are safe are detected as suspicious or malicious by SONAR. One such example is the Counter Strike HLDS (half-life dedicated server) file, which i had used uncountable times before installing Norton Internet Security, and is safe,i can assure. It got deleted, as did many other such safe files, and i had to restore it by going to security history.

6.Updates, and other components

LiveUpdate is included, as usual and is easy to use. Symantec releases the most updates and very frequently too (At least every 5-15 minutes), a feature which is unmatched till now. The frequent small updates, called pulse updates keep your product up-to-date and you, protected from newly emerging threats.

LiveUpdate crashes or becomes unresponsive sometimes when you cancel the update, so be sure you avoid doing so unless absolutely necessary.

This occurs with the scan engine too, but not very frequently.

Antispam, email protection, anti-phishing, browsing and malicious file download protection are some of the smaller features that are included in this product.

The browsing protection is the lightest i have seen, adding almost no load time to the web pages. It warns users of unsafe pages and autofills form data if you create an identity safe.

7.Conclusion

Norton Internet Security is probably the best security product available in the market. It is highly recommended for any user who is concerned about security, but at the same time wants an install-and-forget internet security suite.

It is fast, reliable, detects almost any threat you throw at it.

It may not be the top one in most of the individual fields, of antivirus detection, antispyware or scanning speed but it always comes a close second or third in these fields, to products which either do not feel complete or excel at only one or two fields. It is the best overall product in this category you can find, making it our choice for the best internet security suite of 2010.

TechGoo Rating : 9.5 – Superb