| | | |  - Hides your PCs on the Internet so hackers can¿t see them
- Norton Intrusion Detection automatically blocks Internet attacks
- Norton Privacy Control prevents data from being sent without your knowledge
- Program Control determines which applications can safely connect to the Internet
- LiveUpdate automatically checks for new protection updates when you¿re online
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Average Rating : 
Rating :  - 8-months of Great Experiences ( Unlike Most Others)
Unlike everyone else on Amazon.com I've thankfully (knock on desk) only had good experiences with both Norton Personal Firewall 2004 & Noron AntiVirus 2004.
It does take PERSISTANCE to train the Firewall properly and to get comfortable with the IE security and Cookie settings, but after about 2 weeks of teaching the software its been gravy... and I thankfully haven't had any major intrusions, file corruptions or viruses that I'm aware of in the past 8-months.
Downloading updates is seamless, I don't have memory hog issues on my AMD 3200+ w/512 MB Ram, Windows XP SP2 and my high speed DSL connection that's always on. I've turned off Symantec's Popup Blocker and configured the built in one with XP SP2. I set IE to prompt each time a website asks to install cookies. I've set the Firewall security setting to "High-Block Everything Until I approve it". Other than that, I manage Java Applet & Active X security within IE. I did try setting these to "Medium - ask me each time" and it worked as well. Really, the first 2-weeks in which you visit most of your key banking, finance, news, gaming and other websites is the important period which REQUIRES PATIENCE. The trick again is teaching the firewall which sites you approve and which you don't. According to various studies, the average internet user spends 80% of their online time on less than 10 websites. After the first 2-weeks, its the 20% you just have to teach yourself and other users of your computer to be smart about.
If you're not very comfortable with computers and are only a basic user of e-mail, news & regular websites... this is a great program as long as you have a techno-savvy son/daughter, friend or colleague who can help you set it up the first time. If you're a pretty advanced technology buff you'll appreciate the integrated management console between all Norton Programs and will like most of the features. Overall.. it's 4 stars in my book.
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