Protect yourself from internet nasties! (Part two) (Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2001)

Member Name: hugon

Product:	Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2001
Date:	10/08/01 (260 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Update online to protect against newest virus, Creates disks to restore current settings, Easy to use

Disadvantages: Slows down your machine a little more, Only get a year of updates - have to pay for more

With my recent decision to be more security conscious of my PC, I decided it was high time I installed some Anti-Virus software on the computer. After much deliberation, I decided to go for Norton Antivirus 2001 after reading some favourable reviews of it on dooyoo.

Installation is simple, as it always seems to be these days, simply a matter of popping the CD in the drive and selecting where you want to place your files. Norton prompts you to see if you want to add the program to your start up menu, so that it is loaded into memory and provide active protection as you use your computer. It also asks whether it should place an icon on your desktop, and if it should perform a virus scan after it reboots the computer.

Once rebooted, the first thing you should do is run the Live Update feature to make sure you are protected against the latest viruses and the software is the latest version. My copy of Norton was update until the end of 2000, and I had a 5MB download to update the program and make sure I was protected against the latest viruses. As Norton provides updates as new viruses are detected, it is worth checking the update every day to make sure you are completely protected. Until you have the latest definitions of the viruses, it is pointless running the full system scan. Updates vary in size, and depends on what is being updated, updates to the program can be around 1MB in size, while updates to the virus definitions are rarely larger than 100k. Like most of the features of the program, Live Update can be scheduled so you are safe even if you are forgetful. Purchase of the program entitles you to a years worth of updates, after that you have to pay a few pounds each year to use the update service, which isn’t too unreasonable.

Norton can carry out a full system scan of your computer to check that viruses infect none of your files. The scan took about three quarters of an hour on my 15GD hard disk Celeron 667 with 64MB of RAM, an
d happily it told me that it found no viruses. Once you have done the full system check, there is really no need to carry it out again, as Norton can scan any incoming emails for viruses in attachments, and you can use it to scan any files that you download from the Internet. If you run the program in the background, it will constantly monitor your system for any virus-like activity, and alert you if necessary. The scan can be scheduled to run at any time, for instance every two weeks, much in the same way as you can schedule defragmentation of your hard disk in windows.

Selecting the program from your desktop or the system tray brings up the main program window, where you can find information about your system, and carry out or modify checks to your system. It shows a list of data about your system, allowing you to easily see how up to date your virus definitions are (it will prompt you automatically when they are two or more weeks out of date), the last time you carried out a full system scan, whether you are running auto protect and if you have integrated the software with your email client. If you have selected the option, it is highlighted by a green tick, and if you have it deselected or have yet to carry it out, it is marked by a red cross. Switching between the modes being on and off is simply a matter of double clicking on each option and either selecting of deselecting it. Double clicking also provides a short explanation of what each mode does and how it protects your system.

One of the main parts of the program is its integration with your email client to provide protection for viruses spread by email, where most of the risk lies. Once this option is selected, Norton automatically scans any incoming mail to the system, and if anything dangerous is downloaded, alerts you and gives you the option to clean it, or leave it alone. If it cannot clean it, it can move the dangerous files to the quarantine area where they are safely stored until
a fix can be found for the problem. It works with all major mail clients such as Outlook Express, Outlook, Netscape Messenger and Eudora. The email takes slightly longer to download when this protection is enabled, but only a few seconds, but the protection is worth the wait. The email scanning doesn’t actually take place on your computer, it changes the settings of your client so that the email is first sent to Norton’s severs, where it is checked there before being downloaded to your computer once it is verified “safe”.

Another major feature of the program is the rescue disks, where the program creates a set of disks you can use to recover your system to it’s original settings should you become infected by a virus. These rescue disks can be made to either zip or floppy disks, and allow you to boot from these if you get a virus, from which Norton will try and recover your system. My rescue disks came to five floppy disks (I don’t have a zip drive), and they are worth recreating every couple of weeks so you are completely up to date.

The reports section is where you can view any files in quarantine, look at the log of activities the program has carried out, or look at the viruses currently recognised by the software. The program allows you to view the list of all the viruses it protects against, some with short descriptions of what they do. Currently I am protected against 50484 known viruses, which makes me feel nice and safe. It’s worth pointing out that the program can only automatically remove some viruses, some will require the user to delete specific files, but the instructions for doing so are all contained within the program in a simple step-by-step format.

Quarantine is where potential dangerous files are sent to, where they can cause no damage to your system while you try and remove them. You can even submit the file to Norton if there is no fix available for it, and they will email you
back with instructions on how to remove the file from your computer. Thankfully, I’ve never had to use this feature yet. You can even back up the files in quarantine so that you can recover everything should your attempts to remove the virus adversely affect your machine. Quarantine is probably most useful for those of us like myself who rarely back up their machine, so just hitting delete or clean and removing some vital files would be a disaster. At least this way you get to back everything up safely before you run around deleting files.

All in all, it’s a nice simple program to use, and once you have it set up, and get into the routine of checking regularly for updates, you’ll forget it’s there. Even those with limited computer experience should find it easy to use, and the online documentation with the program effectively and simple explains everything. You still need to exercise some caution though, as if you haven’t got the latest update, you are still at risk from being infected by a virus, although the software seems to be effective at recognising malicious code and quarantining it until a fix is found for it. You still do need to be careful with any files that could carry viruses – vbs, exe and com files being the main culprits. For a simple solution to protect your system and provide you with a little piece of mind, this is what I would recommend. It doesn’t slow down your system significantly or take up a huge amount of hard disk space. The minimum system is Windows 95 with a 486 DX 66Mhz processor and 32MB of RAM, and 50MB of disk space, which most users should have these days.

If you want to download a trial version, a 30 day version can be found at http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10093-100-287 2672.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1. lst-7-3.2872672. It’s a 25MB download, which could take about 2 hours, but if you like it, you can register it online with a credit card to remove the 30-day li
mit.

I know not everyone likes Norton software, but even if you are not a fan, please do not leave it to chance and get some anti virus software, as more and more people get onto the internet, and viruses become easier to make and send using templates easily found on the internet, software like this is going to become essential for all internet users.

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