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Norton 360
PC Pro Review & Rating
Verdict: A three-PC licence as
standard, superb silent interface and effective security
utilities make Norton 360 a tempting buy.
Security as a service is the latest
trend to trickle down from the enterprise sector into
the affordable realm of the home consumer. We've already
witnessed Microsoft doing spectacularly badly with
its Windows Live OneCare offering for Vista, failing
to pass the Virus Bulletin VB100 certification tests
and then coming an embarrassing last, by some margin,
in the well-respected AV-comparatives.org test of
17 apps. With many security applications not yet even
compatible with Vista, can Symantec make a better
impression with its brand-new Norton 360?
First impressions are certainly
good, with the coded-from-scratch suite not only installing
more quickly, but consuming far less in the way of
system resources than Norton Internet Security 2007.
This is thanks to the improved background scheduler
that monitors user input, CPU usage and disk activity,
throttling tasks accordingly; initiating remaining
scans, backups or system tuning only when idle time
parameters are met. Even LiveUpdate, much maligned
for its clunky update mechanism, is tamed. Both require
less in the way of resources and are much better integrated
- to the point that most of the time we didn't know
they were running: exactly how it should be. At 300MB,
the suite also takes up less disk space than OneCare,
although the same 256MB of RAM is required. Thankfully,
on the systems we tested (both XP and Vista), uninstallation
was just as painless.
What really stands out, however,
is the interface, taking the silent firewall concept
that first appeared with NIS2007 and applying it to
the back-to-basics GUI. An at-a-glance display reveals
the state of play with regards to PC security, transactional
security, data backup and system performance. Big
green ticks mean everything is okay, red crosses not
okay with, in the latter case, the solution only a
click or two away
within the relevant module. The
integration of each component is very good, but also
clearly aimed at the novice user. This isn't a bad
thing, as it keeps sensible defaults in play and prevents
accidental weakening of the security model. However,
if you want to dig deeper and configure firewall settings,
the Advanced Options dialog is buried only a couple
of layers beneath. This simplicity for the masses,
configurability for the experts approach is well implemented.
We also approve of the pared-down
components that have made it into Norton 360. The
downloadable Anti Spam and Parental Control add-in
pack weren't yet available for us to test, but given
that they'll retain the same basic features of the
NIS2007 add-in pack, it's no great loss. When it comes
to sheer effectiveness, the silent firewall and Anti
Virus/Anti Spyware perform just as well as they did
when we tested NIS2007. Both do the job quietly and
efficiently, with no false positives, no nagging alerts
and dialogs, and protection from every threat we threw
at them. And that includes the patent-pending VxMS
rootkit protection technology acquired from Veritas,
as well as the SONAR behavioural malware detection
system for real-time threat protection. There's also
transactional security (for Internet Explorer users,
at least), combining blacklist and heuristic phishing
protection techniques with website authentication
to ensure at-a-glance identification of dangerous
websites. Norton 360 will even automatically check
if your system passwords are weak and recommend you
replace them.
We have no complaints about the
licence cost of Norton 360, though: covering three
installations on separate PCs, it represents great
value for money.
For those happy with their existing
system, the cost and inconvenience of switching to
another suite makes it best to stick with what you've
got. The ZoneAlarm Suite also covers a broader security
and privacy remit. But if you've upgraded to Vista
and your chosen security suite isn't yet Vista compatible,
or you simply want the basics without fanfare, Norton
360 makes for a compelling and recommended purchase.
This review was written by PC Pro.
To read more of this review or to read other reviews
about other pieces of software visit: www.pcpro.co.uk
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