For complete protection on your PC we recommend Norton Internet Security 2009
Security software has always been an important line of defense when it comes to today's electronic threats. However, as important as they are, they can be a bit of a pain to use. Most often they are bloated and resource hogs, which slows down a computer and in turn, makes the user frustrated. Symantec has released their new 2009 version of their ever-popular (for good and bad reasons) Norton Internet Security Suite. You'll all be happy to hear that they have listened to your complaints and suggestions and they have improved on a lot of the software's core components.
Right off the bat, you'll notice that the installer for Norton Internet Security 2009 (NIS) has been totally redesigned and is much more streamlined. Symantec threw out their old installation system and re-coded a new one that works much better than installs NIS in about a minute's time. They also now have a "real" uninstall option should that ever want to remove NIS from your computer...and this time, it really does remove everything except the licensing data if you ever want to reinstall.
The interface has gotten a few slight changes compared to last year's 2008 NIS. The yellow, orange, and black color scheme has been revampt to look a little more inviting and easier on the eye. It actually looks very nice, sleek, and most of all, professional. To illustrate the lessened strain on the computer that NIS 2009 is, Symantec even included a little live chart on the main window that shows the overall system resource use and then right next to that is the amount of system resources that NIS is using.
Right on the main window, there are three "module" areas that make it really easy to get a quick overview of how NIS is protecting your system. The first module is the "Computer" area which shows you the overall status of the antivirus, antispyware, and definition updates. The second module is titled "Internet", which appropriately shows you the current status of the firewall, intrusion prevention, and e-mail/IM scanning. The last module is "Identity", which shows the antiphishing filter and identity protection tools.
A huge new addition (or should we say removal?) to NIS 2009 is the new update system. Symantec has removed the dreaded LiveUpdate component to NIS and replaced it with a much more transparent update system that works either manually or automatically. There are even new antimalware definitions downloaded every few minutes with NIS 2009 to keep the system protected even more.
NIS 2009 also makes use of what is called a "whitelist", which is a list of applications or files that are deemed as safe by the user. These files are marked as "trusted" and will not be scanned by NIS. However, because of the vast amount of applications and files out there, NIS cannot mark every last one on your system. So to help make up for this, NIS 2009 uses an Internet-based community called Norton Insight, which compares potential "safe" files with other people and if a majority of people are using this file without any security issues, then NIS on your computer will mark that file as being "safe".
Another perhaps surprising feature of NIS 2009 is the return of "recovery disks". These are a CD-based software program that can be booted right off of at the system start up which bypasses Windows all together and can scan your computer and fix any security threats without being in Windows. Security suites have been moving away from these recovery disks for about the past 5-10 years and now it's good to see them coming back...because they are a handy thing to turn to as a last resort.
The performance of the antivirus component of NIS 2009 has been rated as one of the best in the industry. AV-Comparitives, a European-based security company, has given NIS the "Advanced+" rating, which is the highest possible. AV-Test, another testing company, also gave NIS 2009 a "Good" or "Very Good" rating in over a dozen categories. By default, NIS 2009's antivirus has real-time scanning enabled and you can also setup scheduled scanning for even more protection as well. NIS also scans all incoming and outgoing email (and attachments) as well as all files received via popular instant messaging clients in real time.
NIS 2009's firewall also has been updated to eliminate all of those program access dialog boxes when a program tries to connect to the Internet. You will never have to click to allow or disallow access when you use any program because NIS does it automatically by using a built-in list of trusted programs as well as an online database. Of course you can still manually go in and allow/disallow access to any file or application yourself.
A new feature to NIS 2009 is something called Identity Safe, which stores all of your login credentials to your password-protected Web sites that you visit and use, such as financial institutions or message boards. With Identity Safe, NIS keeps record of every password to any site you want to specify and it protects them all with one master password that you set. So anytime you come to a site where your login information is already stores, NIS will automatically input your information for you after you have entered your master password. This is a really nice feature because it allows you to just remember one password instead of dozens for every site you use and this way it is much more secure.
In conclusion, Norton Internet Security 2009 is well worth the update if you are looking to replace another security suite or if you have the 2008 version of NIS. The new features and improvements to NIS will definitely catch the eye of those who have moved away from all-in-one solutions like NIS because of their previous reputation of slowing down systems.
Visit Web Store | 
