Review by Daniel Jolley

I am surprised to see other users referring to problems with this software. I can speak only for myself (and, for the record, my operating system is Windows XP Home edition), but I made an exceedingly smooth transition from Norton AntiVirus 2002 and Norton Personal Firewall 2002 to Norton Internet Security 2003. All of my established settings came over without a hitch, I am having no problem at all scanning incoming and outgoing email messages, and the firewall would definitely appear to be doing its job. The AntiVirus program now has the added capability of scanning instant messages, which is a very big deal, in my opinion. The Spam Alert function is not quite perfect at distinguishing between true spam and valid messages, but it is a feature of at least some utility, and I am happy to see Symantec trying to incorporate it into their already excellent software package. The Privacy Control feature is not new, but it is certainly an important part of the deal, affording the user some protection from the accidental release of important personal and financial information across the Internet. I can’t comment on the Parental Control feature because I do not use it, but certainly this is something parents will find appealing. Last and certainly not least, this software allows you to block a great number of those increasingly annoying pop-up ads proliferating online.nIf this is your first time using the firewall software, you will have to go through some important steps in order to configure your security system for your own needs, but the system walks you through this pretty well, meaning you don’t need to be a computer expert to do it. You will also have to specify any personal information (such as credit card numbers) you want to protect from accidental release via web forms and the like, but this is not hard to do. You can quickly and easily run a security check at any time to make sure your security settings are optimized and working properly. I would not surf online without knowing this great product is there to protect me from all the dangers lurking in cyberspace.