Norton Personal Firewall

Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall keeps hackers out and personal data in. It makes robust firewall protection easy by automatically hiding your PC on the Internet and blocking suspicious connections. Norton Personal Firewall also protects your privacy by preventing confidential information from being sent out without your knowledge.

Key Features of Norton Personal Firewall

Improved SymProtect: Helps protect Symantec products against malicious programs that are designed to attack security software and create security vulnerabilities on your computer.

Comprehensive Personal Firewall: Hides the computer from hackers and controls all connections between a computer and the Internet. Every time there is a new connection, Norton Personal Firewall determines whether the connection should be blocked or permitted.

Easy Setup: Enables you to quickly and easily select the level of security that is most appropriate for your computer. Then it automatically configures the firewall rules to match your preferences.

Blocks Active Content: Stops Java™ applets and ActiveX® controls before they are downloaded (on a per site basis). You can customize Norton Personal Firewall to allow frequently visited and trusted sites to download active content to your computer and to prevent all other sites from doing so.

Intrusion Prevention: Examines the content of Internet traffic and detects online security breaches, which can hide in approved Internet connections. When an intrusion is detected, the appropriate action is triggered to prevent the intrusion, depending on the threat.

Trusted Zone: You may assign other known computers, such as computers on a home network, to a "trusted" zone. You may also assign a specific computer or range of computers to a "restricted" zone. Connections to computers in the trusted zone are allowed, while connections to computers in the restricted zone are blocked.

Port Scanning Detection: Detects when a hacker is attempting to probe your computer for vulnerabilities—such as by scanning its ports—and automatically blocks access for 30 minutes. Port scanning is one of the most common types of intrusion activities experienced by people on the Internet, whether the connection is dial-up, DSL or cable.

Symantec Security Check: Links to Symantec’s external Web site where you can run a “Scan for Security Risks” test on your computer. If your system is determined to be at risk, the Symantec Security Check site provides instructions to help you reconfigure your firewall.

Active Content Blocking: Stops Java applets and ActiveX controls before they are downloaded (on a per site basis). You can customize to allow frequently visited and trusted sites to download active content while preventing other sites from doing so.

Full Stealth: Prevents your computer from acknowledging the probes of a hacker's port scanner. Completely hides your computer from hackers.

Application Security: Prevents rogue programs from sending confidential information from your computer in the background or without your knowledge. Automatically analyzes and validates all Internet-capable programs when they open.

Confidential Information Blocking: Allows you to configure your firewall to create an “allowed list” when sending private information to trusted sites.

Confidential Information Protection: You can designate personal information, such as credit card or social security numbers, as information to be protected from unsecured Web sites, email, or Microsoft® Office attachments.

Confidential Information Filtering for Instant Messaging Clients: Filters confidential information in the following instant messaging clients.   AOL® Instant Messenger MSN® Instant Messenger Windows® Messenger (found in Windows XP Home and Professional Edition)

Cookie Blocking: Blocks cookies on a per-site basis so that Web sites cannot track your surfing activities. You can choose a default cookie behavior or configure customized rules for specific sites.

Pop-up Blocking: Allows you to stop banner ads, pop-up windows, and other Web clutter so you can concentrate on reading the information on the Web page without distraction.

Network Detector: This feature is helpful when using a laptop. It automatically searches for an accessible network when you change location. When Network Detector finds a new network, it displays a network control alert, from which you can run the automatic Home Networking Wizard to quickly and easily reconfigure the security settings for the new network. Network Detector intelligently remembers each network it finds and switches the security settings automatically when you reconnect.

Web Assistant: Provides access to several Norton Internet Security program options directly from Microsoft® Internet Explorer. Web Assistant adds a drop-down menu to the toolbar for easy access to:   Configure and override Web content Block cookies Block ads and pop-ups

Product Activation: Requires you to activate Norton Internet Security with a unique product key within 14 days of installation. This assures that you are purchasing authentic Symantec software that you can trust.

Automatic LiveUpdate: Checks for and downloads new protection updates automatically in the background whenever you are online. Protection updates include the following:   Virus definitions Firewall rules Intrusion-detection signatures Spam-definition updates Web-filtering updates

ScreenShots of Norton Personal Firewall