The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 Alan McNamara |
| Alan McNamara evaluates and reports on the stand-alone version of Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall 2006 |
The program can be installed from a CD or via an Internet download. For this
review I installed from the CD, however, once the setup program is on your
machine, both installations are similar (see Figure 1).
The Internet is an amazing creation. However, it was never designed to reach
the heights to which it has grown today.
The idea of being able to have a community using computers to share information
and collaborate on projects was seen as being restricted to a limited number of
responsible people. The reality of the Internet in today's society is an all
pervasive and to many people, an indispensable means of communicating.
Had the Internet remained true to its original plan, we would not be faced with
virus programs which can spread around the world almost instantly; we would not
have people trying to steal the personal details of others or creating
denial-of-service situations in an attempt to crash the computer systems of both
governments and corporations of all sizes. There would be no SPAM either!
However, we do have the Internet and love it or not, it is here to stay.
With increased usage of broadband and computer systems continuously connected to
the Internet, we users must have a reliable Firewall. This could be a
stand-alone hardware firewall or a firewall built into a modem. Another solution
is a software solution like Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006. Peter Norton
supplied solutions to various computer needs for many years and Norton products
have continued that tradition with Symantec Corporation.
What Is a Firewall?
A firewall can be a device or program that monitors network traffic. The
firewall functions in conformity with a set of rules that can be configured to
the user's specific situation. These rules cover things such as: specifying
which computers are permitted to connect to my computer or network; if these
computers can connect, what access are they given to files and programs? A
firewall on your computer can restrict other users from accessing or even seeing
your presence on the network. It can control the flow of information to and from
your computer so that if you should suffer an attack by a Trojan program or some
type of SPAM or virus, the firewall can alert you to the fact that you are
compromised.
Setting up a firewall can be an intimidating exercise for the new user or anyone
unfamiliar with the principles and jargon involved in Internet security.
Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 attempts to overcome this barrier by
making the experience as painless as possible.
About Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006
The Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 version runs only on Microsoft
Windows XP Home and Professional and Microsoft Windows 2000. The CD supplied
also contains Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2005 version for Windows ME and
Windows 98 users.
Minimum System Requirements
As this is supplied on CD, your system needs a CD or DVD drive and Microsoft
Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher with IE 6.0 recommended.
Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 supports:
Installing the Software
After you insert the CD, in usual fashion you click on the "Install Norton
Personal Firewall" to begin the process. Read and accept the License Agreement"
and enter your product key which can be found on the CD sleeve.
One must close all other running programs and from the Active Application
Detected panel click "Start Scan".
The scan can be stopped by the user but it is best to let this run to
completion. Click "View Details" for the scan results then select OK to close.
The "Select the destination" panel will be displayed to use the default install
folder or you can select your own install folder. A progress bar shows how the
installation is going. Finally, you click the Finish button and restart your
computer. Figure 2.
Configuration
To configure the program you must be online and connected to the Internet; you
can register the program online, too.
Set up and configuration takes place in a fairly standard fashion and I
encountered no problems. During the set up, you are required to enter the CD key
number so keep the CD sleeve handy and do not lose it — as it will be needed for
any reinstallation.
If you already have a Norton Account, you can log on and recall your details; if
you are new to Norton you must create a new account.
You will be taken to the confirmation panel on completion (see Figure 3), and
the Home Network Wizard or LiveUpdate can be run.
The Home Network Wizard
The Home Network Wizard helps you set up computers and the Internet into Trusted
and Restricted Zones. Computers in the Trusted zone are not regulated and can
have whatever access they would have enjoyed had a firewall not been present.
Computers in the Restricted zone have no communication with your computer at
all.
While you are running this wizard, several checks will occur. Among them the
Network Adapters Found table will be generated for you to check the locally
connected computers. Usually these are computers on the same subnet mask. A
"Locations" table is created with a check box for each computer (see Figure 4a &
b).
How I Tested Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006
The program was tested on a Pentium 4 Laptop with a wireless connection. It is
running Microsoft Windows XP
Home edition. The wireless connection is part of a home network with a wireless
ADSL modem/router.
The configuration wizard suggested that I allow the set up to turn off Microsoft
Firewall to which I agreed.
The firewall installs after LiveUpdate runs to ensure that you are using the
latest version with all of the current updates and patches.
Ad Blocking
Ad blocking is an option that can be activated during configuration and changed
later from the main Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 window (see Figure
9).
Ad Blocking blocks all pop-ups that open automatically during a Web page load.
If a particular site uses pop-ups for special alerts or to provide you with
additional information, you might want to disable Pop-up Window Blocking while
viewing that site.
The program then asks to restart the computer.
My Internet programs such as Skype, 1CQ, Messenger and e-mail checking all
started without incident with a popup window giving the user the choice of
Automatic or Manual configuration of the site.
The system is not safe until the program has been configured so you should get
that done immediately.
The wireless set up started with all of the other computers on the network
having their pre-installation permissions retained. I could access the other
devices on my network and they could access the laptop computer through Symantec
Norton Personal Firewall 2006.
After the system has restarted, update runs to update all selected Symantec
products.
Programs can be controlled manually by selecting the Personal Firewall from the
main Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 window or from the System Tray and
using the Configure button. By selecting the Programs button, you are presented
with a list ofthe computer's programs and their respective firewall settings.
These setting can be altered between Permit, Block or Manually configure
Internet access. Some programs also have an Automatic setting.
The configuration can be tested by using the built-in Symantec Security Check
available at the Symantec Web Site.
To check your computer's vulnerability to attack
When the scan is complete, the results page lists all of the areas that were
checked and your level of vulnerability in each one. For any area marked as
being at risk, you can get more details about the problem and how to fix it.
Gibson Research Corporation Security Check
As a final test, I connected to the Gibson Research Corporation Wet site to
check whether the compute was classed as safe by GRC standards The Gibson
Research Corporatio,n Web site http://www.grc.com provides free checking of
various part of a computer's system.
The Gibson Research Corporation Shields Up program revealed the following
information:
Solicited TCP Packets: PASSED
— No TCP packets were received from your system as a direct
result of our
attempts to elicit some response from any of the ports listed below — they are all
either fully stealthed or blocked by your ISP. However...
Unsolicited Packets: PASSED — No Internet packets of any sort were received from your
system as a side-effect of our attempts to elicit some response from any of the
ports listed above. Some questionable personal security systems expose their
users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves.
But your system remained wisely silent. (Except for the fact that not all of its
ports are completely stealthed as shown below.)
Ping Reply: RECEIVED (FAILED) —Your system REPLIED to our Ping (ICMP Echo)
requests, making it visible on the Internet. Most personal firewalls can be
configured to block, drop, and ignore such ping requests in order to better hide
systems from hackers. This is highly recommended since "Ping" is among the
oldest and most common methods used to locate systems prior to further
exploitation.
All of the tests except for the Ping Reply were reported as being safe and the
computer running in Stealth Mode.
A search of the Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 help pages did not list
Ping nor did it tell me whether it was possible to configure the Ping Reply.
Conclusion
Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2006 does a good job of securing your computer
for Internet access and activity.
The installation and set up processes are easily managed and handled quite well.
Initial configuration and operation went well with the wizards taking care of
most of the tricky details.
There were a few things which I found
annoying like a tendency to overstate some of the reports, and the help file making no
mention of Ping. 0n back of the packaging a review discusses Symantec Norton Personal
Firewall 2005 and not the 2006 version.
Another thing which I have notice that some programs which have been added to the
"allowed" list will reappear in a window asking for permission.
Unfortunately, we all need protection when using the Internet and Symantec Norton
Personal Firewall 2006 is certainly worthy of consideration particularly for those
seeking simple set up and configuration.
The Price?
There seems to be a wide variation ii pricing for Symantec Norton Personal
Firewall 2006 with a recommended price of $79.95, some stores are giving a
generous discount!
My advice is to look around before you buy.
The program is current for one year then needs to be updated to keep your
computer protected.
About the Author
Alan McNamara has been in the printing industry for most of his working life and
seen evolutionary changes in that industry. He began using computers in 1975,
involved initially in typesetting and has worked in many areas since then. Alan
has been a Melb PC member for over a decade and is deeply interested in most
aspects of computing.
Reprinted from the March 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
