Norton 360

Editor's note: Norton 360 will be available in Australia from mid-March at a recommended retail price of AU$129.95. This includes a one-year service subscription to use the product and receive Symantec's protection updates. Read the news story here.

Two years ago, when Symantec first presented us with their idea to create a complete security and performance solution, the company said it wanted to start from scratch, to build the thing right; we're happy to say that Symantec Norton 360 delivers on that early promise. That's not to say Norton 360 is perfect, nor is it designed for everyone. There are features in the all-in-one suite that we wish had been added (such as wireless security tools), but overall Norton 360 provides a much better user experience and security protection than either Windows Live OneCare or McAfee Total Protection. In fact, Norton 360 is better than Norton Internet Security 2007 in some respects, namely that it's lighter on system resources, the tools are better integrated, and it presents a much better design model than the current Norton product line. But more advanced users should stay with the Internet security suites for now.

Setup
Our setup of the final shipping version was surprisingly fast and easy. Norton 360 requires 300MB of hard drive space, considerably less than Windows Live OneCare, but about double that of McAfee Total Protection. Like the others, Norton 360 requires 256MB of RAM. Like Windows Live OneCare, Norton 360 works on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Only McAfee works on Windows 2000 through Vista. Like the other super suites, the price includes installation on up to three different PCs (for example, two desktops and a laptop).

We really like the Norton 360 interface; it's unlike the interface used on the rest of the Norton 2007 product line. The UI for Norton 360 is clean, intuitive, and no-nonsense. A toolbar across the top allows quick access to scans, configuration for tasks, access to your Norton online account, in-program Help, and technical support. Below that, there's a line that displays any current system alerts, such as configuring your backup and recovery options. The main section includes modules for PC Security, Transaction Security, Backup and Recovery, and PC Tuneup. Each of these modules displays a colour-coded status and a brief explanation, with an option for more details.

Within each module is a clean list of various diagnostics and tools and their status. You can't, however, tweak your firewall settings here, or exclude a second drive from your virus and spyware scan; for that you need to use the main screen's toolbar for Tasks and Settings. It's a minor inconvenience; casual users will appreciate the clean reporting style, but advanced users (for whom the product was not intended) will want to tweak right away and become frustrated at the extra step. Also within each module are access to Help and technical support, along with selected extra steps that include access to glossaries and tutorials on the Symantec Web site. Gone are the blatant links to Symantec shopping that encourage you to purchase additional products, which we've seen in the past. We also like the fact that Norton 360 appears on the taskbar as an indiscrete icon, not the loud and flamboyant, yellow pill design used in Norton Internet Security 2007.

Should you want to remove Norton 360, we didn't find an uninstall icon and had to use the Add or Remove Programs tool within the Windows Control Panel. Although there is a separate listing for Symantec's LiveUpdate program, we were able to remove both programs by uninstalling Norton 360 alone. Upon reboot we found no registry entries and no system folders for Symantec or Norton 360.

Features
Rather than simply bundle all of the features from Norton Antivirus, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks, and Norton Confidential, Symantec went back to the drawing board and designed Norton 360 from the ground up. The result is a much more fluid experience. Even Symantec LiveUpdate, which sometimes feels like a clunky add-on to the other Norton products, is better integrated within Norton 360. Our initial update of the product was quick, with both LiveUpdate and Norton 360 downloading and installing within seconds.

Symantec pulled only the tools deemed most beneficial to the general user from all its product lines. Norton 360 includes antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing, antirootkit protection, a firewall, Symantec's new SONAR (Symantec Online Network for Advance Response) behavioral monitoring software, and a vulnerability assessment tool to see what Windows updates your computer might be missing. An add-on pack of online tools includes Parental Control, Antispam, and other optional features such as blocking private data from leaking onto the Internet.

Norton 360 also includes tools to defragment your hard drive and clean up temporary files and other clutter than could slow your PC down. These tools are fine, but are nowhere near as complete as Symantec's own Norton SystemWorks. Norton 360 does include a backup and recovery tool, and provides up to 2GB of free online storage. Online storage is great if your home or office was somehow destroyed and you need access to your backup files from a remote location (think of Hurricane Katrina). For additional fees, you can increase your online storage volumes, in increments of 5GB, 10GB and 25GB. Microsoft Windows Live OneCare and McAfee do not offer online storage. All three products allow you to back up onto your hard drive, CD, DVD, or USB drive.

What's missing within Norton 360 are a few surprises. There are no tools specifically targeted for wireless home networks, a rapidly emerging area. Aside from help setting up such networks, we'd also like to see tools that help encrypt the signals with WEP, WPA, or WPA2, or at least monitor whether someone uninvited joins your home wireless network. Of the three super suites, only McAfee Total Protection includes wireless security.

For Internet privacy, though Norton 360 will authenticate a site via Symantec's own servers, it won't store your passwords or credit cards in an encrypted vault unless you download the optional add-on pack. Of the three super suites, only McAfee Total Protection provides an ID vault with the program itself. Total Protection also provides a data file shredder, a must if you have personal files that you don't want hanging around your hard drive after the fact.

We also found that Norton 360 is optimised for Internet Explorer only, and not Firefox and Opera browsers. It could be said that Symantec realises that Internet Explorer users need more protection, but it would be nice to use the antiphishing feature in Norton 360 on Firefox or Opera. Of the three super suites, only McAfee supports Firefox; none support Opera.

Performance
If you've ever used a Symantec Norton product and then removed it because it was too heavy on your system resources, you'll be delighted to learn that Norton 360 feels light compared to the legacy of the past. We counted only three processes running on our task manager, compared with several from McAfee and Microsoft. This is a huge improvement over previous editions of Norton Internet Security, which tended to be very large.

Norton 360 uses the Norton Antivirus 2007 engine, an application that improves on last year's CNET Labs' performance test scores, although Norton turns in a mixed bag of results overall. On our iTunes test, Norton lost ground compared with last year, taking 208 seconds as opposed to 184 seconds last year. On our Sorensen Squeeze test, Norton improved, taking 317 seconds compared to 326 seconds last year. Overall, Norton showed the most improvement with individual file scans; it took only 117 seconds versus 320 seconds last year. But in terms of boot speed, Norton lost ground by taking 4 seconds longer, 66 seconds as opposed to last year's 62 seconds. Visit CNET Labs to find out how we test antivirus software.

To determine how well a product will protect your PC, we refer to test results from two leading independent antivirus testing organisations. In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org, Norton AntiVirus 2006 earned an Advanced + rating (the highest), catching 98 percent of all malware tested, and from Checkvir.com, Norton AntiVirus 2006 was one of eight products to earn its Standard rating (also the highest).

For firewall tests, we used Nmap on a closed system with a router connection; however, we were unable to scan the Norton Internet Security 2007 PC. All other vendors tested produced at least some results in the various tests performed. Norton hides or "stealths" a PC from criminal hackers, which is good, though we're suspicious of what we can't see.

Support
Within Norton 360 there's in-program Help and then there's Support. Help consists of in-program FAQs, which are very detailed for Symantec. Either search a term or scroll through the index to find the topics you need. Support is Symantec's technical support for Norton 360. In the final release version, we were surprised at how little is offered. The knowledge base is cool, first diagnosing your version of Norton 360 for any known problems. If you still want help, the program asks you what help you need and provides a a menu of FAQs. There's also an envelop icon that leads you to e-mail and chat support (which are free) or telephone (which is paid; the telephone support service was not yet available at the time of this review). The user guide is a mere 30 pages and only includes the bare minimum of details; use the in-program Help instead. There is no tutorial offered.

Norton 360 is a good example of the "out of the box" thinking needed by traditional security vendors today. By starting from scratch and building an entirely new security product, Symantec has made long overdue improvements to its existing product line. Hopefully next year's release of Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security suite will benefit as well. But Norton 360 is not for everyone. Designed for home and student users, advanced users will want more online-transaction security tools and wireless protection. That said, for home and student use, we think Norton 360 represents the best value of ease, tools, and performance, and we recommend it over McAfee Total Protection or Microsoft Windows Live OneCare.