Norton 360 All-In-One Security Version 5 Review
Posted by Dateline.ph - Fri. Mar 11, 2011 4:35 pm
Text and Photos By Marlon C. Magtira
Symantec attempts anew to maintain its domination over the global security market with the Norton 360 All-In-One Security Version 5, the latest updated version of the popular security suite. Designed to provide a safe computing experience, for up to three PCs, with security features including automatic protection from viruses, spyware, fraudulent Web sites, phishing scams, intrusions, and the latest online threats, Norton 360 Version 5 comes with easy file back up and restoring features to local storage or to a secure online 2GB storage service.
One interesting new feature which has also been added to the new version is the Norton Safe Web’s social-media scanner that currently supports Facebook only. This feature scans your Facebook wall and news feed for any malicious links to Web sites and questionable applications.
Quick Installation
Installing Norton 360 All-In-One Security Version 5 is a breeze, which appeared fast and hassle-free on a Windows 7 Home Basic edition system. The massive system hog issues on Norton suites have become a thing of the past with the new Norton products. After a quick installation in less than two minutes, Norton 360 All-In-One Security Version 5 automatically runs quietly in the background, as in the previous 2010 version, without any observable effect on the computer’s booting and performance.
You will only be required to enter the Product Key and after clicking “Agree and Install” and activating the product, the application is up and running without rebooting.
To complete the product’s activation, you will be required to enter necessary user information.
After completing the activation, we are now ready to explore the new dashboard.
New Control Center
Norton 360 version 5’s interface did not have a drastic facelift but with minimal changes. It still looks like the previous version with the black-grey-yellow theme and larger empty spaces around graphic security status indicators and system tray icons.
The comprehensive security controls have been grouped into four sections in the main window for PC Security, Identity Protection, Backup, and PC Tuneup. Each group displays automatic updates notice of the services.
An interactive real-time map above the footer of the dashboard displays the new Cybercrime Index with a lot of threat-related data of the state of global network security. This world map with blinking yellow dots provides some details on new viruses that have been detected by Norton. If you click on a region on the map, a scrolling ticker about cybercrime will appear specifically in the city or continent. This pretty map is somewhat useless personally but it goes to show the enormous global efforts of Symantec in battling out cyber threats.
At the footer, subscription status in days and renewal link are displayed. There are also mobile-app-style buttons that are linked to Norton Online Family, Norton Online Backup, and Norton Safe Web. These screenshots show the services of each section.
Live Update
We clicked the Run Live Update link under PC Security to ensure that we have the latest Virus Definition on our system. It took about 20 minutes on 2Mbps DSL connection to download 130MB of for 95-day old virus definition files on our system. While downloading the updates, we opened some graphics-intensive programs, coupled with YouTube viewing and file downloads to see if it would affect the system. Online connection practically slowed down a bit but we didn’t see any effect on the local applications. Unlike in the previous Norton versions a few years ago, we didn’t experience that distressing system deceleration.
Insight
Norton Insight feature checks on data profiles and identifies trusted files that do not require scanning thereby eliminating repeated scanning of known files to maximize system resources. Insight also takes a closer on file age and origins to identify and stop new nasty files as soon as online threat is detected.
PC Tuneup
The PC Tuneup feature is designed to keep the optimal performance of the system. While fine-tuning key system settings, PC Tuneup frees up memory to allow programs to start up and run faster. PC Tuneup also removes unnecessary running files to improve hard drive performance.
Backup
With improvements to backup and restore functions and reduced system impact, The new version Norton 360 makes it even easier to back up photos and videos, audio and music, and documents. For an extra layer of security, An encryption is added to the backup files online.
After logging on the control center, you will be redirected to Norton’s Backup web site at http://backup.com. We noticed that you will be asked to log in again after you have already entered your username and password on the control center. Nevertheless, backup process is straightforward without complicated steps. Depending on the speed of your Internet access, 2GB took less than 30 minutes on 4Mbps DSL access.
Safe Web
The Norton Safe Search plugin was automatically installed on our default Firefox browser. This feature automatically filters unsafe Web sites, defines safe shopping sites and erases search footprint.
The website ratings service of Norton Safe Web now features the new Norton Secured security badge that indicates a site that uses VeriSign SSL Certificates or the VeriSign Trust Seal. You can also use Norton Safe Web for Facebook, a new tool to check your Facebook Wall and News Feeds for bad links and other threats, right from the Norton Control Center. We randomly selected a number of trusted and untrusted Web sites and Norton accurately labeled each site as we expected.
We deliberately posted an untrusted link on our wall and as expected, Norton Safe Web has detected it and marked it with “caution.” But Norton has the courtesy to ask us if we want to delete that feed or not. Norton also provided a link for warning our friends about it.
Bottom line
Symantec’s new iteration of Norton 360 enhances the security features of its previous version and added more comprehensive reputation-based defenses beyond virus signature scanning. The reputation-based feature examines untrusted or unknown files defined by Norton Community Watch, thanks to its more than 175 million worldwide Norton product users. System and Download Insight features get a new boost with the Norton Reputation Service, which instantly checks where files came from and how long they have been around to identify and stop new crimeware faster than any other security software. The System Insight feature of version 5 also provides alerts if a program is taking too much resources of the computer by profiling installed applications and detecting which of the programs might be slowing down system performance.
Test bed
Lenovo Z360 Core i3 370M Ultra Light (13.3″ WXGA LED)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Basic
CPU: Intel Core i3 370M (2.4GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB L2)
Memory: 2GB DDR3 SDRAM
Storage: 500GB HDD
Graphics: Intel GMA HD
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