Norton Personal Firewall Reviewer's Comments

Please note that this software has been discontinued and is now part of the Norton series of Security Suite products.

 

Our third pick and "TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award" is Norton Personal Firewall 2006 by Symantec. If you're looking for a software firewall program that will give you a sense of security, Norton Personal Firewall is hard to beat. The program does not have all the perks that Zone Alarm and Outpost offer, but it is just as reliable.

Feature Set:  

Norton Personal Firewall is the only package we tested that incorporates a web assistant into your Internet browser. This feature allows you to change the dynamics of a website you view. You can instantly turn off ads, popups and cookies, even quick-configure your security settings. (This is a useful feature if you want to visit a website that you don't trust.) You can also hide your private financial data in a secure file.

Norton Personal Firewall lets you customize each filter category. You can add new rules to allow, block, or watch connections based on connection type—your connection to computers or from computers. You can add rules for different protocols as well.

Ease of Use:  

Norton Personal Firewall is easy for the novice user to use. The program explains all the choices clearly, making it simple to take advantage of them.

Ease of Installation:  

We had no difficulties installing Norton Personal Firewall.

Reliability:  

Norton Personal Firewall passed every firewall test except for the cookie part of our browser test-Norton Personal Firewall let cookies into our computer (but most firewalls we tested failed this part of our browser test).

Norton Personal Firewall did allow some ads to appear even though we had ad blocking turned on. But you can go into advanced privacy control settings to enter the specific ad into the database to block it in the future.

Help/Support:  

Norton Personal Firewall documentation is among the best available. They provide plenty of information. Norton Personal Firewall also gives examples to show the firewall's features, such as how to protect personal data.

Norton Personal Firewall's online support can be tedious, however. We tried to use the online assistant a few times but we were repeatedly sent to Norton's support homepage. Norton Personal Firewall offer telephone support, but this comes with a fee.

Summary:  

Norton Personal Firewall is one of the top software firewall programs on the market. The program provides enough features to keep your computer safe from hackers, viruses, unwanted popups and banners.

One of Norton Personal Firewall's weaknesses was that it allowed adware into our computer. We perform a spyware sweep with a top Anti-Spyware Review product after testing each firewall. With Norton Personal Firewall in place, we found 5 adware programs and 49 traces of spyware. This firewall would be more effective with an anti-spyware supplement.