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Norton AntiVirus 2003
Norton AntiVirus 2003
pros and cons
- Scans and cleans instant-messenger attachments helpful wizards for novices easy-to-use interface solid track record against viruses.
- Minor improvements over 2002 version scans ZIP files during extraction rather than during download limited protection for AOL users.
- Editors' review
- Specs
There's a lot to love in Norton AntiVirus 2003. Its interface is simple enough for beginners yet offers plenty of flexibility for discerning geeks. It scans and cleans attachments from popular instant messengers -- a first for Norton AntiVirus (NAV) -- and automatically repairs infected files without troubling you. Plus, its script- and worm-blocking technologies stop email viruses, including SirCam and Klez. If you use the Internet on a Windows machine and are looking for your first anti-virus program, this £34.03 (ex. VAT; £39.99 inc. VAT) package will serve you well. Current NAV users should stick with NAV 2002, however -- version 2003 doesn't justify the £21.27 (ex. VAT; £24.99 ex. VAT) upgrade price.
We found only one noticeable glitch in NAV 2003's otherwise easy installation. Although NAV 2003 includes an automated installation wizard, MSN Instant Messenger users must reboot their PCs after NAV 2003's setup; otherwise, the program won't automatically scan IM attachments. Except for that, this version's smooth setup is an improvement over last year's.
Out of the box, NAV's default settings provide solid protection against email-borne viruses, SMTP-based worms (which bypass email clients such as Outlook to send copies of themselves on the Internet directly) and Trojan horses by scanning incoming and outgoing email, then automatically repairing infected files. Surprisingly, however, NAV's default settings don't automatically protect instant messengers; instead, you'll have to delve into the Options menu to activate this feature, which scans file downloads in AOL, MSN and Yahoo IM applications. Beware that NAV works with AOL's Internet IM program, but not with the IM feature that comes with AOL's standard online program.
In terms of interface, NAV 2003's main screen lists its primary features -- Auto-Protect, E-mail Scanning, Script Blocking, and so on -- and shows the date of your most recent virus definition update. On the left, a list of scanning options allows you to scan individual drives, removable or floppy disks, folders or even individual files by simply clicking the appropriate menu item. NAV sets its default system scans to run weekly at 8pm on Friday. Let's hope you're not online socialising then, because the full system scan ties up the CPU and renders your PC useless. In fact, we wish NAV gave an estimated completion time for these lengthy system scans; on our test 1.3GHz Athlon-based system with a 20GB hard drive, a full scan took 33 minutes.
NAV boots with Windows and runs in the background, sniffing out rogue code while you work, and downloads current virus definitions from the Net automatically. And like version 2002, NAV 2003 scans both inbound and outbound email in POP3 clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora (sorry, AOL mail users, you're out of luck).
NAV 2003 offers few notable enhancements over last year's model. In addition to scanning downloads from IM programs, it now blocks worms in outgoing email. The company claims that NAV 2003's virus definitions are smaller and, hence, faster to download, but we haven't noticed a significant improvement in update transfer speeds.
Unfortunately, unlike its major competitor, McAfee’s VirusScan, NAV 2003 scans ZIP files during the extraction process -- after you've downloaded them. We'd feel safer if NAV inspected ZIP files during the download.
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To measure system performance with NAV 2003 active, ZDNet Labs used BAPCo's SysMark2002, an industry-standard benchmark. The Internet Content Creation portion of SysMark measures a desktop's performance running off-the-shelf applications such as Adobe’s Photoshop, Microsoft’s Windows Media Encoder, and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. We did not run the Office Productivity portion of the benchmark because it incorporates McAfee’s VirusScan 5.13.
Our test system was a Compaq Evo W4000 with a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512MB of DDR RAM, running Windows XP Professional. An Internet Content Creation score of 100 represents the performance of our test system without any extraneous software installed or running. With NAV 2003 installed and running, our test system scored a 95 -- a 5 percent reduction in overall system speed. We plan to compare this result with that of other products in the near future.
To determine whether NAV effectively blocks viruses, we compared its performance in a number of independent anti-virus-testing laboratories. Previous versions of NAV have been certified by the laboratories at West Coast Checkmark, ICSA Labs and AV-Test.org. In Virus Bulletin's tests with live viruses, NAV earned the coveted VB 100 percent rating in each of the three most recent Windows tests. We plan to measure NAV against these independent sites and compare NAV's results against those of other anti-virus products in the near future.
The program's built-in help provides good information on the arcane terminology of virus protection. The help menu also includes links to Symantec's support site, where you'll find a wizard-like tool that steps you through common problems, including software bugs and virus definitions.
Norton AntiVirus 2003 is a top-notch virus buster. If you love to exchange files with your instant-messenger friends, NAV 2003 is worth the £24.99 (inc. VAT) upgrade fee. And if you're looking for your first anti-virus program, NAV is a good buy at £39.99 (inc. VAT).