KEY POINTS:
Thank God for Norton 360, the latest security suite from Symantec. The new addition to the long-running Norton range has done just enough to restore my faith in paid-for security software packages, which, if the email I get is anything to go by, Herald readers are turning off in droves.
For too long, Symantec's packages and those of main rivals McAfee and Trend Micro have been intrusive, annoying and confusing to use, and a drain on PC resources.
Consumers have started resenting these companies as they've had to stump up sizeable subscriptions each year for software that has created more headaches than it has solved. That's led many people to seek alternatives, patching together free security systems such as Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, AVG Free and Spybot Search & Destroy.
All of those products are good, but many home users like the convenience and peace of mind of having one package that covers everything. Believe it or not, they're also willing to pay for such protection.
Norton 360 marks a turning point. Symantec badly needed to come up with something like this, for the sake of the security software industry as well as itself. For the first time, Norton generally leaves you alone, content to potter away in the background and take a smaller proportion of your memory and processing power than before.
Gone are the annoying pop-ups and the merciless attempts to get you to buy add-ons. The flamboyant, yellow Norton button, a fixture of Norton Internet Security 2007, is gone, replaced by a more subdued icon in the system tray.
That symbolises the new approach, with Norton 360, which Symantec built from the ground up, taking the best features from its other products.
Many of the same tools you would have found in the Internet Security suite are there, but they're presented in a much more user-friendly way and with the set-and-forget mentality of home users in mind.
People who want to fiddle and tweak with security settings will prefer Norton Internet Security or even McAfee Total Protection. The rest of us should be happy to let Norton 360 do its work unaided.
Set-up is very easy, the only bugbear is the lengthy product key you have to punch in, and if you're a new user you'll have to set up an online account with Symantec.
Norton 360, which works on Windows XP and Windows Vista, will take up a modest 300MB of storage on your hard drive, not bad considering everything it packs in. You can install it on up to three PCs, which should cover most households.
The most noticeable difference to Internet Security is the clean, new user interface which gives access to the four components of Norton 360: PC Security covers the basics of firewall, antivirus and antirootkit; Transaction Security covers your online banking and shopping; Backup and Restore saves important files to other locations; and PC Tuneup defragments your hard drives and cleans out temporary files.
The colour-coded status reminders are there - green signals everything is okay while red indicates a problem.
An excellent feature is the ability to upload important files to the internet for safe-keeping on Symantec's servers. You get 2GB (gigabytes) of storage with your subscription and Norton 360 will regularly prompt you to back up a set of files or folders you've indicated are very important.
It's a simple, user-friendly process that gives an extra layer of protection should your computer hard drive die or your machine be stolen. Norton will scan for missing Windows updates and its own LiveUpdate feature, which regularly refreshes virus definitions, is far less obtrusive than in previous versions.
A new feature of customer support lets you engage in free online chat with a Symantec tech support person at any time.
The anti-phishing tools that work with Internet Explorer are effective although, disappointingly, Norton 360 isn't designed for rival browsers Firefox or Opera.
There are a few omissions, such as the inexplicable lack of support for wireless networking, something McAfee excels at. Some useful features such as antispam and Norton's digital vault, which stores all your sensitive details safely, require an add-on pack.
But what's nice is that Norton 360 carries out the key processes - scanning your computer files and connections for malicious exploits - much more efficiently and with less fanfare. There's hope for premium security software yet.
Price: $129 (annual subscription)
* petergnz@gmail.com
