Norton Firewall VS. Windows ?

[mike12]

We bought the daughter a new Compaq with Vista on for Christmas. Norton Security 2007 is preloaded for 60 days. if it were mine, I would remove and install AVG, bit it is not mine. Anyway--the Norton package has a firewall which it installed. Is it better than the standard firewall that comes with Windows, or not. Many thanks, Mike

[Panama Red]

Not only is it not better, all of the Norton Security stuff is a major resource hog. Networking with Norton is a nightmare too. Let her use it for a while, then remove it and try AVG with the Vista firewall and Windows Defender as her security. I bet she thanks you for making her computer run faster!

[Negeva]

I would remove Norton 2007, as Red states it's a major resource hog. However, the new 2008 version is vastly superior and uses less resources - I know as I've been testing it for the last few weeks. Still, not 100% sure that Norton has improved it's detection rates, but it's been catching a lot more than it use to; especially malware and 'naughty' sites that try to install malware.

Personally, the Windows firewall is useless - a simple leak test will prove that. There's many freely available firewalls out there that perform better than M$ own. My choice is Comodo, but you really have to stick with it during the first week or two to teach it.

[delikios]

Norton firewall is a lot better than windows firewall. Windows firewall doesn't filter at all outgoing connections. Norton suites, however are extremely heavy especially for a home pc. I recommend when the free period finishes to download Antivir from Avira as an antivirus (free-av.com, it is free for personal use) and ZoneAlarm for a firewall.

[glc]

I thought the Vista firewall added outbound filtering?

[Negeva]

I thought the Vista firewall added outbound filtering?


It does, but it's still not as good as say Comodo for hiding open ports. And, it's a pain in the proverbial to configure.

[matthews]

At work, we remove all NIS, N360, and NAV software right away using the symnrt tool. The only thing in the Norton series we like is NAV. 360 and NIS are pains for networking and they block alot of "good" traffic. At work and at home we use Symantec Endpoint Protection 11, I have nothing but good things to say about that. It hardly slows down your computer or nag you for stuff, catches viruses the moment you click on the link to download one, and has builtin in keylogger, malware, and network protection as well as AV. All my computers are on a domain, and it doesn't affect it one bit. For free stuff, I would go with AVG, windows firewall, and a good linksys router. With that, you should have no problems with security breaches.