Norton Internet Security 2005.

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Norton Internet Security 2005 bundles together the standalone Norton AntiSpam 2005 (NAS), Norton AntiVirus 2005 (First Looks, November 2), and Norton Personal Firewall 2005 (First Looks, November 16) Utilities. It adds privacy control, parental control, and a handy overall console that displays an overview of all NIS 2005 modules, with options to configure individual features or get more detailed status reports.

Norton AntiSpam integrates specifically with Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora, but can protect any POP3 account regardless of the e-mail client used. While it does not support IMAP or Exchange accounts, it can process Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts directly. You can train the spam filter by pointing out any valid mail identified as spam or vice versa. After a short training period, in our testing the utility's accuracy was very good, approaching that of MailFrontier Desktop 4.0. Accuracy is improved by populating Norton AntiSpam's whitelist with your address book and those to whom you send mail. Its AutoBlock feature aims at blocking phishing scams and other malicious spam but may accidentally catch valid mail.

Norton AntiVirus (NAV) is still our top choice for standalone virus protection, and its scanning integrates seamlessly with that of Norton AntiSpam. Independent labs recognize its accuracy: NAV received all three Checkmarks from West Coast Labs and a Virus Bulletin VB 100% award It is certified by ICSA Labs for both virus detection and cleaning, and it scores 100 percent for detection with AV-Test. It scans inbound and outbound e-mail and IM attachments, and logs all viruses found. An online virus database provides details of just what was stopped. And by default it also scans for spyware, adware, dialers, and other threats. Our only real gripe is that it flags viruses even when they've already been neutralized by a server-side antivirus tool.

The standalone version of NAV actually offers a degree of firewall protection, but full protection comes from the suite's Norton Personal Firewall module, our Editors' Choice (along with ZoneLabs' ZoneAlarm Pro 5) in the category. NPF avoids overloading the user with pop-up queries by referring to a database of almost 1,700 known programs; the warnings that do appear are unobtrusive. In our testing it blocked all significant port attacks and leak tests. We tried to disable the firewall manually using attacks a Trojan might use, but we were foiled. When the firewall prevents an intrusion from a particular site, it can automatically block all access from that site for a half-hour or more â€" a welcome protection against denial-of-service attacks. We like the fact that you can define four distinct zones (Default, Home, Office, and Away) with different settings.

The suite's integrated Privacy Control can block or warn when any user sends out personal information, such as credit card numbers and passwords. For each item, you can specify whether it's okay to enter that data in an IM client, an e-mail message, or a Web site. Itemspecific exceptions let you control data further, so, for example, your eBay password can be allowed on the real eBay site but blocked if you enter it on a phishing scam imitation of eBay. But the protection isn't perfect. All users registered to a given PC share the same data-base of private information, and that master list of items doesn't mask any data, so you can't hide your account numbers from the kids if they have a valid Windows XP log-on. Symantec advises entering only the last portion of account numbers or other sensitive information.

The Browser Privacy feature provides a degree of anonymous browsing by suppressing standard information that Web sites can normally get from your browser. Among these are the type of computer and browser you're using and the URL of the site you linked in from. It can also block animated images, scripts, and flash animation, and by default it blocks ads from a list of specific advertising sites.

The suite has features for parental control that will block sites in any or all of over 30 categories from Adult Humor to Weapons, on a per-user basis. You can allow a user to access a specific site that â€" would otherwise be blocked, or choose to block all sites except those on a permitted list that you define yourself. You can also choose what types of Internet-aware applications each user is allowed, perhaps disabling file sharing, IM, or network games. If desired, you can block access to newsgroups based on words in the name (for example, alt.sex) or allow only specific newsgroups. Unlike the McAfee suite's parental controls, those of the Norton suite make no provision for limiting access to specific days and times. On the plus side, also unlike the McAfee suite's, Norton's parental-control accounts are wisely linked to Windows logon accounts.

The antivirus and firewall elements in Norton Internet Security â€" the most important elements â€" are top-of-the-line choices, and Norton's antispam feature is also very good. The privacy and parental control elements are well implemented, though we'd like to see partial masking of particularly sensitive data. We find the suite's user interface a bit sluggish at times, but that's not a serious problem. When you add it all up, Norton Internet Security is easily our Editors' Choice among security suites.

$69.95 direct. Symantec Corp., www.symantec.com. OVERALL @@@@* Antivirus @@@@* Antispam @@@@# Firewall @@@@* Privacy/parental control @@@@#

THE SUITE'S HANDY CONTROL PANEL gives quick access to the individual modules.

YOU CAN BLOCK particular users from accessing inappropriate content with Norton Internet Security 2005.