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Norton Personal Firewall - part of Norton Internet Security
Where to Find It
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf/
Norton PersonalTM Firewall 2002 keeps hackers out and personal data in. Every minute your computer is online, it's vulnerable to intrusions and information theft. That's true no matter what kind of Internet connection you have. Secure your PC today with Norton Personal Firewall, powerful defense against hackers and privacy threats.
Installation
A good tutorial with step by step installation instructions (in Shockwave) can be found at:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/npf/npf_2002_info_tutorial.html
Configuration
Privacy Control determines how much personal information is allowed to be sent from your computer. It can block cookies and confidential information. If unsure you can use the default level, but its much better to use the custom level so you know what the program is allowing and what it is blocking.
Personal Firewall Settings
Now under Personal firewall Settings you can again enable security. I usually use custom settings and set the firewall to high security. If you want to block ActiveX and Java scripts you can also do it here. There is a default setting for people not used to setting things up themselves.
Internet Access Control
When you installed NPF it should have scanned for applications that may need to access the Internet and set up custom rules for them. These can be viewed under Internet Access Control. Settings can easily be changed here to allow or forbid applications to access the Net. Use Add to add a new program to the list. However as you install new programs and they try to access the net you will usually get an alert pop up which asks you to choose the settings for the new program. If there is an automatic configuration its best to choose this as Norton have included custom rules for most of the common programs.
Internet Zone Control
Internet Zone Control is useful if you have a home network. Here I have allowed all computers on my home network to access my computer. Use the Wizard to auto-configure the Network, or Add to manually configure it.
Intrusion Protection
Intrusion Protection detects hackers to your computer and can auto-block them. I have just ticked auto-block on mine as it got unticked when screen-grabbing.
Security Check
Click on Security Check and you will be taken to Symantec's website where they check any vulnerabilities on your system and tell you how to put them right.
Alternatively use the Port Scanner on https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
My ports all come up as stealth which is the best they can be - showing how good Norton is.
Live Update
Live Update will keep your version of NPF (and Norton Anti-Virus) up-to-date, and should be run often. You can set it to run at regular intervals in the Live Update section.
Tech Support
Last Amended : 2002-08-31 by elfin
Original Author : Angua
This page was last updated at