Norton Personal Firewall 2006

This firewall comes integrated with

Norton

Proctection

Center

, which monitors security tools such as antivirus,  antispyware, etc
installed on your PC.  The rules for the firewall can be created through a
wizard for  computers, protocols and ports. In addition to blocking or
allowing Internet traffic, rules can also be created for monitoring connections.

Price: Rs. 1,999

Key Specs: Intrusion prevention, ad and pop-up blocking, privacy control, detailed reporting, real time alerts

Contact: Symantec, MumbaiTel: 26570658 Email: Krishita_Motwani@symantec.com

Norton Personal Firewall 2006 can detect and alert you about the attacks in real time

For blocking pop-ups and ads, the software integrates
itself with IE as a toolbar. It can also be customized to allow such information
from desired sites. Its Privacy Control feature lets you secure personal data.
So, if users attempt to send protected information by an email or through
IM, the firewall will either  warn about security risks or block the
connection. The firewall provides real time alerts of attacks and the traffic it
blocks. It also creates different types of logs for content blocking, privacy,
firewall, etc.

 We tested the firewall with DoS attacks and found it
successful in detecting, blocking and reporting them in real time. Then we
conducted a port scan attack using Nessus, which it again passed successfully.
However, in the ad blocking capability test, it failed as unwanted ads found
their way through to the browser. Also, when you switch between networks, the
Firewall repeatedly  prompts for the profile to be used, which is a bit
annoying.

Bottom Line: This product is nicely balanced between
price and performance. Hence, worth a buy for PC users.

Swapnil Arora