Norman Personal Firewall - part I

Foreword

In our recent software reviews, we haven't written much about personal firewalls and their latest trends.

The sharp rise of malicious program activity; the number and scope of losses incurred by individuals due to their Internet inexperience; and the increasing reach and prowess of hackers have all contributed to the necessity of this article.

Fortunately, the computer security companies in this network supremacy heavyweight bout aren't just standing with their guard down. To fend off malicious attackers the good guys came up with a number of solutions.

One of the key instruments to maintain network security and flawless operation is the firewall.

A personal firewall is like a barrier between your computer and the Internet that allows only those data exchanges that you authorize.

Our site is dedicated to network security, both the Internet and home (or small office) LAN's. We stress the importance of good firewall protection. In our Software Reviews section, you can browse through a number of articles that give the results of our testing the different personal firewalls that you can choose from. The article you are now reading expands on this list of reviews.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome our guest star today -- Norman Personal Firewall (NPF), version 1.4.

Installation and configuration

Its 6 MB installation file unpacks to a 9 MB program folder, and the installation completes in a wink. Once installed, the program asked that I reboot the system. Okay, rebooting…

Here, I might need to remind some readers that if you're using Windows XP, you do need to disable Windows Firewall, which is enabled by default in XP's Service Pack 2. This must be done because any two different firewalls cannot operate simultaneously without trouble, often resulting in system crashes. Even if they could work together, we could not adequately evaluate NPF's performance. What Windows Firewall is able to do is well documented and widely criticized by security experts, so you definitely need a third-party firewall to keep your network protected.

After the system reboots, a window-named "Freshie's Assistant" - emerges to help you configure the firewall rules to "work seamlessly with your favorite Internet applications." I was asked to enter a password for parental control, which I did. I was curious about the word "freshie", so I decided to check it on an online dictionary. I discovered I couldn't access my Favorites in my Internet Explorer browser. My immediate thought was "another DOS attack", but I soon found that no Internet website was loading. I switched to my Opera browser and encountered the same situation -- no HTTP connection --and I realized it must be Norman and continued configuring it.

In the next assistant window, I was asked how I wanted Norman to handle any Active Content it found in web pages. It offered me three levels of choice and I opted for "medium" (the recommended setting) and continued.



The program then asked me to specify the environment I work in, offering me a wide choice of options. I selected "I want to allow full access to all services and resources within my local network."



After a few more mouse clicks the configuration of NPF was complete.

Continue to Part II