Norton Antivirus 2004 review

Norton Antivirus is designed to protect your computer from every type of virus imaginable, regardless of whether the virus has been contracted via download, floppy disk, CD drive, email message attachment, or you office network.

Norton Antivirus scans and removes normal viruses as well as the more advance micro viruses and polymorphic viruses. Norton Antivirus 2004 will even scan up to one level deep within compress files. The supported compression formats include ZIP, CAB, MIME, LHA, and ARJ.

Norton Antivirus is complete with user configurable options and several handy tools with perform essential tasks such as automatically downloading the latest virus definition updates, creating an emergency backup disk in case a virus infects your system’s boot sector or RAM, and automatically scanning your files in the background for viruses.

Scheduling routine background scans is another quick and efficient process thanks in part to the integrated Norton Program Scheduler. While the pre 5.0 releases of Norton Antivirus could be set up as a helper application for your favorite browser, the 5.0 and later releases offer an integrated web browser plug in that automatically scans file downloads. The bad side is that the plug in only works with Netscape at this time.

More recent versions of Norton Antivirus (v4.0 and later) incorporate Symantec’s advanced Bloodhound technology to detect new and unknown viruses; the client currently detects more than 46,000 known viruses as well as many more unknown viruses via the Bloodhound technology.

Bloodhound crunches the overall structure, logic, data, and other attributes of a program then uses heuristic logic to access the likelihood of viral infection. This process allows Norton Antivirus 2004 to provide some of the best virus protection available, automatically detecting and disinfecting up to 95% or more of all new and even unknown viruses.

Norton Antivirus 2004 expands upon the powerful virus scanner by adding extensive Internet support. Newer releases will automatically protect you from contracting a malicious virus via email attachments, file downloads, Active X coding, Java applets, Trojans, or any other type of Internet source.

The email protection in Norton Antivirus 2004 is particularly useful in the fact that it can detect and disinfect any viruses that are found in email messages, even in attachments that are compressed. The email scanning engine works with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Netscape. When the program runs, it runs automatically in the background and only appears when a virus is found in a message attachment.

Additional features found in Norton Antivirus 2004 include:

• Text based scanning for directories and folders
• Improved file detection and repair capabilities
• Graphical virus alerts that identify viruses found within your computer.
• Improved updating of virus definition files through the use of Live Update
• Automatic virus alert messages that will report information of new viruses
• Full compatibility with Windows 2000 and XP

The bottom line is that Norton Antivirus 2004 offers some of the best virus protection available. The Norton Antivirus client offers excellent help resources for viruses through the web, and especially the incomparable Antivirus Research Center. Norton Antivirus is no slouch at detecting viruses, and it doesn’t lack the blitzkrieg like speed of its closest competition.

If you’re looking for a fast extremely dependable virus scanner with free updates and excellent online help, Norton Antivirus still remains your best bet.