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NZ Macguide Issue 11
Writing as DrMac for the past 18 months, I get a number of inquires
from readers about internet security. Mostly the questions come from parents
who are wary of internet porn and chat rooms and are concerned about the web
sites their teenagers are visiting. There is no 100% safe way to stop wayward
browsing of undesirable sites or from porn advertising popping up, but Symantec
have just released Internet Security 3.0 that is 99% safe in blocking this
undesirable material from your Mac.
Norton Internet Security 3.0 is a breeze to install and has
very interactive interface with simple, logical menus.
Norton privacy control allows the administrator (parents, for
example) to set-up and configure which websites your Mac is allowed to visit -- you
can really tighten up here by selecting to prevent any unknown web sites from
your computer. This helps you to block really bad sites that use IP numbers
and not URLs.
There is also a neat feature called Ad Blocking, which disables
rollover and banner advertising: just select the tick box 'enable ad blocking'
and you are set --- now that's really simple!
Norton Anti Virus is also included in Internet Security 3.0
bundle, enabling you to scan for and delete viruses from your system, including
scanning all your incoming email messages.
My recommendations: Norton Internet Security 3.0 is essential
for just the ad blocking feature alone, if you extensively use the internet
then this ability would save you money and time as you browser would not download
unnecessary, unwelcome advertising. In the statistics tab you can view the
amount of data saved from not downloading banners in an average day
I saved over 6MB of data and if you calculate that over a month, it can really
add up.
The firewall features can take you to the next level of security
but this is really designed for the experienced Mac user.
Pros
Great simple-to-use ad blocking, which speeds up web site
viewing
Works effectively with Safari, OmniWeb and Internet Explorer browsers.
Cons
Ad blocking doesn't stop all popup windows
OS X already contains a robust, easy firewall
Norton privacy control is only supported in OSX
© Parkside Media 2004
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