NIS2000 2.0 starts where Norton Personal Firewall stops, adding antivirus protection, parental controls, and privacy controls to a good personal firewall product. Though it is only a slightly tweaked version of NIS2000 1.0 and it is slightly more expensive, this winning combination really doesn't have competition with this set of features. As a result, we recommend it and are keeping it on the WinList.

 

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Extra features abount in Norton Internet Security 2000 2.0 Family Edition. Blocking banner ads is a great one.

First, let's make it clear that this product combines everything in Norton Personal Firewall, and everything in the standalone version of Norton AntiVirus 2000. Fortunately, since Symantec has been making an effort of late of having all of its utility products use the same interface, they genuinely feel like they work with each other, rather than against each other. The other modules too, despite having a slight "tacked on" feeling, also work with rather than against the core firewall, and overall stability is excellent.

The additional features of NIS2000 are very worthwhile. The Privacy Control module features look at both the cookies web sites leave on your browser, and at any information you type into web page forms, and if it sees something its been told to monitor, it stops it cold. Type in a portion of your credit card number, for example, and whenever you (or a child, for example) types it in a web page, it tells you. Similarly, since it is already monitoring your connection, it can keep your computer from surfing adult (or other) web sites. Password protection will keep older kids from getting around all these safeguards.