Wibbn8

I too am a Norton Personal Firewall user and I can wholeheartedly agree with you that this is a difficult software to come to grips with (understand and configure), but once you have done it you feel like no other software will ever give you the same kind of trouble ever again.

I have used both NPF 2003 and I am now using NPF 2005, both very good products but I do have one overwhelming criticism, which other forum members may agree with. Symantec has a tendency to release new versions of NPF to a schedule (every August) rather than when the product is ready.

Let me explain, I bought NPF 2003 in 2004 and, after reading the manuals and Symantec help pages, found NPF a challenge but it worked as expected. However, when I upgraded to NPF 2005 in May of 2005 I found that even with my previous knowledge of using NPF 2003 I could not get NPF 2005 to work to my satisfaction, e.g. access my online banking or emails without switching NPF off. Only after approximately 6 months of “live updates” from Symantec did NPF 2005 finally behave the way I wanted it to (and the way it should have from installation).

I now feel that if I am ever going upgrade my Symantec products again (both Norton System Works 2004 and Norton Internet Security 2005) I will have to wait until the upgrades have been out for at least a year, i.e. buying NSW 2006 and NIS 2006 between May and August of 2007.



UK Bob