Norton 360 Version 6.0
24.05.12
Norton's firewall does everything a firewall should, and then some. It stealths all ports, making the PC invisible from outside the local network. My attempts to disable its protection in ways a malware coder might manage had no effect. And its control over internet access permissions for programs on your system is more intelligent than most.
Aggregated information from the millions of Norton users feeds into the Norton Insight database. The firewall automatically configures permissions for hundreds of millions of known good files, and the suite automatically terminates known bad files. When the firewall encounters an unknown program attempting Internet access, it applies extra behavioral scrutiny and smacks down the program if it tries anything nasty.
I very much approve of security tools that take responsibility for their own decisions. Asking the user whether to allow or deny a particular network connection just doesn't make sense.
As usual, I found that Norton ignores most leak tests. These demonstration programs attempt to connect with the Internet without being caught by program control, but since they're not actually harmful Norton leaves them alone. I did notice that the SONAR behavior-tracking technology silently whacked one of the leak tests when it made its connection attempt.
Source: PC Magazine