Norton AntiVirus 2004 Complete package

Norton Anti-Virus 2004 is the latest is the world-acclaimed series of antivirus software packages from Symantec.

Availible in both Standard and Professional Edition it can cater for most users. The Standard Edition can be picked up in most shops for around £37.00 whilst the Professional Edition is availible for around £50.00

The main reasons for purchasing the Professional Edition are:
The rebate for users of past verions is greater on the Professional Edition.
It has the ablility to protect critical systems files to a larger extent than the Standard Edition.
It includes a VERY good file shredder allowing complete deletion of any file by wiping the Hex values multiple times.
It also allows you to install the product on two
machines with just the one Professional licence
which is ideal for any home user with that extra PC!

As with past versions of NAV most of the stability issues have been worked out and it will be compatible with nearly all system configurations.

It's main features include:
Automatically removes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses
Data recovery
Data cleaning
Expanded threat detection (of spyware & keyloggers etc.)
Detects and blocks viruses in instant message attachments
Email incoming/outgoing protection
Office integration for document protection
Script Blocking

NAV has a great updating feature called LiveUpdate which not only updates virus definitions but the program itself and can be done automatically or manually. Symantec usually have new virus definitions availible daily allowing you to keep you computer(s) fully protected.

The Graphical Interface of Norton is superb, allowing you to configure, enable or disable fuctions at the click of a button.

NAV 2004 is also capable of scanning inside of compressed file so it can repair an infected file without having to corrupt/quarantine/delete the entire file.

The main problem that many users have experienced with NAV 2004 is how it's 'real-time' scanning feature slows down the general performance of most systems. To many users this may not be a problem as they are happy just being fully protected but it can slow a system down considerably.
I found that the best way to work around this is to disable the AutoProtect feature and simply scan files downloaded from the internet whilst performing regular full system scans. This still provides excellent protection whilst allowing an improved level of sytem performance.

If you like the sound of it or maybe are not sure, then give it a try! A free trial version is availible from Symantec here: http://www.symantec.com/nav/nav_pro/

System Requirements:

WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION/PROFESSIONAL:
300MHz or higher processor
128 MB of RAM
85 MB of available hard disk space
DVD or CD-ROM drive
Internet Explorer (minimum version 5.01 SP2 required, 5.5 recommended)
Email scanning supported for standard POP3 and SMTP compatible email clients

SUPPORTED INSTANT MESSENGER CLIENTS:
AOL Instant Messenger (minimum version 4.7 required)
Yahoo! Instant Messenger (minimum version 5.0 required)
MSN Messenger (versions 4.6, 4.7)
Windows Messenger (minimum version 4.7 required)

NAV 2004 is also availible for Windows 2000, ME & 98 but System Requirements do differ