After building a new computer a couple of months ago, I was looking at the Sunday ads and saw that Norton Firewall 2001 was on sale for less than $20. And I needed to install a firewall on the new "toy". I have used Sybergen Secure Desktop on my last computer and Zonealarm on my kids' computer but have never used the Norton, so I went ahead and purchased it.

I always read the program instructions before I make a major mistake in installation, and this manual scared me. It seemed that there was too much control and I was going to need to make each setting individually or I was not going to have access to the web. I set the manual next to the bed for future reading before I decided if it was worth installing.

Since then I have reread the manual once or twice a week and slowly convinced myself that the manual was written to show what the total power of the program was if needed and what individual settings could be made to control the network communications of the computer. This is both for Home Networking and the Internet connections.

If you want, you can control your Personal Confidential, Cookies, Browser Privacy ( this prevents a web site seeing what browser you use and what the last web site visited was), ActiveX controls, Java Applets and more, but really very few settings need to be set up.

The default settings that Norton uses when you install their Firewall need very little change. Norton has a list it uses to scan your system to identify the programs that access the web during installation and it asks you what to allow on these before you ever get on the web. I installed it and so far every situation I met on the web has been taken care of easily. Any program that tries to communicate from your computer to another is prevented until you allow it. You can allow just one time or allow complete use in the future with just a couple of clicks. Each instance you are given a "Threat Level" and "Choices" of whether to allow it.

Norton installs an Icon in the "Systray" and puts a simple toolbar that they call "AlertTracker " that pops out and notifies you of any activity on the side.

Logs are kept of all activity and statistics of your connection so that you can have a good idea of what is happening while on the web. As with other products you need to periodically update this program for new fixes for new dangers.

If you have Norton AntiVirus installed, the update does both programs at the same time and allows you access to the Virus program from inside the Firewall startup screen.

As a test of "HOW GOOD" it worked I went to: Shields up test at http://www.grc.com, Sybergen test at http://scan.sygatetech.com, and Norton's test at http://security1.norton.com and did their internet security test. Norton Firewall passed each test, and my computer was not seen as other than an IP address.

The only bad that I can find in a month of use is that this program also needs subscriptions yearly for the Update part of the program to be used. This subscription, like Norton AntiVirus (which is $3.95), is for one year and will be $6.95 per year. u