Norton Internet Security 2009 hits all the right security notes and its superior protection technologies might even win back some jaded anti-Symantec folks, though the lack of adequate technical support may continue to frustrate.

Symantec has been listening to its users, and this year the company delivers a slimmed-down and faster Norton Internet Security 2009. The suite of tools packs in the kinds of features people want most in an internet security suite including some forward-looking technology. Almost all the security vendors have recognised the changing threat landscape and have rethought traditional protection. We especially like the Insight feature, which identifies "trusted" files and applications and doesn't waste time rescanning and rescanning them unless there's been a change. No other product does this.

The redesigned logic behind Norton Internet Security clearly shows in CNET performance testing: it is faster and considerably lighter than last year's version, and even some stand-alone 2009 antivirus applications. And Norton continues to win awards in third-party effectiveness testing. Lagging behind, though, is Symantec's technical support. While Norton users now have free telephone support, Symantec still doesn't provide enough of a knowledge base or even an adequate user's manual. Once again, this year it emphasises its premium services a bit too much. Were it not for several lingering concerns about its technical support policies, we were prepared to give Norton Internet Security 2009 a higher score.

Installation
On our test system we downloaded the 58MB final build of Norton Internet Security 2009 and installed the product within a minute. Instead of relying upon Microsoft's installer, which Symantec has blamed for much of its past product bloat, the company started over, designing its own installer. There is the added advantage that as criminals target MSI files (say to prevent you from installing a security defence product on your already compromised machine) Symantec won't be affected — for now. The new installer process works fast, borrowing streaming technology from its Norton Ghost product. Symantec says installation takes less than a minute and they were right. On both Windows Vista and Windows XP test machines, we were up and running in one minute and without a reboot.

Should you want to uninstall, Norton includes an uninstall option. In the past, Norton left a mess. Now, after rebooting our machine, what is left behind is licensing information.

Interface
Speaking of a mess, we didn't like last year's Halloween colours on the user interface. This year's redesign is much cleaner and more sophisticated, one befitting a major security product, and the colours used on the Interface can be changed if you want. Also gone are the tabs reminding you that you can purchase other Norton products. Specific tools can be turned on and off easily without diving into the configuration settings. The configuration settings page itself is always one click below the main page. The interface also offers pop-up dialogues to explain specific terms, although thorough explanations of the choice users have in changing the settings is still lacking.

In the lower left-hand panel are two bar graphs representing the overall Windows resources used and one for the specific resources used by the Norton product. Compared with the resources used reported within the Task Manager in Windows, we noticed a slight sync problem between what Windows reported and what Norton reported for the overall system. Symantec confirmed that while Norton Internet Security 2009 is looking at the Windows Task Manager, it is doing so at different intervals. We like the transparency and think the presentation here is better than the line graphs used in some other security applications. Should you want line graphs, an icon will reveal how the system and Norton CPU usage has been since the system was last rebooted.

Features
Norton has, in the recent past, included some sophisticated technology from its enterprise products, which is good because it's cutting-edge, but it's also bad, because it doesn't necessarily integrate with the product, nor is it necessary. In Norton Internet Security 2009, they seem to have found the right balance.

Whitelisting, the buzzword of security products for 2009, is included within the new suite, and by marrying it with other technologies, Symantec makes it more suited for the user. Files on a whitelist are deemed trusted, and thus do not need to be scanned as often. Not all "safe files" make it onto the whitelist. For those, Norton uses a community process, called Insight, similar to that used by other security products such as Haute Secure. The thinking is that if thousands of other people are using this suspicious file, chances are it's not a new piece of malware but a new application. On the other hand if only a few are using it, then maybe it's worth it to take another look to see if it's malware.

Norton enhances its home network monitor, giving you a system administrator's perspective on the relative health and security of all the computers within your home.

And Norton Internet Security 2009 brings back the concept of the Recovery Disk once popular in the early 1990s, but declines to include a backup solution (you'll have to buy another Symantec product for that).

Gone is the awful LiveUpdate component of past Norton products. With 2009 products, Symantec is providing anti-malware definition signatures every few minutes or so. On the interface you'll see a notice indicating how many minutes since the last update. We didn't see definitions older than four minutes in our testing.

Missing still are the various security utilities provided in other products, namely McAfee Total Protection. We would like to see, for instance, a secure file eraser or the ability to trace potentially malicious IP addresses within Norton Internet Security. Nor is there any mobile-specific security solution provided within Norton Internet Security 2009.

Performance
In CNET Labs' performance tests, Norton Internet Security 2009, as a suite, scored better than some stand-alone antivirus applications on our test Windows XP systems. In third-party, independent antivirus testing using live viruses, Norton products have scored in the upper ranks, although not always in the top position. On the CNET iTunes test, Norton Internet Security 2009 scored close to the test system result at 272 seconds, three seconds faster than the stand-alone version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009. On the CNET Microsoft Office test, Norton Internet Security 2009 finished at a respectable 1,443 seconds, placing near the middle. In a test scanning a single folder with compressed and media files, Norton Internet Security 2009 came in at 202 seconds, which was the upper end of middle. In terms of boot speed, once again Norton came in fast at 33 seconds.

To find out how we test antivirus (and now Internet Security suite) software, see CNET Labs' How we test: Antivirus software page.

In terms of how well Norton Internet Security 2009 will protect your PC, we cite results for Norton Antivirus from two leading independent antivirus testing organisations. In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org, for on-demand scans Norton Antivirus 2008 earned an Advanced + (highest) rating, catching 97 per cent of all malicious software tested. However, for the Retrospective/Proactive test, Norton Antivirus 2008 earned an Advanced rating, with Norton falling behind the others, proactively blocking only 18 per cent of the "new samples" in the test. From CheckVir.com, Norton Antivirus 2008 received its Standard award.

In anti-spyware testing on CNET, Norton Antivirus 2008 scored in the upper half of our top 10.

Support
Symantec has dropped its over-inflated per-call pricing schemes of the past; all regular telephone technical support calls are finally free. That's good. But the bad news is finding that free telephone number.

Symantec encourages all users to use some self diagnosis tools first; that's understandable since common problems can be self-remedied. In our tests, however, after answering no to "Does this resolve your problem?" we still didn't get a telephone number, but an online form. Only after supplying a first name, last name, email address, and phone (information you previously gave when setting up your Norton Account; why the two can't be linked is unclear) are you offered a support phone number, and a help ticket is created.

Another observation: One Click Solution, Symantec's self-diagnosis tool always defaults to Internet Explorer, even if you don't have it set for your default browser.

Prominent on the technical support page and competing for prime eyeball space are Symantec's premium and fairly pricey technical support services such as the PC Tune-Up Service which costs AU$99.95. Each service requires a technician to remotely control your PC while you watch them solve your given problem. It's true no large software company provides consumers with free technical support, however, given the gigantic size of Symantec, it would be nice if the consumer-based Norton technical support could be a loss-leader for the company. Short of offering a free version of its Norton Antivirus product, by providing truly free technical support, Symantec might engender more positive feelings from former Norton customers who paid for such support in the past.

The Norton in-program Help is better than in past years. Within the Help file, more terms are explained and less jargon is used this year, but it's still not as thorough as other Help documents we've seen in competing products. And user options when changing configuration settings, long the bane of this reviewer, are once again not adequately presented to the end user: you still have to trust Symantec's opinion on many things.

And the 38-page online manual, although indexed, is not very comprehensive, and leans heavily toward installation and the creation of the Recovery Disk.

Only by accessing the Symantec website do you see the free community forums. That's a mistake. Despite the company response that the Norton community forum is still in beta, these open communities provide more technical support than the canned responses offered through Symantec's One Click Solutions process.

Conclusion
Norton Internet Security 2009 hits all the right security notes and its award-winning protection technologies should start to win back even jaded anti-Symantec folks. We love its sleek build, performance speed, and array of quality security tools. Our only fault — and it is a serious one — is its legacy of overpricing on its consumer technical support.