Norton Antivirus (For The MacIntosh)

Mathematics and Computer Education, Fall 1999 by Grandgenett, Neal

NORTON ANTIVIRUS (FOR THE MACINTOSH

Published by: Symantec Corporation

P. O. Box 599014

Miami, FL 33159-9963

Web site: http://www.symantec.com

Price: $39.95 (Educators Price)

In today's computing world, it is important to keep your computer virus software up to date, particularly if, like me, you routinely share files with colleagues, students, and others over the Internet. A virus-infected file can cause big problems, and a good virus protection program can help prevent such problems before they occur. My current antivirus software of choice is Norton AntiVirus, which grew out of the older Symantic AntiVirus program (SAM) which was popular for the Macintosh. This program has been updated and enhanced since its earlier days as SAM. It runs on any Macintosh with at least a 68040 processor, System 7.5 or later, 8 MB of RAM, and at least 10 MB of hard drive space. An Internet connection is also strongly recommended, since this connectivity allows the program to stay current in its virus connection capabilities.

The general virus protection and correction capabilities of the program are quite extensive. These include the ability to automatically repair incoming files, detect and remove newer macro viruses, scan compressed files for viruses, boot directly from the program CD in emergency situations (such as repairing hard drives), and routinely download new virus parameters from the Symantec web site. The program also uses a simple "safezone" system, which quickly alerts you to viruses from Internet downloads, e-mail attachments, floppy disks, shared files, or networks, which are transferred to a designated "safezone" area (such as your desktop).

Norton AntiVirus is closely linked with the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center, which is fairly well known and has created virus definitions for over 13,500 known computer viruses. Norton AntiVirus is fairly simple to use, and includes a straightforward interface and menuing system. In addition, the program includes a small but well-written booklet, which not only explains how to use the program, but also gives an overview and explanation of viruses, and some general tips for avoiding them.

In essence, although protecting your computer against viruses can appear to be a hassle in its own right, it is much less time consuming, than dealing with the problems that viruses create, as a few of my unfortunate colleagues have related to me with their individual "virus horror" stories. For example, one of my colleagues accidentally sent a virus-infected e-mail attachment to the campus e-mail distribution list of over 200 colleagues (he was not popular for several weeks)! Norton AntiVirus is not perfect (for example, it often needs to be turned off with new software installations), but I have found it to be an excellent virus package for the Macintosh (and probably for the PC as well, my colleagues tell me). It does both the virus protection and virus repair functions well. Finally, it helps me to be "prepared" rather than "sorry", and I believe that my colleagues tend to appreciate that!

Reviewed by Neal Grandgenett

University of Nebraska at Omaha