EXCLUSIVES

Norton SystemWorks 3 and Norton Internet Security 3
Words by Scott Dewbre
January 2004

Symantec is known for producing quality utilities and giving Mac users a lot of value for their money, and Norton SystemWorks 3 and Norton Internet Security 3 follow in that tradition. More importantly, both products are now optimized to work with OS X.

SystemWorks 3 ($129.95, Symantec) contains an integrated suite of utilities, providing everything from virus protection to disk repair and data recovery, and more, through a single interface. Meanwhile, Internet Security 3 ($99.95, Symantec) provides the same virus protection as SystemWorks, but bundles it with a firewall utility instead.

After looking over the packages and all the extras thrown in, we found ourselves wishing we could choose some items from Column A and some from Column B rather than buying both packages.

SystemWorks: Essential for OS X

Folks who have been using OS X for very long can tell you a couple of things about it - it's very cool and it's very picky. If things as obscure as file permissions and volume information become corrupt, the problems can quickly progress to a point where Disk Repair, the disk maintenance utility from Apple, cannot fix them.

In such cases, Disk Repair will suggest that you use "third-party software" to diagnose the problem and make repairs. As far as we're concerned, Apple may as well have written "Norton Utilities" in place of "third-party software." But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

SystemWorks contains Norton Utilities 8, Norton AntiVirus 9, Symantec's LiveUpdate and Norton Scheduler, along with some goodies we'll cover momentarily. Norton Utilities is the heart of SystemWorks, and provides the disk maintenance utilities every Mac user needs, whether running OS 9 or X. These utilities include Disk Doctor, which scans and repairs damaged disks, Volume Recover, which allows file recovery, Wipe Info, which permanently erases disks, Speed Disk, which defragments and optimizes disk drives, and UnErase, which tracks and recovers files after they have been deleted.

But what about those heart-stopping times when your Mac won't even boot up? SystemWorks has you covered with a CD that will boot up in OS X or 9 so you can make repairs and recover data even when your boot drive gives you an attitude check.

As we mentioned, SystemWorks also contains Norton AntiVirus 9. Now, when it comes to computer viruses, many Mac users scoff at the need for protection. After all, most viruses damage Wintel machines, not Macs, right? While that is true, a virus inside a network is no laughing matter. Even worse, a Mac might not be susceptible to a virus, but it can pass it along. No one likes to discover that they're inadvertently responsible for infecting dozens or hundreds of computers, particularly when their co-workers find out. So, protect yourself and your Mac.

The extras included with SystemWorks are Dantz Retrospect Express Backup, which allows for backing up one disk drive to another hard disk, an optical drive or even to an Internet site, and Aladdin Spring Cleaning, which reclaims wasted disk space by removing the unused extensions, preference files, fonts and so on that stick around after an application has been deleted.

Internet Security: Firewall protection

Norton Internet Security contains Norton Personal Firewall 3.0 and Norton Privacy Control, along with Norton AntiVirus and LiveUpdate. The AntiVirus and LiveUpdate apps are identical to the versions offered in SystemWorks, so the descriptions printed above apply here as well.

Norton Personal Firewall is an important product all on its own, and, like the other Norton apps we covered in this article, is updated to run on OS X. A firewall, simply stated, is a piece of software that protects your computer from intrusion from over the Internet.

We'll cut to the chase on this one - if you have broadband, you need a firewall. Reason is, broadband Internet connections are "always-on" connections that typically have a static IP address. Every moment, there are hundreds if not thousands of hacker programs running that do nothing but poll every port of every IP address out there looking for unprotected ports. If you think we're exaggerating, take a little test. First, shut down every computer on your home network. Then, have a look at the activity light on your cable modem. Flashing like crazy, right? Now, what could be causing that?

Bottom line

There is no question in our minds that SystemWorks is worth the money. It would be worth it at twice the price. Our only disappointment lies in the bundling of Personal Firewall in the Internet Security package only. Frankly, we wish Personal Firewall were included in the SystemWorks bundle, even if it meant bumping the price up a bit.

Buying both SystemWorks and Internet Security doesn't make sense, because you end up buying AntiVirus twice and paying more in the bargain. Our recommendation would be to buy SystemWorks, pass on Internet Security and buy Personal Firewall (currently selling for $69.95 MSRP) separately.

Item: Norton SystemWorks 3.0 and Norton Internet Security 3.0 for Macintosh > Manufacturer: Symantec > Price: System Works 3.0 $129.95; Internet Security 3.0 $99.95 MSRP > Web: www.symantec.com/product/index_macintosh.html > Pros: Essential disk repair and recovery utilities > Cons: Firewall software not bundled with SystemWorks