Rating: 
Summary: A Very Spotty Product
Review: Norton Personal Firewall 2002 is neither the easiest-to-use product of its type, nor does it offer the best protection.I found the program to be very tempermental: it worked very well when I first installed it, but it stopped working altogether shortly thereafter. Even after I got it working again, it failed to protect against TCP probes (a very common hacker attack). I am not a internet security expert, although I am generally very comfortable with complex software, and I simply could not get this program to work reliably. Do yourself a favor and try ZoneAlarm Pro instead: I found it to offer much better security, more reliable operation, and to be much easier to control.
Rating:
Summary: Useless
Review: Sure, it blocks ports... all of them! After fussing for a day to get Remote Desktop to work (and unblocking port 3389 numerous times) I finally decided I needed help. To my surprise Symantec offers NO free tech support. I surfed the "online support" (term used loosely) and found nothing referring to Remote Desktop... Finally I needed to get back to work and decided to pay the $29.95 for phone support only to get a message stating that they were too busy, please check the website for solutions. Sure wish I could return this. It's money wasted.
Rating:
Summary: Replace it
Review: The 2002 firewall creates problems with so many other types of software and internet applications that you may want to think about installing ZoneAlarm's wonderful product instead. I uninstalled Norton's 2002 firewall with great difficulty (call the company, get an uninstall key). I still use Norton for antivirus protection.
Rating: 
Summary: Good product but quirky set-up
Review: The firewall seems to be running good at the moment--after installing it 2 weeks ago. I had experienced several of the dreaded "BLUE SCREEN" error messages immediately after installing it, but after downloading the Symantec patches and updates, it works very well. The only time I get an error now is if I fire up my computer with the cable modem off line.
This product allows a great deal of customization although you can use the "recommended settings" for a quick and adequate setup. It also seems to work well with Norton Anti-Virus, if you are concerned about that interface.
Rating: 
Summary: Good protection but computer keeps crashing
Review: The software comes with my cable modem. When the cable guy came to set me up, he preferred not to install the firewall software that comes with the cable driver CD. Now I guess I know why. Don't take me wrong, in several occasion I was...happy that it stopped every attempted attacks. It was able to detect attempted hacks from Korea and Canada. Pretty neat-huh?! Well, I will give a brief introduction of what the software consists below. "Internet Status" section reports the number of attempted intrusions and attempted attacks. "Personal Firewall Settings" section let you configure security level (custom level, high, low and medium). "Personal Firewall Internet Access Control" scans for applications that transfers and receives data from the net, and you can decide whether to permit the application to do so. "Personal Firewall Internet Zone Control" allows you to specify sites/IP addres that you want to allow access to your computer and sites/IP address that you want to restrict from accessing your computer. Personally, I find this to be very useful especially when you have the IP address of the node that tries to hack your computer. "Personal Firewall Intrusion Protection" is very cool, it can automatically restrict an IP address if it tries to scan for your ports (can choose to disable auto restrict). "Privacy control" with option of low, medium and high level of protection on your credit card, email address and cookies information to reach the net. "Ad blocking" does not work very well. Like the other posting says, it blocks some graphics and failed to block ads. The firewall gave me problems the very first day I installed the product. I had my computer running for 4 years without any problem. When I got it installed, my computer crashes at least 5 times a day. Initially I thought someone planted a trojan or some sort of proxy on my computer. Then today (after 8 days with the product) I come to realize the SymProxySvc.exe which failed to respond today. So I checked the web and linked to Amazon. Here I found the same sort of problems that others had faced. I agree that disabling the firewall helped coz I was able to have my computer up without crashing when I disabled the firewall program once. I will check out Symantec's web site on the workaround solution that others had mentioned. I strongly recommend you to check out some other product...until Symantec fixed this error. (Do get a firewall especially with cable modem, if you think you are secure think again!!) Best of luck.
Rating:
Summary: Get Norton Firewall or Internet Security 2003
Review: This is a good product, but the 2003 line is better. Both of
these software packages contain an OUTSTANDING ad blocking
feature. After installation, I visited numerous sites which had
previously dumped loads of pop-up and pop-under ad windows and
flash-based ads on my screen, but now -- POOF -- no more trash,
with no discernable negative effects on web page loading. Plus
ad banners are effectively eliminated--so all you get is the web
page you want. After a week of intensive use, I have yet to find
a problem with this software. I find it difficult to praise
this product enough--it delivers every feature smoothly and
efficiently, as advertised. I have it installed on my computer
along with Norton Cleansweep--no conflicts or flaws noted.
Rating:
Summary: Uninstalling Personal Firewall eliminated my problems
Review: Wow. Based on the very positive experience I've had with other Symantec products, I had high hopes for Personal Firewall, but unfortunately, it resulted in way too much trouble when weighed with the benefits. I purchased the SystemWorks/Personal Firewall package and installed both. Firewall apparently prevents key operations in Norton System Utilities from working (such as Disk Doctor & Speed Disk), and is aware of this. The response in their support knowledge base? "The cause is unknown, and there is no solution at this time (Document #2001100208343509)." They do provide a workaround fix, but their added suggestion of uninstalling everything & reinstalling Firewall first did not solve my problem. Also, I was receiving a constant error message involving the "Symproxysvc" file in the Firewall program. Again, the knowledge base document stated "The cause is unknown, and there is no solution at this time (Document #2001091207181936)." Finally -- the final straw -- came when I found that I suddenly could not access any internet web sites. After some technical support from my ISP, I reinstalled my browser. This worked for a short time, then it happened again: All attempts to access internet sites resulted in "This page is unavailable" displays. I was also experiencing frequent disconnects. I NEVER would have thought it was Firewall, but as soon as I uninstalled the program (and left SystemWorks intact), I've had no problems whatsoever. I should also add that I didn't do anything unusual with software settings -- in fact, I simply used defaults. I really want to like & appreciate this software, but it's been costly in time & frustration.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good product
Review: You can't get firewall protection from a piece of software. Norton Firewall is more annoying than it is helpful. If you want firewall protection buy an actuall router/firewall. Linksys 4 Port Cable/DSL Router will do the job without the hassle. It's an actual hardware firewall for only $30 more than this software. Installation couldn't be easier, just plug in your cable or DSL line, and you're done! And you can network your house with it (if you want).
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