Norton Internet Security 2001 2.5 Family Edition Norton Internet Security 2001 2.5 Norton Personal Firewall 2001 2.5 Release Notes - August 22, 2000 Copyright 1999, 2000 Symantec Corporation All rights reserved This document contains detailed information about some features of Norton Internet Security and Norton Personal Firewall. Note that the release notes may refer to features that are not in the product you have installed, as it covers three products with different features. Please also check the Read Me file for additional notes regarding installation and uninstallation issues. Topics include: - Blocking ads speeds up download time - Blocking ads can block other Web elements - Blocking ads blocks graphical advertisements - Blocking applications from accessing the Internet - Blocking cookies does not prevent cookie creation - Blocking browser type and version is off by default - Blocking popup windows is limited - Blocking referring Websites - Blocking scripts only blocks scripts on Web page - Creating Firewall Rules for N/A programs - Firewall alerts are cached - Incompatibility with Regclean - Permitted sites can contain items from blocked sites - Referring address blocking is for browser only - Restricted account users do not see prompts - Showing animated .gif files after blocking them - Terminating http connections - Hiding your computer name from the Internet -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking ads speeds up download time -------------------------------------------------------- The ad blocking feature does not block all advertisements on the Internet, but it can speed up download time when websites contain several ads. For information on blocking ads not blocked by Norton Internet Security, see the User's Guide or Help. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking ads can block other Web elements -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking ads prevents specific HTML strings from being downloaded to a Web browser. This can prevent other Web elements from appearing in the browser in addition to advertisements. It can also cause script errors on some pages. If you visit a site that does not download properly, try disabling the Ad Blocking feature. Visit the Symantec Online Support Knowledge Bases for information on using the event log to help you determine why a site is blocked. Visit http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking ads blocks graphical advertisements -------------------------------------------------------- The Norton Internet Security ad blocking feature blocks graphical advertisements and pictures. It is not effective against text-based or script-based advertisements. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking applications from accessing the Internet -------------------------------------------------------- Norton Internet Security restricts applications from accessing the Internet. It does not prevent someone from running the application. When some programs cannot access the Internet, they may respond by crashing, freezing, or reporting problems with your Internet connection. The results depend on how the program was designed. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking cookies does not prevent cookie creation -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking cookies does not prevent the cookie from being stored on your hard disk. It prevents your browser from sending the cookie when a Website requests it. Norton CleanSweep and other similar products contain features to remove cookies from your hard disk. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking browser type and version is off by default -------------------------------------------------------- By default, Norton Internet Security does not block information about the type of browser you are using because many Web sites depend on this information to display Web pages tailored for specific browsers. Blocking this information can cause Web page errors, or display warnings about updating your browser. To block information about the type and version of browser you are using: 1. Open Norton Internet Security. 2. Click Options and click Advanced Options. 3. Under the Web tab, click the privacy tab and change the Browser (User-agent) settings. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking popup windows is limited -------------------------------------------------------- The Block Script Popups Only feature blocks the most common methods Web sites use to open additional browser windows, but does not block all methods. Even with this feature turned on, you might find Web sites where pop-up windows are not blocked. Some Web sites, such as Microsoft's Windows Critical Update, will not operate correctly when you block script popup windows. -------------------------------------------------------- Blocking scripts only blocks scripts on Web page -------------------------------------------------------- The advanced feature to Block All JavaScript blocks any JavaScript embedded in Web pages. However, it does not block JavaScript found in form objects or in external script (.JS) files. Blocking JavaScript causes errors on Web pages that require JavaScript for proper display or navigation, and should only be used by advanced users. -------------------------------------------------------- Creating Firewall Rules for N/A programs -------------------------------------------------------- If Norton Internet Security cannot identify a program or process that is attempting to access the Internet, it displays the name of the process as N/A. If you create a firewall rule for N/A programs, make sure the rule blocks or permits the connection for a specific port or address. If you create a rule to permit or block N/A programs for all ports or addresses, Norton Internet Security will use that rule for every program it cannot identify. -------------------------------------------------------- Firewall alerts are cached -------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes Internet-enabled applications send requests to several computers to contact your machine. If you are using the Firewall Rule Assistant, you could see several alerts. Multiple alerts are cached in Norton Internet Security. This can cause alerts to appear even if you close the original program that caused the alert. Specific examples include multiplayer Internet games like Unreal Tournament or Gamespy. -------------------------------------------------------- Incompatibility with Regclean -------------------------------------------------------- Running some versions of Microsoft's Regclean power toy can break Norton Internet Security so that it stops working properly. To fix this problem, reinstall Norton Internet Security, or undo the registry cleanup. The registry cleanup and repair functions in Norton Utilities and Norton CleanSweep do not cause this problem. -------------------------------------------------------- Permitted sites can contain items from blocked sites -------------------------------------------------------- When you specify a list of permitted Websites, content from all other Websites is blocked. If a site reference graphics or other items from other sites, these items are blocked even though they appear to be from the same Web site. These are some steps you can take to reduce these situations: - Use domain names instead of more specific Web site names. For example, permit the site example.com instead of images.example.com to allow the content from the example domain. This allows access to all the websites within that domain, including www.example.com, help.example.com, images.example.com or any other sites in that domain. - If you are viewing a permitted site and notice images that are blocked, open the Event Log and look at the information under the Restrictions tab. This shows the items that were blocked from the Web site you are viewing. Then add the blocked sites to the permitted list so the blocked images will appear. These steps are only useful if you are specifying which sites are permitted. If you use the Specify Blocked Sites option, everything that does not fall into a blocked category is permitted. -------------------------------------------------------- Referring address blocking is for browser only -------------------------------------------------------- Although Norton Internet Security blocks the information from your browser about the last Web address you visited, it cannot block this information when it is passed from a Web server. For example, if you visit a site that refers you to another site on the same Web server, the Web server might transfer the referring information internally. This information does not come from your browser, and is not blocked by Norton Internet Security. These occurrences should not cause privacy or security concern. -------------------------------------------------------- Restricted account users do not see prompts -------------------------------------------------------- Norton Internet Security lets you enable, block, or prompt the user for various settings. However, restricted account users do not receive prompts. For restricted accounts, any item set to prompt the user is automatically blocked without warning. -------------------------------------------------------- Showing animated .gif files after blocking them -------------------------------------------------------- One of the advanced options lets you prevent animated .gif files from repeating their animation. This feature modifies incoming .gif files to prevent them from animating. To show the animation of a modified .gif file again, turn off animated .gif blocking, clear your browser's cache and revisit the Web site where you found the file so you can download it again. -------------------------------------------------------- Terminating http connections -------------------------------------------------------- Norton Internet Security lets you terminate most types of network connections, but terminating http connections requires that you close your Web browser software. -------------------------------------------------------- Web Site Blocking and Browser History -------------------------------------------------------- Most web browsers keep pages in a hard drive cache to improve performance, and some browsers support "offline browsing", where they download entire web pages to your hard disk. If these pages are viewed or downloaded by one account, they may be viewable by another account who would normally have these pages blocked with Parental Control. Empty your web browser's cache to solve this problem. -------------------------------------------------------- Web Browser Compatibility -------------------------------------------------------- Some features of Norton Internet Security, such as the web-based subscription update, are designed for modern web browsers. If you do not have a version 4.0+ browser from Microsoft or Netscape, you may not be able to use these features. -------------------------------------------------------- Hiding your computer name from the Internet -------------------------------------------------------- In its default configuration, Norton Internet Security and Norton Personal Firewall 2001 hides your computer name and share information from being seen over the Internet if you have Microsoft File & Print Sharing enabled. This is a change from version 2000. The ability to share the computer name is required for some cable modem implementations, but is not necessary for most systems. If you need to share this information in order to connect to your internet service provider, please review the "Compatibility with Cable Modems" document on the Start Menu / Programs / Norton Internet Security (or Norton Personal Firewall) / Product Support for information on how to add this.