Norton Internet Security 2000 Release Notes - December 20, 1999 Copyright (c) 2000 Symantec Corporation All rights reserved Please read this document carefully; it contains important information about Norton Internet Security. 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 - Passwords are case sensitive - 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 - Browser compatibility - Operation with local area networks - Hiding your computer name from the Internet - Uninstalling Norton Internet Security - Disabling Norton Internet Security with a prompt up - Installing Buy from the Web or Trialware -------------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------------- Passwords are case sensitive -------------------------------------------------------- Passwords are case sensitive. The passwords abc$123, Abc$123, and ABC$123 are each considered a different password. Make sure your passwords are consistent. -------------------------------------------------------- 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 LiveAdvisor and 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. -------------------------------------------------------- Operation with Local Area Networks -------------------------------------------------------- After installation, Norton Internet Security will block all inbound file and print sharing to your computer via TCP/IP networking. This is done to close a very serious security hole many computers have with the Internet. Please refer to the printed manual / .PDF for details on properly configuring Norton Internet Security to work with your local area network. -------------------------------------------------------- Hiding your computer name from the Internet -------------------------------------------------------- In its default configuration, Norton Internet Security allows your computer name and share information to be seen over the Internet if you have Microsoft File & Print Sharing enabled. Norton Internet Security still prevents outsiders from accessing this data, but they will be able to get your computer name and share names. This functionality is required for some cable modem implementations, but is not necessary for most systems. If you wish to prevent this information from being accessed, you can delete the "Default Inbound NetBIOS" rule from the Advanced Options Firewall tab. -------------------------------------------------------- Uninstalling Norton Internet Security -------------------------------------------------------- Norton Internet Security hooks into the network setup of a computer, and has some complex actions that must be taken when uninstalling. It is not recommended that uninstall products (such as Norton CleanSweep) be used to remove Norton Internet Security, and it should only be removed with its own uninstaller. This can be accessed from the Start Menu or from the Control Panel. Please note that a supervisor account must be loaded in Norton Internet Security before an uninstall can be done. -------------------------------------------------------- Disabling Norton Internet Security with a prompt up -------------------------------------------------------- Do not disable Norton Internet Security if it is prompting a user for a decision, or while it is loading the Parental Control list. Dismiss any prompts and alerts, and wait for the list to complete loading before disabling. -------------------------------------------------------- Installing Buy from the Web or Trialware -------------------------------------------------------- The electronic purchase and trialware versions give you the full contents of the Norton Internet Security CD-ROM from the boxed set. When it is extracted to your hard disk (the temporary directory by default), it is not deleted after installation. You can empty your temp directory without affecting the installed product. You may wish to copy the manuals (see below) before deleting these files. The printed manual is available in the directory you extracted the electronic download version to in a subdirectory called "\manual". This is in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format, and requires the Adobe Acrobat program to view or print the manual. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is also in the "\manual" directory, called "AR32E302.EXE". Double click this file to install the Reader. An electronic download installation may leave behind a desktop shortcut labelled "Launch Norton Internet Security Installer". This shortcut may safely be deleted or dragged to the trashcan after installation.