Norton Security Featured

Norton Security Premium: Is it worth it?

by with One Comment FirewalliphonemacMobileReviewsSecurityTrojanwindows

Security software are used by people to protect their devices from the various malicious threats out there in the digital world. The threats come in different forms like virus, worms, trojans, rats, ransomware etc. These malicious files can affect your system in different ways. Some of the programs like the virus can actually corrupt your files and make the system crash. Others like trojans, rats can actually give access of your system to the intruders. Some new type of threats like ransomware will actually lock down all your data and ask for ransom(money) to unlock the data. But everybody is living in with this assumption that nobody will target their system or harm their data. So people are just waiting for the attacks to happen. And then when their systems actually are affected, they are ready to pay to recover their files or system which may or may not be possible. So it is better to stay protected. One such very famous company that is Norton has a program called Norton Security which can work across all your devices. So today we are reviewing Norton Security Premium to find out if it is worth buying.

Also Read: Norton Security Solution – All in one subscription

In the past, people considered security programs of Norton to be very effective but at the same time to be resource hungry too. Their antivirus programs actually slowed down the system in the past. As these programs establish their own layer of security on the operating system level, it may slow down the system. But now this is not the case anymore. Norton security is now a light-weight program that can actually work in the background without letting you know. I am not saying it is not eating up any resources, but the consumption is quite low. They don’t have different products for different types of devices. It all comes up bundled in one license depending on the devices you want to use let it be laptop, PC, smartphone, tablet etc. The product that we are reviewing today is Norton Security Premium which is the topmost and has every feature. Though I will also tell you about their other plans so you can choose wisely according to your needs. First let us start off with the basic requirements needed to install Norton Security.

Requirements:

Operating System:

  • Windows XP SP3 and above (Edge Browser not supported)
  • Mac OS X current version and previous two versions (Some premiere features not supported)
  • Android 4.0.3 or above. Google play must be installed
  • iPhone iOS 8 & later

So these are the basic operating system requirements to install Norton Security. It will work across all your devices depending on the package you choose. You can download the free 30-days trial from this link – Norton Security

After installing the software in your PC, the first window you will see is of Security. It includes Scans, LiveUpdate, scan history and advanced settings. In the Scans menu you can perform actions like quick scan, full scan, custom scan, determining which files to scan, uncovering hard to find problem, and check information about your device.

 

The LiveUpdate option is to update the software from Norton servers. The history has all the logs of update, scans, and any detection that happened during the scan reports. There are many options in advanced settings like Auto-Protect, SONAR(Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response), Smart Firewall, Intrusion Prevention, Email Protection, Identity Safe, Browser Protection, Safe Surfing, and Download Intelligence. The SONAR protection actually detects the behavior of applications running on your machine to detect suspicious actions and take proper measures. The next item on the list is Identity and has everything to do with your online security. The first option is the identity safe which is a vault to store your passwords, form data, notes and credit/debit card details safely. So this can also be used directly in the browser when the vault is open. You need to install browser extension for that. ID settings include Anti-phishing, Norton Safe web, blocking malicious page, site rating icon in search result, and scam insight. Apart from that it also has option to create strong passwords online that will help you to secure your online accounts.

Apart from being an Antivirus program, Norton Security Premium also offers you up to 25 GB of cloud space for storing important backups. In this option you can run backup, or restore one. You can also form backup sets and buy more storage if you wish to.

You are Reading: Norton Security Premium: Is it worth it?

The next option is the performance tab which has everything to do with the performance of your machine. The first option is to optimize your disk and defragment it to help speed it up. So if you have an old laptop, then you probably must run this optimize feature and experience the difference in booting times, search times etc. Next option is to do file cleanup which basically deletes all unnecessary temporary files that are taking up space on your disk. Startup Manager is the third option on the list. This will open up a list of programs that launch once you boot in your operating system. Too many startup programs may lead to longer boot time. So you can manually disable the programs which you don’t require on startup. The last option is the graph of the performance and the resource usage by the system and Norton based on the time. It will give you a rough idea of the programs that are using the resources too much.

 

Apart from all this, you have option to open up the Norton Web portal where you can manage all your devices at one place. They also have a Family Premiere feature where in you can keep an eye out for your kids activity on the internet and you can restrict the time too. So Norton Security provides an all in one solution in an all in one pack. Other packs apart from Premium are the Standard and Deluxe packs. Below is a comparison table based on the features and number of devices each pack supports.

The price for the standard, deluxe and premium is Rs. 849, Rs. 1,399 and Rs. 2,999 for the first year. As of for the mobile and other devices, Norton Security App provides some features like Anti-Theft, locking other apps, and scans for the suspicious permissions taken by various apps. It also trace backs the location to which the data is sent to, which is a very cool feature. So if there are some apps that don’t require some sensitive information like location then Norton will inform you.

Verdict:

Overall Norton Security does offer a whole lot of features both online and offline. Almost all the new latest threats are covered by Norton including ransomware which is the latest trending of all. I had no issues using the software and the interface is quite simple with a light-weight security package. If we compare it with other security programs, Norton comes on the higher budget end. Though it is one of the most renowned security company. So it all depends on how much you want to spend on the security. If you have some seriously important data to protect then no compromises on the security end. But if you are a normal user with not much data then you can go for some cheaper alternatives. So I hope now you know the answer to the question if Norton Security is worth buying or not. Though I believe that Security is just a myth, and no solution is foolproof. You can always take necessary measures to ensure maximum protection and avoid attacks as much as possible. But when it is your turn, then nobody can save you except the backup which is kept offline locked up somewhere safe. Post all your doubts and queries in the comment section below.

ASUS RT-AC88U router

ASUS RT-AC88U router specifications and review

by with One Comment ASUSFirewallInternetReviewsWifi

High-speed internet mainly via Wifi is what people nowadays thrive on. All the apps are just feeding on Internet choking all the bandwidth. May it be office or home there is a huge amount of data flowing through the router. Now the main problem is faced by the network engineer who’s sole job is to keep the network running. A good router is what he needs in this kind of situation which will make his task easier. ASUS has got a router that will be great to handle this kind of traffic. So today I will tell you about ASUS RT-AC88U router specifications and review it in detail. Let me tell you that it is a dual band gigabit router. Let us find out what it means.

ASUS RT-AC88U router specifications and review

 

What is Dual Band Router?

Dual band is the new feature that was introduced with new ‘ac‘ standard. The normal home router only has 2.4GHz Wifi channel on which most of your devices work. Dual band means having a 5GHz channel along with 2.4Ghz. The new channel has got more bandwidth and it creates a data stream with the devices. In simple terms good bandwidth distribution and high speed of data exchange. You will get good speed on all devices no matter how many devices you connect. Previous I had like 12 devices connected on my triple antenna tplink router. Most of the time the router would like just hang and stopped working. But with this router it can easily handle 12+ devices.

So enough with the theory of dual band, let’s go ahead and unbox this monstrous router and check out the specifications. You can watch the video of unboxing, do like and comment your thoughts on it.

Unboxing of ASUS RT-AC88U/ AC3100 dualband gigabit router:

ASUS RT-AC88U router specifications and review

Design

ASUS RT-AC88U router specifications and review

Back view

The router comes with this amazing monstrous looking design. It has 4 antennas which looks just great with those red notches. The two antennas are attached on the back and the other two on left and right. The size of router is almost the double or triple if we compare it with the normal home router. On the top we have some LED indicators for power, Wifi, WAN, ethernet, WPS and Internet. On the front-left there is the USB 3.0 slot inside a small compartment. On the front-right there are two buttons one to toggle Wifi and the other one is to toggle the top LEDs. Moving on to the back we have the power push button, 12V DC-In jack, WAN input port, the 8 gigabit high speed ethernet ports, the WPS button and lastly the reset button. The router design lacks in only one thing i.e. some red LEDs. It would have been just great if there was like a red light coming out from the top and side air vents. I really expected that when I first saw the router box.

Performance

Well you need to know this that the router is also kind of a small PC processing all our data and doing some geeky stuff. The ASUS RT-AC88U comes with a dual-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz and 512 MB of RAM, 128 MB of flash storage. It takes almost 2 mins for the router to boot up with all its Wifi and WAN running. There is also lot of heat produced so you need to make sure that you keep the router on a flat surface and not covering the air vent.

Screenshot_4

As I told you about the dual band and 4 antennas, that all helps the router to manage traffic in a better way which is its specialty. But remember if you have an ac router already, then you wont get like better speed and all. Before upgrading to this one, make sure that you really have a traffic issue or else it will be of not much use. Yes this router will help you for Gaming and 4K streaming. Time to check out all the features.

Features

For setting up the router you can always use the quick setup option and the default IP is 192.168.1.1 with username – admin and password – admin. The router has some excellent features and different software tool that comes with it. Listed below are the main features:

  • Dual band – 2.4GHz and 5GHz
  • Easy blocking of internet access, time scheduling, and Mac IP binding as per client
  • Guest network – For friends to access the internet and not the LAN network
  • AiProtection – Security against malicious websites, infected device prevention
  • Parental Control – Blocking access based on keywords, URL, time scheduling
  • Adaptive QoS – Bandwidth Monitor for each client, web history (catches everything that passes through)
  • Bandwidth limiter with priority scheduler
  • Game Boost – WTFast(Gamer private network) support to reduce the latency, Lan Boost
  • Traffic analyzer – Shows data consumption for each app for each client according to date. Amazing tool for analyzing the bandwidth usage but didn’t work at my place for some reason may be a bug in the firmware.
  • Traffic Monitor – Monitor the traffic on both Wifi Channels and ethernet ports
  • USB application – Yes we have USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 where you can connect external hard drives, USB drive, printer, USB dongle and even an Android phone for internet sharing. Share the disk online or on the network make media servers or share printer over the network.
    Though what I personally feel is the data transfer speed when you connect a device using USB is very slow. It needs a lot of work to make sure that the media files from USB device can be streamed on the network.
  • Smart remote access and smart sync are some other features to sync the data to ASUS webstorage.
  • DMZ can always redirect all the incoming traffic to one machine elimiating the need of port forwarding every time you want to access some application remotely.
  • Hardware Firewall has DoS protection which can again filter packets based on keywords or URL
  • Operation Mode – Wireless router mode, repeater mode, access point mode, and Media bridge
  • Dual WAN – This is a cool feature ensuring that your internet is working even if the primary WAN fails. Yes that means you can have two connections and in case the first one fails, second one will be used as the backup option.
  • Mobile APP available for Android and iOS

These are like all the features of the ASUS RT-AC88U gaming router. You can just head on to WTFast website and download their software to boost the online gaming speed and decrease latency.

Pricing and availability

Well I know you are all happy with features and device of this device. But here is the part where it may decrease the amount of happiness as this router is priced at 300$ approx. It is available on Amazon for 274$. Yeah the router is overpriced and you need to think before you upgrade.

Verdict

Overall I liked the design and the performance of this router. On the software side the bugs like traffic analyzer and traffic limiter should be fixed as this was totally not expected with the latest firmware. If you have a high budget and you don’t already own a ‘ac‘ router then definitely go for this router as it will not disappoint you. The review device is gone and I am feeling the void from now on. So this were the ASUS RT-AC88U specifications and review in complete detail with unboxing. Let me know if you have any doubts about this router or may be its feature in the comments section below.

Gallery:

firewall_featured

Which is the best firewall ??

by with No Comment FirewallSecurityTips/TricksTrojan

Hello friends. Nowadays hacking is on a boom. Many popular websites and companies got hacked recently by some hackers. Though we are not big as a company, but still we also need to pay attention towards some security. So for getting rid of viruses we have antivirus installed. But do you know about firewall. And if yes, then which is the best firewall. So lets discuss this in some steps.

What is a Firewall?

Which is the best firewall ??

A firewall can either be software-based or hardware-based and is used to help keep a network secure. Its primary objective is to control the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analyzing the data packets and determining whether it should be allowed through or not, based on a predetermined rule set.

So in general it means that, its a wall between our computer and the Internet (outside world) and it filters the connections established.

Most of us are using windows as our operating system. So it has its own firewall. But i would like to inform you that its of NO USE. So the question still remains, which is the best firewall to use in our machine.

Which is the best firewall ???

Which is the best firewall ??

 

Comodo Firewall is one of the best firewall which can  be used to protect your computer. It is available for free. It protects your pc,laptop from intruders from outside world. Hackers try to enter your pc using gates which are called PORTS. They may use trojan or rats to enter your pc. There are many open ports in your pc which are not secure. Now Comodo firewall just closes this ports automatically, thus securing your pc from hackers.

DOWNLOAD

Click here to download Comodo Firewall

How to use it??

Just install it in your pc,laptop and leave your security in the hands of comodo firewall. Now whenever a software tries to establish connection over internet, the firewall prompts you for permission whether to allow it or not. Now if you trust the software you have installed, then allow it. Like for example, when you open a browser, comodo will ask for permission once, then you can allow it.

If a trojan or other malicious program try to establish connection it will block it.

Some more Features

  • First is you get a Firewall.
  • Secondly it has a comodo browser,which is upto you, whether you want to use or not. Also it has a virtual browser, which doesn’t save any history or passwords.
  • Next is geekbuddy, where you get online assistance for any problem you have in your machine.
  • Anti-terror, a tool where it identifies pc issues and gives you solution to fix it.
  • And at last some shared space.

So just install this firewall and be protected from hackers and intruders. You don’t have to everytime sit and check your system whether its secure or not. Just leave it over the firewall.

If you have any doubts regarding this, do post in the comment section below. I will be happy to help.

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