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Defense Starts Here: Page 10 of 20

Symantec Security Center

Symantec's product, which consists of Security Center and Symantec Client Security, covers an antivirus product with a thin veneer of a firewall. As such, it falls short in several areas, especially in reporting and the management interface.

On the upside, you get a complete antivirus system--and not just Norton Internet Security with a different badge. At the program's heart is the system center, which lets you load firewall and antivirus configurations and start virus-scan sweeps. It is designed to allow easy management of multiple servers spread across your organization.

The firewall configuration tool is a standalone program for creating firewall policies. You can import these policies into the System Center. Here you can allow or deny ports and programs. Because there is no scan or import tool, you must enter all applications manually. The tool can calculate hashes automatically, and can be installed on a clean client machine. You also can set up trusted and restricted zones.

The firewall does not engage communication between computers in the trusted zone. Symantec includes approximately 50 IDS signatures, and you can't add more manually. Perhaps most disappointing aspect of this product is its lack of centralized reporting for firewall events. You have to get this information off each client.