[Review] Norton Connectsafe (Aka Norton DNS)

[Deleted member 178]

Norton Connectsafe

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Hi guys,

Today i will review Norton Connectsafe commonly called "Norton DNS " , it is one element of my layered protection; its role is to check the hostname of a website against its list and block me to access it if it's malicious/unwanted.

What is a DNS (Domain name Server)

for short the DNS is the cyber-equivalent of our phone book:

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most prominently, it translates domain names meaningful for users to the numerical IP addresses needed for the purpose of locating computer services and devices worldwide. By providing a worldwide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet.

An often-used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, the domain name www.example.com translates to the addresses 192.0.43.10 (IPv4) and 2620:0:2d0:200::10 (IPv6). Unlike a phone book, the DNS can be quickly updated, allowing a service's location on the network to change without affecting the end users, who continue to use the same host name. Users take advantage of this when they recite meaningful Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and e-mail addresses without having to know how the computer actually locates the services.

Source

Server Location

Your internet service provider has its own DNS server that is the closest one, closer it is faster you will reach it , faster will be the connection to the website.

If you decide to use an alternative DNS , you must be sure that its location is not too far from yours.

Norton DNS is composed of multiple servers across the world , as shown below

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Installation

To use Norton DNS you don't have to use any softwares and doesn't use any resources of your system.

You just have to set up your router/computer here:

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with the appropriate IP adresses

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note: a small installer is available if you feel unsafe to do it manually.


Benefits

Layer of Defense: Norton ConnectSafe automatically blocks known unsafe, fraudulent, phishing and infected websites from penetrating your home network and infecting your devices.

Blocks Unwanted Content: Norton DNS can act as a simple parental control, by keeping your kids safe from Web sites with undesirable content.

Real-Time Protection: Norton ConnectSafe contains information on millions of websites.
It uses data from Symantec content filtering that categorize datas of sites in 23 languages on more than 50 million sites.

Works in the Background: Norton ConnectSafe works quietly in the background. Norton ConnectSafe notifies you when it blocks an unsafe site.

No Slow Downs: Norton ConnectSafe does not take up disk space or memory so performance and efficiency of your computer is not affected.

No Software to Install: Norton ConnectSafe is a cloud-based service and does not require any software or hardware installation.


Test

Here is a video testing Norton DNS and some others.

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Final Note:

I tried many DNS and Norton is the one that gave me a good protection with a decent browsing speed, i like its 3 modes.

I rate it 4/5.

Norton DNS or any others will not replace a good Antivirus but will help it to secure you more.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Plexx]

3/5 or 4/5?

Norton is good for some protection but still debatable if one needs a DNS for protection or not.

Good review.

 

[Deleted member 178]

3/5 or 4/5?

Norton is good for some protection but still debatable if one needs a DNS for protection or not.

Good review.

3/5 because it doesn't block everything ^^

 

[Plexx]

3/5 because it doesn't block everything ^^

You gave 4 starts

 

[Deleted member 178]

lol ok, edited , and replaced the video

 

[kuttus]

I would say 4/5. Like Umbra Corp said Norton DNS will not block all the attacks..

 

[Deleted member 178]

i hesitated between 3 or 4/5 , bvut after watching/doing some tests, i will rise it to 4/5

 

[Overkill]

Thanks for the review!...i'm really liking it, it seems faster than opendns

 

[Gnosis]

It kind of sounds similar to what the Cocoon add-on for Mozilla is attempting to achieve. Cocoon is BS though because you have to sign in.

 

[Deleted member 178]

It kind of sounds similar to what the Cocoon add-on for Mozilla is attempting to achieve. Cocoon is BS though because you have to sign in.

Cocoon is more a VPN & anonymizer, where NDNS just filters the malicious/unwanted sites depending the settings you choose.

 

[illumination]

It kind of sounds similar to what the Cocoon add-on for Mozilla is attempting to achieve. Cocoon is BS though because you have to sign in.

With Cocoon, your traffic is funneled through a VPN server supposedly without exposing your identity and computer to malware, you still interact with the internet like you would do normally, but with your IP hidden from those online.

If i remember correctly, it's sever is a Linux server that utilizes Clam Win AV to scan for malware before the traffic is allowed back to your system, as well as to scan downloads before they reach your system.

It is not a standard VPN such as CyberGhost, ect. You do have to have an account and sign in, if memory serves me, they do log.

 

[illumination]

This is a good review Umbra, Norton DNS did a good job, better then most DNS, and with parental control.. Something to share oriented towards families keeping their children a little safer online.

 

[Gnosis]

If i remember correctly, it's sever is a Linux server that utilizes Clam Win AV to scan for malware before the traffic is allowed back to your system, as well as to scan downloads before they reach your system.

It certainly is obstruction-ware/grayware in that respect. Some people like being warned about sites they are going to or what they are going to download/open, but I do not (Sandboxed and good decisions). Cocoon is very restrictive in that way. It is like a Web of Trust gone completely out of control.

 

[manmur]

I am using Norton DNS as my DNS service. I do agree that it will not block everything. But it is good nonetheless.

 

[Payback]

Kind of off-topic : I feel,whenever I use a DNS-connect,I feel utter slow-down at my browsers,so I better beware of it...

 

[TJay]

Norton doesn't support IPv6 but then OpenDNS doesn't either.
DNS filtering by Norton would be great because of their long time support of blacklisting BUT their coding doesn't work.
ex: blacklisted frys.com because of a site certificate problem...come on, how many sites have multiple servers that don't have certificates and furthermore the code would not let me override and continue.
I'm going to use OpenDNS for now until Norton gets their act together.

 

[Nico@FMA]

@Umbra Polaris First of all let me congratulate you with a pretty spot on review. (As far a review is possible on a third party service)

@ To all others, one must understand that: Norton ConnectSafe should not be seen as a product that will stop all attacks.
One of the most important factors is that its community based, and that its a add-on to your security.
And therefor its unjustified to rate it 3/5 under the pretext that it would not block all.
Norton ConnectSafe is a public free tool, so pretty much ANYONE can use it, That said it works with pretty much all the security software programs out here and regardless of configuration. However NortonCS does work best with either a Norton or Symantec solution on the local computer. Still it will NOT block a 100% because this is virtually impossible. Keep in mind that most webpages who are reported "dirty" are victim of a malware injection or other third party malicious intervention. So its only reasonable to understand that not all of these webpages will be directly blocked. In regards to true malicious webpages and internet addresses Norton does have the largest and most sophisticated blacklist that i constant being updated, using worldwide Endpoints, Honeypots and community reported alerts.
On top of that it has its own dedicated research department that works with major vendors to keep the blacklist updated.


So in order to rate it properly one must understand the very workings of the service provided by Norton and its Infrastructure.
I just wanted to trow this out here so people understand.

In regards to OpenDNS and Google DNS and many others out there, they are all good and they all have CONS and PROS.
But personally as a long time NCS user i can vouch for it a 99.5%

Kind Regards Nico

 

[Nico@FMA]

3/5 or 4/5?

Norton is good for some protection but still debatable if one needs a DNS for protection or not.

Good review.

Actually having DNS protection is a deffo add-on to your local security. Specially against botnets and such

 

[Nico@FMA]

Kind of off-topic : I feel,whenever I use a DNS-connect,I feel utter slow-down at my browsers,so I better beware of it...

Well sherlock no #####... lmao you are using a third party DNS, so yes you will see a bit of a slow down, just like any other DNS out there.
I myself do have a Ziggo Up-150Mbit/s / Down-15 Mbit/s connection at home and i do get pretty much 130+ / 12+ connection in real-time.
And having NCS as DNS service it only slows down like 300kbps or so. (Much less in real-time)

Also depending on your Router settings and your local computer settings it can chip off some overall speed.

 

[lordman]

Umbra, could you do a Comodo DNS review in the same conditions as Norton DNS review?.

I think that Comodo and Norton have similar malware protection but i dont sure.