Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC) today announced it is partnering with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) to provide a free, fully functional trial version of Norton AntiVirus 2000 to help small and mid-sized businesses prepare for Year 2000-related viruses, hoaxes, and other malicious code.

"There are a lot of viruses spreading through the Internet. They are spreading alarmingly fast and can cause serious damage in no time. We wish to offer protection against this kind of virus attack to our customers," said Per B. Hansen, Tele Danmark Internet's head of security. "By using the free access to virus updates through LiveUpdate, our customers will have increased protection against new viruses. After reviewing the different anti-virus products on the market, we chose Norton AntiVirus 2000 from Symantec. We consider it one of the best on the market."

Additionally, the company announced that current subscribers of both Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus are eligible for a ground-breaking technology update. Leveraging technology from the WholeSecurity, Inc. acquisition, Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) will significantly enhance malware detection and protect Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus users from today's increasingly volatile and unpredictable online threat landscape.

"This agreement with Nextra gives us access to more than 50 percent of the Norwegian Internet market," said Dieter Giesbrecht, senior vice president for Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Symantec. "Threats to Internet security can happen anywhere in the world. Symantec is committed to making sure that no matter where our customers are, they have the best protection against any kind of malicious attack."

"Since Linux is free, `open source,' and runs on everyday PCs, we expect increasing numbers of viruses on this platform," said Sanjiv Bhargava, vice president of Core Technology. "By delivering this technology, Symantec demonstrates its commitment to meeting the ever changing security needs of our customers."

Are you looking for a decent software security solution for your home or small-office computers? Ed Engelking reviews the Norton Internet Security 2001 Family Edition by Symantec.

Whenever AVG Free detects a virus, we recommend that you try to heal the infected object as the first option. When AVG Free is unable to heal the virus (this may occur for any of many reasons, including the distortion of the original file by the virus) use the next alternative - move it to the Virus Vault. The last option is to delete the infected object (which is often the virus itself).