Norton ConnectSafe was a free public
DNS service offered by
Symantec Corporation
Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock Inc.) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in both Prague, Czech Republic ( EU) and Tempe, Arizona ( USA). The company provides cybersecurity software and servi ...
that claimed to offer a faster and more reliable web browsing experience while blocking undesirable websites.
The service was retired on November 15, 2018.
History
The service was opened to the public in June 2010.
Norton ConnectSafe retirement has been announced and is planned to occur November 15, 2018.
Functionality
It provides protection from web threats in three protection policies. It automatically blocks known unsafe, fraudulent, phishing and infected websites which can cause harm to a device. It also blocks unwanted content, which is not suitable for children. Users can use Norton ConnectSafe by setting their DNS server addresses to those of the Norton ConnectSafe servers. Client software for Windows, Mac OS X, and
Android
Android most commonly refers to:
*Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google
* Android TV, a operating system developed ...
is available to automatically configure devices to use Norton ConnectSafe.
DNS queries routed through Norton ConnectSafe are checked using the
Norton Safe Web
Norton Safe Web (sometimes abbreviated NSW) is a service developed by Symantec Corporation that is designed to help users identify malicious websites. Safe Web delivers information about websites based on automated analysis and user feedback.
The ...
database to ensure that they do not point to malicious or inappropriate websites. Symantec thus seeks to block
malware
Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...
and
phishing
Phishing is a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, adware, or ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticate ...
attempts,
as well as pornographic and inappropriate websites if the user desires. Norton ConnectSafe will also intercept misspelled domain names and offer suggestions or display advertising.
This redirection breaks some non-Web applications that rely on getting an NXDOMAIN response for non-existent domains.
IPv4 addresses
The following addresses are registered to Norton ConnectSafe:
;Policy A — Security: This policy blocks all sites hosting malware, phishing sites, and scam sites. To choose Policy A, use the following IP addresses as preferred and alternate DNS server addresses:
*199.85.126.10
*199.85.127.10
;Policy B — Security + Pornography: In addition to blocking unsafe sites, this policy also blocks access to sites that contain sexually explicit material. To choose Policy B, use the following IP addresses as preferred and alternate DNS server addresses:
*199.85.126.20
*199.85.127.20
;Policy C — Security + Pornography + Non-Family Friendly: This policy is ideal for families with young children. In addition to blocking unsafe sites and pornography sites, this policy also blocks access to sites that feature mature content, abortion, alcohol, crime, cults, drugs, gambling, hate, sexual orientation, suicide, tobacco, or violence. To choose Policy C, use the following IP addresses as preferred and alternate DNS server addresses
*199.85.126.30
*199.85.127.30
See also
*
Domain Name System
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...
*
Public recursive name server
A public recursive name server (also called public DNS resolver) is a name server service that networked computers may use to query the Domain Name System (DNS), the decentralized Internet naming system, in place of (or in addition to) name serve ...
*
Name server
A name server is a computer application that implements a network service for providing responses to queries against a directory service. It translates an often humanly meaningful, text-based identifier to a system-internal, often numeric identi ...
*
OpenDNS
OpenDNS is an American company providing Domain Name System (DNS) resolution services—with features such as phishing protection, optional content filtering, and DNS lookup in its DNS servers—and a cloud computing security product suite, Umbre ...
*
Google Public DNS
Google Public DNS is a Domain Name System (DNS) service offered to Internet users worldwide by Google. It functions as a recursive name server.
Google Public DNS was announced on December 3, 2009, in an effort described as "making the web faste ...
*
Quad9
Quad9 is a Public recursive name server, global public recursive Domain_Name_System, DNS Domain_Name_System#Recursive_and_caching_name_server, resolver that aims to protect users from malware and phishing. Quad9 is operated by the Quad9 Foundatio ...
References
{{Symantec
ConnectSafe
Gen Digital software