How to use Norton Utilities on a home network

Document ID:1999102510213009
Last Modified:06/04/2002

How to use Norton Utilities on a home network

Situation:
You have two or more computers networked together. You want to know how to install and use Norton Utilities on the network.

Solution:
Norton Utilities (NU) is designed principally as a stand-alone product. That is, it is intended to be used on one computer at a time, and has only a few features that use network capabilities. That does not mean, however, that you cannot use it on a network. Norton Utilities works well on a computer regardless of whether that computer is on a network.

This document discusses these aspects of using NU on a network:

How to install NU
Which version of NU to install
Norton System Doctor features for networks
Other features useful on networks
Tips

How to install NU

Which version of NU to install

Norton System Doctor features for networks

Other features useful on networks

Unerase
In a home network, you might have designed your file storage so that shared files are saved on one computer, instead of keeping copies on several computers and having to regularly synchronize these copies with each other.

If you have NU installed on each computer in the network, you can recover files in the same way as though the network was not there. But, if you have NU installed on only one computer, it should be the computer that has your most important files. This way, if you accidentally erase a file, it will probably be saved in the Windows Recycle Bin, or in the Norton Protected Recycle Bin. Files saved in these bins are nearly always recoverable.

If you do not have Norton Utilities installed on the computer that the deleted file was on, and the file is on a FAT or FAT32 partition, you can still use NU to attempt file recovery, by using the DOS version of Unerase. To access DOS Unerase, bootup with the Emergency floppy provided with NU or with a Rescue set you created with NU. Follow the instructions provided in your NU users' manual.

Note:
Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows NT does not have a DOS Unerase. To recover files from a FAT partition on a Windows NT system, use DOS Unerase from Norton Utilities for Windows 95/98. For more information, see the document Windows NT File Recovery Options

Wipeinfo
Once you have set up your home computers to be networked to each other, you might find that restricting access to private files becomes more of a problem. Although NU does not have a feature for restricting access, it does have a feature for wiping files that you have already deleted, so that others cannot read them with a disk editing program.

When you delete a file or a directory of files from your system, they usually remain intact on the hard drive until they are written over by another file, during the normal process of saving new or updated files on the system. With Wipeinfo, you can write over the file without waiting for other files to write over it through normal computer activities.

Wipeinfo is available in Norton Utilities versions 4.0 and 4.5 for Windows 95/98, and in Norton Utilities 8.0 for DOS/Windows 3.x.

Tips

For more details about using Symantec products on home and small office networks, see these articles:

Home and Small Business Networking with Symantec Products

How to Use Norton Internet Security on a Home Network

How to Use Norton AntiVirus on a Home Network

How to Use pcAnywhere on a Home Network

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Product(s): Norton Utilities 2000 v4.5 - Win95/98, Norton Utilities 2001 v5.0 - Win9x/Me, Norton Utilities 2001 v5.0 - WinNT/2000
Operating System(s): Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, DOS
Date Created: 10/25/1999