Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2006

2006's PC-cillin Internet Security suite features a much-improved user interface compared with last year's version. The core bundle remains the same – antivirus, antispam and firewall – but you get some extra protection against phishing and spyware, as well as privacy and parental controls, Wi-Fi intrusion detection and centralised management for good measure.

Installation was straightforward, and PC-cillin 14.0 worked well overall. The antivirus component has performed strongly in the Virus Bulletin VB100 awards and has earned the ISCA Labs seal of approval. It is noticeably less of a resource hog than rival suites, but advanced users might be dismayed by the limited configuration options.
The Privacy Protection and Web Site Filter features deserve a mention. You can opt to block each private data item from transmission via instant message, email or a web form, nominating specific exemptions if you wish.
The new spyware protection PC-cillin offers isn't quite as thorough, however. It doesn't rank by risk, so 'harmless' cookies get listed alongside more serious malware. And firewall performance was also less than stellar. Spam handling was better, with 75 percent spotted from the off.

Verdict:

The rest of this security set including firewall, antispam, and spyware removal do not offer the same great protection as their antivirus software. The firewall was not able to detect some unauthorized programs, while spyware and spam were not completely removed from the pc but it is very difficult to remove all adware and spyware nowadays. It releases daily signature updates someyimes twice in a day. This wil protect you from those viruses which comes in hour by hour... I would recomend this software for home and office use.........






McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006

We’ve looked at quite a few online security packages of late and we’ve been impressed with how comprehensive they have been. However, McAfee, the long-established leader in this space isn’t about to let others lead the way. When we say they’re big, we mean big, with over 3000 staff and over 100 million products sold. Internet Security Suite 2006 is the latest update and maintains the clean interface of last year’s version. The main screen covers your resistance to viruses, spam, spyware and even hackers. You’ll find the status of your machine clearly displayed with green standing for a clean system, while red flags up a problem. There are a slew of security suites now on the market, so one of the main questions you should ask yourself is - what does this one offer that the others can’t? In the case of McAfee the answer is two-fold. The first is the ease of installation. This isn’t a program that thinks you know every there is to know about your computer. So, the average person can load it without having to worry about what they’re doing. The other key feature is the post-installation support, which in the case of security tools is regular uploads to anti-virus patches, effectively limiting danger to your computer. A new feature is automatic spyware detection, which blocks secretly download themselves and run without you even knowing they are there. An anti-phishing feature is bundled with the suite and works with Internet Explorer, which is still the world’s favoured web-browser with 90% of us still using it, according to IDC. The feature works by blocking access to sites that are known to be used for fraudulent means. The first time this happens you’ll get a warning on your screen, which is a little nerve-wracking and heavy handed but helps protect the inexperienced internet user. One neat little feature that’s appeared this year is in the SpamKiller toolbar, which when used in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook allows you to unlock email accidentally trapped in the spam-filter. Any mail you want to get rid of can be sent through the Shredder, along with deleted files, so hiding your traces on the system. If there is any problem with the suite it’s the same problem that most security tools suffer from, it’s one of over-caution. This manifests itself in the number of pop-ups you’ll need to wade through when setting the suite up. Whenever a program legitimately, or not, tries to connect to the Internet, you’ll need to allow it permission to do so. In this way, you can train your computer to prevent attacks.


Verdict : This software is very good and detects all types of threats that come in our PC. Very Good detection and firewall power. It's anti-Banner and pop-up blocker is good. Although it takes little bit CPU but works great. Live chat with customer support for free is a really a nice start of this suite. This software is onTOP in our review..





Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security

Panda's Internet Security suite's first action is to check for existing antivirus or other security programs on your PC. Needless to say, it insisted that it was incompatible with our Trend Micro security suite and that to install successfully, we'd first need to get rid of the competition.

This is par for the course for such applications – unlike, say, a virus scanner that protects your PC while another one handles incoming webmail, security suites see all other programs as rivals. Curiously, though, it didn't object to Microsoft AntiSpyware, which assiduously notified us at every turn of events and change that Panda requested.
Having confirmed that we were happy for Panda to supersede Trend Micro, we were prompted to restart and Panda got to work scanning our system for existing problems and reporting on their status. It told us we had 217 instances of spyware but that all had been disinfected. What it didn't tell us at this stage was which files it was referring to. This done, the installation continues and, after another restart, we were informed the firewall would begin to take effect.
Almost immediately, Panda found a rogue dialler on the main drive of our PC and recommended a full system scan of all drives. This was pre-registration so we ran the scan to see what came up prior to grabbing and configuring the latest updates. The next most obvious threat was a tracking program called FunWeb, which Panda said we should delete. It then gave us the option of performing the same action for any subsequent trackers.
What's nominally new in the 2006 version is Panda's ability to block both spyware and phishing endeavours – something that its own website claims was also offered in the 2005 iteration but is lacking in the Titanium version of Panda. It also protects against spam, viruses and assaults from hacking tools and has a built-in firewall.
Verdict
Panda works well enough, identifying and quarantining suspicious items and providing control over what hits your PC. As with all such products, it's not the product you choose so much as regular virus definition updates that are vital to keep your PC secure. This Product takes too much CPU and RAM also..... I would not recomend this software.............





Norton Internet Security 2006

There's good and bad news in Symantec Norton Internet Security 2006. The good news is that the best-selling Norton suite does a fine job thwarting Internet-bred assaults, including viruses, worms, hacker intrusions, and the like. The new Security Inspector tool uncovers unsafe browser settings and Windows passwords, and Norton now prevents hijackers from changing your browser's home page.

Norton takes a toll on PC performance, particularly during system scans. It also offers mediocre technical support. However, it remains a solid upgrade for longtime users, who will benefit from Norton's improved spam and phishing e-mail filters. Everyone else should shop around for a better deal. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6 offers similar performance with significantly less impact on system resources.

Set up and interface: Norton Internet Security 2006 is easy to install: a few clicks, and the program does the rest. But easy and fast are two different animals. Norton's setup may take hours if you decide to run the optional postinstallation scan. In our tests, basic setup, which includes software installation, rebooting, downloading updated files, and configuring security settings, took about 30 minutes -- roughly the same as McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006. But Norton's optional postsetup antivirus scan added another 1 hour, 45 minutes to the process. While this was 30 minutes less than McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 took, Norton rendered our PC virtually unusable for other tasks while it worked. Technically, we could use our test machine with Norton AntiVirus actively scanning in the background, but whenever Microsoft Word takes more than two minutes to launch, you're better off reading a book.
Norton Internet Security 2006 keeps the intuitive interface design from previous versions. The home screen, known as the Norton Protection Center, provides links to major security components, including virus and worm protection, a firewall, and e-mail and instant-messenger scanning. Many users won't ever tinker with individual component settings and may choose to rely on the Norton Protection Center console instead. Unfortunately, we found some of the console's protection information inaccurate or misleading.

On our test PC, for instance, the Protection Center listed "No Coverage" under the Data Recovery heading, meaning our PC had no protection against disk crashes, missing files, or installation disasters -- this, even though we had a copy of Uniblue Winbackup installed. A link marked "Learn how to fully protect this category" led to a Symantec Web page touting Norton SystemWorks 2006. Frankly, we'd like to see the Protection Center recognise installed non-Symantec applications -- and keep advertising clearly marked as such.

On the Windows desktop, Norton inserts a colour-coded status icon within the Taskbar. A green check mark means you're fully protected; a red X spells trouble. Pop-up messages warn you when Norton detects danger -- for example, whenever a new virus hits your system -- and offers a suggestion to repair the problem. In general, the frequency and the number of pop-ups were not overwhelming.
FeaturesNorton Internet Security 2006 has improved over the last year, thanks to a handful of worthy, if unspectacular, enhancements. For instance, a new feature called Security Inspector finds, and in some cases patches, potential security holes, including weak browser settings and Windows passwords. In our tests, Norton Security Inspector accurately detected and changed (after asking permission) several insecure Internet Explorer settings. It also discovered -- but didn't fix -- problems with our Windows passwords. Specifically, it found that our Windows XP administrator and other users had a "weak or missing password," and it suggested improvements such as using a password of at least eight characters with one or more nonalphanumeric characters. According to Symantec, Norton intentionally doesn't suggest secure passwords or automatically change them for you.
The new Norton Home Page Hijacking Protection feature is another nice addition. As its name implies, it prevents a rogue site from making itself your browser's home page -- an all-too-common problem for inexperienced Web surfers. That said, many free utilities, including HijackThis, already provide this same service. We also like Norton's much-improved firewall, which does a better job of automatically creating firewall rules -- that is, deciding which programs need Net access -- without pestering you for advice.
Unfortunately, Norton's new spyware protection should be even more aggressive. For instance, we were able to download and install WeatherCast, a free program known to contain adware -- before Norton offered to remove it. By contrast, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 warned us before we started downloading WeatherCast.


Speed? Unfortunately, Norton Internet Security 2006 is as slow as a slug. With Norton Internet Security 2006 running, Microsoft Word files took an extra two to three seconds to load; Outlook e-mails took several seconds longer to send. And Norton AntiVirus 2006 scans rendered our test PC useless for other tasks. True, if you run your scans at odd hours, you're fine. But don't try to work while Norton AntiVirus is scanning; Word took more than 2 minutes to load. In a comparison with the McAfee antivirus app, Norton took 1 hour, 45 minutes to scan a 19GB disk partition, while McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 was even slower, taking an extra 30 minutes to scan the same partition. However, McAfee offers a reasonable trade-off: Microsoft Word loaded in 26 seconds during our McAfee scans -- slow, certainly, but not unbearably so.Service and supportIf you run into problems with Norton Internet Security 2006, you can get help via free online chat or paid telephone support. Symantec offers both 24/7. Symantec's support site, however, needs a redesign; the link to the free online chat was extremely hard to find. After fumbling around, we discovered the free-chat link only after clicking the "Continue to phone support" link. Phone support costs AU$76.95 per incident for a standard consultation or AU$131.95 for a premier consultation.
We'd like to see better-trained tech reps too. Our online chat rep vanished for two to three minutes between each of our questions, during which he said he was "referring to documents." Translation: he didn't know his stuff. In responding to our simplest question -- How do you run Norton Security Inspector? -- he e-mailed instructions five hours later.

Verdict : This software made us to consider other software for use. As this software takes high ammount of CPU, RAM and gives average scan score. It is popular product but does not do anything better with poor customer support. It's daily signature file has very low virus definitions... The firewall is very powerful if we compare it to other suites. It's pop-up blocker and Anti-Banner and referrer blocker for Internet Explorer works great.Although it takes less ammount of resource if we compare it to it's previous products. But we would not recomend it for use.





Kaspersky Internet Security 6

Even if you've never heard of Kaspersky Lab, there's a good chance you've used the security technology found in Kaspersky Internet Security. The Russian vendor's antivirus engine is used to power dozens of better-known viral crusaders, including the popular F-Secure Internet Security 2006. By adding firewall and antispyware protection to its antivirus product, the powerful and well-designed Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 6 should bring Kaspersky out from behind the curtain and onto centre stage. It has strong virus, spyware, spam and firewall tools to compete against kingpinsNorton Internet Security 2006, McAfee Internet Security2006, and Zone Alarm Internet Security 6. The Kaspersky product's retail price is, however, very high. While Kaspersky Internet Security 6 is a solid security suite, we still prefer ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6 for the best all-around protection for your desktop PC.
The Kaspersky security suite installs within a few minutes with an easy setup process that involves just a few mouse clicks. Kaspersky will even run an optional, post-setup system scan if you want to start with a clean machine. The Kaspersky suite deserves praise for its aggressive security. Out of the box, the suite protected us from online viruses and worms, remote attacks, and malware such as spyware.
The suite's interface has been redesigned from previous versions', combining several stand-alone Kaspersky apps together into one integrated package. Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 6 is well organised, with important settings for antivirus, spyware, spam and other security tools just one click away from the main screen.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus has consistently ranked well among important third-party antivirus testing sites and is considered to be both faster and more reliable, with new signature updates, than brand names McAfee and Norton. The Kaspersky Anti-Hacker personal firewall works with the Anti-Spy feature, blocking sites with potentially dangerous content. For example, Kaspersky Anti-Spy blocked Internet Explorer from loading suspected adware sites such as WhenU.com. Other leading security suites, including F-Secure, Norton, and PC-cillin, all let us load potentially dangerous Web pages first before detecting and removing any downloaded malware. Still, the Kaspersky suite could do a better job of reporting its actions. For instance, we didn't see a pop-up message explaining why the WhenU.com page wouldn't load -- just a blank window. When we turned off the Anti-Spy feature, the WhenU.com page loaded correctly.
Like most security suites, Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 6 also fights spam. The Anti-Spam plug-in works with Microsoft Outlook and RitLabs The Bat eMail clients, making it easy to weed out junk mail. In our tests with Outlook, Kaspersky accurately blocked penile-enlargement ads (among others) as spam. Occasional errors were easily corrected by clicking either the Spam or Not Spam buttons on the Kaspersky toolbar.
Kaspersky provides technical support via e-mail as well as telephone (Monday to Friday 8.30am-5.30pm AEST). Online Kaspersky provides an interactive and thorough FAQ and an active user forum.
Overall, Kaspersky Internet Security 6 provides comprehensive security and is quite easy to configure. But it's Antivirus, and firewall is not upto the mark. The spyware and other tools for Internet Explorer like pop-up blocker works great. It's a bit pricey, though, so we still recommend McAfee Internet Security 2006 or Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security 2006.......