Set-up and installation:

The installation of Avast Pro Antivirus 6.0 is simple and straightforward. The complete installation was done well under a couple of minutes and the best part about that was, it did not demand any reboot.

Interface:

There are very few software interfaces that can be both great looking and perfectly functional, well, the Avast Antivirus Pro 6 is one of them. The main page lists the current security status of the system at the top and right under that, there is the on and off options for silent and gaming modes. With these options, you will be able to prevent the suite from displaying any pop-up messages for a set time period. It is also worth mentioning that the suite will automatically stop showing any pop ups if any application is running in full screen mode, which is a very thoughtful feature to include. There is a set of menu options to the left of the screen that provides you with quick and simple access to the suites extras such as the real-time protection features, virus scans and other miscellaneous protection features.

Avast’s System Tray context menu provides you with shortcuts to some of the popular Avast commands like SafeZome and Gaming Mode. You will also be able to disable the real-time shields for a while from the main menu. All of Avast Pro Antivirus 6’s bells and whistles are stored in the Additional Protection menu. In the sandbox, you will be able to run the notorious applications within a limited analysis state. In the situation where the application has malware, the suite the try and limit the damage it will cause to your system.

The only disadvantage that we found with the Avast interface is that, the suite plays a voiceover whenever something important happens. Your very first experience of this will be when you launch the application for the first time. A woman’s voice says “Welcome to Avast”, which can be quite annoying to hear over and over again. The good news is, you still can disable this feature in the settings menu and disabling the enable Avast sounds.

Features:

Avast is certainly much better than many of the leading antivirus suites when it comes to the department of features as well as protection.

Real-Time Shields:

The Real-Time Shields is one of the suite’s features where the software performs instantaneous scanning on the potentially unknown virus threats. And the suite has a broad spectrum of such real-time scanners for items such as instant messaging, web scripts, mail, P2P apps, arbitrary network connections, file system, and other such malware. On each of the scanners, there is a graph that details the current scanning activity and there will also be a red bar that comes up on the screen in case an intrusion is being attempted.

AutoSandbox:

Another of the new features of the Avast Pro Antivirus 6.0 Version is the AutoSandbox feature that utilises the real-time heuristics to put the applications that show suspicious behaviour in the sandbox without the user giving any sort of input.

SafeZone:

The most interesting and notable of the miscellaneous features is its SafeZone. This feature is a unique one that brings in a separate desktop that is a nag-free and stripped down Google Chrome, known as the SafeZone Browser. The feature is just built from the open source code of chrome, with just a few exceptions, but it is technically equivalent to the chrome itself.  This feature of the suite makes sure that none of the other applications or browser extension get access to the Safezone’s execution context as well as traffic from network. This also makes sure that the keystroke loggers and other malware from getting your personal and sensitive data.

Virus Scanning:

Avast Pro AntiVirus 6 offers a wide range of virus scanning options; such as a Full Scan of the drives, Quick Scan of the critical system areas, a custom scan for some specific files and directories, a scan of all the removable storage devices that are currently attached to the system and also a boot-time scan that will initiate each and every time the system is being restarted. Unfortunately, the suite is in the bottom in the scale when it comes to updating the virus definition database as it has an average of 2 updates for every day.

Speed:

Since the Avast Pro Antivirus 6 is rich in functionality, it can be forgiven if the software is not setting any particular records with the performance capabilities. The suite was able to scan just about 19MB of data per second, and for a 1GB file it took about a minute. While this is not the worst among the suites, it does place the software in the bottom three.

One of the biggest performance factors that consumers look for in the current antivirus suites is not only that the software provides top class protection to the system, but also does not slow down the performance of the computer too much by eating up all of its resources. The memory usage is quite minimal at 6.6MB, it increased about 22 seconds to the restart time, the installation of the program itself requires 280MB of your hard drive space, which it quite nominal. The first scan rates at about 20mbps and the subsequent scans take about 19mbps. The suite added fractions of a second to application launches and file conversions. Hence, as the numbers indicate, the Avast Pro Antivirus 6 is one among the best with less performance impact on the system.

Virus and Malware Detection:

Protection is the most important functionality that we expect from a software suite. So let us have a look how the leading virus and Malware testing industries have certified the suite. AV Comparatives have two main tests that they conduct, the first one is the Proactive Test in which Avast was rated 2 out of three stars and the second test is called the ‘On Demand Detection Test’ and Avast excelled in this test getting all three stars.  AV Test performed three tests on the suite with Windows 7 platform, Windows XP and Windows Vista and had scores that were good enough to get the lab’s certification. The ICSA and Virus Bulletin Labs have also certified the suite 100%. The West Coast Labs specialises in functionality testing and performance validation, and the Avast Pro Antivirus 6 has managed to get the WCL’s checkmark.

Support:

Avast always has had excellent help file assistance and the technical support options are quite good too. As we had mentioned previously, the suite has an excellent interface, offering great on-screen assistance and has great pop-up texts that define what are the features and options are all about. There is a great local help file, which is quite thorough and well written, simple to look for and organised well too. Unfortunately, it is not that simple to get help from Avast. The only link that you will be able to get through to the support site is in the local help file and when clicked, it opens the company’s support centre only in the help browser and not on your default one. Even after you manage to get there, all you get is a knowledge base, looking through the forums, and finally providing a support ticket. There is no live chat support either.

Verdict:

Overall, the Avast Pro Antivirus 6 is great with very few downsides. The only thing annoying with the suite is the woman’s voice over that will definitely force you to mute the speakers. The average scanning performance too is below average. However, the suite offers a fantastic interface with some of the features that are hardly provided with other suites. It also has some solid performance against viruses and malware. Autobox and SafeBone are fantastic features to be included in an entry-level commercial software. The Avast Pro Antivirus 6 is a great alternative to Norton and certainly deserves some serious consideration.

Avast Pro AntiVirus 6 Security Software – Package Details

Symantec claims that this newest version Norton 360 Version 5.0 comes with a much better performance in all areas including virus detection. The new additions to the suite include SONAR v3.0 as well as System Insight. This version has received a makeover sporting realistic animations and icons. The backup and restore utility has also been improved. In the following review, we will not be looking at the suite itself, as we have discussed about it in detail here in Norton 360 review, however, we will be looking at all the changes and additions made to the suite.

Design changes:

The major of the design changes is the change in Norton’s logo with a checkmark and logo. This logo might look familiar because, Norton got Verisign last year, and it has managed to integrated technologies in a single efficient package. In the last year’s version, the interface was not completely standard user friendly; no changes in settings could be made in this mode. In the latest version, this has been changed to a certain extent. However, it has not been changed to the desired extent, for instance, the StartUp manager allows only the Admin to access the account.

Installation of Version 5.0 Norton 360:

For installation, it requires a couple of restarts, which is not unexpected. However, we found that those virus signatures are not updated immediately. While Live Updates run, the suite downloaded a whooping 98.16MB worth of updates.

Lab Results:

Symantec’s claim that the Norton 360 V5.0 all-in-one security suite has an improved performance is confirmed with the test results. The suite has received a VB 100% from the famous Virus Bulletin. As far as virus detection and removal is concerned, both the WestCoast labs and ICSA have certified the suite. AV Test gave the suite pretty high scores for protection, usability and repair of threats too. The AV Comparatives has given the software suite an Advanced +, which is the highest rating for malware eradication and a lesser Advanced for proactive measures for new malwares. Dennis Technology labs with Trend and ESET labelled Norton 360 v5 as the best performing product.

World Protection map:

With this suite, you are not just provided with a world map of the top city threats, it sports quite a unique Norton Crime Index. When you click on it, a browser window opens citing the percentage of cyber crime that is increasing or decreasing. This part also provides with live news feeds on the most recent product releases etc.

Norton Download Insight:

The Norton Download Insight secures the system from the dangers that arise by downloading. It does so by not just checking each and every file against its own database, but also the database of the other Norton software users. While Download Insight previously supported only Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers, this time it has support for a range of browsers and clients such as, MSN Explorer, QQ Chat, Bit Torrent, Opera Browser, ThunderBird Email, Outlook Express, AOL browser, Limewire, Windows Mail, Safari Browser, Chrome Browser, Yahoo Messenger and FileZilla.

Firewall:

With the firewall feature, you will be able to check everything that goes in and out your computer, making the list very crammed. One big disadvantage is that, the software does not allow to search for programs through its firewall list and hence, you will end up going through every entry to stop or activate a program. If the software finds a file that comes in as a false positive, there is not way you will be able to ignore it in an intuitive way. Which means, once the file is caught, you will have to disable the antivirus and restore the file through Security History, go through the settings, and then put it into the exclusion list. We feel that the Full History option should be able to list the complete history, which Norton has not done. Instead, it gives only provides the threats in the list that are caught, with no indication of the files that have been ignored or closed with no action taken.

Vulnerability Protection:

As far as vulnerability protection is concerned, Norton does not just leave with the basic virus protection. It also keeps an eye on the most vulnerable programs on PC, which if not updated regularly, will easily be attacked by malware. The PC programs are nothing but the common applications that are based on the internet, such as, Silverlight, JAVA and Adobe Flash.

Safe Web Scanner:

The Safe Web Scanner is one of the newest features that checks news feeds and Facebook walls for bad links and other threats from the Norton Control Centre. We felt that the Facebook integration feature was not as intuitive as it could have been as too much interaction is required in order to let the user know that such an option is actually available, which should have been just available as default. In case you suspect a site, just click on the Safe Web and enter the UR, which will check if the site is safe or not, the suite will also check its huge database to see it has been rated as malicious or not.

Parental controls:

Symantec has also increased protection on parental controls in Norton 350 Version 5.0 Security Software, which will give the parents instant insight on what their children are doing online from anywhere remotely. With this account, you get web access to what the kid is looking, searching and accessing online. It is not a simple information on browser history, but also a neat and categorically divided information age wise that is offered support by Norton experts and community. Though it is not fully featured like the NetNanny software, but it is a good start for a suite that is mainly aimed at the home users.

Verdict:

The Symantec Norton 360 is one of the best firewalls and offered consistently high lab results. It is now much better at malware removal and has very low performance impact with a simple as well as efficient spam filtering and high end phishing protection. Though there have been a few disadvantages, this is the best security that your money can buy now. Symantec Norton 360 is just an all in all security suite, which is a install and forget suite.

Norton 360 Version 5.0 Antivirus – Specification Table

Features retained with some additions:

2011’s AVG Internet Security main window had a whopping fourteen icons of security and this year’s feature has retained all of the identical features, but with the shrinking of icons to just eight of them. There are three more icons giving you access to AVG PC Tuneup 2011, AVG Family Safety as well as AVG LiveKive internet backup.

Resource usage:

Without any doubts all of you would agree that the most important thing that the users will be looking for in a security suite is minimal usage of the resources. Nobody like their system to slowdown, and this is definitely mandatory than any great protection against malware. The good news is that, the AVG Internet Security 2012 suite did very well in performance with less resource usage. The AVG Internet Security Suite 2012 just took 6% longer then the same system without the suite. The antivirus suites will check the files on access, if they try to overdo the protection, they will end up slowing down the file operations. All of the web protection components including the LinkScanner does not seem to slow down the browsing experience in any way. AVG Internet Security 2012 did not have the lowest impact on any particular test, but it did have lesser impact than an average suite. Overall AVG has delivered on its promise to reduce the system resource usage.

Internal changes:

There are some enhancements made under the hood that are not visible. The latest addition is the AVG Accelerator that has promised to increase the download speeds from Download and YouTube and few others too. While it was a bit tough to measure the speeds, the YouTube videos did seem to be loading a lot quicker. The team at AVG suggest that you keep looking at your system for things that may aid in speeding up things and for now, what the suite does, is to request you to restart the browser when it detects using up heaps of memory.

LinkScanner:

The AVG 2012 Internet Security Package also has a feature known as LinkScanner that looks for malicious codes on webpages and it also manages to know what is running in the web browser. With the help of the latter feature, the suite gets the power to handle some of the more dynamic threats codes that seems to be spread of a number of WebPages. As far as scareware is concerned, AVG Internet Security 2011 makes use of the patent pending technique in order to detect the scareware program that is fully based on its user prompts and actions. With the help of this technology, it will be able to detect some of the latest scareware without the need of a file signature.

Firewall:

AVG Internet Security 2012’s Firewall has protection profiles including Home network, business and public network, with each of the profile having its own complete configuration settings. We recommend that you do not fiddle with these setting without any instruction from the support team. This Firewall was able to manage the work of stealthinng all the system’s ports. The suite passed out with flying colours in most of our web-attack testing. Like we had mentioned previously, the LinkScanner was able to put off attack over the network by both identifying and blocking the exploits. AVG has database of the known trusted programs and by default, the firewall seems to be automatically configuring the network programs for such programs. And, as far as the unknown programs are concerned, the old school query pops up, asking you if each and every program has to be allowed for complete entrée, only to the networks that are identified to be safe, or, it will just provide no access at all.
This type of program control is not so impressive. The latest firewalls like the one in Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Norton have employed the in-built aptitude in order to make security decisions. Just requesting the user to make a decision seems like getting into trouble. The suite seems to be still vulnerable to some of the basic attacks that will be a piece of cake for a malware coder and easily turn off the protection. All that is required is to set up the start-up status of the essential windows services to AVG to be disabled and then force in a reboot too. Suites such as TrendMicro Titanium, Norton and ZoneAlarm simply will not allow for any external change of this setting. Overall, the firewall does not match the quality of the antivirus, using the out of date user input technique for program control. We are looking for more enhancements in this area.

Online protection:

There is a feature known as Online Shield that is a component of the LinkScanner and is not available on the free version. While re-downloading the malware about half of the preexisting samples, and that is just average performance. The common features included in both the paid and free versions include the LinkScanner’s Surf-Shield as well as Search-Shield features. While the former looks out for the websites that hot spiteful exploits and takes away the users from such sites and the latter feature marks of the hazardous result links of the famous search engines. The Surf Shield feature is also supposed to be keeping you off from the fraud phishing websites, however, when the feature was put into test, it did not do a good job. Norton is the best when it comes to this task.

Social network protection:

Just like the antivirus suite, this 2012 AVG Internet Security also installs a tool bar offering some safe search and quick access to Facebook and few of the other features. With the PCAnalyzer tools, they check your system to see if it will be able to benefit by using AVG PC TuneUp 2011, which can be bought separately and then integrated into the security suite.

Malware protection:

Being free does not mean that AVG is any less on protection, it possess the same set of malware security as in the case of the full version. In our malware testing, the AVG Internet Security Suite 2012 managed to install with no issues and was also faster than most of the other leading suites in the market. One strange thing was that, we found the rootkit scan to be separate from the complete system scan. The suite was able to detect 88% of the threats, which is extremely good. The suite also performed quite well at malware blocking and it also managed to point out all the scareware and rootkit samples.

Spam filtering:

Everybody are not looking for a spam filter on the client side. Most of the email accounts will get filtered at lots of layers and even by the service provider. The AVG is capable of filtering the entering POP3 email accounts and also provide an identify marker in the subject line of the spam messages. This gets integrated with the Microsoft Outlook in order to immediately transfer these messages into the spam folder. The people who are making use of some other mail client will end up defining a rule in order to divert this spam.

Similar to the 2011 version of the suite, the current version of the suite also has advanced settings dialog box includes lots and lots of detailed settings meant for the spam filter. The only setting that we believe that an average user may be able to make changes to, is the big slider that allows you to control the spam filtering levels. The default level, which is the least aggressive one will avoid the false positives, but the down side is that, it will allow for more spam to pass through, with the higher level filtering more spam, but then, this will throw out the good mails too. The spam filter did not take longer than the time it would have taken without the filter. However, the bad news here is that, the 2012 version of AVG Internet Security was not as good as the 2011 version, allowing about 50% of spam inside the inbox, compared to the 8% of last year. If you are serious about throwing out the spam mails, we recommend that you just turn off AVG’s spam filtering and install Cloudmark.

Parental controls:

While many of the security suites included parental controls, the closest AVG comes to including parental controls, is the integration of separately bought AVG Family Safety. With AVG’s current promotion, you will be able to get this extra feature for free with a meagre donation. On the System Tools component, you will get a range of options to analyse what has been happening inside your system. On the processes tab, you also get to see whose behaviour is being watched by the suite, along with the particular behaviours it is looking for, and these behaviours include both good and bad, such as having a visible window and Windows directory. All the programs will be launched at start-up, including the complete path name and system location too from which the program launches. You also get an option to delete any of the start-up entry, and note that what you delete is permanently gone. Unless you are the AVG programmer, do not try to fiddle with settings of LSPs tables, connections and browser extensions.

Verdict:

The best thing about AVG Internet Security 2012 is its antivirus component. It managed to score quite well in malware removal and blocking tests. As we had mentioned earlier, we were totally impressed by the very low impact on system resources, which is quite a considerable improvement over the 2011 version. Firewall however, was not so impressive and was old fashioned and worse, it could be disabled programmatically by a malware. The antispam let lots of spam mails slip through and the antiphishing component of LinkScanner was also lagging quite a bit behind the best in the market. overall, it is a pretty good suite, however, you will be able to get the best elements of AVG Internet Security 2012 for free on AVG Anti-Virus 2012. For a complete protection, we will always recommend Norton Internet Security 2011.

AVG Internet Security Suite 2012 – Software Details

In the following review, we will see about one such complete protection packages, the Panda Global protection 2011 that is equipped with everything you can expect out of a complete package, such as, backup, system tune-up and even has a few extras that you usually do not expect. We feel that Panda has jumped into the 2012 version too quickly, but it does offer the company an opportunity to make changes and also improve the suite. One thing we know for sure is that, it has everything that a complete package has, let us see if it delivers on performance.

The antivirus and firewall components of the Panda Global Protection 2012 are very similar to the ones found in Panda Antivirus Pro 2012. Some of the other identical features include USB Vaccine, Safe Browser and a few of the other bonus features.

User Interface:

The first thing that we found to be new in the Global Protection 2012 is the new user interface. This user interface has been designed to address most of user’s complaints about the previous version.

Installation:

The installation of the suite was just fine, and the download was quite reasonable at 70 megabytes and comes with nice and significantly cut down definitions. Like most of the current antivirus suites, a pre-existing malware intruded with the installation of Panda’s Global Protection 2012. Fortunately, it was able to install and run in Safe Mode, that solved most of the issues, and its SafeDisk bootable rescue CD was able to fix the rest of the remaining process. You do have quite a few customisation options, so make sure that you read them. With the custom installation, you will be able to install individual components, and you also get an auto learning firewall option for common programs, and even permission to send questionable files to the cloud. The installer did ask for a restart, but it started regardless.

There are about four scanning options to scan; your entire system, hard disk, mail, other items and detect vulnerabilities. We felt the absence of a quick scan, but the real time shield does a pretty quick job. The complete system scan is also pretty quick at 5 to 16 megabytes per second. We found the suite to be possessing some excellent multi-core efficiency when compared to the other average antivirus systems. In just 20 minutes, the suite scanned about 20000 files.

Lab ratings:

As far as independent lab testings are concerned, even though Panda’s suite does not always manage to be the topper or even get close to the high scores obtained by the other leading antivirus suites such as F-Secure, Norton, Kaspersky or a few others, it still does a decent job and stays above average. In one of the whole product test conducted by AV Comparatives org, Panda secured the 5th spot out of 17 suites that were tested. In this test, the suite blocked about 97.4% of the threats, while the top scorer Norton caught a whopping 99.3%.

Mastering the Scareware:

At the time of testing, Panda Global Protection 2012 Suite was able to detect about 85% of the threats, however, failed to completely finish off what it managed to find. For instance, it left behind heaps of root kit samples that continue to be active even after the suite allegedly removing the threats. What the Global protection 2012 excelled at was scareware, with cent percent detection.

Malware detection:

While most security suites do a much better job of keeping out the malware in an already clean system, the Panda Global protection 2012 just roots out to the malware that already exists. Overall, the malware blocking skills of this suite was not so impressive. Most of the total security suites managed in detection and elimination of over 75% of threats on-sight, but Panda Global Protection 2012 caught just 30%, and it did stop most of the remain threat while launching or at the time of installation, which works out to be an overall detection rate of 83%. When we tried to download those samples again, the suite stopped about 11% of the threats at URL itself and the rest 33% was eliminated once the download is completed. The G Data Internet Security 2012 was capable of blocking 79% of the samples and McAfee Total Protection 2011 blocked 87% of them.

Firewall:

The firewall component in Panda Global Protection 2012 is quite similar to what you can find in the optional module of Panda Antivirus. This firewall component does all of the basics quite well. While testing, it was capable of acquiring all of the ports and also make the system invisible outside attack. Just like G Data, by default, it runs in automatic mode, taking own decisions on the which program should be allowed to access the internet on its own. There will be pop up questions coming up only when the firewall is taken out of the automatic mode.

When we tested the suite with about thirty attacks, it recognised and stopped just six of them. The Symantec Norton 360 identified and blocked each and every one of it, and it even identified each of it by name, whereas the Kaspersky Pure Total Security identified all but one. Though none of the intruders breached security, we expect that at least the firewall should be able to identify such attacks. The Panda Global Protection did not provide direct attack over its Registry settings or activate the processes, but we were able to easily disable it by just changing the configuration of eight of its services. We strongly believe that the self protection should be able to prevent attacks on these services too. When the firewall is considered as an added bonus, this is just sufficient, but when taken as a main component where the firewall protection is essential, the firewall component of Panda Global Protection 2012 can be considered only as average.

Safe Browser:

The Safe Browser feature of Panda is usually included in both the antivirus suite and the Global Protection. But, this module can be downloaded even without purchasing any of the Panda products. The Safe Browser is simply a modified version of Firefox that runs under Linux inside of a virtual machine within the Sun’s VirtualBox application. It is worth mentioning that the Safe Browser is quite a huge part of installation, and it is pretty slow to load in comparison to products such as SafeCentral 2.6 and the other sandbox parts of the Avast Internet Security 6.0, as well as Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. The safe browser needs to be streamlined into a single install with the correct components.

We did run into a few issues while testing the module. This feature does completely isolate your browsing from other activity and secures your privacy by deleting the browsing history and also completely resisting the Windows centric web attacks. We think that most of the users will end up finding this module to be extremely slow and quite awkward too.

USB Vaccine:

As we had mentioned previously, the independent antivirus suite of Panda and the Global Protection 2012 seemed to have a lot of the bonus features in common. One such tool is the USB Vaccine, which can also be downloaded for free. The USB Vaccine stops the spread of malware that enters through the USB drives. It does so by disabling the auto run in either some specific USB ports or just the complete system. There is also a vulnerability scanner that gives a report on the missed patches and even comes up with a Windows Update link for a fix.

Network Management:

There is also a Network Management module that gives a report on the computers in the network that are running on Panda and if you are out of date. The module also presents a network blacklist, which allows you to view all the devices that are connected to the network and gives you the ability to block any of them from connecting to your computer.

Spam Filtering:

The features that we have seen so far, are also available in the Panda Antivirus standalone suite of 2012, but the Spam Filtering module is available only in the Global Protection 2012. This module filters all of the POP3 mail and can even handle any sort of account in case you make use of Microsoft Outlook for your email client. The settings involved with this module are quite minimal, and most of you may not want to make a lot of changes from what is set as default. When we measured the download speed, with and without the Spam Filter ON, there was no significant difference. This is not something that you can take for granted, because, in G Data’s suite, with its spam filter module on, the email downloading too about four to five times longer than usual. No effect on the download speeds does not mean that the filtering job was accurate; while testing, we found that, in about 8000 real-world mails, Panda Global Protection 2012 filtered over 10% of valid personal mails as spam. It also tossed about 1.4% of bulk mail, and about 7.3% of absolute spams were able to secure a spot in the inbox.

In some of the recent antivirus suites, only the eScan Internet Security 11 was capable of putting in more false positives than Panda, with over 25% of valid mail in the spam folder. The 2011 version of the Panda Global Protection suite missed just 1% of the valid mail, and let about 15% of valid mail slip through. We feel that marking valid personal mails as spam is a much bigger issue than letting the spam mails in the inbox. If you receive innumerable mails every day, we suggest that you use Cloudmark DesktopOne Basic 1.2 for spam protection, instead of losing your important messages. This suite is available for free online. This suite does not block any valid mail, though lets a negligible amount of spam into the inbox.

Identity Theft:

As far as Identity Theft is concerned, Panda Global Protection 2012 tackles it in two different ways. Firstly, it requests for the confirmation of any of the time specific user defined confidential information, when it is about to be sent from the system, and secondly, it also blocks access to the phishing websites.

Anti phishing:

The anti-phishing feature of Panda Global Protection 2012 Software Suite was simply dismal when we tested the suite against some of the verified phishing URLs. The suite fell leaps and bounds behind Norton Internet Security 2011, however, most of the anti-phishing suites lag behind Norton. But, it is notable that only the BullGuard Internet Security Suite 10 and TrustPort Total Protection 2011 fell behind Panda. If you are serious about anti-phishing, you can consider G Data, Ad Aware Total Security 1.0 and BitDefender Total Security 2011. Ideally, protection of all your confidential information begins when you enter information such as bank account number, password, credit card number etc. This private information is stored using one-way encryption, so that this piece of vital information will not by itself become a security risk. However, the one thing that you should be aware of is that, there are no options available to actually block the transmission. Even with the Windows accounts that have limited privileges, Panda Global Protection 2012 just asks if you will allow transmission. This means, this feature cannot be used to keep your children from revealing your private information such as home address and phone number.

Parental controls:

The parental control feature of the Global Protection 2012 is pretty limited too. It is capable of filtering web content for each of the Windows user account. The parents get to choose from the predefined profiles or, you can also choose from 18 categories and 64 sub-categories. Finally, if you do choose to set parental controls, you will have to set a password in order to protect the settings.

The content filtering system offered by Global Protection 2012 is completely browser independent, but it is not capable of handling any secure HTTPS websites. This means, if your kid is a techie, he can surf the web without any restriction whatsoever, just by using a secure anonymous proxy. What Panda does do us, provide you with a report on all the attempts to visit the banned sites. Unfortunately, the data in each of the five columns is so wide that it cannot be read in the default format, and even when all of the columns are expanded to the width of the content, the reports still ends up being really wide. That is all what Panda Global Protection 2012 has to offer with parental control. It does not have the capability of monitoring chat, limit the games and videos based on ratings or even schedule the allowed Internet time. These are some of the advanced features that are usually found in full-scale parental control systems.

Kaspersky seems to be offering a fully featured parental control that seems to be offering solutions better than standalone products. Norton depends on the Norton Online Family Premier, which is an impressive product in itself. If you have utmost concerns about your kids using the net, download the free version of Norton Online Family, or even AVG Family Safety. All we can say is that, do not rely on Panda.

Backup:

The Local Backup offered is not much different from the last year’s edition. When automatic backup is enabled, the suite automatically takes a backup of specific file types including photos, contacts and office documents. You get to choose which file type is backed up and even add your own file types for the sake of protection, or just even back up all files in specific folders. By default, the suite retains all of the local backups for a month. There is a wizard that does the task of burning a copy of this back-up to a DVD or CD.

You also get 2GB of online backup for free with the suite, but since it has MozyHome Online Backup, you can just have this 2GB memory free even without buying the software from Panda. Another free subscription that Panda offers is a one year subscription to BeAnywhere Personal Edition that usually costs about 35 pounds. With this subscription, you can remotely access your computer and also sync files between systems.

The antivirus suites offer heaps more in the backup department. For instance, the Webroot Internet Security Complete 2011 has joined hands with SugarSync to offer about 10GB of online backup, with some other impressive features like remote access, syncing capabilities and file sharing. Similarly, Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 offers 10GB of backup along with file sharing and syncing included, Norton 360 also comes with about 2GB of online backup by Symantec, and with the Premier edition, you get 25GB.

System tune-up:

In Panda Global Protection 2012 has a tab called Optimise Performance, but there is nothing that you will be able to do manually. It has a cleanup tool that will just empty the recycle bin, discard the useless files and wipe off IE’s cookies, history and cache. This can be simply done using Windows Disk Cleanup feature and Internet Explorer’s Delete Browsing History option. We wonder why a disk defragmenter is offered when the same feature has been built into Windows.

This is quite disappointing as the other suites have a lot of options to optimise the system performance. While Norton 360 will be able to manage startup items, and it also gives options for delayed launch to ease the boot process. The suite comes up with with a diagnostic report that points out some issues that will slow down the system. BitDefender and Norton 360, both will delete the erroneous Registry items and useless items. Even AVG Internet Security 2011 does a through clean-up using the AVG PC Tuneup 2011.

Most recent security software do not put a lot of drag on the activities of the system. They are aware that the consumers will not accept a security suite that tends to slow down the system. We were surprised to find that the performance of Panda Global Protection 2012 was lower than last year’s suite. For instance, the browsing takes over 80% longer with the Panda security suite employed, this is about 28% higher than last year. The only other suite that performed worst than Panda was eScan. With the suite installed, a lengthy file, move and copy operations took only 10% longer; this is quite good.

Verdict:

Overall, we were quite disappointed with Panda Global Protection 2012 in almost every area of it. when it came to malware removal, blocking, anti phishing and anti spam, this version scored lesser than the 2011 edition. The backup and cleanup modules do not even close to what the high end consumers are used to. A number of extras the suite claims to offer are available for free even without purchasing the suite. The final nail on the coffin is that, this Panda Global Protection impacts the system more than its processor.

If you are looking for a good performer, the one with tune-up, Backup and all that, the best option will be Norton 360 Version 5.0. Another good alternative is Kaspersky Pure Total Security if you are not looking for any online backup. If you are more interested in powerful and flexible backup, as well as file syncing, then the Trend Mico Titanium Maximum Security 2011 or Webroot Internet Security Complete 2011 are great options. With such range of options available, at more or less the same price, we do not find a reason why you should opt for the Panda Global Protection 2012.

Panda Global Protection 2012 Suite – Specification Details

Pros:

• Quick and simple setup
• Easy to use interface
• Heaps of options for the advanced users
• Sandbox mode
• Less resource use and lessens boot-up time

Cons:

• Not much of PC optimisation tools
• Lack of online backup
• Quite expensive

Review:

Kaspersky can be said to be the pet security suite designer among us, the geeks. This company managed to prove to be a big hit among the mainstream users and is catching its own space on the store shelves and our site’s Best Buy. It is not resource hungry, so it will form immediate love affair with the power consumers and the interface is easy enough for the novice.

Overview:

The Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 sports some of the most hi-end features in its parental control module and the suite even seems to be shortening some of the PC’s sluggish boot times. While it would have been great if Kaspersky had included some of its PC optimisation as well as backup features, the suite still maintains Kaspersky’s reputation of not having any bad influence on the performance of the PC.

Installation and Set-up:

The installation and set-up process of the Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 is much swifter and simpler than setting up of almost every other security software that are in the current market. One of the highlight features to note while installation is that, the suite does not demand a reboot. This installer even scans your system and creates a list of trusted apps, hence, even before you start using the software, it would have created some context about your likes. Even before the application is opened, Kaspersky would have placed a gadget on your desktop, which is a circle with a half moon with the colour of the health of your system. The colour code is the usual one that you will be well aware of; for instance, green when your PC is healthy and Red when in real danger. In the lower half of this circle you will find two virtual mouse buttons, which can be customised as shortcuts for your favourite features, like say, home network monitor and parental controls. One of the very handy features that we really loved is that, you get to drag and drop files to scan them for any virus presence.

Simple with choices:

The User Interface has gone through some tweaking and looks much more polished now. Despite the changes, the basic features are kept to be the same; it is the clear tabbed interface making it easy to check on your protection status.

As we had mentioned in the introduction, the Internet Security 2011 from Kaspersky has kept things simple for the users who are not so familiar with the techie terms. That said, it discreetly presents the tech freaks with enough details on setting options to not disappoint them. On the top of the main screen, you will find a big colour coded circle with a single statement given the security state of your system; for instance, a yellow circle with the sentence “Your computer security is at risk”. And, next to the statement, there is a button that says, “fix now”, which is a big relief to the consumers who are not so confident about their techie side’s issue resolving capabilities. On the left side, there is a pretty simple list that gives the set of categories that include ‘Protection Center’ that offers an overview of the security; ‘Safe Run’ option providing a way to make use of the virtual keyboard and yet another one for protecting the users while you are on the sites that deal with your confidential information like online banking sites; the other categories include Scan, Update Center, Parental Controls and Tasks that include a range of clean-up and backup options.

The advanced settings:

The advanced settings menu can be accessed by clicking over the Settings that is placed on the upper right corner of your main screen. Even here, Kaspersky has placed a streamlined list of options, and each of these settings options has simple check boxes. In both of these, we loved the fact that there are no pop-up windows hassling, and the entire user interface has been contained in a single box. What we mean here is that, the users get to set the program to rename or delete the attachments with some specific file extensions.

Incompatible Software issue:

If you are unlucky, you will stumble with this issue at the time of installation. The set-up program of Kaspersky 2011 Internet Security Software complains that it cannot continue because of the installation of ClamAV, it seems that this program is incompatible and should have been removed immediately, but what if the software had not been installed for months now. While there were no signs of the ClamAV software, there was some stray reference of the suite on the registry, whose removal did no good. Eventually when we checked the support section in the Kaspersky website, we came to know that the “incompatible software” check should be turned off. Once this is done, the program gets installed. We think Kaspersky should have done it in a better way.

Security features:

Like any of the security software that is in its senses, the Kaspersky Internet Security’s toolbox too attacks threats in browsers, IM clients, even on the desktop, that includes malware, phishing attacks and malware. This suite also includes FireWall like most of its rivals. Kaspersky has employed its Proactive Defence Technology on the Internet Security 2011, which safeguards the system against latest threats much before they even try to reach your PC by scanning pages for characteristics of phishing sites as well as restricting the behaviour of the loaded doubtful applications. This year, consumers also get access to a website rating system that comes up on your search results, and also a Geo Filter that allows users to block content from certain parts of the world; anticipating cyber invasions from as-yet unknown directions. Kasperksy has said that most threat comes from outside of the United States and United Kingdom. You also can execute the sites and desktop applications in a sandbox mode, which allows you to operate them independent from rest of the system. This is an excellent idea for those who do the online banking.

Antivirus Engine:

Antivirus engines of Kaspersky have always been appreciated by the high end testing labs such as AV Comparatives which awarded Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 its highest Advanced+ rating for the on-demand malware detection, especially for the fact that it raises extremely low false alarms.

The antivirus engine of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 begins with a solid base and then moves on to a range of options that inspects your computer. As soon as the installation is done, the program will check your drive only when your system is idle, hence, you will not be interrupted by a scan that suddenly pops up. You also get to scan a file or folder with just a rigt click from Explorer and option to run Critical Areas scan, which will check for threats in the most likely area, or a complete scan that will run through the full computer. You will always be able to set-up any of these options to run automatically through the scheduler that is quite configurable. The scheduler also has options that allow you to minimise the impact on performance, these scans can be paused till the screensaver is active. The overall scanning performance is average, but it is acceptable. If you are looking for some better performance, the suite offers heaps of configuration options that come in quite handy. For instance, you can get the suite to scan just the new or changed files, which make the scans quite speedy.

Real-time Protection:

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 suite has employed some really extensive real time protection features that will keep looking for any invasions on your PC. The suite checks the supplications you run, the files opened, IMs (MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk, Ru Agent, IRC and Yahoo), inbox and sent mails, http web traffic, and also check the incoming network packets for any alarms.

The browsing protection can be said to be a bit more light weight than most of its competition. You do not get any huge tool bars here and there will not be any alerts that will be displayed against the URLs in the search engines; the browser looks as it did earlier. The Safe Surf module just looks out for suspicious and phishing URLs that go on in the background and this will be able to block the opening of the dangerous websites completely; strangely this option has not been turned on by default. This is exactly what will be happening while running the Internet Explorer of Firefox, but everybody else is simply out of luck. The settings dialog box also does not present any good news. While there is an option to block dangerous scripts, it is only in the Microsoft Internet Explorer. The good news is the core PC real-time protection seems to be much improved, especially with the new System Watcher Technology. This technology actually tracks what the programs are doing, for instance, the files that they are creating, changing, the changes in Registry, as well as the system calls made. If the suite is found to be behaving suspiciously, not only is the program blocked, but most of its changes can be reversed in just a couple of moments. This has the potential to undo a great deal of damage and is a great boon for the suite.

AntiSpam and Firewall:

The Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 Software Package is loaded with a spam filter that directly supports Outlook, Windows mail, Thunderbird and The Bat; and SMTP, POP3, IMAP traffic filters making sure it works with anything and everything.

The suite makes use of a different set of techniques in order to detect spam: GSG-based image recognition, iBayes along with custom heuristic technology, comparing dicey URLs databases and the users own personal blacklisting and whitelising.

Performance:

Kaspersky was once great with malware detection, but it had struggled in the past couple of years to compete with stellar competition from Norton and Avira. At the very first glance, we thought that that has not changed in Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. From a selection of over 300 samples, the suite managed to identify quite an impressive 96%, but Norton 2010 managed an impeccable 99% and Avira just behind at 98%. However, this year Kaspersky has a new ace up its sleeve. Though it did not manage to identify all the malware, it noted the ones that it did not know were unsigned and not commonly found on the other Kaspersky subscriber’s PC and just flags them to be suspicious. And, when we tried to run them, and when they tried to dig into the system, the software intervened rightly and raised the alarm.

Safe Run:

The Safe Run for Websites builds the sandboxing system for the applications that first appeared in the year 2010. This allows you to run your browser in the protected mode, with a green border; preventing rouge processes from snooping on its traffic as well as cached data. All you have to do is, tell the URL to your software and it will automatically open a ‘safe’ browser whenever you go there.

System Roll-back:

Most of the other new additions in the 2011 edition are prosaic, yet useful ones. The System Roll-back tool undo’s the damage that were done by the viruses, which is potentially handy if the Windows System Restore seem to be too blunt.

Less drain on system resources:

The highlight feature of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 is its very less impact that it has on the PC. This is, with or without a scan running in the background. For instance, when we launched Firefox on the Core i3-powered HP PC, the process took less than a couple of seconds. You can even further minimise the impact of performance with the creation of a gamer profile as well as allowing the system to disable scheduled scans when the system is unplugged.

PC Tune-up and Back-up Tools:

That was all the positives of the Kaspersky Internet Security 2011, but there are two areas where the suite falls behind; the PC Tune-up and backup tools. While most of its rivals do offer registry cleaners as well as tools that cleanse duplicate files, the tools of Internet Security 2011 seem to be more slanted towards protecting the privacy instead of enhancing the speed. For instance, the Privacy Cleaner tool erases the recent commands, coolies, accessed files, logs and ilk from your PC, all of which is useful, but if it has a few products that have been specially designed for the optimisation of the PC performance, it would have made Internet Security a much attractive offering. However, even after this search as well as a complete system scan that focuses on the critical areas, the PC’s boot time dropped from a minute and 30 seconds to a very impressive, minute and 10 seconds.

Unlike most of its rivals, the Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 does not provide any free storage. However, using the suite, you will be able to create a restore disc. Though it is good to know that you will be able to restore your PC in case something goes wrong, it would have been much assuring if the suite was capable of automatically backing up your system in real time, so you always get a current set of files and folders.

Parental controls:

The parental controls of this Internet Security have been baked inside the suite, which is not true of, such as Norton 360 is web based. You will have to create a password for the parental control features, and have to specify if this password is required in configuration of these settings, close the software or even in the removal of it. As in the case of most of the parental control feature of other suites, the adults will create a profile that includes a picture for their kid. However, we were left wishing if you could create multiple profiles for number of children or user accounts.

The Parental Controls of Kaspersky is complete, next to only Norton 360, offering a larger set of options for tweaking the settings. The categories offered by the suite include Instant Messaging, application usage, private data, web browsing, file downloads, computer usage and internet usage. These categories allow parents to allow or block access for specific hours every day. The Application Usage feature makes it quite easy for you to browse the system to isolate applications that you do not want to find your kid using. With the Private Data option, you can prevent kids from giving access to important pieces of information, such as social security numbers, and Word Usage modules monitors the use of specific words, and this user is unique to Kaspersky. And, it is up to parents to add offensive words to the list. In the Instant Messaging category, you will be able to block users, however, as far as this module is concerned, we liked the approach of Symantec that offers parents the option of monitoring the conversations as well as blocking new friends till they approve them of their children. We liked how Kasparov parental controls prevent kids from downloading certain file types, like music or apps.

Verdict:

Though Kaspersky’s Internet Security 2011 is relatively expensive, it sports enough set of features to keep the resource-conscious users quite happy, and easy enough for those who like to set and just forget about it. Symantec Norton 360 is a good alternative, as it offers parental controls, PC Tune-up tools and online backup at a lower cost. Kaspersky’s Internet Security 2011 was best for those who are very much conscious about power. While its signature scanning might take only a bronze medal, it makes up for that with impressive heuristics with all the bells and whistles you ever wished for. However, if you want to get the best out of this suite, it demands a higher degree of technical nous. For instance, with the Safe Run feature, it will prove to be useful only if you know when and how to activate them, and its range of options are likely to overwhelm novices. Actually, you are paying for this power too. Another alternative you can consider is, the G Data Internet Security 2011, which is both simpler and cheaper.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 – Software Specification Details

Overview:

Pros:

• Reliable
• Adaptability to user type irrespective of the level of computer knowledge
• Extremely flexible interface
• Heaps of customising options available
• Minimal system resource usage
• Clever scanning with Smart Schedule
• Lower scan times with QuickScan
• Omission of known OS files

Cons:

• Slow loading by Search Advisor
• Frequent Firewall Pop-ups
• Redundant messages

Review:

In the antivirus industry, the BitDefender Total security is quite a solid product. It has no specific specialists, which is exactly the reason it pushes itself above the herd, having said that, it does not have any major disadvantages to its name either. It poses to be a convincing alternative for those looking for a change from the other well known rivals. The 2011 version of the suite has been released and the company has announced that the consumers will be able to find a great deal of enhancements along with some new features that raises the bar of protection. BitDefender has also said that this suite will be easy to handle even to the novice users. In the following review of the BitDefender Total Security 2011, let us find out if this manufacturer has lived up to its own promises.

Pervious users’ attention!

Before we go into the review of the Total Security 2011, you should be aware of the fact that BitDefender provides free upgrade to its 2011 product line to any of the 2010 version users. This means, all you have to do is, enter the Total Security 2010 key in order to activate the 2011 version of the Total Security suite. You will also find a single installation kit of 254MB that includes all the three paid PC security products by BitDefender. This kit includes the Antivirus plus, Total Security and Internet Security. The difference is made only by the license key you enter.

A simplified user interface:

It is true that the Total Security is one of the most complex security suites by BitDefender that features most security features that man knows of for a system user. At the time of installation, we noticed that the process of creating a user profile has been simplified by a great deal. Now, all you have to do is, just select one of the three view types you wish the suite to look like at the first launch. The three view options of the suite to appear like later on from the application window includes expert, intermediate and basic.

Keep or Remove:

Prior to the commencement of the actual installation, the BitDefender Total Security runs a quick security scan in order to be certain that the system does not suffer from any active malware that has the potential to obstruct the procedure. At the time of installation, if you had the previous version of the suite installed, the software will remove it first and only after that is done, the 2011 version will be installed. A restart is required for this process to be completed. Note that, it is mandatory that you have to sign in with your BitDefender account in the next screen that appears if you are looking to use the suite after the 30 day trial period. If you are using a license that had been validated before, this will prove to be a bane.

Having said that, the BitDefender also does an aggressive search for other security programs installed. Unlike the suites from other major security brands, BitDefender does give you the option to keep it if you wish to do so. However, if you choose to keep it, this suite might not function properly, but at least you have the option, while other suites will refuse to install until the other is uninstalled. As far as the uninstallation of the Total Security 2011 is concerned, the process is fast and painless and the program even gives the user options to activate Windows Defender as well as Windows Firewall. However, we found a few registry entries that were left behind.

The initial configuration:

Depending on the type of view you like once the installation is complete, the initial configuration window comes up which offers numerous choices about how to configure the installation. Hence, if you choose the Expert view, you will get to choose on the features and modules you wish to be enabled. With the Basic and Intermediate views, you can customise the dash board, which is the main application window, along with shortcut features such as Parental Control, Game Mode and Home Network Management. While you are examining the configuration steps you would like to deal with, at the background, BitDefender will be silently running all of the installation routines. However, it does not go unnoticeable, as you will have pop-ups that go on constantly giving information that the Firewall and Windows Defender have been disabled. At the end of all this, you can ask the suite to do a complete system scan, so that you are sure that there is not malware whatsoever. During this time, the Total Security does further configuration to establish the type of network connection.

After the completion of the installation, BitDefender 2011 Security Software opens a website in your default browser and requests you to rate the installation experience. Though we appreciate BitDefender being keen on knowing users feedback, we are not quite sure if this is the right way to elicit this. Our thought is that, this is not one of the low-input installation and also needs a lot of babysitting than most users would like.

The Expert and Intermediate views:

If you wish to have access to all of the features and functions of the suite, you have to opt for the Expert view. With Expert view, you get complete control over the suite as well as its modules such as parental control, firewall, anti spam, privacy control, antivirus, back up, vulnerability, home network, tune-up, encryption, game and laptop mode. With each of these options, you get a wide range of customisation possibilities that allows you to have the suite your way.

As far as the Intermediate option is concerned, the dashboard gives you access to the system maintenance tools, security module, backup and encryption tools and Home Network. The Intermediate view actually adds heaps of complexity to the Basic Interface. Here, you will find more options in the main user interface along with top level tabs and some configurable tools beneath it for swift access to the most commonly used features. It is just confusing and we feel that the Intermediate view does not make much sense. Just being an uncomfortable balance between the text links and shortcut icons. Even though you are an advanced user, we would recommend the Basic View option if you want to speed up the installation process, you can change to Advanced interface later.

Basic View:

As the name indicates, the Basic View is the least comprehensive management tool of the lot and by default, with this module the control a user has over the modules is quite minimal and you get only the essentials in the interface including some system tune up tools, scanning and also a few instruments of backup and restore. Here, you get a large, coloured security status indicator on the left and some really large buttons on the right for accessing Tune up, Security and My Tools. On clicking on each one of these, drop down menus open with a list f choices. You also get to customise the list of visible extras. With the Basic View, there is also a possibility for you to activate the laptop and game modes and also to run a quick scan, which you will be able to find in the Security Menu. While the Intermediate and Basic view modes come with very less management possibilities, you will be able to configure the dashboards of both the views to expand your control. This is one of the biggest advantages of the adaptive design feature that BitDefender has introduced in its 2011 product line.

Quick Scan and Smart Scan:

It is no secret that cloud antivirus is great at taking the load off user’s station as well as provide faster scan results. You can also opt out of this cloud based virus scan. There is no doubt in the fact that this is important and recommended too, but it took almost five minutes on our system. Hence, for consumers with older computers, or just unprepared to take that break will get quite frustrated with the delay.

BitDefender calls this feature as QuickScan and it helps with reducing the impact in system resources a great deal and also the time required for completing a full scan. The Smart Schedule feature enables the user to run scans while the computer is idle, and pauses as soon as the system resumes. As far as the efficiency of this improvised malware protection is concerned, the standard has not been lowered in this version. When tested against a database of three hundred of worst threats, the results seemed to be pretty satisfactory as just eleven of the threats managed to get through the threats. And with the latest database of 38 worst threats, only eight were left behind.

Improvised scanning:

BitDefender has improved the scanning technology on its Total Security 2011 by moving most of the scan to the cloud. This is by following the trend of the most of its rivals whose behavioural engine has proven to be more effective and successful at stopping threats than the traditional virus definition files. However, you must make a note that the VDF remains to be a component in how the BitDefender protects the users. This reputation engine on this suite does not completely ignore the file that has been identified as safe. On the basis of a geometric progression algorithm that has an eye on when the particular file was previously accessed, the suite will regularly look at safe files in order to make sure that they have not been converted into sleeper agents.

Antivirus:

The Antivirus module on the BitDefender Total Security 2011 has bought in a new layer of security. This new layer is apart from the standard protection offered against all types of malware, which is nothing but the signature based detection and elimination of phishing attacks by the antiphishing toolbar that is automatically installed in the internet explorer as well as Mozilla FireFox. In order to counter attack the infections that can be caused through malicious sites, BitDefender has introduced the Search Advisor. From the 2011 version of the BitDefender Total Secirity Suite, the software is capable of scanning through the search results of search engines such as Bing, Google and Yahoo and identify the sites that seem to have compromised with the security.

Search Advisor:

The Search Advisor is based on the identical technology as the one used by antiphishing as well as anti fraud engines, and it is also equipped to check if the links that are returned by the search engine are reliable or not. To make sure that the efficiency is high, the results are checked against a database of signatures, but there is nothing to worry as the code is also analysed. But note that, this will have an adverse effect over your browsing speed. We noticed this during our tests as the safety marks will be loading progressively.

Parental Controls:

The parental controls are same as the ones found in the previous versions. However, there is a major difference; now you get to view and configure the activities of your kids remotely for any of the web access point via an online parental control management console. Just log in to the BitDefender account, and you get immediate access to recent activity, alerts as well as settings. You can still enjoy the amazing flexibility that users are accustomed to in the version too; from blocking the websites and applications to defining the Internet access schedules. You also get to see the stats of the most accessed sites along with the most used applications and contacts in IMs such as Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger. Note that the effects of the settings in the online console is not instant as it takes a while for this data to be sent to software that had been installed in the system and get the restrictions alive.

Home Network:

The number of computers in a household increases as the size of a family increases and, with the BitDefender Total Security 2011, you get to administer the BitDefender products that are installed on various stations that are inside the particular network. As far as what you get to do with remote access includes running manual scan, registering the product, begin the process of update, run a tune-up procedure, initiate a fix all the issues routine and also a specific parental control. Once you add the system to the BitDefender Home Network and complete the verification of all the passwords, you will be just good to go.

Vulnerability Scan:

The Vulnerability feature is amazing, though it has a generalised name. What this feature actually does is, analyse the programs that you had installed that possess sneaky vulnerabilities. This has software such as Adobe Flash Player that especially has reputations for being slow to provide security updates. In individual checks, the software has a look at the installed programs and Windows patches, and it even does an analysis at your system password in order and let you know if it is strong enough. This does quite a deep scan to find even the noncritical updates. But the only issue here is that, the suite does not know to differentiate between a real noncritical update and other noncritical but essential updates.

Monitor system resource:

The module for improving the performance of the PC in the Total Security 2011 all-in-one security software offers you with a new instrument to maintain the computer at the best of its behaviour. There is a Monitor option in the menu which offers you with a great deal of statistics about each of the applications that currently run in your system, and it even calculates the average RAM and CPU usage and goes on to label the usages to be high, medium or low. With this information, you get to decide which of the apps cause a performance drag on your system and just shut it down. Above all, the Total Security will make a half an hour RAM and CPU usage for each of the elements available. One of the additions to this module is that, at the time of PC Clean-up, you have now got the advantage of choosing the elements that you wish to be removed. For those who are confused on what good is this going to make, here is it: for instance, you can select Internet Explorer or FireFox cache to be purged or say, if the list of temporary and recent documents be removed.

The system usage is kept to minimal and during tests the BitDefender Total Security 2011 required just 80MB for the tasks involving scanning and the average CPU use was in-between 50% to 60%.

Smart Tips:

BitDefender has also included a Smart Tips feature which informs the user when they are missing out on some of the essential security and performance tasks. For instance, it will notify you when a recently created file has not been packed up.

Tutorial Supports:

If you are a novice user and opt for the Expert View, you will simply be baffled by the overwhelming options. Hence, just be careful with the view option you select with the BitDefender Total Security 2011. However, you need not panic as the learning curve of the suite is not too tough, particularly when taking into consideration the new support feature sporting flash videos which explain each step in detail as plainly as possible. These tutorials cover a wide range of topics right from the creation of the BitDefender account to the most difficult process such as elimination of infected files from the System Volume Information folder and addition of exclusions in the Active Virus Control module. The only requirement for this to work is that, you will have to possess internet connection to view the video clips.

Existing Features:

Now that we are done with the new features and enhancements included in this 2011 version of the BitDefender Total Security, it is also worth noting that the suite has also maintained quite high standards that were experienced with the BitDefender Total Security 2010. The Firewall still takes care of the high profile job of filtering the data coming in as well as the stuff going out and the Vulnerability module will keep on having an on the latest installations of updates as well as applications on the system to be up to date. For the sake of identity theft, there is Privacy control, which also offers guard against tracking cookies or scripts from gaining access to your private data and Trojans trying to fit in Windows Registry.

Performance:

The detection engine of the BitDefender Total Security 2011 is same as that of its siblings, the BitDefender Internet Security 2011 and BitDefender AntiVirus Pro 2011. Though BitDefender might not be a very popular name in security industry, but a popular name does not always mean efficiency. The initial scan is completed in about four minutes and a quick scan averages about a minute and a through complete scan takes just over 50 minutes.

Third party ratings:

Virus Bulletin has provided the BitDefender Total Security 2011 the VB100 award, which means, the suite is capable of detecting most viruses in the loose at both on-demand and on-access scanning and does not generate any false positives while scanning clean files. According to the on-demand detection tests of AV Comparatives, the Total Security 2011 has got the Advanced+ rating. West Coast Labs has offered the suite its checkmark certification as well as Platinum Product Award.

The AntiSpam issue:

That was all good news, so here is the bad one. We had some issues fiddling with the suite and was not able to test the AntiSpam module. When tried in the Mozilla Thunderbird and Outlook 2010, both of which are portable and desktop versions, we had no luck, and the result was the same ‘no emails filtered’. When we thought the issue was just with us, we found several of the users also came up with the same problem.

Support:

Unfortunately, now a days, security suite businesses choose to keep their support number deeply buried and BitDefender is no exception. Its support number as well as the live chat support is kind of hidden. Access from the software interface would be excellent, especially if the net goes down.

Verdict:

The enhancements made on the BitDefender Total Security 2011 is not negligible at any cost; stuff like selective scanning of files when the suite is aware that the data is clean, results verification in Yahoo, Google and Bing, Scanning in the Cloud and the online parental control console are all a big step towards a big evolution of the security suite. Except for the very minor niggles encountered at the time of testing, the suite was great in all the other fronts and, the best part about the suite is the kind of confidence it gives the beginners. The advanced users are also not starving with the expert view and the overall level of protection offered by the suite is commendable. The BitDefender TotalSecurity 2011 has set new standards for the company itself. Having said that, the mixed test results make it a product hard to sell when compared to some of its nearly perfect competitors.

There have been heaps of user reviews stating that the product completely stopped them from connecting to the internet. Though we did not experience it, the complains have just been too overwhelming to ignore. Because of the inconsistencies in performance too, it is quite hard for us to recommend the BitDefender Total Security 2011.

BitDefender Total Security 2011 – Software Specification Details

Pros:

• Absolute active protection technology
• Enhanced 2-way firewall
• New home screen
• New scheduler and idle timer
• Enhanced alert system
• Improved help center
• Advanced firewall integration

Cons:

• Registration a must
• Misses out on a few essential features

Review:

When it comes to purchasing antivirus software, you might want to go for a company that you will be able to trust, as the internet threats are really serious. This is one of the reasons why McAfee is one of the major choices for those looking for software suite. Nobody will argue with us if we said that McAfee is one among the chief names in the industry of security software for computers. While we have to confess that they are not the most efficient of quickest in the current market, they do have a few positives about itself that makes it a very attractive option for system security.

Installation:

The installation and set-up process has been simplified by a great deal, which is an update that any consumer will appreciate. Installation of McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2011 took about three minutes and one second. When compared to the BitDefender software, the company employs a restricted number of dialog boxes and prompts while installation. While it is not as smooth as Nortion Antivirus 2011 installation, the company still tries to keep the process quite simple, without outing their customers through the technical issues like BitDefender. You will find a banner at the top which will indicate the security state of your system. You will also find a list of easy to understand commands that you can find from the HTML type of links. When you click over it, a mini menu will open to the right side of the instruction with some sub options. It will take you just a couple of clicks to get the complete scan of your system up and running and it is not terrible either. You will also find a features box below the dashboard that will find a complete list of securities offered by McAfee.

Get protected from the get-go:

This suite sports the required set of features to make sure that your security is perfect from the minute you start working, such as finding and removing the threats that install themselves and this type of precautionary actions just makes sure that you get a quick installation sans getting stopped by any sort of malware that already resides in your system. The account settings are quite easy to adjust and the McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 Software even offers one of the best Microsoft Outlook 2010 integration. The ease of use of the entire suite has been improved.

Ease of use:

For most of you out there, schedule of the scans and making necessary changes to the settings within 2011 McAfee AntiVirus Plus the suite should be quite easy. The interface that has got a make-over is not anything fancy, but is quite simple and straightforward giving easy navigation. From the main menu, you will be able to access all the important features and the security banner that is differentiated by colours so that you will be able to immediately identify if the security if your software is updated and you can get to any problems immediately. One important thing that you will have to note here is that, the suite does not need any sort of continuous safeguarding. However, you must also be aware of the fact that it has been designed to safeguard your system, as and when you access the files or just browse online. The suite is quite inconspicuous. Of course, there will be a couple if pop-ups, but you can just turn off all the notifications that are not necessary.

Scanning:

Similar to most of its rivals, McAfee too offers support for complete Scan of your drive and also a quick scan and look for major issues. You can also run a custom scan seeking for the malware and other issues in hard drive and network that concerns you the most. Scanner of the suite will remove the unwanted viruses and programs and also track cookies that will take care of browsing. There is a checkbox provided that allows you the shutdown your system once the complete scan gets over. Again, a very handy feature that initiates physical virus scan during late night.

Registration- A Must:

One of the major issues with the interface is with the process of registration. There are cases when you will not want to register a product. However, with the McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 you are given no preference other than to register it as soon as the software is bought.

What is new?

The McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 provides virus protection and heaps more, with a little added tools that enhance its effectiveness. Features wise, what is new with the McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011? Well, to begin with, it has an improved two way firewall, and as we had mentioned earlier, an alert system that is less intrusive now and enhanced integration with Microsoft Outlook 2010. The McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 suite offers you protection against a number of threats such as viruses, identity theft and spyware. It is a absolute antivirus suite, protecting your system from the worms, rootkits, common viruses, and Trojans. This suite also has the ability to sense and keep away from attacks from malicious scripts, dialers, hackers, adware, phishing scams, and heaps more.

QuickClean and Disk Fragmenter:

You will be able to realise that there are quite a few functionalities that the suite does not have, but it also has a few unique features that are not always found on most mainstream antivirus suites. All in all, it has quite a set of functionalities that allows your PC or Mac to provide better performance such as a shredder, disk fragmenter and QuickClean. These updations made will not only be consistent, but will also be automatic, that is only as long as you have a subscription for it. With the digital file shredder feature, you will be able to permanently and safely eliminate the junk and sensitive files and folders. You can even shred them off up to ten times for the sake of complete elimination. The QuickCleaner tool has been designed to fix or remove the fragmented files and the other stuff that causes your precious system to slow down and also locate them.

SiteAdvisor:

Their SiteAdvisor toolbar continues to offer proactive protection as you search online. There are many system security manufacturers that provide you with link scanners, but McAfee is the one to provide you with the original SiteAdvisor. This tool offers security ratings on each website in order to safeguard your system in a proactive way from the threats that are trying to attack you from the websites. In case you know that a website is no good, the icon of the SiteAdvisor will become red to alert you. This tool makes your shopping experience a safer one. This utility also includes a toolbar that projects the status of security of the website that you are currently on and also provides security rating icons sans any obstruction to each of the search results. The SiteAdvisor utility employes itself in about twenty two search engines, and here you have to take a note that this browsing protection of the suite not only relies on the SiteAdvisor utility, but is also dependent on the virus database that is already installed in your system. Hence, both these features together keep it updated for enhanced protection while browsing the net.

Two-way firewall:

The Antivirus Plus 2011 from McAfee protects you from spyware and it is the only antivirus software applications to include a complete two-way firewall. It is almost unheard of with basic Antivirus software, make it one of the most user-friendly antivirus packages we had reviewed this year. This means, basically, this suite is equipped to protect your system from threats not considering where they come from, including online scams, network threats, risky downloads, malicious websites and also the files that are share via email or instant messaging.

One of our favourite features of the McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 is its high quality firewall, which prevents others into the system and also ensures that your private data is kept safe. This feature keeps you worry free from the identity theft issue.

Idle Timer:

McAfee has also included an idle timer and scheduler and idle timer so that the Antivirus Plus 2011 continues scanning when the system is not in use. When this utility observes that you actually not active, the scans will start routinely; just pause the process when you start up again. You are also provided options to schedule the scans to take place while not using the system. In case you are utilising a laptop or ilk, you will also be able to adjust this software to no do the scanning unless you are even plugged in, which saves your battery a great deal. This Idle Timer brings on improvised performance and efficiency.

Updates:

McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2011 Software Suite keeps itself up to date. This antivirus security will allow automatic updates and the company provides enough updates in order to keep track of the latest threats. Similar to the scanning, the suite will just wait for an opportunity to get an update so that your performance will not be disturbed at any cost.

Performance:

Performance wise, the scan rate is much faster. Small download size enables you to quickly get up and running. Lesser the memory footprint, lesser the impact on the daily PC activity. It managed to block threats in just milliseconds and you are never kept waiting for the next update. Since a threat can come anytime, this type of a real-time protection makes sure that theft is not something you have to really worry about.

Customer care:

McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 also features an improved help centre. They offer you help based on the task you are trying to complete. But, we will say that the customer service of the McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 is a mixed bag. This is because, for the first 30 days, you get free phone support. Once the thirty days time frame has burned out, your options are restricted to mail support and unlimited chat. This is a real issue because many would have a preference to talking to a person instead of just converse through writing. There have been reports from former and current users about the support team’s lethargy and lack knowledge about their very own product.

McAfee’s website provides you technical and client support with quite a searchable knowledge and also a FAQs section. You will also be able to get detailed options with subscription to a premium support product. The Premium phone supports cost is calculated based on per occasion. There is also a unique self aid tool that most of the users will be able to take advantage of; it is known as McAfee Virtual Technician. This tool is downloadable and quite a simple one that installs and check the system and takes you through the entire process of fixing.

Value:

The McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 has been priced a reasonable £26 for 1 user PC and £43 for 3 users PC. For additional peace of mind, you get a 30 day money back guarantee.

Verdict:

The McAfee Antivirus Plus2011 is very cut-throat antivirus suite. Though it might be a little subpar when matched up to some of the best antivirus software available currently, the Antivirus Plus is a very competent one. It includes some unique features such as virtual technician, Idle Timer, SiteAdvisor and, file shredder that are hard to ignore. Again the McAfee 2011’s sluggish Performance along with integrity of their effectiveness against malware and viruses in still in debate. Overall, the McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011is pretty solid, but is not solid enough to compete with some of other more advanced antivirus products such as the Norton Antivirus 2011. While both the ancillary security features and ease of use sure looks impressive, it is the paucity of their very own core product that is kind of dicey, which makes us think twice before recommending McAfee as the antivirus suite you can settle in for!

Check Norton Antivirus 2011 Review, PC Tools Internet Security 2011 Review in this website.

McAfee Antivirus Plus 2011 – Software Suite Details

In a recent world wide survey that involved thousands of people, Symantec found that about two thirds of us have been victims of cyber crime and this is hardly surprising considering that the company itself has managed to block over three billion threats with the help of its Norton products in the year 2009 alone. Norton AntiVirus 2011 has managed to offer a similar premium networking and PC protection akin to its sibling, Norton Internet Security, then again is devoid of some vital Web protection traits that shouldn’t really be missed by users. The Norton 2011 Antivirus Software continues to prove why its near-instantaneous virus definition and internet-ready features are still considered the best among the lot with its rapid install. Read on to find out more.

Quick and Easy Installation:

Installation of the Symantec Norton Antivirus 2011 is a breeze and done extremely fast. It is completely automated and nothing much to mess around. With different options being provided it is a simple straightforward task of clicking the install button and just sit back and watch. Just a few minutes after you have clicked in the ‘agree and install’ icon, you are ready to activate and register the software. Unfortunately, the software activation is a slight roadblock, as there is no way to close this activation window and it will remain to be on your screen until you gave in and gave it an email ID to tag the serial on to it. This might get people pissed off, but we guess Norton make their point very clear by not providing an exit button in the browser’s window wherein the label evidently says “Complete Activation and Register NOW” conveys their idea across.

Well, it does need some definition update for the sake of peak protection, but it usually does this update only during the idle time. You can also force a full update on installation and in that case, the product requests a reboot soon after the installation is done, in order to complete the task of removing all of the active threats. In case Norton does not start correctly in a system, the One Click Support screen automatically appears with a magical recommendation to fix the issue and in most cases, it actually works.

Interface:

The user interface of Norton Antivirus 2011 Software is very well designed, intuitive and responsive. At the top of the main window, you will be able to see the status of your computer protection, network protection and Global map. One thing we really loved here is the ability to turn various features off for a certain amount of time simply by clicking a switch which turns the feature off. Well this comes in handy when you want to download stuff that you trust, but generally gets flagged as virus, this is when you can turn your anti-virus off (not something that we would recommend), but then again it feels good to have the choice open when you really want to grab a file and have something important to do with it.

Hassle-less and Informative:

While on one hand Norton tries its best not to hassle the user by staying in the background, on the other hand, if you wish to get details on its activities, you can dig as deep as you want. But, be warned as these charts can be overwhelming. Click over ‘Performance’, and the main window flips over 180 degrees, revealing a chart of CPU and memory use on the back, that has a record of Norton activity for several months. By clicking on any of the peaks on the chart, you can find the process that was hogging the resources at that time or point at icons in the monthly log for details. In this page, you will also be able to get access to the list of application rating. The application rating list is nothing but information from Norton’s database about each of the program that is found in your system. Having said that, most users will not probably want to dig into these performance charts, unless and until there is a performance issue. Although it may not be super productive, it is nice to have a few pieces of eye candy, even if it is in your security software. In this 2011 edition, Norton steps in proactively when it detects that a particular application is hogging the resources. You will find a small pop up that identifies the program that causes issues, with a link to detailed performance information. Overall, it is a nice feature.

Get all you info:

The Symantec Norton Antivirus 2011 has a brand new active area at the bottom of the main screen. The AntiVirus 2011 Dashboard demonstrates your PC’s current security status together with an interactive map that displays the status of security of worldwide network. To begin with, it displays an interactive world map with moving lights that represent malware stopped by a Norton Installation. Just click over it to get a “crawl” that contains details about the latest threats or, just click over a continent to and just shift to a city by city report. This is not all, it has more to it than what eyes can meet. If you have a Norton Backup account, you will be able to set the panel to monitor your available online backup space and also track the most recent backup. In future though, the software plans to roll in access to other web specific security elements, which makes Norton Antivirus a hub for controlling all of them.

Socialise:

This Norton 2011 antivirus suite also links the Norton Safe Web to the free Facebook app that scrutinizes the safety of your News Feed links. You can even configure it to automatically scan or even generate a facebook post in order to share the results of your scan with your pals. Just key in your login details and the AntiVirus scrutinizes your wall for potential dicey links that could have been posted by loutish friends or spammers. Currently Facebook is the only supported site, but Symantec are actively looking to expand to other networking sites such as Twitter. The good news is that, this feature is not just limited to the Norton users as your friends will also be able to install the apps, if they wish to.

Computer Protection:

A full scan of a standard system takes about fifty minutes, which is twice as long as what is average. But, if you first run an application ratings scan and identify the good known programs and applications, you will be able to cut down the scan time to just over a couple of minutes.

And otherwise, this scanning for the good known program usually is done during the idle time. So, as a new addition to this 2011 edition, a Norton Insight Network displays the up to the minute stats on the number of files identified as a good one or bad with the help of the input from the Norton community. Similarly, there is also the new reputation scan that examines all of the files on your disk and offers your reports on three major stats of trust level, age and prevalence. The more widespread and older files are taken to be safer then the new and the uncommon ones.

Computer Protection allows you to do a quick, full or custom scan of your system’s drives, which can take anything from a minute to an hour and this totally depends on the size of your drive and how fast your system is. Any of the detected threats end up being highlighted and quarantined. There is a little slowdown while performing this scan. You will be able to watch HD videos and play simple games while the Norton Antivirus 2011 chugs away silently in the background. Even better, the suite remembers the files already scanned, rescanning only files that have been modified and this significantly accelerates subsequent scans.

System Impact:

A good Antivirus program should not only protect your computer from Viruses but also not slow down the Performance of your computer too much by using up your computer’s resources. Norton 2011 Antivirus Software uses only 10.8 MB of system memory and it adds only 8.0 seconds to the test PC’s reboot time. The suite requires 245MB of the hard drive’s space for installation, which is Norton’s worst result this year. However, the software adds only 0.068s on average to launch a web browser and it adds only 0.19s on average to convert a MP3 file to four other file types.

Independent Lab Ratings:

As far as the lab ratings go, Symantec Norton has been consistently receiving a VB100% award from the Virus Bulletin. The product has also managed to get certification from both ICSA labs and the West coast labs for virus detection and removal and the West coast also adds a number of other extra checkmark certifications. Norton got a ‘Advanced +’, which is the highest rating possible from AV Comparatives for on demand malware removal and ‘Advanced’ rating for the proactive detection of any new malware. This was proved again in our tests too, where the software managed to outscore in removal but not when it came to blocking.

AV Comparatives and AV Test ran a special real world test last year and in the dynamic test, Norton and Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 were the only software that managed to receive an ‘Advanced +’ rating. And in other test, where a dozen of the leading Antivirus software were challenged to protect the test systems from the real world current threats over a period of a couple of months, Norton topped the list by detecting most of them, and PC Tools Internet Security 2010 managed to secure the second place for most thorough protection. Finally, on the rating for ease of use, success at repairing of malware infestations and overall protection, Norton, Kaspersky and Panda Internet Security 2010 shared the top spot.

Anti-Malware:

The Norton Antivirus 2011’s full antivirus scan was smooth in our malware infested system and in most cases, the product treated all threats that it found and just reported its success at the end of it; we like that. And, in the case of the low risk threats, which when removed needs closing of the active programs, Norton asks permission first. Most of the time, the system will need a reboot once the scan is done, to complete the process of cleanup. Below the results display, you will find a tiny note reading “If you think that there are still risks, click here”. On clicking it, it will take you to the download page of the Norton Power Eraser, which is a tool that performs a much more aggressive scan than the Norton Antivirus itself. While this is capable of removing the threats, there are also great chances that it will flag valid files as malicious. However, Symantec also points out that any of the false positives will be the uncommon files as the Norton Insight whitelists the known good files widely used.

Detection and Dealing of Malware:

The Norton Antivirus 2011 detects 89% of the assorted threats matching the Panda Antivirus Pro 2011 and Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2010, but the Norton product was much more efficient than the other two when it comes to completely removing what it had detected. It managed to clean up almost every trace for about half of the threats that it found and also achieved the highest malware removal score. The software had a Scareware, which is rouge antivirus, detection rate of 78%. Though there were four other products that detected more of it, Norton seemed to the most effective and came close to the top scareware removers like the Ad-Adware Pro Internet Security 8.3 and Malwarebyte’s AntiMalware 1.46. In another test done with the Commercial Keyloggers, Norton again managed a good score, but again was not the top notch. While Norton caught 86%, the Webroot Antivirus with Spy Sweeper 2011and Spyware Doctor caught 93%. Overall, as far as the malware is concerned, the Norton is definitely in the winner circle, but not quite on the top. Again, it does an excellent job in cleaning up the malware that it found.

Internet Protection:

The download intelligence of Norton automatically evaluates any of the file that you download with your browser. This latest 2011 edition extends this protection to files that intrude through many emails, chat and even peer to peer clients as well the popular download managers. In case Norton detects that the file that you just downloaded is malicious, then it just wipes it out sans any comment. This silent elimination will be deceiving as you might expect some sort of notification. While trying to download some malware, the Download Insight wiped off 70% of it, which is acceptable, but not very convincing, considering that Webroot Internet Security Complete 2011, which blocks the known malicious URLs as well as the malware downloads, got a pleasing 84%.

There is also email protection, that scans you inbox for dodgy code, and browser protection that stops the shady online characters from exploiting weakness in your browser. With the expansion of Norton 2011’s browser support that go on to include Opera and Google Chrome you might not have to put up with alien browsers. It also checks the security of your wireless network depending on the encryption strength. So fear not even if you possess a weak Wi-Fi Norton helps with boosting your security levels with some simple easy-to-follow guidelines.

Real Protection:

The real time protection of Norton kicked in the minute we opened a folder containing malware sample files and by the time it finished opening, three quarters of the malware had been wiped off. The software also did an excellent job in blocking of malware installation, but we would say that the other did a better job. The blocking installation of the Commercial Keyloggers is less significant. After all, a spy sitting in front of you system installing the software, can simply turn off your antivirus. We feel that an Antivirus software should be able to pull up it socks and keep rootkits from getting a toehold on the system; which is a lot simpler than simply prying them loose after they have managed to dig in. Norton Antivirus has SONAR together with tons of other technologies that helps in active prevention of malicious activity. And we are sure that the few malware samples that managed to slip off would very well be prohibited before it could cause any real harm. However, we are still more impressed with the software that did a great job in actively preventing installation at the first place.

Additional Firewall Capabilities:

As a shocker to the system protection community, the Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 omitted the firewall protection that is usually found on the suite and instead opted to rely on the Windows Firewall and also a collection if “Firewall Boosters”. However, as a contrast, Norton has leaned in the opposite direction with their Antivirus 2011 including all of the intrusion prevention and vulnerability blocking technology that can be found in the complete suite. Simply add the Windows Firewall, and the Norton Antivirus can be considered to be a mini suite on its own. When the Network protection functionality was tested using the Core Impact penetration tool, the software actively blocked all of the exploits like the Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. Instead of confusing the user with all the details, the product just exhibits a transient popup that reports that it simply has impeded an attack along with providing the details of the same. In most cases, the details have exactly the same name along with the nature of the exploit.

Network Protection:

The package even has a network map that aids in remote monitoring of the other Norton installations on your networking.
You will find a somewhat same feature in the antivirus suite of Panda’s and just like that application, the map in this suite is also strictly informational. On the contrary the same network map of BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011 remotely allows actual management of rest of the systems. Overall, this is a very pleasing additional feature treat.

Support:

Norton AntiVirus 2011 comes with a year’s subscription to Symantec’s online updates, which updates your virus definitions to cover any new threats. You also get access to 24×7 chat and phone support, in case your system is well and truly stuffed up. It sports a prominent Support link on its dashboard. This menu allows for viewing of static help, check for Antivirus version updates, update yourself on tutorials or request direct help from Symantec. Norton’s One Click Support performs a quick scan of your computer for known problems before putting you in touch with a Symantec representative. You can also search the Knowledgebase directly from the Norton 2011 program. Overall, Norton provides many different support options.

Verdict:

The Symantec Norton Antivirus 2011, is beyond doubts a top rated suite in which the Norton Insight handles the toughest of threats like a pro. The suite comes loaded with couple of extraordinary bonus features, and of note is the complete intrusion prevention feature. On its boon side, it has quick installation, automated help, high rated independent lab ratings, impressive malware score, file checking from web, email, IM and heaps more. The effective intrusion prevention system, proactive protection warnings and interactive threat map are also worth mentioning. On the flip side, it fails in approaches like blocking malware and couple of malware removal tests. While the information display it gives is informative, it was unduly complex for a few users. Then again, relative beginners might face not much issues with running AntiVirus 2011 as majority of the tedious tasks are done by default with just minimal inputs expected from users. More advanced users still have a wealth of tools at their disposal for securing their system just as they wish, and can even fine-tune performance by investigating which applications are taking up valuable system resources. Overall, the Norton Antivirus 2011suite is a top notch product with a very impressive set of extras. You will not go wrong with one of these.

Symantec Norton Antivirus 2011 Software – Technical Specification Table

Obviously, the principal job of any Internet Security suite is to offer protection against malware, Viruses and remaining threats that threaten to intervene with your work costing you a fortune. The PC Tools Internet Security 2011 seems to arise as one of the strong ones in the industry, providing some impressive testing results. It comes direct with three licenses for one year.

Protection offered:

PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2011 offers complete internet security by way of a dominant Anti-Virus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware and Spam protection, all of these in a single application. Along with detecting, removing and blocking all kinds of Adware, Trojans, Spyware, Viruses, Keyloggers, Worms and various other threats it also executes Full/Custom scans along with Intelli checking for hidden files, sensible system areas, archives, user documents, manages excluded file lists, creates restore points quarantining infections prior to removal. The most recent 2011 is loaded with couple of additional features like multibrowser protection, advanced memory scanner, enhanced firewall, a download guard, browser protection, anti-phishing to name a few and many more.

Installation:

Installation of an internet security suite cannot get easier than that of the PC Tools suite. It is an advanced technology that is designed especially for individuals, and not experts. Meaning it comes configured by default right out of the box giving the most favorable protection, so all that remains to be done is to simply install it to enjoy immediate and verified ongoing protection. Reboot is required after installation.

Speed and Memory Toll:

The package of PC Tools Internet Security 2011 seems to be one of the heavier options we have ever seen. Some of the extra protection in PC Tools Internet Security 2011 does not come without a speed penalty, though it is not burdened with extraneous features. It has even omitted the parental control module that is found in most suites. Before installing the software, Windows took about two minutes and 26 seconds to start up and all the installed to appear in the utility tray. But, after installation of the suite, the PC took about three minutes to start up, which suggests a performance hit of approximately 3 percent, same as F-Secure Internet Security 2011. With the 2010 edition of security suite requiring double the time to reboot the system, it has been flawlessly fixed in this edition. With this security software being installed, there was a whopping 337MB drop of the available RAM and with the desktop appearing after two minutes, there was continuous CPU activity for 16 seconds with the package getting initialized.

Interface:

PC Tools is taking some definite efforts to make the interface looks and feel more serious, but the simple blue and green design might still looks a little cheap to your eyes. The interface is clear and smart with the areas of protection divided mainly into 4: Virus scan, Antispam, Intelliguard and Firewall, each of which boasts of an individual ancillary settings along with a large button and few other tools that are grouped together column-wise towards the left hand side.

The main window of the suites parallels to the Spyware Doctor in  numerous ways. For eg., here also you get to see the 5 five buttons on the left together with the similar Intelliguard protectors, extra-strength tools handling tough malware, and identical scan choices.

ISO CD Burner:

You will also find some new tools tucked away in the interface. It has made it easy to create bootable recovery media either on an optical disc or on a USB drive. For the first time, the Internet Security from PC Tools of 2011 suite comes with a rescue CD burner, the ISO burner helps to create a bootable security disc that is Linux based to get rid of deep seated malware. So in a worst case scenario even if your PC is under attack, it would be prevented from starting up and you can attempt a recovery by loading this CD onto another Linux system. An excellent touch that we really loved is that, it works with USB drives as well as optical media.

PC Tools Secure Community:

The Spyware Doctor has several layers of real-time guards protecting a clean PC against malware. Additionally there is another layer added by the PC Tools Enhanced Security Permissions of the firewall. By enabling the PC Tools Secure Community feature, the software shares information related to the found malware with the Malware Research Center, helps the product to improve its detection rate and allows other users to receive the latest possible protection.

So, when it comes to detection, the PC Tools manages to detect 89 percent of the threats. Though this seems to be like a pretty good performance, there are others who performed better. Webroot detects 91%, while Panda Internet Security 2010 and Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security 8.3 managed a 94%. It scores high in Malware blocking, however, we would say that the other do a better job.

Intelliguard:

Of the four categories available, the one that you may not be completely familiar is Intelliguard. This is an umbrella terms coined by PC Tools for the protection suite guarding your PC against spyware, worms, zero-day viruses, Trojans, downloading emails that call or trouble and browsing dangerous sites. Likewise it also offers protection against any new viruses, even before the availability of antivirus signatures. Also there is this advanced OnGuard technology that cautions you against Firewall and Virus activity and true Spyware along with filtering your mails for spam. This is remarkable because there should be interruptions by way of cryptic questions each time when you install a software or update your favourites or edit the PC settings.

File and Registry tool:

One of the less useful ones is the File and Registry tool that allows you to edit, view or delete obscure Registry files and keys. We guess not many users would really be in need of such a tool.

Anti-spyware:

The anti-spyware and anti-virus protection of the suite is the most advanced feature that works towards continually improving its Virus fighting and Spyware traits on an everyday basis. PC Tools Internet Security suites software has the distinct advantage of coming from a company that produces a top-of-the-line anti-spyware program, Spyware Doctor. You get to see all of the same anti-spyware traits of that program in this suite too with the same kind of robust effectiveness askin to the Webroot Internet Security Essentials.f With threats getting complex by the day and working towards avoiding detection, the PC Tools Security suite comes back at it with new technologies staying a step ahead. While rest of the Antispam suites handles just POP3 e-mails, PC Tools goes one step ahead in filtering IMAP accounts too. It employs various techniques trying to distinguish spam from genuine mails with real-time blacklists and Bayesian learning being a part of that effort. Additionally, you get an option to remove attachments of specific type of files. There is a handy toolbar in Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail and Outlook that helps with marking messages that are Spam/Not Spam along with managing the names of friends ensuring their mail never gets blocked.

Downloading a thousand email messages takes twice as long with PC Tools filtering spam as with no filter. The average everyday user will not even notice this as a slowdown. PC Tools manages to block 3% of valid mail, which is not a huge amount but enough that you may want to white-list all of your correspondents. By default, it white-lists those in your Outlook Contacts and weirdly blocked 90% bulk mails majority of them from Yahoo Groups.

Anti-virus Protection:

The antivirus of this suite is nothing but a residue of the Spyware Doctor, though it is effective it kind of falls short of competition by way of usability leaving its competitors with a upper hand in this category. Likewise modifying the settings of this feature is also kind of dicey as it shares the same setting area of the antispyware feature. That apart, this is a highly effective program procuring the VB100% award from Virus Bulletin.

Firewall:

Moving on to our least favourite aspect of the package, akin to most internet security software of today, it remains to be the firewall. A 2-way firewall scrutinizes network traffic, detecting hackers and blocking them, preventing intrusion from networks, automatically configuring Internet and network access for known applications and for any application with a valid digital signature and makes decisions to reduce the displaying of alerts. With couple of scareware threats being digitally signed, the last feature can be kind of unreliabe. The quiz the user style has been dropped long back and the modern firewalls do not use confusing queries. For instance, in Norton all known good programs are allowed access and all known programs get destroyed, and it depends on behavioral and statistical detection ensuring unknowns don’t really cause any trouble. Again, Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 moderately sandboxes unknowns such that they don’t cause any harm to a protected PC.

Firewall in action:

The firewall did manage to get through most of the web-based attack and port scan tests, then again isn’t is a must for every firewall out there? As in the case of the 2010 edition, being set to the default settings, it allows probing of ports and getting them open in a remote PC allowing access to potentially huge amounts of useful info with regards to network shares and user accounts. To be fair, if your PC is UAC enabled and sits behind a router, it is not really that easy for a hacker to get this close first of all, then again as the last thread of defense we guess you will feel pleased with a less reliable firewall. When its firewall was challenged with a collection of leak test utilities demonstrating traits of an actual malware trying to evade general program control, various protective layers in PC Tools caught all but one, of the leak tests. While the Enhanced Security Permissions managed to catch some, few others got detected by the firewall itself with the remaining others triggering the Browser Guard warning.
Various layers of the suite also came into the fight when targeted by the exploits triggered by the “Core Impact penetration tool”. A third of the exploits got caught at the browser leveel by the Browser Defender. Yet 20% of the exploits succeeded in dropping a file on the test system, only to be blocked by the real-time protection modules. Though none of the others got a chance to penetrate security, a couple of them managed to crash the browser. Though this looks to be a decent effort, market leaders like Kaspersky and Norton managed to block every single exploit identifying most of them by names. Well any Firewall is not worth it, if some hacker succeeds in turning it off, so we kind of tried various techniques that a malware coder would follow, it did not get disabled with tweaking the Registry. Despite killing some of the processes via the Task Manager, the protection did not come to a halt. However, the protection gets shut easily by disabling and stopping the essential services. Norton, BitDefender, Kaspersky and others seem to perform better when it comes to safeguarding their components from being targeted.

Performance:

In terms of performance, the PC Tools’ new Internet Security Suite 2011 looks to have scored some impressive scores claiming a 100% for detecting and cleansing of WildList malware and a 100% for behavior-based detection. It came out hugely successful with averting commercial keyloggers installation and rootkits more importantly. Similar to Webroot Internet Security Complete 2011, Panda Internet Security 2011and several others, it managed a100 percent detection of rootkits; all of these results based on AVTest.org that is commissioned by PC Tools in August this year. While testing the suite in a system that was previously running AVG Free, the 2011 PC Tools spotted four new threats and 35 infections that the free software had not, however, the risk factor on each of those was low.

When it comes to cookie and tracking cookies it all depends on how the scanning engine has been set up, then again PC Tools’ spyware and adware would be a good choice. The 2010 version of the product ranked just one percent behind the leader of the industry Norton Internet Security, and this September, when pitched against a current selection of malware, the PC Tools Internet Security 2011 achieved an ideal 98% score. It may be no coincidence that the company was acquired by Symantec in 2008.

Support:

In terms of support, the suite proffers a complete knowledgebase, user guides, release info and community forums. For any further info they can be contacted over Live chat, phone or e-mail.

Verdict:

PC Tools’ 2011 suite is a user-friendly and efficient internet security suite that covers all protection aspects, though you get to notice the conventional performance hit that is noticed while it is running.  Though the suite looks to be on the right track, we would appreciate something with a more rigorous firewall but at the same time with a lighter footprint. It sure is a relentlessly improving package, but it is not quite there just yet. Honestly, as of now, we find it kind of dicey to recommend it explicitly.

PC Tools Internet Security 2011 – Software Details

Installation and Un-Installation:

The installer file in Panda AntiVirus Pro 2010 is less than 50MB, which is about what we are used to seeing. The installation of Panda Antivirus Pro is quite easy with no significant issues. The wizard ensures to do a quick scan of the hard drive prior to proceeding with the installation, which might take some time. A basic memory scan too is performed during the installation. Note that, this is not a thorough, full-system scan, so you will need to run a manual scan once the installation is complete. During the install there are no options to choose the type of user (beginner/expert). The firewall is not active by default, and a reboot is required in order to activate it. It is better to reboot your system anyways. Strangely, the antivirus definition updates do not seem to download automatically, however they will eventually download within 10 minutes of using the software. We recommend that you choose to run a manual download to update Panda with current antivirus definitions. Total installation takes only about 4 minutes.

The all important process of un-installation too was quite easy and did not demand any additional steps. You will also find an option to give feedback if you choose to. You will also be able to uninstall through the Windows Add or Remove Program in the control panel, or even through Panda’s self un-installation program. A reboot is also required to complete the process of un-installation. The total time taken for un-installation is just about only a minute. There were a few registry keys that were left behind, but they are harmless and should not cause any issues down the line.

User Interface:

The User Interface of Panda Pro 2010 Anti-virus & Security Software is not as attractive as some of the other antivirus products we had testes, but it is certainly one of those that is easy to use and navigate. Panda’s interface is easy on the eyes and has a pleasing colour scheme. Only essential information is shown, which is a good thing in our book. We give them kudos for that, especially given the tendency of some antivirus vendors to go overboard with pop-ups and poor interfaces. The main control panel uses tabs to separate each of the sections. The navigation that is tab-based is divided into 5 sections namely, Scan, Report, Status, Quarantine and Services. This makes for a very convenient way to display any features and data you might have to configure. Each of these sections have a corresponding help page link that explains each feature in more detail. The help pages include heaps of information, but are still easy to understand without being too long.

Status being the default screen is displayed by green check marks indicating that things are under control. Again, the program makes it pretty clear if there is something not right by showing a chunky red X symbol at the top with a button nearby that gets the issue solved. While the interface is dubbed to be “plain” by some people, the only complaint we have about Panda’s UI is that it is divided into two sections: known threats and unknown threats and each of them require separate configurations. We feel that it would have been more economical, if they had included both options on the same page for easier access. Especially given the fact that they are both there for the same purpose, which is to configure how you want Panda Antivirus Pro to respond to virus threats. Advance Proactive Protection comes in 3 layers, Unknown threat blocker,heuristic scanner and TruPrevent.

Memory Usage:

As we had mentioned earlier, Panda’s memory usage is very low overall. Only 3.5% of memory is used during real time protection. The most exciting part is that, only about 60-105MB of memory is used during a manual scan. All of these are fairly good numbers that should be light enough that most users will not be tempted to disable their antivirus protection as it puts too much of burden on their system. For the most part, CPU usage is less than ten percent while scanning text files, but peaks to almost seventy five percent while scanning compressed files. Though it is not as good as VIPRE Antivirus in this case, it comes very close to McAfee AntiVirus and BitDefender Antivirus. These figures are actually pretty good for most antivirus software.

Real-Time Protection:

The Real-time protection Panda AntiVirus  2010 Pro was not as solid as we had hoped for. During our tests, it showed that Panda antivirus managed to successfully block only seventy percent of the viruses we tested it against. Some of the more aggressive antivirus software programs we tested usually caught the remaining thirty percent that Panda was not able to. Though seventy percent is not too bad, we felt that the Kaspersky and Symantec Norton antivirus software performed better. The Real time protection memory usage is quite low, coming in below 3MB. Obviously, the real-time antivirus protection of Panda Pro proved to be average at best, but is still adequate for daily use.

Malware Protection:

Panda antivirus 2010 Antivirus Software properly identified and removed ninety three percent of the malware files during a full-system, manual scan, which is far better than their real-time protection score. We were really glad to see how light the manual scan was on the system, as just only 3MB of memory was used. All of the files, memory, registry, and emails are scanned during a full-system scan and the total time took only about twenty five minutes.

The program’s capability to promptly keep a tab on unknown files against the online servers of Panda does help to alleviate that fairly average showing, as this kind of cloud computing technique uses latest signatures immediately as they become available. Again, the app did not fare that well in the tests of behavioural analysis that measures a security program’s ability to nail malware depending on how it acts. It only managed to block a bare 2/15 samples in such tests, ranking it in the last place in comparison to its rivals with this feature feature.

Spyware and Adware Protection:

The Real time protection was not able to detect any active or previously installed spyware programs, but all of them were detected when they tried to pass through the firewall. While this is not ideal we would have hoped the anti-spyware engine would have caught these threats. However, they are still pleased to see the threats identified at all. Additionally, the fact that the Panda firewall stopped the threats serves as a reminder of just how important a bi-directional firewall is to an Internet security suite. All spyware and adware programs had beeb found eventually and deleted when a manual scan was run. All this just means that, Panda’s real-time protection is not as powerful as it should be when protecting against spyware and adware. However, its full manual scanning is strong enough.

Action on Pre-Infected systems:

When it comes to a computer pre-infected with viruses and malware, unfortunately, the Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 was not able to perform as well as we expected. During the process of installation, the Antivirus was not able to detect any of the pre-infected viruses or malware. Even the initial memory scan was not able to find any. After the installation reboot, the real-time protection did not detect anything either. Only after running a manual full-system antivirus scan were all viruses and malicious programs finally identified and deleted. Even though Panda was able to finally remove all malicious software, we feel that, having bought a dedicated antivirus suite, you should not have to take such steps for your antivirus software to protect your PC. We feel so especially because most consumers only purchase antivirus software after they suspect their machine has already been infected. We hope you agree with us. Hence, we feel that the antivirus program is worthy only of an average expectation.

Email Protection:

Panda’s Pro 2010 Antivirus email protection is supported by both IMAP and POP email clients. All of the attachments are scanned for malicious software threats, and the email protection will warn you of any suspicious files. Unfortunately, Panda’s email protection only scans viruses in Outlook Express and Outlook and will not cover Thunderbird, which we were quite surprised to see. However, there is nothing to worry as your email is still protected by Panda’s real-time protection which scans any attachments you attempt to open or save to your PC. The good news is that, you will not notice any sluggish behaviour on your PC while the email protection is engaged. Memory usage is average and CPU activity is under five percent during email and attachment scanning.

Instant Messaging:

Moving on to the Instant Messaging protection, it scans each file transfer for viruses and other malicious intent. Instant Messaging protection of Panda works with Yahoo Messenger, AIM (AOL), MSN Messenger, and Trillian. Panda’s Instant Messaging scanning results were quite satisfactory.

Firewall Protection in Panda Pro 2010:

We cannot say how nice it is to see a firewall as one of the default features for antivirus software. Panda’s bidirectional firewall is easy enough for even a novice user. You will be able to configure the firewall software to ask for permission every time a program tries to access your computer, or you can just set it and forget it with automatic permissions. Rules can be configured for public or home networks, making it great for someone who travels regularly with a laptop and rules can also be set for individual programs, IPs, protocols, and ports, giving a degree of flexibility not all antivirus firewall programs have. The firewall help pages are quite good. They should be simple and thorough enough for any user to navigate easily and figure out what they are doing. Even with Panda’s default settings, the firewall was able to successfully block most viruses and malicious files attempting to access our testing PC. Overall, the Panda Anitivirus is a complete, and a very effective firewall.

Anti-Phishing:

We were disappointed that the Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 anti-phishing feature was not up to our expectations. Less than twenty percent of the known phishing sites were successfully filtered. Actually, Internet Explorer and Chrome managed to score ninety percent in blocking phishing URLs with their default settings alone. Given the strength of the Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 antivirus engine, we were really disappointed at the poor anti-phishing results. Panda has to really improve the effectiveness of their anti-phishing filter in their next version.

Updates:

Antivirus definition updates in Panda Pro Security software are available like every 24 hours. Updates completed automatically without us having to intervene. We were not able to find a setting to adjust these intervals, so it seems as though Panda only makes their definitions available once a day. However, you will be able to set the updates to be automatic or manual and the default setting is automatic, which we recommend. Even though definition updates of Panda are consistent, they really need to give the option to increase the update intervals. Virus and malware threats are created so quickly, hence you should be able to update the definitions much faster than 24 hours for maximum Internet security protection.

Customer Support:

Yet another feature that we were not much thrilled with Panda was lack of adequate phone and chat support. They offer email tech support and a knowledge base, but given the excellent support options that competitors like VIPRE and BitDefender 2010 offer, email and knowledge base support seemed to be just not enough to comply with the demands of today’s antivirus firewall software user. You will be able to submit an email support ticket from the main control panel, or you can access their Internet tech support which is their knowledge base. The email support and knowledge base are free, but Panda offers no phone support or chat. While email support is easy to access, having no phone or chat tech support is a major blow to the novice users. We have found that solid, free chat and phone support is crucial for customer satisfaction and antivirus security.
The overall, the Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 is solid antivirus firewall software. And if you are a tech savvy and do not think that you will ever need a phone or chat based technical support, Panda may be a good choice.

Package:

Unusually, Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 gives you the option of buying a 6-month package. Most anti-virus software only sells its protection in multiples of one year, and this variation could be a useful option if you only require a short length of coverage. Perhaps surprisingly, this short usage is only slightly more than half the cost of a full year. Overall, the value varies considerably depending what package you buy, and it may be wise to choose your length of coverage and number of PCs you want protected before you choose a product, allowing you to compare more specifically between them.

Verdict:

Though the spyware and adware removal rate is not as clean as we would like to have seen it, it was still quite effective. The overall system usage of Panda AntiVirus Pro 2010 is very low compared to most other antivirus software we have tested, and we are quite glad to see a nice, simple user interface.  Where Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 has fallen behind this year is in the anti-phishing and customer service departments. Unfortunately, the anti-phishing feature seems to be virtually worthless in our tests. The Internet Explorer and Chrome browsers did far better with default settings alone. When it comes to core antivirus protection, it gets the job done well. Given that phishing is a serious threat, we cannot highly recommend the Panda AntiVirus. And, if you think you will rely on technical support with your total Internet Security, we think you may be better off with VIPRE Antivirus, BitDefender or Kaspersky. If you are using other anti-phishings tools like those built into Google’s Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox, you might take that into consideration and feel justified in purchasing Panda.

Panda AntiVirus Pro 2010 – Technical Specification Table