Filed under: Anti-spyware
AVG Anti-Spyware
High protection, low cost
AVG Anti-Spyware offers a high protection level, bolstered by useful features, for a reasonable cost. After 30 days, some of the features get disabled, but you’re still able to search for and remove malware, and update definitions manually.
The tools performed well but aren’t for the casual enthusiast. Besides the Scanner, which offers four levels of scanning plus a fully customizable fifth, the Resident Shield blocked all malicious components we tried to install, and we were impressed with the overall level of security the app provides: there’s even a shredder that offers Fast, Secure, and Paranoid levels of deletion.
The diagnostic tools are spread through different tabs, so options clutter isn’t an issue. Still, there’s a lot to manage, from running processes to start-up entries to connections–but the program provides little information as to which items are potentially dangerous. In some cases, the program seemed to hog an inordinate amount of memory when its real-time shield was active.
The interface is mundane, with icons floating in a horizontal top-nav bar. The main Status window had quick link jumps to control the resident shield and automatic updates. Update contained proxy connection options, Analysis offered in-depth essential information not only on system processes but Internet connections, programs running from startup, browser plug-ins, and LSPs.
CyberLink PowerDirector 6
- Edit videos and slideshows automatically
- Quickly fix and improve videos with magic enhancement tools
- Express your creativity with over 300 effects and styles
- Import from high-def camcorders to create high-def movies
- Publish directly to the web on YouTube or Streamload
Free the director within using new tools and templates
- DVD Template Designer – 29 new designs, moveable buttons, text and color tools let you create stylish menus for your movie DVDs. Learn how.
- Slideshow Wizard – New styles for presenting photos let you turn a folder of image files into a dynamic slideshow in minutes. See how it’s done…
- Animated PiP Designer – New alpha-blended objects and a motion path generator create dramatic PiP effects to enhance your video content. See how…
- Video Subtitle Room – Easily inserted directly on the screen or imported as text, new video subtitles offer an easy way to caption scenes and describe video content.
Edit videos automatically, fix images and audio
- Magic Movie Wizard – Great for beginners, convenient for experts, the automated step-by-step approach quickly guides you through movie production. See the Magic Movie Wizard in action….
- Improved Magic Style – New animation elements and refreshed themes let you automatically edit your movie, add effects, and insert a title and credits using a handy timeline. Add or remove any part of the timeline after creating it. See the Magic Movie Wizard in action….
- Improved Magic Fix – Enhanced precision ensures that shaky videos are stabilized with greater accuracy, photos are sharpened.
- Improved Magic Clean – New back light correction and white balance improve hard-to-fix mistakes often caused by poor lighting conditions.
Personalize videos with humor and style
- Cool transitions and effects – Huge library of transitions and effects turns video clips and photos into an alluring storyline.
- Dialog Balloons – Drag-and-drop templates let you add unspoken thoughts and highlight sections of conversation for humorous results.
- Title templates – Multiple layers, animated text, and a choice of font and color, create professional opening titles, stylish chapter names, and closing credits.
- Audio track for PiPs – Heighten the impact of moving PiP objects with accompanying sounds.
Blue Host
Feature Set: 
First and foremost, Bluehost offers a large amount of storage space and a contending bandwidth, making it a powerful host. They also offer several free script plug-ins such as, chat, blogs, polls, web auctions and bulletin boards.
They support several languages including CGI, PHP, Perl, Front Page and MySQL Databases. The ecommerce tools include a free shopping cart and the ability to track website traffic.
Despite Bluehost’s great features, it does not offer a money back guarantee, like some of the higher ranked services.
Customer Service:
Bluehost offers email, telephone and chat customer support. They also post a comprehensive help section. The help section includes FAQ pages; you can submit your own question and receive a virtual support ‘ticket’, that lets you know when you can expect to be served. Your question and answer will than be added to their FAQ page that is constantly evolving.
The customer support could use improvement, because every time we tried to utilize their chat option, their service was down.
Control Panel: 
Bluehost offers the same control panel as our #2 choice, Lunarpages. The control panel displays over 40 icons that link to various management features. Most of the control icons, menus and feature options are logically placed and presented.
The five functions accessible through the control panel include account, email and database management and web protection/security and statistics. Statistics relate visitor information, pages that contain errors or missing images and bandwidth usage information.
Summary:
In summary, Bluehost offers exceptional bandwidth and storage for a low price. If you do not need multiple email aliases, or a catch-all ability then this could be a good choice for your web hosting needs.
F-Secure Internet Security 2008
Todays’s challenges
Within the last few years, ever more evidence has shown that online attacks are now being used for financial reward. The professional, money-driven criminals want to stay unnoticed, and they are using very advanced technologies to hide themselves from data security solutions and exploiting even the smallest time window they have before a general recognition for their attack is available.
The digital world is yours to explore
Despite of this reality, we want people to rediscover the joys of the Internet. We want to encourage a positive, passionate attitude towards information, something we like to call Online Wellbeing.
The solution
The modern internet security solution has to provide a full protection against all the traditional threats, but it also has to offer deep protection, monitoring the very heart of the computer at all times, anticipating everything that might be a sign of danger in the computer and preventing any such activity, preferably without the need for user intervention.
F-Secure® Internet Security 2008 provides a complete and easy-to-use protection against all Internet threats, whether they are known or previously unidentified. It includes an award-winning antivirus, an easy-to-use personal firewall, antispyware and F-Secure DeepGuard™ technology that constantly monitors the very heart of your computer, ensuring that no malicious programs can take over your computer even if you do not have all the latest updates. In addition, the product filters unwanted spam and so-called phishing attempts from your e mail, and with the parental control, you can block access to websites with questionable content.
- Protects your computer against viruses, worms and unknown attacks
With daily automatically updated virus protection from the world-renowned F-Secure Data Security Laboratory and F-Secure DeepGuard TM technology that protects you against zero-day attacks and other future threats, you can safely use your computer, now and tomorrow.
- Detects and removes spyware from your computer
F-Secure Internet Security detects and removes secretly installed software from your computer better than ever before, ensuring that your system is running smoothly and clean of spyware.
- Protects your computer against hackers
You can keep your private data to yourself with the personal firewall that stops hackers from breaking into your computer.
- Helps you stay free from spam e-mail and phishing attempts
F-Secure Internet Security filters unwanted spam and e-mail schemes designed to steal your private information.
- Protects your children against unwanted Internet content
F-Secure Internet Security ensures that your children or teenagers do not enter objectionable sites or surf the Internet when you are not around.
Bitdefender Antivirus 2008
Features
BitDefender Antivirus 2008 covers a lot of ground, protecting your system from viruses, spyware, privacy breaches, phishing attacks, and rootkits. And BitDefender is the only antivirus product we’ve seen that advertises a Gamer mode, minimizing protection alerts and resources while you’re off playing games.
For out-of-the-box protection, for the most part, we agree with BitDefender’s default settings. For instance, with antivirus scans, the default setting scans files during boot, recently accessed files, packed files (although not archived files), incoming and outgoing e-mails–so far so good. The only difference with the more aggressive setting available is the addition of scanning activity on port 80 and port 443. BitDefender’s HTTP scan blocks malicious ActiveX and JavaScript, and is part of the antivirus and antispyware protection. Do you need that? Again, there is not enough guidance within the program to help users make that decision; most browsers offer add-ons that will also screen for these scripts.
As for the default privacy protection, BitDefender will look for instances of private information leaving the computer and guard against spyware attempting to install on the machine. The more aggressive setting adds cookie control and script protection, which most browsers will also allow you to control. Do you need this protection if your browser already provides similar protection? Again, BitDefender doesn’t offer enough guidance within the program to help users make that decision. Most browsers offer free add-ons that will screen for these scripts as well.
Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite
Along with its effective and easy-to-use firewall and additional security features, this new version of ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite revamps the mostly solid antispyware protection introduced in the last release.
ZoneAlarm’s wizard makes firewall configuration and maintanence incredibly easy, with a stylish interface and simple slider controls. The app boasts an ultrasecure triple-layer firewall and experts will appreciate the customizing options. The Zones feature allows you to assign different security levels for local networks and the Internet. The program was very good at automatically including our local network settings and auto-detected wireless machines. In all our tests, the firewall held strong against all threats it encountered.
The suite also includes an antivirus scanner, a cookie cleaner, ad and pop-up blockers and new antispwyare tools. Happily, the app offers both real-time protection against malware as well as a scanning engine. In our tests, spyware scans were blisteringly fast and almost always accurate, though some minor traces were left behind. The real-time module could have offered more information from directly within the program on potential threats.
Other features include Web site-specific protections, an ID Lock for personal information and a configurable site-blocking content filter. Security Suite also incorporates the company’s IMSecurity program, which protects instant-messaging programs from spam and encrypts messages (so long as the person on the other end also is using IMSecurity). Users looking for one solution to almost all their Internet-security concerns can turn to ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.
Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0
gives you the best protection available today. Our Triple Threat Protection is a unique set of technologies that protect against identity theft, confidential data leakage and all Internet threats. Add privacy and parental controls, an integrated firewall, a new and improved interface and much, much more!
In just the past year, Kaspersky’s Internet Security Lab defended against more than 80,000 malicious Internet attacks – more than 200 a day. The volume is unprecedented. To guard against these threats, Kaspersky Lab now offers Triple Threat Protection™ – unique technologies that protect against identity theft, confidential data leakage and all Internet threats.
Automated Hourly Anti-Malware Updates
Independent tests show Kaspersky is #1 for detecting viruses and spyware. Our Internet Security Lab is world renowned for the fastest response to Internet threats – less than two hours once a threat is discovered. Combined with our standard hourly updates, you’re only minutes away from the latest protection directly from the Lab!
Intelligent Proactive Heuristics
Zero-day exploits can attack and destroy in seconds. Kaspersky runs all files that don’t match our signature database in a safe, isolated section to check for malicious behavior. This failsafe method checks the code without endangering your computer.
Real-Time Behavior Analysis
Kaspersky prevents infections by monitoring your computer for any malicious behavior. If detected, Kaspersky immediately alerts you and rolls back any malicious changes, including restoring files encrypted by ransomware.
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Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6
This effective but expensive program has solid malware detection and the fastest outbreak-response time among currently tested competitors.
Our Best Buy stand-alone antivirus program, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6, shines for its top-notch malware detection and disinfection rates. It boasts a 96 percent detection rate, and cleaned 86 percent of all items in our disinfection tests. It is also the fastest at delivering new signatures out of the eight tested programs, with an average response time of 0 to 2 hours. You’ll pay for this stellar performance, however. At $50 for the downloaded product, it was the most expensive program we tested in our antivirus roundup, though renewals drop to $35 per year. Also, its proactive protection was only middling, catching just about half of 200 new malware samples when tested using a one-month-old signature database. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 has a polished interface that makes it easy to schedule scans. Clearly labeled, one-click drill-downs make finding and setting up advanced features a breeze. For e-mail and news traffic, the program scans incoming and outgoing data over the POP3, SMTP, IMAP, and NNTP protocols. It monitors HTTP traffic for Web-borne threats as well. However, it doesn’t set up a default scheduled scan–you’ll need to set one up yourself. Built-in antiphishing protection can block scam e-mail, and a “proactive defense” module looks for the hidden processes and Registry changes that can signal malware hidden with a rootkit. If you buy this program, do so online–the download is $10 cheaper than the retail box. If you want the Vista-compatible flavor, you’ll have to download the program in any case. Just be sure to download the right version; it’s easy to click the wrong link among the many others on the download page. You get free phone and e-mail support during business hours from Monday through Friday, though the phone number isn’t toll-free. The company says that it will answer support calls placed after hours on weekdays and throughout the weekend, on what it calls a “best-effort” basis. We tested the Vista version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 for our “Virus Stoppers” roundup. An XP version of the software is also available. – Ryan Naraine (more…)
