Steer clear of potentially dangerous websites with McAfee Site Advisor

This free software download is a browser add-on that blocks websites it sees as being potentially dangerous.

The download-and-install process is simple enough, taking just a couple of minutes. We ran it in the Firefox browser, where it installs a small toolbar at the bottom of the browser window. In Internet Explorer the toolbar is placed at the top of the browser window.

Once running, when searching for sites in search engines such as Yahoo and Google, the Site Advisor will show the reputation of a site based on automated testing and user feedback.

When looking at any website, Site Advisor lets you know if it is safe or dangerous, by lighting up either green or red. You can find out more information by clicking on the alert button.

We found it useful for avoiding threats such as phishing scams and websites that may contain or host malicious software. The advice it gives is unobtrusive and easy to understand, offering insight as to why certain sites are being blocked.

If you know that a site being listed as ‘not safe' is in fact okay, you can add it to the ‘trusted sites' list, which is a handy feature.

Irritatingly, a lot of features in the options menu are not available unless you pay £14.99 per year for another piece of software. But for no cost, the free Site Advisor software is very useful indeed and offers good protection against harmful websites.