PC Tools Internet Security 2011 anti-virus and firewall software

Most security suites don't change dramatically from year to year, and PC Tools Internet Security 2011 is no exception.

There are a couple of extras and improvements here, over the 2010 version, but the interface looked and felt very similar.

One thing that has changed is the ability to create an online account with PC Tools, where you can view the status of your software licences, buy other PC Tools products and get access to the free live chat support. This step isn't compulsory, though, unlike with many other security products.

As with previous versions, Internet Security 2011 includes some extra security products, including Threatfire (a web-based intrusion prevention tool), Browser Defender and Firewall Plus. It integrates these well, though, so the software felt more coherent and less like a collection of utilities.

The main user interface was clear and simple to use, but buried under the surface are plenty of advanced options.

These options can get quite technical as you dig deeper, particularly for the firewall, and frustratingly there is no complete user guide supplied, just a Quick Start Guide.

More technical users might be happy to be able to fine-tune the firewall in great depth, but in most cases this will be a wasted feature because of the lack of help.
One annoyance is that the alerts given by the firewall (which replaces the Windows firewall) were sometimes baffling, using meaningless jargon. Cookie blocking was a bit crude, too, as you have to manually add any site whose cookies you don't want blocked.

Also, by default, tracking cookie alerts are turned off, so the user won't even realise what's happening. Users can add exclusions to the real-time protection, so a particular website or file isn't checked, but these exclusions then apply to all the components, which isn't flexible.

Despite these annoyances, the program was mostly easy to use and gives a decent level of default protection. For example, it protects all web-enabled programs (such as browsers or instant messaging software) from visiting malicious web links, and also comes with an anti-spam add-in for Outlook Express, Outlook and Thunderbird.

It ran well on our less-powerful test laptop, scanning a 50GB hard disk in under five minutes. A full scan took a couple of hours, but at least the PC remained perfectly usable during this time.

Overall performance can be adjusted using a three-position slider, although this doesn't affect the amount of system memory (around 50MB, including 28MB for Browser Defender) used by the program.

At the time of writing Amazon has it for under £30, a fairly good deal if you have multiple PCs to protect, although it has few really compelling stand-out features.