Anti-virus software works in two main ways. For a start it compares the latest list of virus's through regular updates from the Anti-Virus (AV) provider with suspect files on your PC. Secondly, it uses heuristic techniques to look for any suspicious activity. G Data’s AntiVirusKit Internet Security 2006 (AVKIS) adds a third technique.

G Data claims many new virus attacks are designed to spread very fast, within the response times of some AV laboratories – two to 30 hours. It also claims its new OutbreakShield technology can counter this by studying internet traffic and spotting the kind of activity these viruses may generate while spreading.

Once spotted, messages are sent to AVKIS 2006 users to block these files. Doing it this way potentially reduces response time from hours to minutes.

As well as OutbreakShield, AVKIS also uses two separate AV engines, from Kaspersky Labs and BitDefender, to scan your PC. Although a slow process - it can take over an hour on a typical PC - it can run in the background and be scheduled for idle times, like lunch breaks.

The AntiVirusKit on its own costs £15 from Computrolley, G Data’s UK distributors, but the InternetSecurity product includes four other features, too. The firewall does well in restricting unknown access to your PC but will automatically set your home network to the ‘untrusted’ status by default.

This means no other home computer will be able to access each others files. Setting it to ‘trusted’ is easy enough, but some rival products – such as Panda and McAfee – work it out correctly for themselves.

The spam filter is flexible enough to include lists of suspect words in both the header and the body of email messages, to which you can add your own. It would be as well to password protect the lists if you have kids, though.

The Web filter protects you from pop-ups, banners and phishing attempts and the KidsSafe parental control system enables you to restrict access to specific sites or areas of the internet. There are plenty of tailoring options, but the defaults are fine in most cases.

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Norton Internet Security 2006 
Verdict: A highly-recommended, if pricey, suite of essential internet security measures that’s easy to use and update
Rating: 5/5
Price: £55