Etrust Internet Security Suite

While it's estimated that only 300,000 PCs were hit with the recent Nyxem-E virus, also known as Mywife, the very fact that some people woke up to discover documents missing from their systems shows once again how important it is to install decent security software on Windows systems.

CA's new Etrust Internet Security Suite is yet another package aiming to provide users with complete online protection.

As with its established rivals, Etrust includes both anti-virus software and a firewall to keep electronic bugs and hackers at bay.

A big plus here is that this firewall is actually a version of the incredibly popular Zonealarm - proven technology that's easy to configure.

The suite also includes Pest Patrol to counter spyware and an anti-spam module.

Installation and initial setup are refreshingly easy, with the option to automatically set access rules in the firewall for popular applications and DLLs.

More good news is that CA has gone for a unified interface across the modules to give each area a consistent appearance.

Unfortunately, the company hasn't gone all the way and integrated everything in the same way that Symantec and McAfee do.

You can check the status of each module and perform basic functions, such as system scans, from the main Security Center, but you'll need to launch each part separately to get to the advanced features. Here the look and feel can vary quite a bit.

Key features on the anti-virus side include scheduled, on-demand and real-time heuristic scanning, quarantine facilities for dealing with suspect files at a later date, email scanning for POP3 clients and automatic signature updates (a 12 month subscription is provided).

In tests it worked well, but scanning was remarkably slow on our test PC - a 3GHz Pentium 4.

The anti-spam module integrates with both POP3 and Imap accounts under Outlook and Outlook Express.

Essentially, this works by grabbing any email from an address not on your currently approved senders list and sticking it in a potential spam folder.

It works fine with an existing list but can prove to be a pain if you're setting up a new account.

Spam is 'scored' on the basis of content (this can be adjusted) and the package can be trained by pointing it at examples of good and bad messages.

There's a tad less flexibility in Pest Patrol but you do get the chance to exclude files from detection scans and call up statistics on the latest spyware.

You can also join in the fun by opting to provide data logs from your PC to help CA keep track of threats.

Other key features include an easy to use ID lock in the firewall to prevent sensitive information from being sent over the web or in an email, such as credit card and address details, and blocking for pop-up and pop-under ads.

Overall, the Etrust suite is a well thought-out set of utilities that provide a good level of online protection.

We'd like to see tighter integration between the modules and there are sections of the help file referring to items that aren't actually included in this program, such as parental control, which is a little sloppy.

However, the package is easy to use and, at £39.95, should give the likes of Norton a run for their money.

System requirements:
300MHz processor or higher
128MB of Ram
55MB hard disk
55MB of free disk space