With the diversification of security risks on the internet, there is a definite attraction for getting security products from just one company, especially with the rise of so-called 'blended' attacks.

McAfee Total Internet Security ambitiously claims to offer full protection, as well as some very useful extras.

Installation is straightforward, but McAfee does request the removal of other programs such as Adaware. It cannot do this itself so this is a minor inconvenience.

The Security Center has been completely redesigned with far larger and more obvious status marking; a large green tick indicates Security Center considers the computer to be protected. In some instances, when it thinks that the computer is not protected, it will be able to rectify the problem automatically.

The approach of the Security Centre is to group areas of security into Computer & Files, Internet & Network, Email & IM and Parental Controls. Some software such as anti-virus covers more than one area. Clicking on each section reveals which programs provide the relevant security with a link to change the various options.

McAfee searches for updates once per day, but extra updates can be pushed my McAfee in order to respond to new threats.

As the different parts of McAfee Security are integrated, a scan of your computer looks for spyware as well as viruses; a very convenient feature for those who want to be protected with the minimum of fuss.

McAfee SiteAdvisor is installed separately to the rest of the software and will work with both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

SiteAdvisor appears in the bottom right of the browser and displays a colour to warn or reassure about the current website. McAfee tests each website to discover the amount of spam received after signing up or whether it has links to sites known to be suspicious.

It is available as a separate download for Internet Explorer and Firefox. As well as protective software, McAfee Total Internet Security includes Databackup. This can be used to make scheduled backups of important files to a variety of locations including external hard disks and network shares, as well as the familiar CD or DVDs.

Rather than back up the entire hard disk, Databackup monitors folders for selected file types. These are sorted by function and even include the new XML-based Office 2007 files.

Unfortunately it does not have the most intuitive interface; many options are selected by clicking on text rather than buttons, making it easy to miss them. Databackup shows all the files that have been marked for archiving along with the latest backup that was made. A guide to how much space this will take up is also shown.

You can also compress and encrypt files, but this locks you into using McAfee Databackup to retrieve your files.

Other useful utilities include McAfee QuickClean for removing old System Restore points and redundant shortcuts. If required, these can be removed with Shredder to prevent recovery.

When we tested it for the first time a reboot was required due to changes made to the registry. One noticeable omission is the lack of a hard disk defragmenting tool.

Networking is often a source of both frustration and worry, and McAfee makes setting up and monitoring a network much easier than relying on the tools supplied with Windows.

The EasyNetwork provides a graphical representation of all the computers on the network and the connection to the internet. Wireless networks get a similar treatment, although this does require the McAfee software to be installed on all the computers on the wireless network.

It is worth noting though that McAfee does sell a three-licence pack if you have more than one PC.

Other computers running McAfee software on the network can be managed remotely from this screen, which a good way of making sure younger users have not disabled security settings.

It lacks some components, but overall we're very impressed with McAfee's latest internet security package.

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