PC-cillin 2003

This anti-virus protects both desktops and PDAs, and also has a firewall to safeguard against hack attacks. It also has an Internet security feature to prevent access to unwanted sites, such as those with adult content. The same feature also has a Web trap component that can be set to block ActiveX and JavaScript while you browse. With it, you can also scan e-mail from your mail client and Web-based mail programs like Yahoo and Hotmail.

Its anti-virus section has a neat and easy to navigate interface. The anti-virus safeguards your desktop from viruses, worms, Trojans and other malicious code, which can come through mail, Internet download and file sharing. It also has an outbreak alert feature that warns you if you get a new virus attack. 

It can protect PDAs against viruses by checking for them every time you sync your PDA with a PC. Its firewall has three security levels: High, Normal, Low. You can even add/edit or remove the computer, port and protocols and set their outbound and incoming properties from the Exception list. Another feature offers Wi-Fi protection, which looks out for viruses every time you connect to a wireless access point. The anti-virus is automatically asked for updates, whenever a new one is available. However, it takes sometime for the first registration, wherein it gives you a license key that allows you to get regular updates. During our tests, on the virus-detection front, it detected and cleaned most of the viruses we threw at it, and quarantined those it couldn’t clean. It also detected viruses within zip files. The software works on all common desktop versions of Windows up till XP. Overall, given its features and the price, it’s a good buy.

Sanjay Majumder