Quick Heal Total Security 2007

Quick Heal Total Security 2007 is a personal Internet security solution for

desktop PCs or notebooks, to protect against spyware, adware and dangerous bots

that creep into a system from the Internet. It's the elder brother of Quick Heal

AntiVirus 2007 (reviewed May 2007, pg 128) with some additional features such as

AntiSpam, Data Theft Protection, Hijack restore and Track cleaner.

Quick Heal Anti Virus uses DNAScan technology. This is a technique that uses

a deep code inspection and code analysis technique, and characterizes patterns

of malware and viruses. This helps the software handle frequent virus outbreaks

and blocks latest viruses or malwares even if its virus signatures database has

not been updated. Its 'Data Theft Protection' option prevents unauthorized

copying of sensitive data from PC through removable media and comes in handy

when you have a shared computer.

The 'Hijack Restore' option deals with problems caused by malware, which

change Internet Explorer's settings. Unlike Windows XP System Restore, which

restores the registry settings to a previous date, this option only restores

IE's settings. Plus, it also restores system settings such as Task Manager and

System Restore. Strangely, it fails to detect Mozilla Firefox browser and

therefore can't restore its settings. That's a drawback for Mozilla users.

We installed the software on a Windows XP machine and scanned approx 11,000

viruses with it. It detected all viruses and deleted/cleaned them. For checking

Firewall capabilities, we exposed it to DOS and port scanning attacks. It

successfully blocked DOS and port scanning attacks; and maintained a detailed

log of all network activities.

For e-mail protection and anti spam tests, we configured a mail account in

Outlook Express and downloaded spam, and virus infected mails. It was able to

delete viruses even before the mail was downloaded. While it detected upto

75-80% of the spams at the default threshold score of 100, it wasn't able to

detect most of the image-based spam. However, its spam detection capability can

be improved by varying its threshold score, which ranges from 0-5000.

The lower threshold score implies better spam protection. However, this

didn't work for image based spam even after we lowered the threshold of the Spam

filter to zero.

Bottomline: Considering its price and efficient online threat

handling, a good buy for all desktop users