A virus is a malicious program that affects computer programs & hardware and like a biological virus, a software virus is contagious. There are many types of viruses, from benign to malign. For example, some viruses may appear on April Fools Day with a message and others can literally corrupt all data on hard drives. Trojan horses are programs that attach themselves to other programs and sometimes lie dormant until a specific instruction triggers their malicious code. Regardless of the function that a virus performs, they are an illegal intrusion of your computers software and hardware. The solution to protect your computer is to install an anti-virus program and PC-cillin 2003 not only protects your computer from viruses but also prevents hackers from illegally accessing your computer.

As with previous versions of Trend Micro, the installation was a breeze and as soon as the CD was inserted into the drive, Windows XP started the installation automatically. After a few minutes, including a reboot, the software was then ready to be used and tested. I proceeded to scan my entire hard drive (40GB) that was a lengthy process but fortunately PC-Cillin detected no viruses on my hard drive. Another feature of PC-Cillin is that it automatically scans all incoming e-mails to prevent any viruses from sneaking into your system. Once the program was installed, I then proceeded to download the latest updates from Trend Micro to protect my computer system from the latest threats. This took some time, considering that there have been so many updates release since the release of PC-cillin 2003.

One of the main things that you will notice with PC-cillin 2003 is the extremely easy to use interface as compared with other anti-virus software. Everything has been kept simple and you don't have to run a variety of programs to change settings. When you click on the relevant folder icons up the top of the screen such as "standard" and "settings", you can be guaranteed to get right section of the program without getting frustrated. Brilliant work by Trend Micro! Another feature of PC-cillin 2003 is that it doesn't slow your system down as much as Norton anti-virus 2003 does when you do a full scan, so you can be guaranteed to continue working on your system as the slowdown is minimal.

PC-cillin 2003 also gives users a variety of options when scanning and protecting your information on the computer. For instance, PC-cillin has the ability to scan both incoming and outgoing e-mails and because I have been added to an email list sometime down the track, PC-cillin immediately detected hostile e-mails from SPAM companies and hackers pretending to be from companies that have sent attachments. Another impressive feature of PC-cillin is the ability to create a recovery disc that restores your computer before you were infected by the virus. As with previous versions of PC-cillin, the anti-virus software supports a wide variety of e-mail programs from Microsoft Outlook to Netscape Messenger.

It should also be noted that PC-cillin is the only virus software that not only protects "wired" computers but also wireless networks from unwanted attacks and viruses. PC-cillin 2003 also comes with a one year subscription with Trend Micro that allows users to download the latest updates to ensure the best possibly security on their computer systems.

Net Nanny 5 Review

Net Nanny 5 is the latest internet filtering software that protects your children from the dangers of the internet and is also ideal for businesses who wish to limit the way their staff access the internet.

The installation of Net Nanny 5 was extremely easy and took under a minute to install the software on the system. The only downside to the installation was that it required you to reboot your computer without giving you the option to cancel. 

After the reboot was complete, a configuration window appeared for Net Nanny that allowed you to finish installing the software. Net Nanny then prompted you to setup a user account for your computer. The standard account called "Anybody" has a number of options that include;

Net Nanny 5 is a memory resident program that blocks all unwanted internet content from being show on your computer. Once the software was installed, I set the account level to 2 and tried to do a search on google for an obscene word. The result came back as a blank page with the word hashed out. 

When trying to access web pages that contained adult content, the page came back as "This Content is Blocked by Net Nanny" and prevented any access to the page. The program also allowed for an additional filtering system that lets you add your own phrases and words that may be blocked on search engines.

Net Nanny also keeps a log of all web pages visited and search words that people may have typed so that you can trace where the person has been visiting on the internet. Even IRC Chats can be logged and is recorded by Net Nanny 5. Apart from protecting your children from the dangers of the internet, Net Nanny also supports various functions that will benefit everyday net users. For example, Net Nanny 5 can also disable all annoying popup windows and even disable cookies. Various newsgroups can also be prohibited and you can even add your own newsgroups if needed.

Another feature of Net Nanny is that it can also limit what programs are allowed to be run on the computer, thus limiting your computer to only certain programs. If internet time is a priority, Net Nanny 5 allows you to limit internet usage for certain users, for example, you can only allow users to connect to the internet between 4 to 5pm per day. And if users think they can bypass the time limit, the program also supports a time tampering function that prevents this from occurring.

I would highly recommend Net Nanny 5 to parents who are weary of their children using the internet. As the old saying goes, "it is better to be safe than sorry" which is extremely true in this world without no boundaries, the internet. Apart from protection your children from harmful internet content, it is also a useful application for employers who want to limit their employees use of the internet as it restricts certain web sites and even keeps a log of which sites were visited.

In conclusion "The Ultimate Internet Security Suite for your family's PC" that is distributed my Manaccom Australia  contains two of the most useful programs available to parents who have children using the internet. Not only does it contain one of the most comprehensive anti-virus programs that protects your PC from viruses and unauthorised intrusions but it also contains Net Nanny 5 that protects your children from the dangers of the internet. Both these programs are invaluable and I would highly recommend "The Ultimate Internet Security Suite for your family's PC" too all conscientious parents.