26 November 2010

By: Ionut Ilascu, Editor, Software Reviews
AVG Internet Security 2011 Review
AVG Internet Security has been designed as a complete protection suite against all sort of malware. Apart from this, it can keep an eye on network traffic through its firewall module, or shield your inbox with anti-spam filters. Another module can check the traffic for dangerous connections and stop them. Although it is a paid product, the suite does not fall far from the antivirus, which is distributed free of charge. The above-mentioned modules and the $54.99 price posted on the developer's page make almost all the difference between the two products, since the same detection engine is now available in both versions (read our review of the free edition which covers malware detection). Our license was provided by ASBIS Romania, which sells it for $47 (VAT included). Upon installing the product, you will benefit from the same procedure reduced to only a few steps, which allows you to select the components you want. You can also add the AVG Security Toolbar to provide visual alerts for LinkScanner. The same layout is shared by both products, so getting from the free antivirus to the Internet Security is not a dramatic change at all. Anti-Spam This module in AVG Internet Security will work regardless if you are using POP3 or IMAP, just as long as you keep into account that the connection must be unencrypted if you want AVG anti-spam to kick in. We tested the component on Mozilla Thunderbird, but email client compatibility is extended to other products, such as Outlook, Windows Mail, Outlook Express or The Bat!. By default, the filter will automatically mark invalid messages with [SPAM] in the subject and, in the case of Microsoft Outlook, it'll also move them to the junk folder. If you want marked emails to be moved to a specific location in other clients as well, you will have to customize the clients themselves for this. Our batch of email contained 1,649 messages, 527 of which were pure spam and the rest all valid email. After all messages were imported, the results showed that AVG's spam filtering did a pretty good job, with few false positives. It managed to miss-classify a total of 40 valid items (that is 3.5%) out of 1,122, and only 2.6% (14 emails) of the spam succeeded in tricking the module into letting it in the inbox folder.
AVG Internet Security 2011 boxshot
More efficient filtering of the messages can be obtained by training the engine on entire folders of spam and valid email. This can be done from the advanced configuration of the module, where aggressiveness can also be adjusted. Additionally, the application lets you change the text string marking spam messages, or amend the performance settings to your needs and use more or less memory. Complete configuration of anti-spam module is a job for advanced users rather than
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average ones. Besides whitelisting and blacklisting email addresses, which even a beginner can handle, the complicated list of settings includes Realtime Blackhole server support, as well as engine training tweaks like the number of word entries, language and country lists, approved/blocked IPs or management of spoofed senders. It is best to refrain yourself from tweaking unless you know exactly what you are doing. However, if these options are familiar to you, AVG Anti-Spam can be set up for increased accuracy. During our tests a simple training of the engine with folders filled to the brim with spam had a positive effect on incoming messages.
Firewall It monitors the communication ports and protects you from intrusions. By default, the firewall is configured to produce as few alerts as possible. The component automatically selects a firewall profile that best suits your connection: directly connected to the Internet, SOHO (small or home office) or computer with a domain. In the spirit of avoiding to disturb you unless it is necessary, AVG's firewall will automatically recognize some of the non-threatening programs and allow them to connect, based on a list of trusted items. For the others, it'll pop an alert asking you to make the call. The options in front of you will be: allow the communication for all networks, only for the safe ones or block it for all of them. To let you see for yourself the other end the program is trying to communicate to, the firewall provides a set of details in the lower part of the alert window. Here you'll find important information about the ports used to relay the message (local and remote), remote IP address, connection type, direction and process ID. These are sufficient for a well prepared user to realize if the computer is under attack or not.

All the rules and configuration options are stored separately from the advanced settings of AVG Internet Security suite, but can be easily accessed from the component view or from the Tools menu. All programs recognized as trusted benefit from advanced management, while the new ones added automatically are governed by a simple law that grants them a connection whenever they require one. However, if you have your suspicions, you can enable AVG to ask for your call on the matter instead of taking automatic action. Finer control on how each connection is treated can be achieved from the advanced settings of each rule. This includes instilling restrictions per protocol, direction, local and remote ports or remote address. Just like in the case of anti-spam, the advanced configuration is designed for the power user. When putting its efficiency to the test, we noticed that all the tested ports were closed, although having them stealthed altogether would have been a better alternative. Having all the ports invisible practically hides your computer from a possible attacker. What we were not expecting was for Opera to not be on the trusted list of applications. In our case, the beta issue of version 11 was flagged for an action from our part.
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Another module unavailable in the free edition is Online Shield. Its purpose is to allow only secure downloads on the system. So, if you try to download an infected file from the web, it will immediately take action and repel the threat. Files shared via instant messenger programs are also under the jurisdiction of Online Shield. However, in this case only ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN are supported. Properly configured (and settings in this case are a snap compared to what firewall and anti-spam make available), this proved to be an effective layer of protection, blocking malware items before they were stored on the computer. System Tools contributes to making a difference between Internet Security and the free product from AVG. The instruments available in this menu are designed to gather information about running processes, network connections, application that start with Windows, Internet Explorer extensions and LSP (Layered Service Providers) on your system. Again, not all of this is accessible to the average user and most of you would definitely prefer an easier way to protect the system. AVG Internet Security has definitely not been built with the average Joe in mind, otherwise the configuration panel would have been simpler to work with. Tweaking anti-spam component in particular can be a pretty tough job if you are not already familiar with this sort of settings or terminology. Even if it is offered at a pretty low price (and you can get it for an even lower one through ASBIS Romania), compared to Internet Security suites from other developers, it is somewhat justifiable through the lack of a parental control module.

The Good Scan times have been improved through a re-designed smart scanning engine, and malware detection scored great in our tests. Firewall module does not give you too much trouble as the most popular applications are immediately recognized and special rule configuration is enforced for them. Anti-Spam engine, though efficient with its default configuration, can be tweaked to improve its accuracy even more. Online Shield takes care of every download coming via the web browser or ICQ, Yahoo or MSN messenger programs. The Bad The amount of settings and, in some cases, the complexity of configuration is too much for the average user, especially in the context of making everything as simple as possible. When asking about allowing a connection for an app, the firewall does not offer the possibility to create a custom rule that grants permission according to ports, protocols or remote address that is accessed. During our antiphishing test, AVG did a lamentable job, nailing only four addresses out of
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ten. By comparison, Opera single-handedly discovered all the phishing we fed AVG. Just like the free edition of the antivirus, the interface jams the moment Virus Vault is accessed. The Truth AVG Internet Security is an enriched version of AVG Free Edition, which sports firewall, online shield and anti-spam protection. The same protection is available in both versions and configuration of said modules will give quite a headache to uninitiated users. The firewall is not top notch, but few of them are, and the list of trusted applications may not contain all the popular programs you have in mind.
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