F-Secure Internet Security 2007

F-Secure Internet Security 2007

Dan Sippy, Mar 11, 2007 1616 hrs IST

F-Secure is world famous for it's PC Security Suites. I mean, if the US Marine Force uses your software, you're good.

Unbreakable Firewall, Impressive Parental Control, Decent Price

Takes long time to quarantine, Sad Spam Filter, Average Anti-Spyware

E-Mail Print

EXPERT REVIEW



Horrible Spam Control

F-Secure's spam filter processes the incoming POP3 e-mail stream before it reaches the e-mail client. It automatically configures Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express to put spam and phishing messages into their own folders and includes instructions for manually configuring a number of other popular e-mail clients. Its default Medium filter mode is designed to filter out most spam without misfiling too many valid messages. You can choose the Aggressive mode to block more spam (but there's a risk of blocking valid mail) or the Relaxed mode to protect your valid mail (but more spam ends up in your Inbox).

F-Secure also maintains lists of allowed senders (whitelist) and filtered senders (blacklist). You can populate the whitelist by importing from Outlook's address book, by manually entering an address, or by clicking Allow Sender from the Spam Control menu in Outlook. In comparison BitDefender not only automatically whitelists the sender when you mark a message as Not Spam, but also adds those to whom you send mail.

However, the spam filter reduces the download speed of the email client. Downloading 1,500 random messages all at once took about 10 minutes before I had installed F-Secure. With F-Secure's spam and virus filtering strapped on, downloading, that same collection of messages took over ten times as long (no exaggeration, went to sleep while doing it). Although F-Secure has promised better accuracy in this version due to an updated filter engine, I wish I could say that its lengthy analysis yielded highly accurate results. Alas, that was not the case. F-Secure let a shocking 60 percent of undeniable spam messages into the Inbox, yet still managed to mismark about 8 percent of unquestionably valid messages as spam. This is a dismal performance: way worse than any of its other competitors. It's better to turn it off and use Outlook's built-in junk e-mail filter.

Better Parental Control



Some parental control systems include per-user settings based on Windows accounts, while others define program-specific accounts for each user. F-Secure doesn't quite match either of these models. It lets you define just two profiles, Child and Teenager, each with its own password. By default the Child profile can surf only to sites on a parent-defined list-you can also choose to allow sites "certified as safe for children." The Teenager profile blocks sites that relate to adult themes, drugs, gambling, hate, or weapons-you can also block chat and webmail sites (I hope your parents aren't reading this). There's no elaborate full-week schedule for allowed Internet access times, just a single time span that's applied to every day.

On the first attempt at Internet access during a Windows session, you must log in using the Child, Teenager, or Parent password. When access is blocked due to the Time Lock, a parent can offer an extension on a one-time basis. If a site is incorrectly blocked based on content, a parent can add it to the whitelist or click a link to log in using a different profile. Also, F-Secure logs all sites visited or blocked under non-Parent profiles with icons to indicate why a site was blocked.

I tested the parental control using Internet Explorer and Firefox. It worked well with all three of these. Clearly, it's browser-independent. I tried killing off the parental-control process, without success-I couldn't access the Internet at all. If the parental controls in F-Secure are sufficient for your needs, any kid probably won't be able to break them. If you're a computer wiz, then its different.

Conclusion

Overall Score:

Antivirus: 9/10
Antispam: 3/10
Antispyware: 6/10
Firewall: 9/10
Privacy/Parental: 7/10

With a price of Rs.1600 (MRP) for 12 months and 1000 bucks to upgrade for another 12 months, the FSIS 2007 is an economical buy. They also have a online support request page where registered users can submit their query. Also the vendor, from whom you purchase this software, has to give you a technical support number. For more info, log onto http://www.f-secure.com/. Also 1 CD can be used for 3 PCS (officially, that is).

F-Secure Internet Security 2007's does well in its behavior-based program control and its ability to keep malware out of the system. However, its spyware removal scanner is slow, unwieldy (not sure if that's a word, but you got what I meant), and not as thorough as other Security Suites. Parental control has improved, but your Inbox ain't gonna look pretty. So in the end, we have a "supposedly" great Security Suite which kicked ass against viruses and blocking unwanted incoming internet traffic, but was a major letdown in its Anti-Spyware and Anti-Spam field.




Write a comment

       (All fields are mandatory.)

Text Limit = 255 Characters

Type the characters you see in the picture below.

#

Characters are not case sensitive.

USER COMMENTS

please help to download

by mridul, sultanpur, on Mar 17, 2008 08:05 PM, Report abuse   Reply

sdfgfsdg

by Dang, Sydney, on Aug 19, 2007 08:48 AM, Report abuse   Reply

Kaspersky Internet Security Suite Ver 6.0 is the BEST

by Mack, Mumbai, on Mar 14, 2007 05:04 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Oh no terribly not. Your computer becomes a maniak after installing such software. Just like needs aspirin!

by Andy, Moscow, on Jul 13, 2007 01:45 PM, Report abuse

Please call me on +91-9820149352. Raju Desai

by Raju Desai, Mumbai, on Jun 07, 2007 07:18 PM, Report abuse   Reply

fdghdsfg

by ghdfgh, dfgdgh, on Apr 03, 2007 12:40 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Avast Home Edition rocks. Its so fast, free and best in detecting Trojans and other malware.

by punjab234, Moga, on Mar 12, 2007 11:04 AM, Report abuse   Reply

can u pls give the link for download of this software avast...

by aks, Mumbai, on Mar 12, 2007 10:41 PM, Report abuse

yes! avast Home edition 4.7 (only with standard shield enabled ) coupled with Comodo pro (free) firewall is BEST FREE security s/w for any home user .. less resource and more control , avast takes fast scanning even inside ARCHIVES.setup(exe) even , dont use the Slutty AVG free it detects but never fixes , Zone alarm is resource hungry !! Bitdefender free consumes more cpu process , BEST OF

by NIJI, MADURAI, on Mar 14, 2007 05:57 PM, Report abuse

What about memory usage? does it slow the comp down

by uNkNoWn, Delhi, on Mar 12, 2007 02:35 PM, Report abuse   Reply

ive used this and i can tell u that like most Security Suites, it uses quite a bit of ur system resources......its only good for supercomputers.

by Akimichi Chouji, Konoha, on Mar 14, 2007 01:44 PM, Report abuse

Its Nice

by heven, Islamad, on Mar 12, 2007 01:11 PM, Report abuse   Reply

VIEW ALL LATEST

 

Gaming On The Move: Big Business

News > Gaming , November 20, 2008 1820 hrs IST

Set to breach 10-billion mark by 2013, says Juniper Research ...

Nintendo Adds 4 Games To Wii Shop Channel

News > Gaming , November 20, 2008 1816 hrs IST

Two each for the WiiWare and the Virtual console ...

Stream Multimedia Content On iPhone In Real-Time

News > Software , November 20, 2008 1737 hrs IST

Watch live TV, read an e-book on the go ...

Nokia Readies TD-SCDMA Smartphone For China

News > Internet , November 20, 2008 1718 hrs IST

China Mobile to launch the 3G handset by 2009-end ...

LG Prada II Gets A Companion - Prada Link

News > Consumer Electronics , November 20, 2008 1706 hrs IST

Read text messages on a watch ...

 

USER REVIEWS

Software NEWS

Hide
Stream Multimedia Content On iPhone In Real-Time

Stream Multimedia Content On iPhone In Real-Time

News | Software | 20 Nov 2008

Watch live TV, read an e-book on the go
VoxOx Aims To Simplify Communication

VoxOx Aims To Simplify Communication

News | Software | 20 Nov 2008

Combines online and offline contacts under one roof
NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge

NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge

News | Internet | 19 Nov 2008

Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson offer over $5.25mn prize

Software REVIEWS

Hide
Vista UAC and a smarter alternative, Smart UAC

Vista UAC and a smarter alternative, Smart UAC

Reviews | Software | Security and Privacy | 02 Nov 2008

A look into the UAC concept, particularly Smart UAC, whose approach is the same...
Vista Tips and Tricks

Vista Tips and Tricks

Reviews | Software | Productivity | 26 Oct 2008

Here are a few tips that will help you get the best out of your Vista machine.
Watch out Vista here comes Norton's UAC

Watch out Vista here comes Norton's UAC

Reviews | Software | Security and Privacy | 19 Oct 2008

Fed up of Vista's UAC, then try out Norton's smarter UAC approach.

Software USER REVIEWS

Hide
Auslogics,BoostSpeed 4

Auslogics BoostSpeed 4

Asphodel

software | Auslogics | Tue, 06 May 2008

A powerful and easy to use Windows optimization suite that really does its job...
Morange,Morange

Morange Morange

javadsha

software | Morange | Sat, 20 Oct 2007

great free or paid version
tally 7.2,tally 7.2

tally 7.2 tally 7.2

302303

software | tally 7.2 | Wed, 02 Aug 2006

Basic accounting requirement of displaying balance after each transection...

MOST POPULAR NEWS

Hide
News

Could A DVR Save Your Marriage?

News | Consumer Electronics | 04 Sep 2008

...Or should you stick to your shrink?
News

Firefox Counters Chrome's Speed Test

News | Internet | 04 Sep 2008

According to Mozilla's SunSpider test, Firefox 3.1 is 28% faster than Chrome on ...
News

Nokia N96 for Rs. 40,000?

News | Telecom | 04 Sep 2008

False alarm everyone... We have learnt from Nokia that the N96 will be priced be...

MOST POPULAR REVIEWS

Hide

MOST POPULAR GAMES

Hide

MOST POPULAR DOWNLOADS

Hide
Downloads

Forbidden.exe

Downloads | Games | 02 Sep 2008

Downloads

md5deep

Downloads | System Tools | 04 Sep 2008

Downloads

RivaTuner

Downloads | System Tools | 03 Sep 2008