Steganos Internet Security 2006 review

Steganos's Internet Security suite is a comprehensive bundle of utilities that aims to protect your computer against the main threats on the internet.

These include viruses, hackers, spyware and spam. For just £35 including VAT, this seems like an attractive deal.

The suite is a collection of separate utilities rather than an integrated program. The installation CD allows you to install each component separately, which is handy if you already have an anti-spam program you're happy with, for example, as you can ignore the one Steganos provides. Steganos's modular approach reflects the fact that the company has not written the individual programs itself but has licensed them from other developers.

This is no bad thing, because Steganos has picked some seriously useful programs. The anti-virus software is a loosely rebranded version of Kaspersky Lab's Anti-Virus Personal. This is an excellent product and our standalone anti-virus program of choice. Our previous reservations were down to cost, as this particular program is £28. This means you pay just £7 for the rest of the programs, which makes this suite a real bargain.

The personal firewall, also known as Kaspersky Anti-Hacker, is another of our favourites. It is also worth £28 including VAT as a standalone product. Both Anti-Virus and Anti-Hacker are easy to use. The anti-virus program has unbeatable detection rates, matched only by F-Secure Anti-Virus, which also uses Kaspersky technology.

Spyware is a relatively new threat that wreaks havoc on vast numbers of Windows PCs, as we at Shopper know only too well from the number of spyware-related cries for help we receive. Steganos AntiSpyware 2006 is actually Webroot's Spy Sweeper, which usually costs around £25 including VAT. It scans systems for spyware and protects your browser against malignant Browser Helper Objects (HBOs), which are often used to hijack Internet Explorer. If you've been unable to change your browser's default homepage, your system is probably infected with a bad HBO.

Spy Sweeper is a competent product, although it barely got a chance to prove itself in our tests as the anti-virus program picked up anything nasty that tried to run automatically. It didn't interfere with any legitimate HBOs we installed, either.

The anti-spam program contains every option you are likely to want to combat unsolicited commercial email. The basics are all there, including the ability to allow and block particular email addresses and domains. You can also import your Windows address book. It supports plug-in filters, so it can block attached files with specified file extensions, emails that contain images hosted on web servers and email that external anti-spam databases have classified as spam. You can also permit newsletters that might otherwise be sent to the program's recycle bin.

This package is a bargain. Even if you are happy with your current anti-spam program or don't want to change your firewall, this is still a good deal. After the first year you'll need to buy a subscription for further updates, but this is only £20 including VAT, a fraction of the cost you would face if you owned each program separately.