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McAfee Total Protection 2007
Price: £59.99 inc VAT - £99.99 for 3 licences

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Robert Irvine

This review updated: 23/10/2006
Featured in magazine:
Issue 145
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: McAfee
Tel: 01753 217500
Web Address: www.mcafee.co.uk


So many security threats now target our PCs every day that combating them all involves an arsenal of protection software. To save you needing to install multiple programs, McAfee's aptly-named Total Protection 2007 package covers no less than 10 danger areas to offer comprehensive and complete security when you're online.

Features
Essentially an enhanced version of McAfee Security Center, Total Protection combines the essentials – anti-virus and anti-spyware tools and a firewall – with a variety of powerful features for virtually every conceivable internet risk. These include the ability to conceal your presence on the web, activate parental controls, back-up and restore files, block spam and remove rootkits. The software monitors your wireless network for security weaknesses, prevents hackers from connecting and encrypts your personal data. Total Protection also incorporates McAfee SiteAdvisor, which warns you about dubious websites.

Performance
With so many bells and whistles, it would be unreasonable to expect Total Protection to operate at lightning speed, but we still found it frustratingly slow. Running a scan takes far too long, and the various processes running constantly in the background prove a real resource hog. Equally annoying are the pop-up alerts that require you to allow or deny a specific action – although these prevent unauthorised changes to your system, they're also intrusive and often confusing. On the plus side, the suite updates frequently and efficiently, ensuring you're always protected against the latest threats.

Ease of use
McAfee has done a great job of making this feature-packed software as simple to use as possible. Everything is integrated into the main Security Center, offering one-click access to its many functions. A choice of Basic and Advanced menus means you can customise the interface to your comfort level, unlocking the more sophisticated tools – such as visually tracing an unknown IP address on a map – as and when you need them.

Value for money
Considering it caters for so many different areas, McAfee Total Protection offers great value for money, and for an extra £40 you can install it on three different machines. Note that you can also buy Internet Security Suite 2007, which includes everything but wireless network protection, for £49.99, and PC Protection Plus 2007, which combines security and system maintenance tools, for £44.99.

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