AVG Internet Security 8.5

If you’re one of the millions of people who run AVG’s free anti-virus software, you may be wondering how you can expand your security portfolio. AVG also offers an entire security suite, the latest version (8.5) of which has just been released, though the downside is that it isn’t free – an annual subscription costs £39.14.

However, for the price you will boost your existing anti-virus software with additional features, including firewall, anti-spam software and a new identity protector, all of which will help keep your computer running without any interruptions from hackers and malware.

The advantage of this is that all your security software runs from one place, and is regularly updated as a group. However, we found updates often stalled because they were being looked for before our PC managed to get online. Also, the firewall asked annoying and unnecessary questions, such as whether software such as Google Chrome should be allowed access to the internet.

AVG has missed only one virus in Virus Bulletin’s (www.virusbtn.com) tests since 2006, but its firewall software hasn’t performed particularly well in Matousec’s tests (www.matousec.com). However, Matousec has yet to test the latest version. AVG says the firewall isn’t designed to stand apart from the rest of the security suite, which Matousec doesn’t test. AVG claims its suite would pick up at least some of the malware that gets past its firewall alone.

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