Panda Internet Security 2008

(Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista)*

Panda's offering this year of Panda Internet Security 2008 is a step up from its Antivirus 2008, but only by a little. Panda Internet Security 2008 has adequate antivirus protection, better than average antispyware, and a good firewall. Independent tests show that Panda Internet Security 2008 gets good points for virus detection and removal. Trojans, spyware, and other malware are all kept at bay with Panda Internet Security 2008.

The downside are the extras like Panda's anti-spam, privacy control, and anti-phishing features. All of which drag an otherwise decent product down.

$69.95

Editor's Overview

Adequate antivirus protection
Good antispyware protection
Good firewall
Annoying Wi Fi alerts
Average anti-spam
Inadequate parental controls
Poor browsing privacy controls

Easy Install and Good Basics

Panda Internet Security 2008 installation proved to be void of most headaches. Even on malware infested systems, Panda Internet Security 2008 was able to install without too many hassles you might find in other similar applications.

Panda Internet Security 2008's antivirus is still solid in detecting and removing most viruses, trojans, and other malware. Panda exceeds in removing antispyware this year. Their anit-spyware feature is better than previous years in this regard for certain.

The firewall did its job, and is good at protecting real-time attacks, direct and indirect. Tesing proved hard to disable the firewall or leak-test it. Internet Security Features

Antivirus
AntiSpyware
AntiPhishing
Firewall
Identity Protect
Backup
TruPrevent
AntiSpam
Parental Control
TotalScan Pro

Now for the Downside

The wireless protection is virtually useless. Its supposed to detect intruders and alert you when people log on to your network. Instead, Panda alerts you virtually every time anything comes on: your PC – wired or wireless, anything in your standard "My Network Places" list, even the wireless router itself is seen as an intruder. This Wi Fi protection is crying wolf making it all but useless.

The antispam feature is average. It has the usual whitelist and blacklist set up that allows you to identify incoming emails as friend or foe. The problem is, there's no option to import your address book or to automatically add people to your whitelist. It's all manual and a bit tedious which can make it cumbersome to use. And on top of that, testing showed that Panda Internet Security 2008 let in over half of known spam. Not a good track record.

When it comes to Parental Controls there is no option to limit kids time on the Internet. Other than that, the normal parental filters are in place: just like IE or Firefox has by default.

Support

Email or knowledge base

Conclusion

The best features of this year's offering by Panda are by far the anti-virus and anti-spyware features. The firewall is good as well, but after that, the remaining features left us wanting more. While we can't fully recommend this product, it does an average job at best.

We recommend Kaspersky Internet Security or BitDefender Total Security as an alternative.

*System Requirements

Processor: Pentium 300 MHz or faster
RAM: 128 MB (256 MB recommended)
Hard disk: 270 MB free space
Operating system: Windows Vista 32 & 64 bit, Windows XP 32 & 64 bit, Windows 2000
Internet Explorer 6.0
CD-ROM drive

$69.95