Internet security programs are all the rage these days, and with good reason. Broadband connections increase the opportunities for hackers to find and exploit weaknesses, and the prevalence of computers in the home makes it easier for kids to get up to no good online. This package aims to address these concerns.

First up is the personal firewall, a security utility that monitors, blocks and logs all unauthorised attempts to access your computer across the internet. Similarly, it prompts for permission whenever a program tries to take itself online.

Permanent rules can be set from the outset and changed at will, and it's all about as seamless and straightforward as you could wish for. It's also password-protected so your settings cannot be altered without your permission.

Parental controls

The next main ingredient is a collection of parental controls. Although explicitly 'not a substitute for parental supervision', these enable the administrator (you) to block access to undesirable websites, principally those concerning sex, drugs and crime but also optionally those encompassing lifestyle (whatever that's supposed to be), politics, religion, dating and web-based chat.

There are limitations - there's no option to block the use of instant messengers, for instance - and any database of 'bad' websites is always going to be incomplete and less than foolproof. Still, we were surprised by the degree to which the software differentiates between obviously obscene or unpleasant sites and those dealing with grown-up topics in a responsible manner. In fact, this is the best software of its type that we've seen, but we wouldn't trust it entirely.

Further features

Security & Privacy Suite has plenty of other features, some more fruitful than others. Ad Manager, for instance, strips internet adverts from web pages to speed up surfing. Some ads, anyway: unfortunately, it seems to miss as many as it spots. Nor can it kill those irritating pop-ups.

Elsewhere, Keyword Alert prevents personal information from leaving your computer without your knowledge. Its efficacy depends mainly on how much information you feed in at the outset: supply your address, credit card number and phone number and up pops a warning each time said details are entered in an email or web form.

It is not case sensitive, which makes good sense; it ignores instant messenger chats, which doesn't; and it can only block precise text matches, so typos and wilful masking will always get through.

Like the parental controls, this offers very much a first line of defence rather than complete peace of mind.

Anitivirus omission

The suite is fully featured but there's one glaring omission - antivirus protection. Off-the-shelf products like McAfee's or Norton's Internet Security include this as standard so are more attractive as an all-round solution (albeit at £50 each). Here, there is merely the promise of an antivirus component at some point in the future, and at an unknown price.

Remember too that it's still possible to download the excellent ZoneAlarm personal firewall for free (www.zonelabs.com).

Just two quibbles: although the developers don't actually specify minimum system requirements, we found that the suite impacted significantly upon other applications, slowing everything down. And try as we might, we couldn't persuade it to work with a small home network (that is, two connected PCs).

Conclusion

A credible and effective alternative to the big names in internet security. But don't forget that antivirus protection, which remains more of a must-have than a firewall, is not included.

Price
$49.95 (about £35) for a one-year subscription. Download only.Contact
No customer sales contact number. www.zeroknowledge.com