McAfee VirusScan 2006 provides solid performance at a reasonable price, but getting help by phone will cost you plenty.

In tests for "The New Virus Fighters," McAfee VirusScan 2006 ranked second overall among the ten products in the group because it performed consistently well without bombing in any particular category. It ranked fourth in overall performance, doing particularly well in our heuristics tests. Here, it ranked second, behind Best Buy winner BitDefender. It ranked third in our scan-speed testing and sixth in detecting the malware in our zoo collection of backdoor programs, bots, and Trojan horses.

The program is simple to navigate, although the main console heavily promotes other McAfee security products--irritating for users who have only (and want only) the VirusScan product. This package's major flaw is that McAfee charges $3 per minute for telephone technical support. (McAfee does offer free around-the-clock Internet chat sessions though.)

McAfee VirusScan performance and features are consistently strong, but one 15-minute call to tech support will run you the price of the software itself.

Tony Bradley