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| Antivirus utility | Price | Best pick | Comments |
| McAfee.com Clinic 888/622-3331 www.mcafee.com | $30 | Small office | Proven McAfee antivirus engine sold online provides full-time protection, automatic updates for $30 per PC per year. Discounted 20 percent with the purchase of five or more licenses. |
| McAfee VirusScan ASaP 877/796-9246 www.mcafeeasap.com | 1 | This ASP version of the McAfee antivirus engine is easy to set up, effective, and automatic (including updates). Designed for networks with broadband, it is comparatively expensive. | |
| Network Associates McAfee VirusScan 800/338-8754 www.mcafee-at-home.com | $29 | Effective, but not as easy to set up as other antivirus products. Provides scheduled automatic scans, but not automatic updates. Free engine and virus-signature updates in first year; $5 per year thereafter. | |
| Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2001 800/441-7234 www.symantec.com | $40 | Home | Effective protection from a past PC World Best Buy. Easy to set up and use. Five-user pack sells for $160. Includes one year of virus-signature updates; additional updates are $4 per year. |
| Trend Micro PC-cillin 2000 800/228-5651 www.antivirus.com/pc-cillin | $402 | Home | Great interface, automatic updates, and fast virus scans. Includes a content filter for objectionable Web sites. No discount for multiple purchases. |
| Software firewall | Price | Best pick | Comments |
| McAfee.com Personal Firewall 888/622-3331 www.mcafee.com | $40 | Easy to set up; includes a small list of preapproved apps. Automatically downloads updates. Discounted 20 percent with the purchase of five or more licenses. | |
| McAfee PC FireWall ASaP 877/796-9246 www.mcafeeasap.com | 1 | Designed for networks, it is effective and easy to set up. Automatic updates require minimal user intervention. Relatively expensive. | |
| Network ICE BlackICE Defender 2.1 650/532-4100 www.networkice.com | $40 | Home | Needs minimal user input. Provides detailed information on attacks, including source IP address; logs suspicious network activity and displays information graphically. Does not monitor applications. |
| Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2001 800/441-7234 www.symantec.com | $50 | Easy to set up and use; customizable security levels. Alerts let you screen traffic on the fly. Filters cookies and malicious scripts, and blocks Web-site attempts to harvest personal info from your system. | |
| Zero-Knowledge Systems Freedom 2.0 514/286-2636 www.zeroknowledge.com | Free | Includes effective Web-based personal firewall, form filler, cookie manager, and ad manager. Works with common e-mail clients, but can be difficult to install and set up as well as finicky to uninstall. | |
| Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Pro 415/341-8200 www.zonelabs.com | $403 | Home | Highly configurable, network ready; stops outside attacks and lets you selectively allow or disallow Internet access by application. MailSafe quarantines potentially harmful e-mail attachments. |
| Hardware firewall and router | Price | Best pick | Comments |
| Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router 800/546-5797 www.linksys.com | $149 | Small office | Inexpensive; includes router for up to four networked PCs (and is expandable to 253 users). Overcoming some limitations on incoming services in the default configuration required extensive tweaking. |
| SonicWall Tele2 888/557-6642 www.sonicwall.com | $450 | High-priced for a unit that handles only four PCs, but advanced features include a virtual private network. Preset services allow for easy setup, but other services (such as ICQ) are difficult to configure. | |
| WatchGuard SOHO 2.2 800/734-9905 www.watchguard.com | $450 | Includes dynamic packet filtering; allows full outside access to one PC (useful for a Web server). Base price is for ten users; expandable to 50 ($510 more). Can be tedious to install. | |
| File encryptor | Price | Best pick | Comments |
| CenturionSoft Steganos Security Suite 202/293-5151 www.centurionsoft.com | $60 | Home/small office | Easy-to-use 128-bit encryption suite includes password management, file shredder, password-protected system lock, and encrypted e-mail. Considerable discounts for multiple licenses. |
| CyPost Navaho Lock with Voice 3.0 877/297-6781 www.cypost.com | $504 | Provides up to 168-bit encryption to scramble files, text-based e-mail, and voice messages for e-mail attachment. | |
| Network Associates PGP Personal Privacy 800/338-8754 www.mcafee-at-home.com | $19 | One of the first readily available encryption utilities, PGP provides 128-bit encryption and supports VPNs, but it is complex to set up and use. Does not support Windows Me. | |
| Panda Software Panda Security 800/603-4922 www.pandasecurity.com | $60 | Supports 448-bit file encryption and provides PC access control including secure log-on, limits on access to software and hardware, and auditing of PC use. Not designed for Windows Me, NT, or 2000. | |
| E-mail encryptor | Price | Best pick | Comments |
| Hush Communications HushMail 801/990-3490 www.hushmail.com | Free | Easy-to-use Web-based encryption. Offers limited integration with POP3 e-mail programs (expanded coverage is in the works). Recipients of encrypted e-mail must also be registered HushMail users. | |
| Sigaba Secure 650/572-6100 www.sigaba.com | Free | Home/small office | Highly secure encryption keeps keys separate from messages by generating the keys at Sigaba servers. Easy to set up and use, but currently lacks support for some major e-mail clients. |
| Anonymous-surfing service | Price | Best pick | Comments |
| Anonymizer 888/270-0141 www.anonymizer.com | $50 | Home | Easy to use and works with any browser. Allows the secure use of cookies with sites that require them. URL encryption hides browsing history from prying eyes. Secure tunneling version is $110 per year. |
| Zero-Knowledge Systems Freedom 2.0 514/286-2636 www.zeroknowledge.com | Free | Free version includes a firewall and a cookie manager. Premium version ($50) adds anonymous surfing, e-mail, and chat. Requires tricky installation of application. |
1Firewall, antivirus, and content filtering offered together at $372 per year per PC for networks of 5 to 25 nodes.
2Download version costs $30.
3Free version offers core features for home users and nonprofit organizations.
4Free ad-supported version available for home users.