PC-cillin Internet Security 14.0

Trend's 2006 PC-cillin Internet Security suite features a much-improved user interface compared with last year's version. The core bundle remains the same - antivirus, antispam and firewall - but you get some extra protection against phishing and spyware, as well as privacy and parental controls, Wi-Fi intrusion detection and centralised management for good measure. It sounds quite the package, but does it live up to the expectation? Well, sort of.

The first point we noted was that installation was very straightforward, and the program worked well overall. The antivirus component has performed strongly in the Virus Bulletin VB100 awards and has earned the ISCA Labs seal of approval. It is noticeably less of a resource hog than rival suites, but advanced users might be dismayed by the limited configuration options. Overall, the program was quite easy to use and shouldn't cause too many hassles; even for those who are new to the security software world.

The Privacy Protection and Web Site Filter features of PC-cillin deserve a mention. You can opt to block each private data item from transmission via instant message, email or a web form, nominating specific exemptions if you wish. This is an excellent feature and one that we really appreciated; blocking specific programs, e-mails or messages was very convenient and took out a lot of configuration hassle down the track.

Unfortunately, the new spyware protection PC-cillin offers isn't quite as thorough. It doesn't rank by risk, so 'harmless' cookies manage to get listed alongside more serious malware. And firewall performance was also less than stellar, with only basic options and settings available. Fortunately, Spam handling was better, with 75 percent spotted from the off.

Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 14.0 isn't the best security suite on the market, but it's still pretty capable. It's cheaper than its main rival and imposes less of a burden on hardware, but while it delivers on antivirus and spam there are still slight question marks over the firewall and antispyware functions.