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Independent Evaluations of Networking Products and Tools |
NETWORK TESTING LABS REVIEWEndpoint Security Performance
Discussion
Does a security product successfully thwart spyware, viruses, spam and other malware? Is it frugal in its consumption of computer resources? Is the price reasonable? These are the three main criteria for purchasing a security product. In this report, we look closely at the second criterion – performance. No one wants a fast computer riddled with trojans, adware, spyware or spam. On the other hand, no one wants a perfectly secure computer that’s unresponsive and sluggish. Having an endpoint (i.e., client-based, not server-based) security tool that protects you from malware while at the same time remaining unobtrusively in the background is the best of all possible worlds. Which endpoint security product consumes the fewest resources? When we asked ourselves that question, we had a few preconceived notions but we didn’t have any real numbers on which to base a conclusive judgment. So we organized an independent test of popular endpoint security products to see for ourselves which used the fewest resources. This report reveals the results of those tests. For our tests, we purchased currently-available (2009) versions of products from McAfee, Norton (Symantec), Kaspersky, Trend Micro and Microsoft. We obtained the vendors’ retail products from Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy, at the prices shown in the following table. NOTE: Microsoft recently announced its intention to stop selling Windows Live OneCare as of June, 2009.
Table 1. Reviewed 2009 Products and their Retail Prices
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McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Total Protection emerged from our tests with flying colors. Both products generally used fewer resources and finished tasks more quickly than the other products. McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Total Protection win the Network Testing Labs World Class award for best-performing endpoint security products.
Features and Extra Functions While each of these products guards against spyware and viruses, some have additional features. For example, McAfee Internet Security 2009 and McAfee Total Protection 2009 include McAfee’s Site Advisor, which provides safe surfing and safe searching, with useful visual cues, on a site-by-site basis. Norton Internet Security 2009 has a similar but less capable feature, called Safe Web, that covers many fewer sites than McAfee Site Advisor and which, unfortunately, only works with Norton Internet Security 2009. A further word or two about Norton’s Safe Web – we noticed Safe Web is a poor, dim shadow of McAfee’s Site Advisor. Site Advisor is by far the more mature, capable product. While the neophyte Norton Safe Web only works with Norton IS 2009, McAfee Site Advisor works with all PC software. Site Advisor is based on McAfee’s constant inspection of the Web for malware, but Norton Safe Web appears to rely mainly on feedback from users (“Community Buzz”), which the user is heavily encouraged to sign up for. We feel confident in saying Norton will need years of work to make Safe Web as functional as McAfee Site Advisor is today. The following table reveals the PC Health features of these products. You can see that McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Total Protection provide more functionality than the competition.
Table 2. PC Health features
The following table shows which products offer network protection and networking tools features. Again, McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Total Protection cover more bases. |
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Table 3. Networking features
Disk space is generally a cheap and plentiful commodity, but we nonetheless note with concern that some products exhibit a tendency toward bloat – if not downright obesity – as shown in the following table.
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Table 4. Disk space requirements
A skilled team of professional programmers can insinuate a security product into the Windows operating environment without requiring a restart of Windows. The following table fingers those vendors whose programmers failed to smoothly install their security product inside Windows.
Table 5. Product’s installation requires a reboot
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