14 DAY TRIAL // Firewall
The firewall included in Panda suite is pretty good as it offers options for specifying the applications that can access the Internet. For each item in the list the user can set a different form of communication (outbound, inbound, both of them or no connection at all).
This feature of the suite does a great job as it is unobtrusive and can detect legit applications that need Internet connection like web browsers (of course, not all of them are recognized, but you will not have a problem with Firefox, IE or Opera), instant messengers or email clients.
Advanced settings permit defining the ports for the apps to connect to the Internet and specify if external connections to the program are allowed or not. For enhanced protection you can set connection rules and configure the ports and protocols installed programs can use. This feature can be used successfully for services launched by programs as well.
Panda Internet Security firewall is perfectly capable of notifying you of intrusion attempts (very useful in the case of Wi-Fi connection), letting you choose between granting access to the new device or blocking it.
It turns out that this feature is extremely easy to use and it will not bother you too much. Simply add the applications that need Internet connection and set the form of communication (inbound, outbound or both) for everything to work like a charm. A handy option is displaying operating system programs. This way you can see all the items your system needs to connect to the outside world one way or another in order to function properly.
For a view at the traffic on your computer simply open network activity from Security Protection menu. You will be displayed a list with all programs that are currently using your bandwidth. Wi Fi connections that have received your permission to connect to your PC are also displayed, but in a separate list.
One important feature is that none of Panda-related processes displayed in Task Manager could be turned off. The message at this attempt was invariably: Access is denied. This comes as a good thing as malevolent processes will attempt a breakdown of your protection in vain.
Anti-Spam Protection
Panda Internet Security 2008 comes equipped with anti-spam solutions in order to keep that plethora of junk mail away from your inbox. There aren't too many options available for this instrument as it does its job automatically at receiving email messages. You can create a list of email addresses and/or domains that should not be scanned for spam and accepted without any verification.
The filtering is not as one would have expected as spamming techniques have evolved intelligently lately, attacking inboxes like crazy. During our testing there were few junk mails identified by the application and most of them were labeled as not being spam (of course that invalid mails were among them). It seems that the application reacts to certain text strings in the message body when labeling spams, but it does not always verify the address of the sender.
Out of four spam messages we confronted the application with only two of them were marked accordingly and the rest were labeled as legit messages. Not too great, but also inconclusive as there was little spam for testing.
We conducted a second test and spammed our inbox with 6 junk mails and added 3 legitimate messages. Anti-Spam solution from Panda identified only 3 spams and labeled all the rest as legitimate. So, out of 9 items 6 of them were spam and 3 were legit. Panda marked only three of them as being spam. You do the math.
But I have faith that the application will learn in time to make a better difference between spam and legitimate mail. Plus the button at the end of the message allows you to change the way Panda Internet Security 2008 marks received emails: if it has mislabeled an item you can correct it through the button available in the message body.
Backup and Optimization
Besides protection options the all-around suite also comes with optimization and backup options for the user to maintain the computer in tip top shape and keep important data protected.
Making backup copies is fairly easy, especially that the built-in wizard will guide you through all the steps of the process. You can make a backup both by file types (and add all the extensions you deem necessary) and by folders (select the folders that need to be backed up) with the same ease. After all the items have been selected the program allows making a scheduled copy of the files or an unscheduled one (you have to launch the process manually).
Backup copies can be protected by a password to ensure the security and prevent opening them by unauthorized persons. Once all these settings are finished the process will begin automatically if it is a scheduled one or you can start it manually from "Launch Now" button.
Users can set an expiration date for backup copies and set a storing destination. There is nothing special about the process except for the online backup of your files. But there is a catch for this: you benefit from a free online backup service for one year with only 1GB of space at Docoom. As the offer is not too appealing (there are alternatives for 2GB of space for free with no time limit) we did not proceed to testing this option.
As most backup utilities on the market Panda Internet Security 2008 allows the user to save the copy of the files on disk with absolutely no problem. After creating the backup job you can launch it to be saved either in a location on the computer or, better yet on a CD/DVD media.
Restoring the files can be done both from copies stored on hard disk or on a CD/DVD, in original location or a new one. The application will make any trouble in this sense and comply to your wish. What is great is that you can browse the backup copy and restore only the files you need and not the entire backup.
Optimization options available in Panda Internet Security 2008 are quite modest in alternatives. Users can clean up the computer (of junk files located in Recycle Bin, delete fragments of lost files, known log files, Windows temporaries, IE history, cookies and temporary files) and perform a defragmentation of the files to improve performance. Other than these two options there is absolutely nothing else to contribute to an improved PC performance.
However, the suite comes with an ace up its sleeve. This is the scheduling option that turns the cleaning process into an automatic job you set and forget about. You can customize the clean up and add as many jobs as you want. Unfortunately you can only set it to take place at a certain time interval in days.
Be careful with the defragmentation as it will most definitely take quite a long time. Of course, this mostly depends on the size of the disks to check and the amount of file fragmentation. Also, the developer warns about not using your computer while this process is running.
Panda Internet Security 2008 represents a good way to protect your computer from known and unknown threats, despite the results of the test with the second malware database. The truth is that this collection of malware is quite tough to swallow by most anti-virus softwares. Firewall did a great job although on Vista it caused a connectile dysfunction several times. In fact the entire application caused some problems on my test Vista equipped computer as some programs failed to launch from favorites keys of the keyboard and even Windows Media Player crashed several times. The moment Panda IS was closed everything came back to normal functionality.
The Good
The firewall included in the suite is easy to handle even for an uninitiated user and does a good job with monitoring the ports and protocols and restricting Internet access to user defined applications.
Vulnerability detection helps keeping your computer up to date and without exploit doors. The application will try to fix the problem and if it can't it will show you the steps to solve the problem.
Users can make backups to important data and save it either on hard disk or on a CD/DVD. More than this backups can be scheduled to take place at a certain time of the day.
Automatic clean-up can be programmed to eliminate junk files from specific areas of your computer.
The Bad
On Vista there are several problems that need to be fixed. For instance some programs set to launch from keyboard favorite buttons refuse to launch. The same happened with the launchpad of my Hama U3 stick and a San Disk Cruizer U3. Also, while Panda IS automatic protection was on I could not start Windows Media Player. The moment Panda IS 2008 automatic protection was turned off all aforementioned issues disappeared and everything worked normally.
After a restart of automatic protection Status window was all red as all the features were deactivated and I had to enable them manually (on both Vista and XP). But I have to say that a computer restart did not cause the same problems and all features were active.
The Truth
According to my testing results Panda Internet Security 2008 is still in need for improvements, especially for Vista equipped machines. But it'll make for a good security measure on an XP.
Antivirus, firewall and creating backup copies remain the best features of the application. Scheduling options are available for practically all tools in the suite save anti-spam, firewall and defragmentation.
The application can show you visual statistics of a number of blocked threats and spam. The report is accurate and you can see from a glance the types of malware you have been protected against.
Back to the first part of the review
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
