eScan Internet Security Suite 11 Download:

Ease of Use: eScan recently proclaimed the deployment of a new "user-friendly" interface. And the eScan Internet Security 11 interface is slick and usable...on the surface. The eScan Dashboard consists of a Home screen whose contents can be switched via buttons on a Macintosh-style navigation strip, which is located along the bottom of the window.

Once a user clicks more deeply into the interface, however, the pretty UI fades away. The Privacy Controls Settings dialog, for example, is an ugly conglomeration of tabs and checkboxes. While other antivirus manufacturers have taken pains to provide easier access to often-used features and settings, eScan's usability improvements seem mostly cosmetic.

eScan 11 Dashboard:

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The list of features added to the eScan 11 application suite is stunning. Many of the included features exist on competitor's platforms, but eScan includes a few unique twists.

eScan's URL Filtering is one of its most obvious new features. A pop-up message is displayed from the System Tray every time a user surfs to a page that eScan considers malicious. The protection even extends to scripts and utilities hosted by Google that may be used for tracking purposes. Users can whitelist URLs that they consider safe, but which eScan may have erroneously flagged as malicious; the pop-up includes a checkbox that supports whitelisting a URL seconds after it is blocked.

The Web Protection tab on the Dashboard is host to several additional new features in eScan Internet Security 11. Anti-Phishing provides protection against phishing attacks, in which a malicious site attempts to steal private information by posing as a trusted source. For example, a phishing site may attempt to steal bank account numbers by mimicking the look and feel of BankOfAmerica.com. Web Protection also contains configuration for eScan's Parental Controls, which are rich and extensive. Users can avoid these configuration options, however, and assign their junior users to one of the pre-configured protection categories: Walled Garden, Teenager, Adolescent, and Adult. (The eScan Help Manual describes each category in detail.)

One of the more unique features in eScan is Folder Protection, which is available from the File Anti-Virus Settings menu. If a folder is added to this dialog, none of its contents can be modified or deleted. While this is a nice feature, it took us a long time to find it; the Help manual, sadly, was not very helpful (see below).

Other new features include Rescue CD creation, a virtual keyboard (for defeating keylogging programs), and self-protection measures that prevent other applications from disabling eScan.

eScan sports solid Firewall protection. Unlike with its Parental Controls feature, the Firewall can be set to one of four defaults - Allow All, Limited Filter, Interactive Filter, and Block All - or customized to the user's taste.

Another strong point of the eScan platform is its Anti-Spam technology, which can be configured to use a wide range of heuristics, such as blocking all e-mails that use Chinese or Korean character sets, and placing suspected ads in quarantine.

eScan also supports Gamer Mode, which is available by right-clicking the eScan icon in the System Tray.