Edward Mendelson By {$by} October 1, 2002

• Product: McAfee Internet Security 5.0
• Street Price: $70
• Requires: 32MB RAM, 71MB hard drive space, Microsoft Windows 98 or later
• Rating:
• Product: McAfee QuickClean 3.0
• Street Price: $30
• Requires: 32MB RAM, 20MB hard drive space, Microsoft Windows 98 or later
• Rating:
• Product: McAfee VirusScan Home Edition 7.0
• Street price: $50
• Requires: 32MB RAM, 61MB hard drive space, Microsoft Windows 98 or later
• Rating:
• Company Info: Network Associates Inc., 800-338-8754, www.mcafee-at-home.com

Windows and the Internet leave security loopholes open on your desktop computer, and third-party software tries to seal them up. Network Associates' massively improved McAfee Internet Security 5.0 now ranks with Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2002 as a high-powered, tightly integrated security package that's good enough to be trusted with your data.

The efficient interface looks and acts like Windows XP Explorer. If you don't need all the features in the omnibus Internet Security suite ($70 street), pick and choose among its components: McAfee Firewall 4.0 ($30), VirusScan Home Edition 7.0 ($50), and QuickClean 3.0 ($30; a subset of which is included in the suite). The full Internet Security package also adds customizable privacy protection features and controls over browser ads and pop-ups. Look for a full review of McAfee Firewall in an upcoming feature story; the other components are reviewed here.

Any up-to-date security package can block malicious programs from sending data to and from your computer, but a well-designed one lets you fine-tune your control over your machine's openness to the Web. McAfee Internet Security 5.0 surpasses both Norton Internet Security and ZoneAlarm Pro in the ease with which the program lets you specify whether (for example) to allow HTML e-mail to phone home when you view the message. You may be surprised to see a simple eBay outbid notice secretly trying to send data back to eBay; Internet Security warns you and lets you block or allow the data.

The program can also warn you when your address, social security, or credit card numbers are sent over the Web. All traces of your browsing can be deleted automatically, or you can opt to use a pop-up dialog every time you close your browser.

When any program first tries to access the Internet, warning dialogs let you specify whether to let the program use a safe default setting, or block or allow access to specific ports. When you view a Web page, a Browser Buddy window can tell you how many cookies and ads have been blocked. Other windows warn you of Web bugs or pop-ups that the program has blocked.

A confusing interface feature lets you enter but not remove personal data in the configuration wizard. If you want to clear your phone number from the list of blocked outgoing data, you need to find a deeply buried advanced-settings dialog.

Missing from this release is the ability to block Flash-animated ads and the option of customizing pop-up and privacy controls for specific sites. The company plans to have these features enabled in downloadable updates by year's end.

Good housekeeping and security go together. McAfee QuickClean 3.0 scours your browser cache and history list, deletes not-yet-destroyed Outlook Express e-mail messages, and removes temporary files and other unneeded data. A Most Recently Used list cleaner eliminates the files recently opened in applications.

Advanced features include a spyware remover and the Uninstaller utility, which remains useful for cleaning out remnants of discarded applications. QuickClean's features are less powerful than specialized tools like Lavasoft's AdAware or OnTrack Internet Cleanup, but the program provides a solid set of features in a compact package.

McAfee VirusScan Home Edition 7.0 is a top-notch virus scanner. Its real-time scanning detects malicious actions performed by script files, whether attached to e-mail or anywhere else in your system. The program scans incoming and outgoing e-mail for files with double file extensions (a typical method of transmitting mail worms). It now supports all e-mail clients that use standard POP3 and SMTP protocols for sending and receiving mail (not just Outlook, as in earlier versions) and synchronizes with PDAs. McAfee Firewall is included. A Professional Edition ($60) adds a resident PDA virus scanner, a file shredder, and the same subset of QuickClean found in the suite.