BitDefender Internet Security 2008

Finally, a security suite that’s worth every penny and then some

A review of BitDefender Internet Security 2008. First of all, I’d like to say that I’ve tried a lot of different antivirus and firewall programs. At various points I’ve used Norton, McAfee, and Panda Platinum, as well as free solutions such as AVG Free, ZoneAlarm, and Komodo. I’ve also used my share of spyware and adware scanners, to help get the stuff that all of those other programs have missed.

From the very first scan that I did with BitDefender Internet Security 2008, though, it was quite obvious that all of my other programs couldn’t hold a candle to this one. I truly feel that the new BitDefender is the best antivirus and firewall suite on the market today.

Even after having used an antivirus/adware scanner combo for quite some time, BitDefender Internet Security 2008 was able to pick up a few things on my system that had evaded detection for who knows how long. Instead of checking for updates once a day like a lot of other antivirus software packages, it checks once per hour (or however often you set it up to check) so that you’ll be able to get the latest updates and important virus definitions as soon as possible.

With several different scanning types (a standard quick scan of documents, an in-depth scan that doesn’t scan archived files, and an in-depth scan that does scan archived files) you can check certain items or everything with the push of a button.

As for the firewall, I think that it’s a lot easier to use and understand than many of the firewall products that are out there on the market today. It’s fully customizable so that you can have the exact amount of security and control that you want, but it’s also very intuitive. When you get alerts that programs are trying to access the internet, it asks you what it should do (as most firewalls will do)… the beauty of BitDefender’s firewall, though, is that it gives you a recommendation based upon a quick scan of the program that’s trying to gain access. It’s a learning firewall, so it’ll just ask you about specific programs once unless the programs are altered in some way (such as through patches or updates.)

BitDefender Internet Security 2008 also comes complete with a set of fully-functioning parental controls that can be customized to work with different accounts on the same computer… that way parents will have unfettered access to the internet, while they can restrict the sites that children and teenagers can go to.

There are even time controls so that computer user accounts assigned to children or teens can only get online for a certain amount of time (or at certain times during the day.)

Finally, one of the things that really sold me on BitDefender Internet Security 2008 is that it features a “game mode” for those people who like to do some gaming online. Many firewall programs have fits with online gaming, but BitDefender made sure that they created a product that wouldn’t interfere with your game experience at all once you switched over to the game mode.

I can’t say enough good things about this program, after trying out the demo for a few weeks I went ahead and bought a full 3-year license.

Review by Jack Hargrove