F-Secure Internet Security 2008 suite has all the necessary tools to help users defend themselves from unsavoury elements while surfing the Net.

The program comes with various tools such as virus and spyware scanners, rootkit scanners, anti-spam for email messages, anti-phishing and firewalls.

A pleasant surprise was the option to scan the computer without installing the software: the option quickly presented itself when I inserted the installation disk into the PC.

The program also gets itself up and running without much trouble, and scans and quarantines viruses and spyware without too much fuss. And it continually scans all files and email messages while you work and surf, so you have peace of mind.

The other notable feature is the Parental Control tool. The tool can categorise PC users under parents, children and teenagers, allowing parents to limit access to certain webpages on the Internet for each category. Parents can apply time limits on PC usage too.

Because it is password-protected, children cannot access the application and change the settings. As a similar parental control feature can be found in Windows Vista, Windows XP users will find this useful.

However, the program requires the user to uninstall pre-existing security tools that reside in the PC before it can be installed. This is somewhat limiting, I feel, because I prefer "the more the merrier" approach, which gives me more options and protection on how to tackle the slew of spyware and viruses.

Also, updating F-Secure virus and spyware definitions is really a pain as I had to try for nearly 2 days to get a response from the server via the program. And when I did get a response, it took a long time for the file to be downloaded. Totally unacceptable.

This program has good security features, but there are others just as good or better.