Fortunately AVG are aware that their free anti-virus package doesn’t cover the needs of all users so they have also produced a security suite going by the name of AVG Internet Security. To save recapping I am simply going to focus on the differences between the two applications so if you’ve missed my review of the free edition it can be located at www.computerarticles.co.uk.

Potentially the most important issue, it’s worth noting that the free edition of AVG Anti-Virus is not licensed for business use or for use on multiple machines; if you were planning to use the product at work or on more than one computer then upgrading is the only legal option.

Other than this, AVG Internet Security offers the following additional features:

Firewall – A firewall inspects all network traffic between your computer and the Internet in order to block unauthorised access to your machine. The firewall in AVG Internet Security is designed to be a more secure alternative to the solution bundled with Windows.

Spam Filter – The integrated Anti-Spam filter prevents unwanted e-mails from reaching your inbox while also protecting you against phishing attacks. The anti-spam feature in itself will be invaluable to most users; especially those that have no use for certain male oriented medical products.

Anti-Rootkit Scanner – A rootkit is a piece of software designed to obscure the fact that a computer system has been compromised from both the user and anti-virus software. The intention is that files can be altered and processes executed without triggering a conventional anti-virus scanner, including AVG free edition.

Identity Theft Protection – Following their takeover of Sana Security at the beginning of this year, AVG have started integrating their software algorithms designed to detect unusual malware prompted behaviour designed to siphon off passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers and so on.

There are also a few other bits and pieces chucked in, including Instant Messaging protection, free technical support and a safe download manager making it a pretty comprehensive package.

There are however a couple of drawbacks. First and foremost it is larger, and therefore more resource hungry than the free edition which is unfortunate as one of the things I loved most about the free edition was how it was substantially smaller and faster than the biggest players on the market such as Norton and McAfee. While it is still ahead of these alternatives it is still a shame to see it lose any ground on this front.

Secondly, and most obviously, Internet Security is not free. You can buy the two year, three user license on the AVG website for £83.18 or alternatively (if the Herald Express will allow me a shameless plug) we are selling it retail boxed in our Torquay Road and new Newton Abbot store for £32.99.

Whether Internet Security is the right solution for you depends on your particular needs; I will reiterate that the free edition (http://free.avg.com) is a more than capable anti-virus checker but if you desire the extra features and don’t mind the slight sacrificing of speed then the paid for suite may represent a better option.

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) – Introduced back in 1999, WEP is still one of the most popular encryption protocols. Despite the fact it has several serious weaknesses and can be readily cracked in minutes with freely available software, it is the default choice presented to a user when setting up security on a wireless network which probably explains its continued popularity.

The standard is so weak because it relies on a small piece of data being pre-pended to all transmissions which when matched to the key held by an authorised machine allows the data to be decrypted. With it being on almost every packet of data transmitted the cracking process just involves listening out for enough of them in order to obtain sufficient numbers to decrypt the key.

If your wireless router currently only supports WEP then do check out the manufacturers website as there is a very real possibility that a free of charge firmware update might be available to improve support for more advanced standards; WEP should only ever be used if the only alternative was no encryption whatsoever.

MAC Filtering – This will allow you to individually grant access to your wireless network for individual machines by pre-specifying their MAC addresses; these addresses are used to uniquely identify network adaptors.

Unfortunately the theory also suffers in much the same way as WEP; someone need only listen to enough network traffic to be able to obtain a list of MAC addresses. Once it has been obtained, the hacker creates a fake MAC address which caused your router to grant access by fooling it in to thinking that it’s communicating with an authorised machine.

Disabling SSID Broadcast – The SSID (Service Set IDentifier) has to be identical on both the router and client machine in order for them to communicate. In order to ease setup, the SSID broadcast reveals the location of your network to all computers within range so they can easily connect if required. The broadcast can be disabled which would then mean rather than searching for your local network you would be required to memorise the SSID. Unfortunately, as before, this can be easily circumvented by simply listening to network traffic with freely available software.

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) – In the home market WPA usually relies on a pre-shared key which consists of a passphrase used to access the network. This passphrase can be from 8 to 63 characters long however in the interests of security I would suggest choosing at least 13 completely random characters. WPA succeeds where WEP failed as the encryption key pre-pended to the transmissions is changed frequently so that a hacker is unable to obtain sufficient data in order to decrypt the key.

In summary, I would recommend that all users with a wireless network ensure that firstly they are actually employing some form of wireless security and secondly that it is set to the secure WPA standard; whilst it is not unbreakable it is considered extremely secure and certainly the best that we have for now.