3. Main characteristics

Home page tabs displays security parameters and status of modules installed, its design is simple and informative.

Viruses and spy protection modules are working automatically in the background when local files and/or internet are in use. The antivirus and antispyware combined protection does the scanning of files on access, on demand, and on schedule, the latter offering the option for daily, weekly, or monthly scans and for setting it to wait until the computer has been unused for some time before initiating a scan.

Five scanning options are available: Scan Target, Hard drive scan, Spyware scan, Rootkit scan and Full computer check. Spyware, Scan target and Rootkit scanning options are used for quick, "targeted" scans.

F-secure's scanning module work is very silent. When it blocks malware code you will not even notice that until the logs are verified. 

Internet shield tracks and filters network traffic, preventing unauthorized access to the computer form the internet. The firewall settings are located under the Internet Shield tab. Here you can configure the firewall and other protective features. Most of the users will probably leave the defaults, however, advanced mode is also available.

Spam control module is very simple and doesn't offer a lot of options to choose from. Only three spam filter modes are available: aggressive, medium and relaxed. Anti-spam module integrates easily with MS Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows mail. It can also be integrated with Netscape, Mozilla, Opera and Eudora, but this process is not automatic and you will have to create necessary rules by yourself; thanks to the "help" feature that shows how to do it in details. Spam control offers also black-and-white list control feature, that gives control over senders who can be permanently blocked or allowed.

Automatic updates service activates each time internet connection becomes available. Updates are downloaded to single workstation only (updates server) and then distributed to other computers in the local network. If the networks is large enough, this approach allows to reduce traffic external traffic considerably. 

4. Management Portal

Home Tab: Portal statistics shows the protection status of all computers in the company's network and reveals security issues that should be eliminated (marked with red icons). Number of workstations that experience some problems with security are indicated below the "overall protection" graph. When all threats are eliminated - marks become green, as well as circle of the graph.

Home tab offers the possibility to subscribe for security news in RSS format, that provides quick access to all security events without the need to logon to the Portal for network monitoring.

If Portal's help feature lacks some information you can obtain it absolutely free by contacting f-secure support.

Computers: Detailed review of company's workstations and currents parameters.

• List of computers with similar security problems.

• Information about the computer is divided into several categories (Overall protection, Virus and Spy Protection, Firewall, Updates, Current profile assigned, Operation progress).

• Profiles allow to determine a set of security tasks, related to security parameters on a particular workstation or server, that users are able to run.

• Profile of a computer under f-secure administration could be changed, so that user is not able to change some or all of important security parameters (laptop locked/open, server locked/open, office locked/open etc.).

• Possibility to run security tasks on remote computer (send full status update, enable firewall, enable Real-time scanning for viruses and spyware, set virus and spy protection level, enable application control, set the firewall level to "office"), including possibility to perform full computer scan on the remote computers, selected on the portal.

• Possibility to export important data and to remove computers from administration area.