IssViews Forum

Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.0
REVIEW DATE:06.22.10
by Neil J. Rubenking

Malicious Web sites that steal your passwords, spammers that overload your Inbox with perverse medical offers, viruses, and other threats that damage your computer or compromise your privacy data—there's endless danger on the Internet. You really need to run a full-scale security suite for protection. Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.0 ($49.95 direct for 3 licenses) offers a tough old-school firewall and some unusual experts-only features, but it may not be the best choice for the average non-expert user.

The Outpost suite includes modules for antivirus protection, firewall, antispam, and a modicum of privacy protection. While a couple of its features could be construed as relating to parental control, there's no parental control module as such. Lack of parental control isn't a problem; most parental control components in security suites lag far behind the corresponding standalone tools, and many users don't need this feature.

Like Outpost Antivirus Pro 7.0 ($24.95 direct, ), the Outpost security suite's user interface offers a simple view and an expert view, but in the suite the distinction is more pronounced. Choosing expert view reveals more detail in almost all of the main security categories. For example, the Firewall item expands to include a real-time view of network activity and ports in use. If you're not a true expert, you'd do well stick with the simple view.

Malware Protection Just OK
The suite's anti-malware protection is identical to that of Agnitum's antivirus, so I'll simply summarize the results here. For complete details on this suite's tested ability to clean up malware infestations and prevent new malware from attacking a clean system, see my review of Outpost Antivirus Pro 7.0.