GDATA
Every PC should have antivirus protection installed, at a minimum. Even better is the enhanced protection from a full-scale security suite. G Data Internet Security includes all the features you’d expect in a suite—antivirus, firewall, parental controls, spam filtering, and more. That said, the quality of the components spans quite a range, from very good to poor, and the poor ones haven’t improved appreciably in the last several years. What’s more, the cloud backup system, a central feature, is currently not working due to an inability to connect with cloud storage services. As such, we simply can’t recommend this suite in its current state.
Features
GData’s base feature is its antivirus scanning. It has the ability to detect sophisticated malware and all other types of computer viruses. You can perform a quick antivirus check for the most common areas of your system, but this form of ultra-fast scanning should only be done after you have performed a full system one.
This also applies to any threats found during a normal scan. The suspicious files will be sent to the GData quarantine folder. Then, it is your choice whether to keep them, if you think it has detected a false positive, such as a PC game cheat trainer.
Security
The software currently uses its own real-time detection techniques and a cloud blacklist of known phishing sites to determine whether a URL is a threat. If something is iffy, you’ll either get a blank white screen or a big red warning, depending on how fast the software managed to react and what it already knows about the site. It’s nice to know that it reacts instantly to malware, rather than letting it infect the system first.
Support
GData boasts 24/7 customer support for its paid users that can be reached via email, English-language telephone, or by online support ticket. There isn’t an online chat currently and the time it takes to actually get a response can vary. When we tested the ticket function, we got a response within an hour, which is pretty good.
Affordability
Not quite $60 per year is a common price for a single security suite subscription, and not quite $80 gets you three licenses in many cases. G Data Internet Security runs quite a bit less. If you just need one installation, it’s $39.95 per year; $55.95 gets you three licenses.