How we tested
Interoperability
We looked at the type of traffic that was screened, and at the tools and options the applicance made available for virus and content scanning.
Futureproofing
Here we looked at the features made available for automatic virus list updating and at whether or not the unit provided heuristic scanning.
ROI
To determine the return on investment scores for the units, we looked at the overall price and factored in additional features that some units made available, such as firewall and VPN capabilities.
Service
Here we looked at the duration of the warranty and whether parts and labour were included.
Editor's Pick
- McAfee WebShield e250
- FortiGate NPG 200
The features offered by the units we tested differed somewhat, making it difficult to choose an all out winner. If you’ve already got a firewall in place then you’d want to go for the McAfee WebShield e250. It was flexible, feature rich, and is reasonably priced.
On the other hand, if you were also looking around for something that would give you firewall and intrusion detection in addition to antivirus scanning, then the inexpensive FortiGate NPG 200 is a winner. It’s not quite as feature rich as the Symantec appliance, and yet is roughly a fifth the price.
10%
8%
Once you know what modern worms do with emails (hint: they fake "from" field), thinking like "it would be helpful if the AVA sent a message back to the sender warning them that they passed on malicious code" is, in my opinion, step in spreading spam around the world.