If you are looking for an effective, hassle free and minimum resource consuming anti-virus then Net Protector (NP) is the solution. NP provides an excellent protection against virus, worms, Trojans, Adware, Riskware, Downloaders, internet dialers, backdoor passama and several other potential online threats. On start ups & shut downs NP runs a quick memory scan to detect malicious software on the computer. NP’s ‘ZERO-V’ feature is really good and does an excellent job in cleaning the infections.
The thorough memory scan is effective and comes with ‘Boost Speed’ option which helps to speed up the scanning process marginally. It has all the traditional features like rootkit protection, automatic updates, right click scanning, schedule scanning, pre-install scan, Intruder alert, worm stopper etc. The installation process is very simple unlike other anti-viruses (read Norton) does not have time consuming installation & registration requirements. It automatically takes care of updates and does not bother the user. NP is loaded with features enabling the user to customize it according to their preference. The software has expert mode for all high internet users who are more prone to virus attack.
One suggestion for regular folks is not to play around with the ‘Execute protection’ mode, if switched to ‘High’ mode this feature will make your life miserable by pop ups asking permission to run applications like Gtalk, Yahoo and some other windows files on start ups. So put the execute mode on normal. NP offers additional utility features to enhance your computer performance, among these are the worm trapper & delete temp.files which makes life easy for common folks. NP even supports the ‘ancient’ OS like Windows 95/98/ME one of the last anti viruses to support these. NP also provides a descent after sales support (which is never required). NP occupies almost 98 MB of your disk space and has zero affect on the system performance. NP also goes easy on your pocket and costs only 900/- for one year. OOPS! I almost forgot to mention that NP is an anti-virus developed by Message Labs based in Pune. One of its disadvantages is that Net protector does not support blue tooth scanning.
You have to connect your mobile to the computer via cable and it supports only O2, HTC, HP, I-mate and other windows mobiles, this is one of its downfalls. Secondly NP’s interface is not very attractive. It looks like a software designed in late 90’s. I wish the developers had given some more time to make this excellent software look better. Same goes with the packaging, not cool. The company should provide a users manual with the anti-virus because NP has several useful features that are difficult for regular folks to understand and use, a users manual will fix this small problem. Over all an excellent anti-virus which guarantees value for money.