Antivirus/Antispyware:  

When you download Real Broadband Essentials, you also get McAfee VirusScan2009. This program scans every inch of your computer for viruses, spyware and adware at scheduled times which you establish. These deep cleanings of your computer will ensure all the nasty bugs and rootkits trying to hide out are found and brought to your attention. However, because these scans can take a long time, McAfee has added a new feature, QuickScan, which only targets the most vulnerable areas of your computer, making the scanning process much quicker.

The nice thing about this program is that it never sleeps. Every hour of the day it is looking for harmful viruses that may have entered your computer through e-mail, instant message, internet downloads, or web browsing.

Firewall:  

Real Broadband Essentials has gone the extra mile to ensure your computer is safe from intruders by teaming with McAfee Personal Firewall Plus. This program will stop unwanted communications from coming into your computer while continuing to allow you to send secure information out.

One feature we particularly like is this program’s ability to trace intrusions back to the point of origin. Say, for instance, someone sends you a harmful program designed to damage your computer; you can track the original IP address the program was sent from. You can also block a specific range of IP addresses instead of a single one, seeing as most serious issues do not come from a single IP address.

Overall, we felt Broadband Essentials did a nice job in this area. McAfee Personal Firewall Plus is a stellar program which will work tirelessly to ensure unwanted guests are not permitted onto your computer.

Internet Security:  

We were very impressed with Real Broadband Essentials’ internet security features. In addition to seeking out and ridding our computer of rootkits and phishing scams, Broadband Essentials was able to identify which sites and search engines were safe through spam, adware and online scam safety tests. Through Google Toolbar, which is also included upon subscription, you will also be blocked from those annoying pop-ups which insist on showing up in the most inopportune moments.

Between the many software Broadband Essentials offers, we were fully confident that our computer system was secure. McAfee’s Virus Scan and Personal Firewall Plus did a great job of blocking unwanted material from entering our computer, and tracking down harmful viruses and alerting us. In addition, their PC utility software was able to diagnose the health and security of our system, and provide quick, effective fixes to those problems.

All around, we felt confident while using Real Broadband Essentials to protect our computer.

PC Utility Tools:  

Real Broadband Essentials really brought the heat here. They have teamed up with System Mechanic, one of the best PC system utility software available, to ensure the user can see the health and security status of their computer system at all times.

System Mechanic can perform both quick and deep analyses of your computer, after which it will provide a list of all the security and health issues currently going on with your system. This program can also send regular email reports regarding your computer’s diagnosis, repair history and recommended actions.

System mechanic is an incredible maintenance and upkeep tool for your computer. While some tasks must be performed manually, such as an in-depth cleaning of your computer, many are done automatically and on a regular basis.

Backup:  

To ensure your memories are safe, Real Broadband Essentials has enlisted the help of FotoAlbum Plus, a video and photo backup software designed to keep your files safe from a data loss accident. We liked this program because, aside from downloading our photos in a secure area, we were able to edit and share them. FotoAlbum Plus also allows you to backup your images online which is much safer than backing them up on a computer program.

While this is a solid program, and most people want backup software to save their photos, it does not have the ability to backup any other file type. So if you’re looking for a program that will ensure the safety of sensitive documents, this may not be for you.

Additional Features:  

Broadband Essentials uses Net Nanny, one of the leading parental controls software, to ensure your children do not stumble upon inappropriate sites. With this software, you will be able to allocate specific times at which your children can be on the internet. As well, you can pre-establish which sites they can have access to, and which are off limits. It will also notify you if your child attempts to access a site you’ve deemed inappropriate.

But Broadband Essentials isn’t just looking out for your children, it’s looking out for you as well. As a part of their program, they offer identity theft insurance, up to $1,000 against the cost of ID theft and computer damage. This is already included when you subscribe to Broadband Essentials and will help replace programs if they are lost due to a virus attack, or assist in paying the cost of replacing damaged hardware.

Ease of Use:  

Real Broadband Essentials did not fare so well in this section because, unlike our other products, you have to download each product separately, which is a little annoying. However, Broadband Essentials redeemed itself in that once we were able to get the programs downloaded, they worked incredibly well and were relatively easy to learn.

Help/Support:  

Real Broadband Essentials has a thorough FAQ section and knowledge base library. They also provide a forum for customers to discuss, debate and answer questions. Although they do not have a 24/7 help center, their call, email and live chat hours are extensive and available seven days a week. However, because there are so many product and services available, it was a little hard to navigate through the site to the exact contact information we needed.

Although we had some qualms with the fact that this program is not centrally organized, you can’t beat the quality of the software provided. Real Broadband Essentials offers some of the best Antivirus/Antispyware, firewall protection, PC Utility Tools, and overall security we could ask for. We especially appreciated the extra features available through Broadband Essentials such as the highly regarded parental control program, NetNanny, and the Identity theft insurance, which in our opinion shows the confidence of their program.

If having various programs (really good best of breed programs) spread out over your desktop is no big deal,  you can’t go wrong with Real Broadband Essentials. However, if you want a program that is compiled into one software package, check out Zone Alarm Extreme Security, BitDefender Total Security or Norton 360.