by Tom Lassiter
Guard Dog Deluxe version 1.09d, by Cybermedia, is absolutely the best designed and implemented program of its type I have seen.
It has a very clean look, an interface that is intuitive yet comprehensive, and it always gives you the feeling that you know exactly what to do and how to do it.
I have loaded, and unloaded, a number of programs that were allegedly going to help me protect my PC from viruses, cookies, and other sundry devils lurking out there on the Internet that were just waiting to cause me computing grief. Most of them went to an early uninstall because they didn’t do the advertised function, or did it in a way that slowed my PC to a crawl. Some never got fully installed, being so complicated to mess with that I never got the feeling they were really set up to do the job I wanted.
Guard Dog was a breeze to install and I felt at home right away and was given a confidence that I, and it, were doing our respective jobs. An easy “interview” setup process offered and explained the available options, an impressive selection.
The Guard Dog Internet Guardian sets up as an icon in your system tray and has six monitor functions. Each has its own options, allowing you to use as much or little of the program as you wish. If you don’t want to have it clean off the trail of your Internet surfing (from your office PC?) at the end of each Internet session you don’t have to. I like it when programs don’t think they know how I want them to set up.
The six monitor functions are:
1. Cookie Blocker — Lets you control which web sites may send you cookies. Allows options to Ask before Blocking, Always Block, or Never Block. You can accept direct access cookies from sites you visit but block indirect sites used to track your browsing habits.
2. My Info Filter — Prevents your personal data entered on one web site from being passed to another site.
3. Clean Up — Wipes your surfing trail from your PC after each browsing session.
4. Internet Access Monitor — Blocks an unwanted program on your PC from sending out your private files.
5. File Guardian — Blocks unauthorized downloaded programs from accessing your key financial or password files. (It detected and protected my Quicken files automatically).
6. Virus Check — Checks downloaded and e-mail files and floppies for viruses and cleans them automatically.
It also contains a brilliant Encyclopedia of Viruses. Detailed info on each virus is given, including its actions, amount of space occupied or damaged on your hard drive, etc.; a very informative and educational tool.
Part of Oil Change, another Cybermedia product, comes in Guard Dog so that you may update the Guard Dog virus data files online. I like this product and plan to leave it installed.
For more info look on http://www.cybermedia.com. System Requirements: 486 or higher PC, Win95, 8 MB RAM minimum, hard drive with minimum 6 MB free disk space, 256-colors VGA or higher monitor. Suggested Retail: $59.95
Tom Lassiter is a HAL-PC member who can be contacted at jamesl@hal-pc.org.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.