Product Reviews

A wireless network is a simple and convenient way of accessing your broadband connection from the comfort of the sofa. Unfortunately, securing a wireless network can be frustratingly difficult - at least that's the premise on which this software is sold.

The idea behind the wireless security suite is clever enough. Rather than having to configure your wireless router and each individual PC separately, this software detects all the devices on your network and lets you configure them all in one go. This sounds pretty nifty, but in practice it's a pain.

After installation, the Wireless Security Suite takes over the management of your wireless connections from Windows. This needn't be a bad thing, as many wireless applications, including some wireless card drivers, do the same thing. In this case, however, the Wireless Security Suite was consistently worse at establishing and maintaining a wireless connection than Windows. In all our tests, the software repeatedly dropped the wireless connection. When we turned the Wireless Security Suite off and switched Windows' Wireless Zero Configuration Wizard back on, the same connection worked perfectly.

The

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next frustration came when we tried to secure our wireless network. The product's packaging implies compatibility with a broad range of routers, including those from Linksys, Netgear, D-Link and Belkin. When you come to use the software, however, it turns out to be compatible with only 11 routers. If yours isn't compatible, the software directs you to configure it manually through the router's web management page. Configuring the router manually is the part that most inexperienced users have the greatest trouble with, which undermines the rationale behind this software.

We were also alarmed to discover that if you select Tools and then Wireless security settings, the software displays the name of your wireless network, the router's physical address and your network password: all the information required to bypass your network security. This information would be much better hidden if you used Windows and the router's own web-management to secure the network. Whatever else we expected of this software, we didn't imagine it would be worse than having no extra security tools at all.

Swiss Security also has a built-in intrusion detector. This detects when someone is probing your PC and blocks them. This is definitely something wireless users should have, but any good firewall will provide this feature. Rather than spending money on this software, we recommend buying a good internet security suite, such as Kaspersky's Internet Security.

If Wireless Security Suite did what it said and maintained a reliable wireless connection, it might be a good option for inexperienced users who were unsure of where to find all the settings necessary to secure their wireless network. As things stand, it's just not worth it.