Pitching itself directly against McAfee, Norton and Trend, Eset's Smart Security claims to offer faster and better protection from viruses, spyware and online threats.

The package comprises the NOD32 anti-virus engine, a personal firewall and anti-spam facilities.

Part of Smart Security's appeal is the tight integration between its modules, reducing the program’s overall footprint, system overhead and minimum requirements.

With Window XP, for example, it can live happily with a 400MHz processor, 128MB of Ram and a spare 80MB of hard disk space.

In contrast, Norton Internet Security 2008 demands a minimum of 256MB of memory and 350MB of storage. Symantec’s package offers more features but if you’re looking for the leanest code to run on older machines, this could be a make or break issue.

Installation went smoothly under Vista on our Core 2 Duo notebook and during the process you’re offered the chance to participate in Threatsense.Net early warning system; agreeing to this allows suspicious files to be sent anonymously to Eset for analysis. It’s a great idea and files can be submitted at any time.

Despite being a Home Edition product, the suite has a professional, almost business-like feel - there’s a splash of colour here and there but the overall look is clean. We’re all for neat and tidy interfaces, but some of the caption text is alarmingly small, especially on a high-resolution display and even when the window is fully expanded. This applies doubly to the tiny menus at the top of the screen and we suspect most users are likely to find McAfee or Trend’s ap proach far more inviting.

Basic options for on-demand scanning and updating are present and correct, while a more advanced view lets you schedule scans, examine files in quarantine and check the status of individual modules. Digging even deeper reveals a well-structured tree of options for more detailed configuration. We particularly liked the option to send messages to Eset directly from the program, and local-rate telephone support.

Smart Security scanned our 40GB of test data for viruses and spyware in just over 40 minutes, putting performance neck and neck with Agnitum Outpost Pro Suite. That said, while its firewall managed to stealth all ports in our tests and shrug off our attempts to shut it down (we did manage to kill the program’s GUI using Task Manager), those looking for more detail in this area will prefer Agnitum’s offering.

Setting up rules and trusted zones is relatively straightforward and protection can be quickly switched between strict and sharing modes to cater for different situations, such as moving from a home to a strange Wifi network. Most users will like the firewall’s automatic filtering but an interactive mode gives greater control. The business version of the package offers a policy-based filter and remote administration options.

Eset’s Anti-spam system is limited to Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail but can monitor Pop3 and Imap accounts. Setting up and maintaining white and blacklists is easy, and approved senders and recipients can be automatically added to the former.

While Eset is aiming Smart Security at the big suites, a quick comparison of features shows it lacks some of the fancier facilities such as parental controls, backup tools, identity protection and a multi-user licence as standard. Eset also needs to look closer at usability when it comes to the main interface. However, it does the core areas of virus, spyware and spam protection, its firewall is effective and its footprint is small. For many, that’s the holy trinity.