Intego Releases Virusbarrier X6 Dual Protection: A Mac Antivirus and a Windows Antivirus in One Box

Intego has announced the release of VirusBarrier X6 Dual Protection, featuring the latest version of its acclaimed anti-malware and network security software together with BitDefender Antivirus 2010 so Mac users can protect their Windows installations. VirusBarrier X6 now provides comprehensive protection from both malware and network threats.

VirusBarrier X6, the latest version of Intego’s anti-malware and network security program, includes new threat-detection techniques, improved methods of detection, combined detection protocols, proactive behavioral analysis, and a full range of defensive functions. VirusBarrier X6 includes more than 100 new features, and is the only antivirus program for Mac that includes full antivirus and anti-malware protection together with a two-way firewall, network protection, anti-phishing, anti-spyware features and more.

For Mac users who run Windows on their Mac, using either Apple’s Boot Camp or virtualization software, VirusBarrier X6 Dual Protection provides security for both Mac OS X and Windows, ensuring that Mac users running Windows will have total protection for both operating systems. BitDefender Antivirus 2010 provides advanced proactive protection against viruses, spyware, phishing attacks and identity theft, and is the top-rated antivirus for Windows.

Find out more about VirusBarrier X6 Dual Protection.

Intego Personal Backup: Save Space with Multiple Backups

When you want to make multiple backups of your files – to keep a number of versions, for example – you may worry about these backups filling up your hard disk. With Personal Backup, there’s a useful feature that lets you make multiple backups without using much space at all. It’s not voodoo, but it relies on an interesting technical trick.

Lets say you want to keep ten backups of your important work files. You back them up several times a day, and you want to make sure that, if something happens, you can go back to an earlier version. Set up your backup script in Personal Backup with the Backup Options like this:

When Personal Backup runs the first time, it will copy all your files. The second time around, it will create a new folder, and all your files will be in that folder (including those changed since the first backup, but without those deleted since then). However, it won’t take up much more space than the first backup: in fact, the only difference will be those files that you changed or added.

Let’s be even clearer: the first backup is, say, 100 MB. The second, because of some new files, is 105 MB. However, the second backup actually only takes up an additional 5 MB on your hard disk.

The trick that Personal Backup uses is called “hard links.” A hard link is similar to an alias on Mac OS X, but it is, in some ways, the original file. In other words, if you were to delete the first version of a file, the hard link that is the second version of the file will still be there, and it will be the file itself. You can create as many hard links as you want to a file, and as long as one remains, the file is not deleted.

Hard links take up no space, but they appear to take up space. In the above example, you’ll find that the first backup folder is 100 MB and the second 105 MB, but that’s only because the Mac OS X Finder interprets hard links as actual files when calculating disk space used. However, you’ll find that you still have free space; more than you should if you add up all of your backup folders.

This is a hard concept to grasp, but what it means is that you can keep many backups of your files, and they will only take up more space when you add or change files. Personal Backup even includes an option to keep as many copies as possible until the destination disk is full: in that case, Personal Backup will keep adding new backups until there’s no more room, at which time it will delete the oldest backup(s) so new ones can be added. In this manner, you can keep dozens, even hundreds of backups of your most important files on a hard disk without worrying about filling up the disk.

Personal Backup is available as part of Intego Internet Security Barrier.

Intego ContentBarrier Compared to Apple’s Mac OS X Parental Controls

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard includes parental controls, which allow parents to choose some limits regarding what their children can access while using their Macs. Intego ContentBarrier is a fully-featured parental control program that offers many more options and features than Apple’s built-in solution. The following is a comparison of the two parental control systems, showing why Intego ContentBarrier remains far superior to Apple’s parental controls in Snow Leopard.

ContentBarrier is available in Intego’s Internet Security Barrier X6 suite.

We’ve prepared a document showing the features in ContentBarrier and comparing them with Apple’s built-in features. You can download this 1 MB document here.

How Does Intego VirusBarrier X6 Compare to Mac OS X’s Built-In Security Features?

Quite favorably, we think.

You see, while Mac OS X includes some security features, most of them are far too limited to offer real protection. For example, we have shown that Apple’s built-in anti-malware feature is mostly useless (it only scans some files, and only for two Trojan horses; and its malware definitions haven’t been updated since it was released in August 2009).

Mac OS X also contains a limited firewall, whereas VirusBarrier X6 contains a powerful two-way firewall, which offers both presets for common uses and the ability to create detailed rules for those users who need customized protection.

Finally, VirusBarrier X6 provides protection from many of today’s most serious threats such as phishing and web threats.

So we’ve prepared a document showing the features in VirusBarrier X6 and comparing them with Apple’s built-in features. You can download this 903 K document here.

VirusBarrier X6, the Lowest-Priced Mac Antivirus

Intego has just released VirusBarrier X6, which is much more than just an antivirus. In addition to being the best, most comprehensive antivirus and network protection program for Mac, it’s also the least expensive.

Intego’s customers have told the company a lot over the years, and one thing they wanted was lower prices, together with more flexible licensing. Intego listened to this request, and changed its policy: Not only is VirusBarrier X6 less expensive than the X5 version, but a standard pack of VirusBarrier X6 now protects up to 2 Macs, and a family pack is available to protect up to 5 Macs. Priced at $49.95 and $69.95 respectively, this makes VirusBarrier X6 the least expensive commercial antivirus on the market per Mac. (And, as we said above, it’s much more than just an antivirus, including most of the features from Intego’s NetBarrier personal firewall…)

VirusBarrier X6 now incorporates most of the features of NetBarrier, Intego’s personal firewall, in addition to its anti-malware features. To have the same level of protection as you now have with VirusBarrier X6, you would have needed both programs. Here’s an example of the savings you make with VirusBarrier X6:

With VirusBarrier X6, you save up to 82% compared to VirusBarrier X5!

With the family pack it’s even better: it costs $69.95 to protect 5 Macs, or less than $14 per Mac. With X5 software, 5 copies of NetBarrier and VirusBarrier, to protect 5 Macs, would cost nearly $700, and today you can do the same thing for only $69.95, or a saving of 90%.

“We listen closely to what our customers say about our products, and we made many changes to VirusBarrier X6. We added more than 100 new features, lowered our price, and added multi-Mac protection to our basic pack,” said Laurent Marteau, CEO Intego. “VirusBarrier is a better value than ever, offering antivirus and anti-malware protection, a two-way firewall, anti-phishing protection, web threat protection and much more.”

With the need to protect more Macs – many people have at least a desktop and laptop Mac, and many families have multiple Macs in their home – VirusBarrier X6 lets Mac users stay safe at the lowest cost. Check out VirusBarrier X6 now – there’s a free 30-day demo available so you can see just how comprehensive its feature set is.

*The prices given are suggested retail prices in the United States, not including sales tax, if applicable. Family pack only available for home users.