Testing one-stop security

About two months ago, I loaded a new trial software by Aluria Software, security software provider to Earthlink users. I was excited to try the product because it’s a one stop firewall/antivirus/antispyware/antispam tool, my logic being if you can make it easy, then computer owners will actually use it. Problem was it didn’t play nice with other security software, as Aluria’s marketing director, David Goldstone had warned me. So I removed all other security software and ran it. It slowed my computer to a crawl, but I endured because my XP is a couple years old and I figured it would be worth the wait if the software really did its job. Then I kept getting error messages from Aluria that “this page could not be viewed.” For a couple of weeks, I figured the error pages were probably some sort of Aluria ad not being allowed through my secure antimalware/antispam/firewall router by Eli. What I didn’t realize was that these were failed attempts to update, which Aluria wouldn’t do through my router. I tested by trying to manually go to Aluria for updates and my Eli blocked me saying I was not authorized to view this page. Long story but the jist of it is that I was left exposed for about two weeks, picked up three icky pieces of spyware (two keystroke loggers) and had to redo a lot of stuff on my machine – as much of it offline as possible so as not to expose myself further. Aluria’s off my PC. Panda Platinum Internet Security (another all-in-one for novice home users) is on. I do hope the gang over at Aluria can make it work as I see potential in a single stop security software for novice users.