Intego Mac
Washing Machine. Just like a real washing machine, this Intego feature of the same name helps you clean up and optimize your Mac. It has three main tools: Reclaim – This tool scans the entire device for unused files that are eating up your storage space. This can help free up hard disk space. Washing Machine Intego’s Washing Machine can perform three important actions – organize, reclaim, and get rid of duplicates. All of these are performance-enhancing and optimization tools that do a better job than the macOS built-in services. Washing Machine. Intego’s Washing Machine can perform three important actions – organize, reclaim, and get rid of duplicates. All of these are performance-enhancing and optimization tools that do a better job than the macOS built-in services.
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Review: Intego Mac Internet Security and Premium Bundle X9
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Until recently, I was using Webroot for my primary endpoint antivirus protection on my Mac. However, since upgrading to macOS Catalina, I have had major performance issues with Webroot. I’ve had Webroot Support reinstall the app twice, and I still suffered from kernel panics and overall issues with performance. While I do practice common-sense security practices, I am required to run some form of endpoint protection on my Macs since I use them for work and school purposes.
I finally decided to move back to Intego, the antivirus software I used when I first switched to the Mac back in 2006. Intego has been building antivirus software for the Mac since 1997, and I’ve known firsthand their apps are fully optimized for Macs and offer excellent performance. I took the Intego Premium Bundle X9 for a trial, and I ultimately ended up with Intego Mac Internet Security X9 and standalone Washing Machine X9. Here is a review of each of Intego’s major apps.
I purchased a three Mac license and tested these on an iMac Pro running macOS Catalina and on iMac running High Sierra. Intego’s apps generally run on Macs dating back to Mountain Lion.
VirusBarrier X9: My main interest in Intego Internet Security X9 is for VirusBarrier to replace Webroot. VirusBarrier X9 offers solid performance and optimization on the Mac. Scans are fast, and I can easily use VirusBarrier without my Mac slowing down or with overall performance or compatibility issues, even on macOS Catalina (Intego has also stated that all of their apps will be fully optimized for macOS Big Sur). The user interface in VirusBarrier is also the most Mac-friendly user interface I’ve seen yet. VirusBarrier offers a combination of on-demand (quick or full), scheduled, and real-time scans (I have VirusBarrier set to run a full scheduled scan once a week, a quick scan after every update, and I have real-time scanning enabled, plus to scan mounted external drives). Definitions updates through NetUpdate are easy to update manually or automatically on a user-defined schedule. One can mark certain files as “trusted files” to exclude those from scans if need be. VirusBarrier now also offers protection for Windows PCs, plus it can scan iOS and iPadOS devices plugged into a Mac (although such a feature isn’t widely used).
Virus protection seems solid for protecting against Mac malware according to the virus labs. VirusBarrier didn’t offer solid Windows virus protection in the past (which was one drawback from the app), but it does now (although we need to see some additional results from virus labs on testing). VirusBarrier support informed me that it does protect against ransomware. The only two issues some have with VirusBarrier is by default, it asks the user what to do when it encounters a virus instead of automatically putting it into the quarantine (although that is useful in the event of a false positive, the feature can be changed to automatically put flagged viruses in the quarantine). Additionally, its “Safe Browsing” feature is limited to checking to see if the major browsers have their safe browsing features enabled, whereas some other major antivirus vendors (including Webroot) offer their own safe browser extensions (although I found the experience hit and miss with Webroot’s extensions not supporting all of the browsers I use, so I didn’t get to fully use the feature anyway).
Overall, I am pleased with VirusBarrier X9 as a solid replacement to Webroot. I still have endpoint protection and top-notch Mac malware protection while having an app fully optimized for my Mac and offering solid performance.
NetBarrier X9: I was using Little Snitch as my primary outbound firewall, but when switching to VirusBarrier, NetBarrier has to be installed alongside it (there’s no way around it). I decided to give NetBarrier a try to see if it’s worth replacing Little Snitch with. NetBarrier offers outbound firewall protection (as well as inbound firewall protection for those looking for a more powerful firewall than the built-in macOS firewall). The user interface is simple by choosing a “Home”, “Work”, or “Public” profile. Users can easily allow or block incoming and outgoing connections, plus, like Little Snitch, it also offers an app-level firewall (although some of its more powerful settings are hidden behind an options button). The user interface is also very Mac-native, although Little Snitch offers a “fancier” interface. NetBarrier offers a traffic monitor as Little Snitch does, although the UI is simpler with fewer features than Little Snitch. Overall performance seems to be a little faster with NetBarrier versus Little Snitch.
I love Little Snitch and still highly recommend it as a simple, powerful, and user-friendly outbound firewall for Mac. It’s a solid app that does the job well. For users who move to Intego VirusBarrier as their primary antivirus app, Intego NetBarrier does essentially the same job as Little Snitch (with a simpler UI and a few less-fancy features) without needing a separate app. I’ve been pleased with the move to NetBarrier and will stick with it over Little Snitch, although I’d use Little Snitch if I wasn’t using Intego for antivirus.
Washing Machine X9: I decided to purchase a standalone license to Washing Machine X9 (Intego does offer a Washing Machine Secure X9 bundle with VirusBarrier and NetBarrier, but it costs more than going for Mac Internet Security X9 and standalone Washing Machine X9 in the long run). Washing Machine is a system optimizer app that does three things: clean away unneeded files (caches, language packs, etc), find and remove duplicates files, and an organizer for the Dock, Desktop, and Smart Folders (folders based on search criteria).
I tested the Washing Machine “clean” feature, and it removed a couple GB of files from both of my Macs right off the top. It also handled it well where nothing has broken after running the “clean” feature, so it should certainly be safe to use and an excellent way to reclaim some extra space. I tried the duplicate finder feature, which found no duplicates on my iMac Pro, but it did find a couple of duplicates on my old iMac. My Dock, Desktop, and Smart Folders are already well-organized on my Macs, so it didn’t offer many suggestions there, but it offered a couple of good suggestions I may apply. Overall, it is a useful tool for doing occasional maintenance and housekeeping on one’s Mac, and it seems to do it well without breaking anything and doing it safely.
ContentBarrier X9: ContentBarrier is mainly a parental controls app. It allows for web filtering, time limits on computer usage, chat monitoring for potential interactions with child predators, and monitoring a child’s activity on a Mac. I took it for a test drive on my Macs just to see how it compared to Apple’s built-in parental controls. In my case, it broke critical functionality for me (it wouldn’t allow me to remotely access my Macs), so I had to remove it. For parents who need additional parental controls that what is built-into macOS, ContentBarrier might be useful, although some of the tools (such as chat monitoring) may not work well with encrypted chats such as iMessage.
Personal Backup 10.9: I also tested Personal Backup to see if I wanted to use it as a replacement to my current backup strategy (which currently consists of: Time Machine to an external drive, SuperDuper to an external drive, Retrospect to a Drobo NAS, and Arq online backup to WebMate Drive over SFTP). I was curious if Personal Backup could replace SuperDuper, Retrospect, and Arq with a single app.
Unfortunately, my backup needs are too complicated where I need to continue to use my variety of backup apps. I found the bootable backup feature in Personal Backup to be slower than SuperDuper (SuperDuper is rock solid and speedy), plus I found Retrospect to play better with backing up to my Drobo NAS than Intego Personal Backup. For those with simple backup needs, Personal Backup should do the trick, plus it has a user-friendly UI. For those of us with complex backup needs, we need to continue to use a mix of backup apps. Personal Backup does have an interesting “sync” feature which can keep files across two Macs in sync over the LAN, although with iCloud baked into macOS, even this feature wouldn’t be as widely used for me.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is a solid security suite for macOS. It offers excellent antivirus protection (VirusBarrier) and firewall protection (NetBarrier). I am pleased with it and will continue using it as my primary security suite for macOS. Intego’s Washing Machine X9 is also a useful system optimizer utility and worth the standalone payment for it. For those who need VirusBarrier, NetBarrier, Washing Machine, plus parental controls and a basic backup utility, Intego Premium Bundle X9 is a good deal, although the additional apps were superfluous and not useful enough in my case. Overall, I am pleased that Intego offers solid security apps for the Mac that are the most Mac-optimized around. Intego Mac Internet Security X9 will serve well as a replacement for Webroot for those having issues with Webroot on newer versions of macOS.
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