Here is a piece of text: Online, beware of the bad guys. Hackers, snoops, and identity thieves are making sport out of attacking unsuspecting PC users.
Online, beware of the bad guys. Hackers, snoops, and identity thieves are making sport out of attacking unsuspecting PC users. The danger increases if you have cable or DSL connections: Since they're always on, they're easy targets. An unprotected PC can reveal such sensitive information as credit card data and Web site passwords to hackers. In exchange, intruders can leave viruses that might trash your machine.
To discover the extent of this threat, we set up a PC and the 3Com Home Gateway at a previously unused IP address on the @Home network. Within the first 24 hours, we were "attacked" more than 30 times. Not all were actual attacks; oddly, @Home probed our system more than once, and others were harmless pings. But six were from potentially malicious SubSeven and NetBus tools, which can install themselves and let a hacker gain access to your PC without your knowledge.
Scared? We were. That's why we evaluated some of the latest gear for protecting PCs. We reviewed four hardware Internet gateways and four Web security software packages. All the products act as firewalls, monitoring TCP/IP traffic to and from the Web and letting only safe traffic through.
Internet gateways are small routers that provide firewall protection and Internet access sharing for home networks on which several PCs share a broadband connection.
Software firewalls are best suited to single-PC broadband or dial-up connections.
Comprehensive security packages, also best for single PCs, include a software firewall, content blocking (useful for parents), and privacy protection tools.
We tested these products at the ShieldsUP! site (www.grc.com), where you can find a battery of tests designed to show whether your home system is vulnerable to outside attacks. All succeeded in protecting our PC, so in rating the products, we focused on how easy they were to set up and use and on extra features.

Based on the text material above, generate the response to the following quesion or instruction: How were the products tested for their effectiveness?
This prompt doesn't seem malicious.