Best Antivirus Software
by Admin on March 21, 2010
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For many, many years, internet security simply meant having an antivirus program installed on your computer. In the last decade, however, lots of new internet security threats have emerged, including spyware, spam, and hackers. To protect your computer against all these threats today, you need an entire suite of protective software tools. This post will tell you want you need to defend your computer against today's internet security threats.
Viruses
Viruses are still as much of a threat as ever. To defend against them, you need a good antivirus program that is updated frequently. Antivirus updates tell your antivirus program about new viruses, how to find them, and how to remove them. Without updates, your antivirus program won't know what to look for, making it much less effective.
Spyware
Spyware sneaks onto your computer, collects sensitive personal information about you, and sends it over the internet to someone else. Spyware is different from viruses, and unfortunately most antivirus programs don't even look for spyware. The protect your computer from spyware, you need a dedicated anti-spyware program.
Spam
In addition to being bombarded with annoying advertisements, spam can be dangerous. Spam emails can carry viruses and spyware as attachments. Others, known as "phishing," try to trick you into voluntarily giving up personal information like passwords, account numbers, and social security numbers. Spam can be defeated with a combination of email scanners, which search for malicious attachments, and spam filters, which prevent the spam from reaching you in the first place
Hackers
Hackers deliberately try to break into your computer. Sometimes hackers are just joyriding through your files, but they could also be trying to steal important information. Although there is no defense that is 100% effective against a determined, expert hacker, most hackers can be deterred by a firewall.
Your computer has thousands of internet ports, of which you only use a handful. Most hackers get onto your computer by finding an open, unguarded internet port to sneak through. Firewalls close all the internet ports on your computer except for the ones you use (for email, web surfing, gaming, instant messaging, etc.)
Using a firewall is like locking your car doors. It won't stop a determined car thief (they can always break the window), but most thieves will simply move on looking for an unlocked car. Similarly, a hacker faced with a firewall will often give up and move on looking for easier prey.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
AVG
it’s free, and it works great
also try
AntiVir
also free and works good
you can download them both from
http://www.download.com
run a virus and spyware scan, if you don’t have those get AVG(grisoft), Ad-Aware(lavasoft), and CCleaner, they are all free and should be run regularly to fix or prevent problems. I have been using them for several years, one program alone will not find and fix everything
Avg found at http://www.free.grisoft.com
Most free antivirus programs don’t protect you against all the viruses out there.
Try SpySweeper or Norton Internet Security. You have to pay for them, but it’s a small price to pay for good internet protection.
In addition to several good antivirus programs, you probably have a bunch of spyware and adware on your system as well. Spyware tends to slow things down much more than a typical virus.
Do a search for AdAware or Spybot Search and Destroy. They are both good programs and they are both free. I personally use both.
I don’t really know much about this stuff but, my copmputer has McAfee Security Center and McAfee Firewall Plus and McAfee anti spyware.
This works great!
Norton, properly installed and configured is the industry standard. Unfortunately it is hard to configure and improperly done provides almost no protection. But it is not advisable to download any of these sorts of programs… purchase the application; later download upgrades.
I have been having really good performance with Trend Micro PC Cillan. It is very important to be consistent and use only one product. If more than one anti-virus or spy-ware product is running in your computer, neither of them will work properly and you will likely screw up your system.
I have used AVG Anti Virus, Zone Alarm Firewall, Spy-bot Search and Destroy and Ad Aware both spyware killers for years. They are all free for personal use and I have had no trouble with Viruses Trojans etc. AVG does not slow the system down as much as some other products and Zone Alarm allows a lot of personal configuration unlike the Windows Firewall. They can all be downloaded from the following link. http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ On the home page select downloads and then the appropriate category.I also use Windows Defender from the Microsoft site. It is safe to use two anti-spy products but never use more than one A/V as it can cause conflicts. You should run A/V and anti spy weekly. Hope this helps.