Secure Your Computer and Network With Free Software
These days you can find practically anything on the internet, some things for a price, and the rest of them for free. This holds true to Antivirus software, firewalls, and adware/spyware blockers. These programs keep our computers malware free and running in tip top shape without the slowdown of trojans and spybots sending all of our personal information back to their creators. If you're like a lot of people out there you can shell out lots of cash for programs that are supposed to keep your computer clean and running optimally like Norton and McAffee. These programs are fine and dandy if you don't mind that they're pretty expensive ($39 a year at McAfee and Norton for basic anti-virus software, the security internet suites can easily run an upwards of $70) and slow your computer down to turtle speed with all the extra addons and 'intrusion-detecting-virus-scanning-database-blocking-popup-alerts-that-annoy-
the-hell-out-of-you-and-show-up-for-no-reason' , or you can use free software and achieve some of the best protection you can get for less headache and less cost.
Antivirus Programs
The two antivirus programs I recommend is avast! antivirus v4.7 and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition . They're both fully compatible with Windows 98 and onwards, yep that includes Vista too.
avast! antivirus features:
- Standard shield providing real-time protection
- IM shield for instant messenger protection
- P2P shield for P2P protection
- Internet mail for email protection
- Microsoft Outlook/Exchange Protection
- Web shield for HTTP protection
- Network shield that protects against well known network worms
- Audible alarms
- Boot-time scan
- Also a completely skinnable GUI
Surprisingly avast! is not a system resource hog, the only windows that popup is a small one above the icon on the task that tells you that a new update has been installed. Avast! regularly receives updates practically daily so you can be sure your virus database is always up to date. It's also compatible with According to AV-Comparitives (An independent site that rigorously tests antivirus software on scanning and virus detecting abilities) avast! detected 95% of the viruses tested and got the 'Advanced' designation in their tests which is the second highest ranking.
A downside to avast! is that even though it's free after 60 days you have to register via their website and you'll receive a one year renewable registration key in your email. Avast! is overall a genuinely good free antivirus software solution that's easy to use and update, all while offering superb protection with it's many different scanners.
AVG Anti-Virus Free features:
- Periodic scans
- Email scans
- Ability to Heal some infected files
- Virus vault to hold infected files
AVG is also hardly a resource hog with it's minimum system requirements only at 16MB of RAM and 20MB of hard drive. The scan time is average compared to other antivirus software, and even while scanning AVG does not use that many system resources. And according to AV Comparitives AVG Anti-Virus did even better than AVG detecting 97% of the possible viruses in it's test scan received the highest ranking of 'Advanced+'.
Spyware/Adware Removers
For antispyware protection and removers you can look to Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 2007 Free and Microsoft Windows Defender 1.1. They both offer optimum spyware and malware detection and are pretty easy to use.
Ad-Aware 2007 features:
- Windows Vista Compatible
- Customizable themes
- Repairs damage left by malware
- Erases internet surfing tracks
- Free software updates and support from worldwide security volunteer network
Ad-Aware 2007 has been downloaded over a quarter of a billion times, scored a 4 out of 5 stars on a Download.com Editor's Review and it only takes 3 minutes to run a smart scan on my system.
Windows Defender features:
- Extremely easy to use with a simple interface
- Updates downloaded and installed automatically
- Very little system resources used, able to do things normally while scanning
- Real-Time Protection so your protected while surfing the web
Microsoft Windows Defender is a strong spyware detector and what make it even better is the real-time protection that is offered with the free software. Most free softwares leave that out of the free version and only include it if you pay. The only downside is that it only works on Windows, duh.
Firewalls
The two good firewalls that I can recommend are ZoneAlarm Firewal and Comodo Firewall Pro. I find ZoneAlarm easier to install and use, but Comodo has all the options a power user would need for administering his network and monitoring his firewalls.
Comodo features:
- Host Intrusion Prevention System to lock down access to critical files and block malware before it installs
- Advanced Network Firewall Engine to prevent programs from connecting to the internet
- Application Behavior Analysis to detect suspicious application activity
- A white list for almost one million trusted applications
Comodo Firewall is good for those who want the most out of their firewall and want to be able to use all of their options and settings for an extreme network monitoring application. According to PC World Australia Comodo Firewall even does better than most paid-for competitors.
ZoneAlarm features:
- Inbound intrusion detection system
- Ability to which programs create outbound connections
- Compatible with Windows Vista
Zonealarm is very easy to use and install, and when it's in use you won't notice it unless there's something crazy going on in your firewall. When a new program is trying to access the internet a pop up window from the taskbar shows up and asks for permission, after accepting or denying access you can select a check box to prevent it from asking again.
Each one of these programs can be used to help make your computer system and network safer from hackers, intruders, viruses, trojans, and spyware. Also each one has different features available to it's users and offer slightly different levels and kinds of protection so be sure to do some more analytical research before making a final decision. Also don't double up on firewalls or antivirus programs, because those can cause a multitude of conflicts with each other as a general rule is only one firewall or antivirus software program on a machine. With the spyware detectors and removers, you'll be better off grabbing more than at least one, because they all detect different spywares so to have complete protection you'll want to make sure you have a few good programs for that task.
Gloss