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Advice on antivirus software and computer protection

Firstly, i have to say that I couldn’t find anywhere else on ciao to place this piece of writing so, as I had spent some time writing it, I thought I’d place it right here, just so I could give my honest advice on protecting your PC from rogue hackers, who, in this case, goes by the name of Nigel…

Anyway… here’s my piece of work…

Nigel’s still living in his mummies house, spending most of his time in his bedroom, staring at the many monitors which surround him whilst his fingers poke at the keys on the keyboard, patiently and quickly uploading yet another program onto the world wide web… only Nigel’s programs aren’t the sort of programs that you want to have downloaded onto your home PC… Nigel’s programs are designed to install onto your system and monitor your every movement, from your daily download to your lively chat… but worst still, checking and copying you’re more personal detail, such as you latest bank transaction when you paid that latest gas bill, or when you innocently check your actual bank account.
You see, Nigel’s programs are intent on persuading you to download and then open up one of his ‘programs’, only his program is cram packed with more viruses than an NHS surgical ward on a hot day…
And this is all Nigel and his student mates do all day long… they sit in there bedrooms, creating PC busting software for there own entertainment, (apart from his monthly intake of internet porn of course).
It is up to us, you and me, to stop Nigel and his virus programs from getting onto our computers, keeping our personal details ’personal’ so that Nigel doesn’t get rich as he empties our bank accounts from under our noses….

To stop Nigel and his student mates from getting at our computers we have to find PC protecting software and figure out how to use it to it’s best abilities.
But actually finding the right bit of software isn’t as easy as it sounds, due to the fact that there are so many different types on the market these days, with prices ranging from as high as £60.00 (annually) to as low as, well, nothing… yes, there are some cracking bits of software out there that are being given away for free and do as good a job as those that cost the earth.

This protection normally entails installing over priced anti- ‘everything’ software, such as anti-virus, anti-spy ware, anti-spam and maybe even anti Maureen from Birkenhead…

Firstly, let us go into what sort of PC protection you really need to keep Nigel out of your life…

There’s the well known name of McAfee, who offer several different programs, for example, there Anti-virus sells for £20.00, there Internet security goes for £25.00 and there total protection sells for £30.00, (These prices are offers at the moment and are all these are for one year only)

Secondly, and as well known as McAfee, there is Norton, who too offers a few different programs, such as 360 version, selling for around £50.00, whilst its internet security is a little cheaper at around £40.00, then there’s the anti-virus which can be bought for around £20.00...

There’s also something called Panda internet protection which can be bought for around the £50.00 region…
Plus many others, such as Kaspersky, Zone alarm and more…. The list does go on.

Some of these companies may even offer a free trial to entice you into using there software, others may even come pre-installed on a new PC and even one or two may allow you to install there software on more than one PC…. This should all be checked out before parting with your cash.

But the one thing that all these have on common is that they will all cost you money and will need to be paid annually to keep up the protection…

Anyway, those are a few bits of software which will cost you a few quid, (once any trial period is over of course, if a trial period is offered that is), and many of those programs I have used on several different PC’s, both laptop and desktop… all doing the job they are designed to do.

But, after paying out many pounds and pence I have actually come to the conclusion that it is not that necessary to have to buy all you PC protection software as there are so many good quality one out there that are free, and they work just as well as those costly ones mentioned….

It is those free ones that I am going to tell you about now as I have also used them and feel they are well worth mentioning.

Firstly, my favourite has to be the good old Avira anti-virus program which, considering it is free, has the ability to sit quietly on your Hard drive whilst constantly protecting you PC from viruses.
It allows you to update it when ever you want at the touch of a button, although sometimes updating can take a few minutes to do.
It warns you if you have not updated or performed a scan so that you never forget.

The alternative freebie to Avira has to be AVG anti-virus, (although AVG do offer an internet security program for around £40.00).
AVG anti-virus offers as much protection as any other anti-virus, running on your PC and blocking those nasties before they get onto your system, but the reason I prefer Avira to this is that I find that AVG does tend to ‘Hog’ your system a little too much, sometimes slowing it down as it runs in the back ground.

Another anti-virus which is free is called Avast, (again Avast do sell an Internet security suite for around the £35.00 mark).
I have used Avast and do like the way it runs quietly on your PC although I did find that it could be a little bit of a ‘hogger’, just like AVG.

So, that the Anti-virus programs that I like and cost you nothing…. Now to the anti-spy ware programs I’d like to mention…

My favourite freebie for anti-spy ware has to be the one called Spyware terminator which offers ‘real time’ protection and a good form of built in internet security built in the form of something called web security guard and ‘Crawler‘ toolbar, (which is optional of course).
The reason I like Spyware terminator is that it sits in the background and blocks any attempt of spyware from getting onto your system. Plus, if you choose to install it, there's the crawler toolbar which protects you whilst your surfing the web by informing you of sites which 'may' be trouble.

Then there’s anti-malware… alas I have yet to find a suitable realtime ‘freebie’ which I can safely trust to protect my PC.
The one I will recommend is malwarebytes, which does offer a free version which can be used to scan you system only, but this free version does not have ‘real time’ protection.
For real time protection you will have to fork out a massive £10.00, but for this you do get a cracking ‘real time’ protection.
The free version offers you the chance to scan you PC for malicious software, and believe me it does find some nasty things, then it gives you the option of quarantining anything you don’t like.
Sadly, as I said, it doesn’t offer ‘real time’ protection but it does let you update the program on a daily basis.

For me, this is one of the few bits of software that I would recommend actually spending money on as it’s real time protection is second to none, even protecting your on line surfing with its ‘website’ blocking’ option, which flashes up if the programs data base feels that a site is unsafe, allowing you the option of blocking access to the site.
Plus, apart from the ’freebie’ scanning options, the paid version offers a ‘flash scan’ which scans the important parts of you PC in a flash… hence ‘flash scan’.

Another bit of software that I tend to use, which is free of course, is an ‘firewall’ program called Comodo firewall, which helps stop any unwanted programs installing or starting up on your PC.

For that non real time protection software, which is free, I can highly recommend such programs as SuperAnti-spy ware, which as it boasts…‘remove all the spy ware, not just the easy ones…’

Then there’s Advanced system care, which will manually scan you entire system and repair most faults.

In addition there is a beautiful bit of software which will clean you system and keep it running almost as good as new, this bit of software is called CCleaner… (Crap Cleaner), which, as the name says, cleans all the ‘crap’ from you PC, even cleaning you registry.

I know this piece of writing may have gone a little passed the mark so I’ll try and steer back onto the right track, trying to give a little advice on how to keep your PC safe from Nigel and his motley student friends…

Install a good anti virus, anti spy ware and anti malware software, but remember that just because it cost a fortune it doesn’t necessarily make it the best one. I use many of the free ones and have done for years now without a hint of trouble.
Once you’ve installed those programs make sure they are running in ’Real time’, this means that they are running on you PC the instance you start your PC up, this will help keep you informed as to whether you have made contact with any form of virus/malware/spy ware.
And remember to check for updates on all your software on a daily basis.

Then, once your ’anti’ programs are installed and running, it is very useful to have some other ’non real time’ protection for you to manually scan your system with, such as Super anti-spy ware and advanced system care, (check sites such as download.com for some cracking free PC protection software). You can use these programs on say a weekly basis when your not using your system for a few hours.

One way Nigel may try and infiltrate your PC is through the way you actually connect to the network with most people these day using a router of some kind, with many, if not all routers claiming to have in built firewalls. Sadly though these firewalls can be ‘hacked’ with some ease, as they are common and Nigel can spend all the time he wants working on cracking it, using software that can be easily found online.
To solve this possible little problem you can simply install an ‘extra’ firewall on your PC itself, either a paid for version or opt for the like of Comodo, which is, in my opinion, well worth having on your PC as it just sits there protecting your privacy and you wouldn’t even know it was there, plus it really does protect you from Nigel and his mates.

There are other ‘setting’ I recommend for your router, (if you use one to connect to the World Wide Web), these settings should really be done as soon as possible, preferably when you first get your router.
Firstly, change the ‘access’ password of the router to something that is complicated but easy for you to remember.
Then, change the actual SSID of the router so that outsiders don’t even know the make of your router… any name will do…
Although the best thing I can recommend is to actually hide your wireless router from ‘airing’, this stops the name of your router from being picked up by anyone scanning for wireless connections… remember, if Nigel can’t see you he doesn’t know your there.
All this can be done from accessing your router and following the instructions as you go along.

Also, to keep your system running smoothly, although this is nothing really to do with protecting your PC, there is the option of defragmentation…
If you want to defrag your system, and for those that don’t quite understand the defrag system, well, when ever you uninstall a program it leaves a ‘gap’ in you Hard drive, the more you uninstall the more gaps are left. This then slows your system down as you hard drives has to search through these gaps whilst trying to find that program you’ve asked it to.
When you defrag your system this closes those gaps and speeds up your system as your Hard drive has less space to look through whilst searching that program you’ve asked it to.
Anyway, I recommend using a free program called auslogic disk defrag, which does the job a lot better than MS own built in defragger… I know this isn’t anything to do with PC security but I thought it is well worth mentioning.

Well, that’s a little bit of my advice to try and help keep your PC free from Nigel’s infiltration techniques to get hold of your personal information…
We’ve gone into Anti-virus software, anti-spy ware-software, anti-malware software, both real time and non real time, some for free whilst others at a price, but all do a great job in what they are supposed to do.
And, if you go about making the right settings, which will come with a little practice and maybe a little trial and error, you can surf the web without the worry of losing your bank details.

In all, if you use the free software version of any of the ‘Anti…whatever’ then why pay for the more expensive ones?
As I have mentioned Avira, AVG and Avast offer free software which are as good as any paid for software and do a great job to keep Nigel and his mates at bay. Then there’s ‘Spyware terminator, another freebie which offers real time protection and I highly recommend using Malware Bytes, the paid version in fact, as it’s real time protection is remarkably brilliant.

* For the record…
I know that the experts out there state that no two of the same type of PC protection programs should be running on your PC at the same time, and to some extent I do agree, although you can have as many types of ‘anti…’ software as you like, so long as they are not all running at the same time.
For example, you can set your PC to run on start up certain programs, such as an anti-virus and an anti-spy ware, whilst you can still have other anti-virus/spy ware sat on your PC with the intention of using them to do a weekly scan of your system, this is because I find that one single ‘anti..’ program may not find every single little bit of that that virus/spy ware that you want.PLEASE NOTE:
Names in this review have been changed to protect the innocent… especially Nigel…

Thanks for reading…

© blissman70