Protecting a Computer is Not That Hard |
| by whoozhe | |
| February 26, 2003 | |
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Every computer is vulnerable to damage caused by interference, malicious attacks and viruses.
Choosing the best to suit you is probably the hardest part. There are choices but here I will list the ones that come free, and in my opinion, are as good, if not better, than the relatively expensive commercial products. I am not a fan of any "Do It All products" My experience has shown that dedicated programs do the job better. Anti Virus: AVG is my choice. It works, is updated more often than most others and most importantly it does not crash systems. AVG is available at http://www.grisoft.com Firewall: A firewall is something that prevents anyone trying to access your system without your permission. You cannot go past Zone Alarm. The ad supported free version does everything one would expect from a decent firewall program. You can download Zone Alarm from http://www.zonelabs.com. Anti Spam: There are a number of utilities that work with email software to help you filter out unwanted email. You can find a list at http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/Mail/Windows/Tools/Anti_Spam/ My suggestion is to check the email at the server end before downloading any. Email clients such as Eudora and Incredimail (Paid Versions) have this ability built in. This way you can delete unwanted email before downloading any. Spyware and Adware. The big nasties of the net. Both are dumped on computers by legitimate vendors, mostly via free programs. Spyware sends information of your surfing habits and other activities to a third party who will use that information. Both can cause major problems with a system's normal operation. Adaware or Spybot are the best two, are free and both will rid your system spy and adware. Adaware is available from http://www.lavasoftusa.com Spybot can be downloaded from http://spybot.eon.net.au/ |