Antivirus Scanning

The foundation of any AV software is, of course, the antivirus engine itself. There are a couple of areas where things vary tremendously when it comes to antivirus protection.

Here’s our take on some of the most important things to consider:

antivirus detection accuracy
Each antivirus vendor uses their own mechanisms to detect viruses. Some are highly accurate, detecting the vast majority of threats to your PC; some are terrible, leaving your PC vulnerable to all but the most basic viruses.
antivirus heuristics
Since new viruses and other threats are come out daily, antivirus software needs to detect viruses that haven’t yet been identified. This is another place where things vary significantly from one antivirus manufacturer to another.
scanning speed
Whether you’re manually scanning your files or allowing the AV software to perform an automatic scan, you don’t want to wait all day for the scan to finish. In our testing we found the best antivirus software can perform the task, quite literally, twice as quickly as lesser-quality programs.
resource utilization
As with scanning speed, how resource-hungry your antivirus software is makes a big difference in how your PC performs when your PC is protected.
Low-quality antivirus programs can be such a drag that some users are forced to disable their AV software altogether just to get their PC to have enough free memory and/or CPU to be able to perform a certain task on their computer.
Since this is never a good idea, having software that can do its job while you do your job is critical.

Important Tips On Personal Firewalls

The perfect personal firewall would be inexpensive and easy to install and use, would offer clearly explained configuration options, would hide all ports to make your PC invisible to scans, would protect your system from all attacks, would track all potential and actual threats, would immediately alert you to serious attacks, and would ensure nothing unauthorized entered or left your PC

* Check Windows — Before installing personal firewall software on a Windows XP, Vista or 7 computer, be sure that the firewall built into the Windows operating system is turned off.
* Just One, Not Two — Never use two software firewalls at the same time. Completely uninstall one before installing another. Use the vendor’s uninstall utility or if not available, try AppRemover, for Symantec products use the Norton Removal Tool, or use the Windows add/remove software tool in the control panel.
* Hardware Firewalls — You can and should use a hardware firewall with a software firewall including a Wired Router, Wireless Router or a Broadband Gateway.
* Patches & Updates — As soon as your firewall is installed, check the vendor’s website for patches and updates. If the firewall offers an automatic update function, turn it on.
* Testing — After you install a firewall, be sure to check it with an online service like Security Space to make sure that it is configured correctly. Testing your firewall is the only sure way to tell that your computer is really being protected.

Spyware Detection & Prevention

Right on the heels of viruses as major concerns for most PC users is spyware.

Insidious by nature, modern spyware uses a ton of different techniques to spread onto your system and monitor what you’re doing.

Some spyware is fairly innocuous, as it “only” shows ads based on your web surfing habits. Other spyware is much more evil and can actually record every keystroke you type and every activity you perform on your PC and then report it back to a central location.

The worst spyware can even record the usernames and passwords to your most confidential data including your bank accounts and credit cards.

Today’s best antivirus software also include antispyware components, too, so in addition to being on the lookout for you against threats from viruses, trojans, and worms, good antivirus software will keep spyware at bay, too.

More accurately it should be called “Internet security software.”

Bidirectional Firewall

Today’s best antivirus software and Internet security software has a built-in (or optional) software firewall.
A good firewall should have the ability to monitor Internet traffic in both directions: incoming and outgoing.
If there’s some unexplained traffic activity you should receive a warning, and the software will block it if it’s from a suspect source, giving you the chance to see what’s going on and allow the connection or block it.
This is particularly important if you have a high speed Internet connection that’s always on because even if you don’t think you’re online, chances are you are, so you’re still be vulnerable to an attack.
This gives you a choice of scanning your PC as you see fit. With the scheduled option you can set the antivirus scan to run at a time and frequency of your choosing.
You can select daily, weekly or monthly scans and the time of day to run it. If your antivirus software uses a lot of system resources you may prefer to schedule it to run late at night or in the early a.m. hours so as not to slow down any tasks you are working on.
On demand scanning allows you to run it at anytime you desire, just click the appropriate button on the user interface.

The Reasons Why Your Computer Needs Antivirus Firewall Software

The real truth is that there are many different ways in which a virus can get into your computer. Some are pretty innocuous, while others will shut your computer down for good in seconds.

If you are the proud owner of any type of computer, then you need the best antivirus firewall protection available. Viruses and malicious software can cause much damage and death to your computer.

The severe ones can change or erase important files that will harm your software as well as hardware. Or, they may target files that are vital to the integrity of your operating system. The less harmful code will stay resident in your computer feeding the infecting site with user information, or worse, personal information.

Additionally, these harmful scripts will slow your computer down greatly while your computer executes this extra, unnecessary load. Without the best antivirus firewall software, you will, not can, suddenly find yourself with an unexpected system crash or failure.

If you are lucky enough to only have the less harmful viruses and scripts, then you may not need to replace your computer. However, you will need to restore your computer to the prior condition before the viral infection. Believe me, needing to recover your computer from such an event is both tedious, time consuming and sometimes costly. If you do not have your information backed up, you will lose a lot of important files. In the worst case scenario, you could end up having to spend even more money for someone to fix it for you. This could mean several days or weeks without your computer, while they are working on the problem.

Having to repair or replace a computer from viruses and other malicious scripts is a truly avoidable problem. Having the best antivirus firewall software will eliminate 99% of infections. Such problem is truly avoidable.

So as you can see, antivirus software is vitally important to the health and integrity of your operating system. It is well worth investing in, because it will save you both money and hassles. You do not have to buy an expensive one to have adequate protection. You do, however, need to make sure that the one you use is reliable and updated regularly.

Constant and automatic updating is very important. It is like a cat and mouse game. Bad people make a virus and then the antivirus software companies recognize and stop it. Then, the bad people make another virus. Again, the antivirus software companies make an update for it. This process occurs almost hourly every day. That is why you need the freshest updates available to adequately protect your computer.

Firewall software is still important, but works this software little differently than virus software. Firewall software protects your computer from rogue attacks on the Internet or a network. It is not always easy to tell from a URL that you are visiting, whether or not any given website is safe. It is even possible for people to fake valid security certificates.

Some people will try to use your Internet connection to gain access to the information on your computer. If they can get in, they may search for personal information that you have stored in it. This could include details that will allow them to steal your identity. Everyone is well aware of the problems that arise from identity theft. It can take years to clear up all the problems it can cause you.

If you do online banking or store financial information in your computer, this is another prime concern. There are many bad programs that have been created only to mine or dig through your computer for banking or credit card account numbers. If they manage to gather these, they can drain your accounts or run up your debt in just minutes.

A good firewall is always actively running on your computer. It monitors for just such intrusions and can deny them access to your sensitive information. In most cases, you will see a warning pop-up that lets you know something or someone was trying to gain access. This is just another example of a case where prevention truly is the best remedy.

Recently, there have even been a few good free programs made available that you can use. They are available for personal use and can be of great help. Sometimes, there are occasions where people just cannot afford to pay for these programs. They are not, however, usually a great choice for people that always constantly surf questionable websites. Remember, this antivirus firewall software is free.

But, if you find yourself making only limited use of your computer, they are perfectly adequate. Most of them will update automatically and provide real-time virus and firewall protection. It really just depends on how much protection you need. If you are not certain, then you should do some research and consult someone who is knowledgeable.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have antivirus firewall software installed. Your computer is an investment and the less time and money you have to waste on it, the better. While you may never need these programs, if you do, you will find yourself very glad you had them running.

Do I Need Antivirus Software?

Absolutely!

Antivirus Firewall software is a must. It may be the most important software you’ll ever install on your Microsoft Windows computer.

As a computer user you’ve probably come across terms like viruses, spam, Trojan horses, worms, etc. Some of you may know what these refer to; others of you may have heard of them but have no idea what they mean. In a word they mean: DANGER!

We can’t emphasis this too strongly. Anytime you go online to shop or to access your email or just to surf the web you and your pc are vulnerable to attack by dangerous elements.

These threats come in many forms and sometimes they can come from sites you’ve been to many times and “trust.”

The virus and malware writers are now taking it upon themselves to take over reputable sites and install viruses, worms, trojans, and the like on these otherwise reputable sites most often completely without the site’s owners ever knowing it has happened.

In essence, these and other malware attacks are attempts by disreputable individuals to disrupt the proper operation of your computer; in some cases rendering it useless. Others can cause you financial ruin.

Think, for instance, that if all the important information contained on your pc was suddenly wiped out. All those priceless family pictures-gone forever. How about the novel you’ve been writing and didn’t make a copy of? Whatever you hold nearest and dearest has disappeared and you can’t begin to replace it.

Then there is the danger of identity theft. If someone can get your social security number, banking, or other financial information it can mean months, if not years, of suffering.