- Joined
- Apr 8, 2003
- Messages
- 209
Adding my 2 cents,
There are three types of programs that you need to protect your computer reasonably well: firewalls, spy/ad-removal software, and anti-virus protection.
A firewall is like a door protecting your computer from some of the dangers of the internet. It will try to stop people from gaining access to your computer and, if some program slips through, it should stop it from accessing the internet and reporting stuff about your computer. Keep your firewall running all the time. Setting it up to load when your computer boots is a good idea.
You won't go wrong with ZoneAlarm. Even the free version is a very good firewall. If you like it, buy the full version. The designers need to eat just like the kamis do, and it's just good karma to support companies who give a very good product away for free to those who can't afford to pay for a full version.
Spy/ad-removal software is a good way to keep your hard drive clean of malicious programs that can monitor your internet activity, add toolbars to your browser, inflict endless popups on your screen, or worse. Firewalls don't catch all of these, and they're a real pain in the ass, so sweep for them frequently. I use Ad-Aware most often (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/#free), but I also use SpySweeper (http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php) and SpyBot (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download). Different programs work better or worse on different computers, and they all catch different pests, so experiment and use whichever ones work best for you.
Finally, a good anti-virus program protects you from viruses and worms which make it onto your hard drive. You need to update these programs frequently, even more frequently than spy/ad-removal software. There are a ton of good ones out there, so no point naming names. Personally, I trust my firewall and spy/ad-removal software to protect my computer from external threats, and I use common sense with attachments, so I don't even have anti-virus software. However, if I ever need to remove viruses or worms from my computer, this is where I would go:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html
It's an amazing site, with virus removal tools for all current worms and viruses.
Hope that helps,
Chris
There are three types of programs that you need to protect your computer reasonably well: firewalls, spy/ad-removal software, and anti-virus protection.
A firewall is like a door protecting your computer from some of the dangers of the internet. It will try to stop people from gaining access to your computer and, if some program slips through, it should stop it from accessing the internet and reporting stuff about your computer. Keep your firewall running all the time. Setting it up to load when your computer boots is a good idea.
You won't go wrong with ZoneAlarm. Even the free version is a very good firewall. If you like it, buy the full version. The designers need to eat just like the kamis do, and it's just good karma to support companies who give a very good product away for free to those who can't afford to pay for a full version.
Spy/ad-removal software is a good way to keep your hard drive clean of malicious programs that can monitor your internet activity, add toolbars to your browser, inflict endless popups on your screen, or worse. Firewalls don't catch all of these, and they're a real pain in the ass, so sweep for them frequently. I use Ad-Aware most often (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/#free), but I also use SpySweeper (http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php) and SpyBot (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download). Different programs work better or worse on different computers, and they all catch different pests, so experiment and use whichever ones work best for you.
Finally, a good anti-virus program protects you from viruses and worms which make it onto your hard drive. You need to update these programs frequently, even more frequently than spy/ad-removal software. There are a ton of good ones out there, so no point naming names. Personally, I trust my firewall and spy/ad-removal software to protect my computer from external threats, and I use common sense with attachments, so I don't even have anti-virus software. However, if I ever need to remove viruses or worms from my computer, this is where I would go:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html
It's an amazing site, with virus removal tools for all current worms and viruses.
Hope that helps,
Chris