Revision as of 01:06, 18 December 2011

Anti-Virus Protection

Antivirus software is installed on the local machine to protect your PC against viruses, trojans and various other types of malware. Antivirus programs run in the background and need to be kept up to date to ensure maximum protection against new threats that are released into the wild practically every day.

There are many well known brands of AntiVirus software such as Symantec or McAfee, but we list below a selection of free Antivirus programs.

• AVG Free Anti Virus for single home users from Grisoft
• Avast Free Anti Virus for the home PC.
• Avira Free Anti Virus for home users.
• Clam Win AV for windows - also standalone which can be run from USB pen drive.

It is not recommended to run more than one AntiVirus program at any one time, as this will likely cause conflicts.

Firewalls

Firewalls work by limiting authorised traffic into the local network. There are two types of firewalls:- Hardware and Software firewalls.

Hardware firewalls are machines which limit traffic based on specific configuration and rules. Most of today's adsl routers have an inbuilt firewall which can be configured to restrict certain types of traffic on to the local network. Most also use NAT which adds another layer of protection.

Software firewalls are installed on the local PC to monitor traffic passing to and from that computer.

There is some debate over whether or not you need a software firewall if you have an adsl router. Personally Ive relied upon various NAT based routers for the past 9 years. If you fully explore the features in the router you will find there are various configurations and most can also be set up for logging. However, the final choice is up to you if you want to also install a software firewall on your PC then below is a list of free software firewalls.

• Ashampoo Free Firewall
• Comodo Free Comodo Firewall Pro.
• Kerio Free software firewall for home and personal use.
• Outpost Free Firewall
• Zone Alarm Free software download for personal use

You should not only rely on a firewall whether it be software or hardware and you also need Antivrus protection installed on each machine.

On-line Virus Scanners

Online Virus scanners are either where you upload a particular file to a remote server to be scanned or where you connect to a server which will remotely scan your PC for viruses.

Online virus scanners are no substitute for full antivirus as they are unable to monitor the constant flow of data, but they are very useful if you wish to either check the contents of a particular file you downloaded, or if you suspect your PC may be infected and your existing AV has been disabled in some way. Be warned that a remote scan may take some time depending upon the size of your hard drive and the number of files it has to scan.

Listed below are some free online virus scanners:

• Housecall On-line virus scanner from Trend
• Kasperspy online scanner On-Line virus, trojan and malware scanner.
• Kasperspy File Scanner Upload files for remote checking.
• Ewido online scanner On-line trojan and malware scanner (Win XP)
• Symantec Security Check On-line virus scanner from Symantec.

Online AV scanners are no substitute for full Antivirus software.

Spyware and Malware Tools

--Kitz 01:06, 18 December 2011 (GMT)