Computer Security Software

by William Brister
Today's market is cluttered with security software offering anywhere from 4 to 15 features. Which one of these software features is important? Which ones do you absolutely need? Which ones are already present on your computer? Almost all vendors sell a basic version and then have a premium package that costs more. Are the extra dollars worth it? Read on to find out.

The ones you absolutely, definitely need Anti Virus - Detects and removes viruses from your hard drive, emails, & downloaded files. Needs to update frequently and automatically to keep up with the newest viruses.

Personal Firewall - Blocks hackers and other malicious network programs trying to attack your computer and network. Monitors inbound and outbound network connections from your computer.

Anti Spyware - Blocks and removes spyware / adware which is a malicious program or code hidden in acceptable files. This includes the latest rootkit programs which are used to hide the malware, spyware from other detection programs.

The Good to haves Anti Phishing / Fraud Defense - Protects you from online scams designed to steal credit card and bank account numbers. This capability is already present in the most common browsers - Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Wireless Network Monitoring - Guards against unauthorized users invading your wireless home network. You can configure this facility in your wireless router with access IDs, passwords and network addresses.

Online Identity Protection - Guards against online identity theft. Again, most transaction sites provide secure authentication. Also most credit and debit cards today come with a online protection service with a full refund.

The Extras Anti Spam - Filters annoying and potentially dangerous email. If you use a web based mail service like yahoo, hotmail or gmail, they already provide this service. Even if you open a bad email, you should be protected if you have the other tools running.

Pop-Up blocker - Blocks annoying pop-ups and potentially dangerous scripts. The most popular browsers (IE & Firefox) already have this utility integrated into them.

More recently, security software has been offered with data backup and system performance software. These are extras, and should already be part of your operating system. Most security companies offer more or less the same features and capabilties. Everybody knows Norton & McAfee. A couple more to consider are Trend Micro & Zone Labs. Almost all of these have free versions to download and test. Another company that offers a good free Antivirus is AVG (Grisoft).

www.softwareproguide.com -

Free Internet Security Software

by Dave Jacobs
There are amazing free internet security software products available in any category imaginable. If you select the proper combination of quality free products you will be provided protection as good as or better than that afforded by the purchased alternatives.

You must realize that there is a wide range in the quality and performance of free software, so you need to stick with products that have been tested and have an established track record or at least have been developed by an organization that has previously proven themselves. It is difficult to tell if most internet security products are performing as expected. For example, if a game is not working properly you will be able to immediately tell because the game will not play correctly. In contrast, if a firewall or antivirus program fail to function properly you may not have any idea until long after your computer has been compromised. This certainly is a risk that few of us can afford to take.

I like to think of internet security as a triangle with the three main categories making up the three corners and the secondary categories lying on the lines of the triangle or within the security triangle. The three corners are antivirus, firewall and antispyware. The differentiation between product classes has begun to blur and there are many combination products especially among those sold commercially. To simplify our discussion and allow us to look at a number of unique free products we will look at them as distinctly unique product classes. There is excellent free software to satisfy our triangle concept with this article focusing on a couple of the top products in each category.

There are about 15 free antivirus products that are worth considering with a few other specialized products that also fit best into this antivirus group. My favorite free antivirus product without question is Comodo Antivirus. Comodo is involved in the high end enterprise area of the internet and decided to provide this antivirus product free to help make all consumers safer while online. The bottom line is that Comodo gets a lot of goodwill and free publicity from making such a great product available free of charge. It is a win-win situation! This antivirus product detects and eliminates viruses from desktops and networks, protects with real-time on access scanning, uses proactive heuristic analysis to intercept unknown threats, has host intrusion detection to block malware before it can run, and provides automatic daily updates of virus definitions. The other free antivirus product that I will touch on here is from PC Tools well known for their Spyware Doctor and also Registry Mechanic. In this case there is also a paid version that has direct customer support and faster updates but the two products themselves function the same whether free or paid. PC Tools Antivirus Free Edition provides world-leading protection, with excellent database updates, OnGuard real-time protection and comprehensive system scanning to ensure your system remains safe and virus free. This product is Vista compatible.

There have been many changes in the category of free firewalls with a number of popular free products no longer available and a few new arrivals to take their place. There are about 15 free firewall software products that I feel are worth considering. The two free firewalls that I prefer are Zone Alarm Free Edition which now is Vista compatible and has been a #1 choice for a number of years. It has proven itself as real winner practically defining the firewall class. The other free firewall I would like to mention is the Comodo Firewall, which like their antivirus software mentioned above, is fully functional yet free. The Zone Alarm Firewall is a reliable but basic product that lacks some of the features of their higher-end retail products. This is not to say that there is any type of reliability or quality issue just that it is feature limited. Comodo's firewall on the other hand is in no way a limited feature product in fact it has some of the most sophisticated features of any firewall free or paid! Many reviewers consider it the best software firewall in existence.

There are almost two dozen good free antispyware products available. One feature of antispyware software compared to antivirus and firewall software is that more than one antispyware product can usually be used at the same time. I currently use Windows Defender from Microsoft, Spybot Search and Destroy and Spyware Terminator all running at the same time. They work fine together on my particular system with no performance hit or other problems.

Picking any one product from each of the three primary groups above should give you a more than adequate triangle of internet security protection.

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Earn Money While Online

by Ezekiel Haynes
If I asked the question "Who wants to make money from home?" I'm sure everyone's hand would go up including mine. As you can see my blog was designed to meet new people, sharing ideas and making money while doing it. Today we have access to the world and many companies are providing tools to make money online. But yet and still there remains the idea of fraud. I'll be the first to admit I'm new at this and just like a lot of bloggers, I'm searching for mentors to make my way easier. In the process of doing this I came across a lot of useful info.

Genuine ways of earning money while online, get some form of mentoring. These individuals and companies want to make money online, in order to do so they need to show you how to make money. Without mentoring you will most likely fail. You need some assistance so you can properly understand earning money online and what you need to do to be successful.

A lot of credible people have clearly drawn out instructions on the tasks you will need to perform, they provide resources to help you succeed, and normally there is someone you can contact to ask questions. They will not leave you hanging. If you are at home feeling lost and very much alone you may not be working with a legitimate online blogger(business).

Bottom line, the more information you are given the better. Do thorough investigations to find out as much as you can. Ask questions, not just from the owners of the website but those who have joined it. If at any point you are feeling that something is wrong, are getting vague answers or if its just too good to be true, don't give up but continue looking because there too many people that have done it. And remember what ever you give out you receive back many time over. So if its information, money, or love let it go!!

http://www.legitonlinejobs.com/