David Geer Talks Tech
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Computer Security Software Recommendations Courtesy of http://www.GeerCom.com.
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
Computer Security Software Recommendations
I can only tell you what products I recommend. What you may be surprised to find out is that I recommend at least six, seven if you count a hardware firewall, but that would be too much to get into here and may be covered in a later article.
I have discussed the product Hostess, which is for building up a hosts file to block bad websites, and the Firefox Web browser in previous blogs. Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer for several reasons, but the one that comes to mind first is that most exploits are directed at Microsoft product code, which isn't the stuff Firefox is made of.
As for the other four programs, I recommend AVG Grisoft Anti-Virus 7, Zone Alarm Personal Firewall, Spybot S&D and Spyware Blaster (all are free for personal use if not free altogether, just like Hostess and Firefox).
AVG will automatically update and protects against viruses on your system and that may try to infiltrate via e-mail. AVG uses its own server to check e-mail for viruses before sending messages to you.
Zone Alarm automatically updates itself and keeps hackers out.
Spybot S&D is a little more complicated. It deals with most Spyware, which you have probably heard of by now, but if not, is intended to track your computer usage and in some cases enable hackers to take over your machine and misuse it and your information.
Spybot must be manually updated. It comes with a feature called TeaTimer, which checks for Spyware in an ongoing fashion. As you will be informed in the process of using Spybot, some software you want to use may stop working if you remove Spyware associated with it. Spybot backs up the changes it makes so you can get those programs to work again.
Spyware Blaster works on Java-based Spyware. It runs constantly and only need to be installed and occasionally updated.
Find these products and more information at:
Firefox
AVG
Zone Alarm
Spybot
SpywareBlaster
Best,
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
Computer Security Software Recommendations
I can only tell you what products I recommend. What you may be surprised to find out is that I recommend at least six, seven if you count a hardware firewall, but that would be too much to get into here and may be covered in a later article.
I have discussed the product Hostess, which is for building up a hosts file to block bad websites, and the Firefox Web browser in previous blogs. Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer for several reasons, but the one that comes to mind first is that most exploits are directed at Microsoft product code, which isn't the stuff Firefox is made of.
As for the other four programs, I recommend AVG Grisoft Anti-Virus 7, Zone Alarm Personal Firewall, Spybot S&D and Spyware Blaster (all are free for personal use if not free altogether, just like Hostess and Firefox).
AVG will automatically update and protects against viruses on your system and that may try to infiltrate via e-mail. AVG uses its own server to check e-mail for viruses before sending messages to you.
Zone Alarm automatically updates itself and keeps hackers out.
Spybot S&D is a little more complicated. It deals with most Spyware, which you have probably heard of by now, but if not, is intended to track your computer usage and in some cases enable hackers to take over your machine and misuse it and your information.
Spybot must be manually updated. It comes with a feature called TeaTimer, which checks for Spyware in an ongoing fashion. As you will be informed in the process of using Spybot, some software you want to use may stop working if you remove Spyware associated with it. Spybot backs up the changes it makes so you can get those programs to work again.
Spyware Blaster works on Java-based Spyware. It runs constantly and only need to be installed and occasionally updated.
Find these products and more information at:
Firefox
AVG
Zone Alarm
Spybot
SpywareBlaster
Best,
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
