Certain software items must be in place and properly configured before you can have decent security. Your first consideration should be choice of operating system. If you are using Windows 98 or ME, it’s time for a new computer, as those are not safe machines for Internet use. With some tweaking, Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional meet the minimum requirements for security configurability. In fact, there’s precious little that you can do with XP that you can’t do with 2000, so don’t go looking down your nose at those “poor, backwards Windows 2000 users.” Both operating systems can be equally good and equally bad, depending on how they’re set up. XP Home Edition can sometimes be an acceptable compromise.
Next on the software list is a personal firewall. Get one. Although updated XP machines include the Windows firewall, it really does only a second-rate job, as it does not check outgoing traffic. Free firewall programs from ZoneAlarm, Comodo and Kerio are good choices, with ZoneAlarm (link on my website) being a bit easier to keep track of. They will all do just as good of a job as any consumer-oriented product from Symantec/Norton or McAfee. ZoneAlarm can be a bit slow to boot, but once it does all is well. Train ZoneAlarm to deal with your Internet-enabled applications and it’s great.
As a bit of an aside, I no longer recommend Symantec/Norton products to my customers. I used to put their antivirus and firewall products on everyone’s machine because, at the time, they were the best. However, beginning in about 2004, their products started becoming more and more buggy and unstable. Sometimes they would install properly, sometimes not. Sometimes they would update properly, sometimes not. It became so much of a headache that I decided to search for better products, as I realized that I was wasting my time and my client’s money struggling to make Symantec/Norton products work as advertised. Uninstalling their products could be a nightmare, with the situation becoming so bad that Norton even released special “uninstaller” programs to deal with the situation. Add the fact that their products are extreme resource hogs and it’s just not worth the hassle.
Antivirus programs are a must. Malicious websites, phony links, crazy popups, suspect downloads and infected emails are the reality of the day, and without a decent antivirus program, your security will stink. In my quest for quality, free antivirus programs I came across two good solutions: Avast and AVG, with Avast being my favorite.
Avast Antivirus (link on my website) is easy to install, easy to manage and the installation default settings are great. Just keep clicking, “OK, OK, OK, ” and you’ll have a good AV program installed. Register the installation and it’s good for a year. When the year is up, simply register again. One caveat is that the free version of Avast does not do scheduled scans, so you’ll need to run manual scans at least once a week, or more often, depending on your Internet usage. The radio-panel interface can be a bit confusing at first, but do a little exploring and you’ll figure it out. I’ve been using and installing the free version of Avast for almost three years and it’s still at the top of my “free software” list. Avast is also available in a paid version, and multiple licenses are available for office environments. The paid version is capable of automated scans.
Next week: more programs that you need.