Choosing an Antivirus Program

Knowledgebase

Internet Generation Online Support > Internet Generation Support Requests > Knowledgebase

Choosing an Antivirus Program

Solution I'm often asked what I would recommend, and that would have to be AVG just google the letters. Mostly because its free and it does a fairly OK job.

Many people get a major brand free with their broadband, including Virgin, BT, AOL, Sky customers.

If you are a MAC user; Yes you can get a virus, but its rare I wouldn't install protection just yet.

A little suggestion, if you use any of the big names, Norton, CA, MaCafee, renewing the subscription of your existing product is cheaper than purchasing the new product. Read communications carefully. Also Norton does this, but so might the others; you may receive a renewal notice 1 month before it expires, if you wait for it to expire you will receive subsequent emails with a discounted price, delay longer and you will receive a greater discount, i've had reports that if you delay for several months you can get up to 50% discounted. Don't take the numbers a gosple but currently (Jan 09) you can get significent discount if you delay.

Be aware of what your are buying. You might come across any number of these products as part of a single product; Antivirus, Anti Spyware, Firewall, Online Fraud Protection, Spam Blocking, Popup Blocker, Online backup, Parental Controls, System Cleanup.

Antivirus:
This is usually what most people want

Anti Spyware:
This too is a common problem, think of spyware as a different catogory of viruses.

Firewall:
This won't really stop viruses, and probably not spyware. It prevents people hacking into your computer from the Internet. Windows provides an adequate firewall, something additional is not really necessary. Hackers don't hack home computers very much, there's nothing of interest, they go after businesses.

Online Fraud Protection:

Its not very clear to me how these products prevent fraud, so I can't comment on how affective they may be. Although fraud happens, most reported cases are phishing (a web site that looks genuine but its not) you can reduce this risk by being cautious about any email or popup that has any possible connection to money. Don't use the link provided in the email/popup, manually type in the address.

Spam Blocking:

Only relevant to people using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. It doesn't work on Website based email like hotmail.

Popup Blocker:

You get one as part of Internet Explorer 7. Most people have IE7. You get one with many other free software.

Online Backup:

You need to setup an account for this, and pay extra if you use more than the normally free 2GB of space. Most people don't use this feature.

Parental Controls:

You need to set this feature up if you want to use it, when you install the software this is normally disabled by default. Most who have it don't use it.

System Management/Cleanup:

Typically this isn't anything new, it normally only provides another method to access utilities already on your computer as part of windows.

Commonly people buy a product with the words Internet Security in the title. Which includes many of the items above. You probably only want to be buying an antivirus & anti spyware product. I use CA's eTrust Antivirus product only.

Was this article helpful? yes / no

Article details

Article ID:	3
Category:	Knowledgebase
Date added:	2009-01-31 19:09:43
Views:	23
Rating (Votes):	(2)

<< Go back