Which are best amongst Internet Security, Anti-Virus, Firewalls, etc.?


Mar - 09 | By: admin | 5 comments.

Filed under : search marketing expert

I am confused about Internet Security. So please guide me with utmost honesty (Please don’t fool me because I am naive about Internet Security). I am a housewife (who used to once work as a Foxpro Programmer. But later I quit the job and started taking care of my home and family). So although I am a good foxpro programmer (and not entirely naive about using a PC) I don’t know much about internet. Lately, I have started using Internet. Now, I have come to know that viruses, worms, spywares, malaware, adware, etc. can attack my personal computer even if I open my emails. In order to prevent this from happening I should have anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc. installed on my personal computer. I have also been advised to install something termed as ‘firewall’. Besides, there are so many products (McAfee Anti-Virus, Norton Anti-Virus, E-SET Safe, Trend Micro, Quick Heal, AVG, Kaspersky, etc.) And if I visit these companies’ websites I see they have multiple products that they are manufacturing. For example, I installed AVG Free for home users. But the company also sells a paid version of that Anti-virus software and also selling something termed AVG Internet Security. Similarly, McAfee sells something termed Security Center. Now, I am all confused. I have several questions:

Question #1: Which is the best Anti-Virus software currently? I am confused about which of these softwares should I buy? For example, should I buy McAfee Anti-Virus or Norton (which one is better? I don’t know and so I can’t make up my mind). Now, McAfee and Norton are just two examples. In reality, in the market place in anti-virus category itself there are several products. So an expert may tell me that I should neither buy McAfee or Norton; but instead choose Kaspersky because it is best anti-virus currenty around. So I feel you should guide me seriously about which is the best Anti-Virus software available as of now.

Question #2: What is Internet Security? For example, several of these companies have their Internet Security Softwares. Now, does that mean that if I buy Internet Security Suite of a company it will give me full protection from Viruses, Spywares, Worms, Trojans, Malaware, Adware and what not and will this Internet Security Suite also install its firewall or whether for a firewall I will have to search for another company? Which is the best Internet Security Suite/Software currently available.

Question #3: What is a firewall? What purpose does it serve? Now, my Windows Vista also has a firewall (that perhaps got installed when my PC came pre-installed with MS Vista Home Basic). Now, is this Vista firewall not enough as a protection? And which is the best firewall software currently?

Thanks & Regards,

Anita Mallya.

I have added a link to a great list.

#1 – You do not need to buy any. There are perfectly good free anti-virus software.

#2 – No. Install the Spyware and Malware programs indicated int he link.

#3 – A firewall blocks ports going in and out of your computer. Basically you are concerned about stuff coming in. The Windows firewall is fairly bad. You may try the one in the link. Many people recommend hardware firewalls like that come on a router. This is what I use. You can check to see how protected you are at Shields Up! – https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Also, I recommend for safer browsing for you to use Firefox – http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ and to use the password manager in the list.

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5 Responses to “Which are best amongst Internet Security, Anti-Virus, Firewalls, etc.?”

  1. MrZip says:
    March 9, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    i have tried ALL of them over the years,running 3 ststems.all have different ’setup running’,it would be foolish to tell you the best,but i will tell you some of the ones i run with no problem at all
    1.Norton 360
    2.Avir-Antivus(free) http://www.download.com
    3.AVG(free)
    as far as fiewalls your system should have one that came with it,but some of the well know fiewalls (zonealarm)will not run with the norton 360,norton 360 has its own firewall,you will have to make the desion,but only run 1 antivirus at the time
    References :

  2. a_smartie says:
    March 9, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    I have added a link to a great list.

    #1 – You do not need to buy any. There are perfectly good free anti-virus software.

    #2 – No. Install the Spyware and Malware programs indicated int he link.

    #3 – A firewall blocks ports going in and out of your computer. Basically you are concerned about stuff coming in. The Windows firewall is fairly bad. You may try the one in the link. Many people recommend hardware firewalls like that come on a router. This is what I use. You can check to see how protected you are at Shields Up! – https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

    Also, I recommend for safer browsing for you to use Firefox – http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ and to use the password manager in the list.
    References :
    http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-security-tools-you-absolutely-must-have/

  3. vijay says:
    March 9, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    My humble suggestion is

    1) shorten ur question
    now coming to your question
    1) According to me Kaspersky is the best one.
    2) As the technology of finding softwares like internet security software grows, in the mean time the Program of the viruses also becomes complicated. So there is no need to buy a internet security software as you have vista in your PC, it has a enabled fishing filter, which will block you from unwanted and scam websites so no need to worry.
    3) Its enough, but still as i said before there could be more complicated virus programmes in the future, till then enjoy the features of windows vista fire wall

    Oops my hand is paining, plz ask a small question.
    References :

  4. ilikepizza says:
    March 9, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    well your right about that, every computer needs some security to protect it from viruses worms etc.

    to answer your first question : which antivirus is best.

    I suggest use McAfee Antivirus.

    this is a very well known company and has good products on the market.
    Norton is good as well, but some people complain that it doesn’t do the job as well as others….

    second question :internet security is about protecting you while your actually using the internet. like how you said that opeing emails may get you viruses….this is true. so if you have some internet ssecurity software, it will be safer for you while opeing emails, and browsing other websites.

    also some security companies give you "site advisors" as part of your internet security.
    my computer has McAfee installed, and also gave me a feature that tells me while i’m on the internet, if a website is safe or not….this is very helpful to save me from visiting a bad website that has viruses on it.

    third question : what is a firewall.

    i firewall is a piece of software that is eant to keep people from hijacking your computer. this means that people from somewhere in the world can take control of your computer and make it do things you don’t want it to do.

    and it also gives them access to you personal files.

    a firewall is exactly what it sounds like….a Wall…..to keep out other people from your computer.

    this is a very important thing to protect your computer.

    it will allow you to contact the internet and the rest of the world safely, while at the same time keeping the bad guys out.

    so its a good thing to have.

    and windows vista comes with one so its not really necessary to buy one of your own, but its probably best if you do.
    then you will have 2 layers of protection.

    also its important to know that Paying for your antivirus software is always better than getting them for free.

    you said you have AVG ? its ok to have this, but its better if you buy some. and if you do buy some, then make sure you un-install AVG first.

    otherwise there may be some problems because some antivirus programs can’t work together.

    i hope this helps…

    good luck !
    References :
    me !

  5. jr_the_postman says:
    March 9, 2010 at 4:57 pm

    Question #1: Which is the best Anti-Virus software currently? There is no good answer for this question… The top players all shift position weekly if not more often as they update basic scanner and their virus searching patterns… Most of them except the over bloated software packages will protect you most of the time… Norton, & McAfee are good examples of slow bloated software. Node 32 is fast and fleet, as is the free AVG, and Avast but they misses a few virus patterns that Norton or McAfee might find if they could react quickly…

    Question #2: What is Internet Security? It is on-line protection. Protection for your computer when you are visiting web pages… You can probably remember we all moved floppy disks about quite often in the fox pro era, and we should have always virus scanned these disks before accessing… Not much different today, only we have more access points that bad code can come from! Today we have CD, DVD, USB memory sticks, dialers if you use a fax modem and on-line web sites, and e-mail attachments. Some of the protection is common sense, where are you surfing on-line? If you play in the gutter, there are more infections lurking… If you are gullible then maybe a spammer will effectively use social engineering on you to get you to open a exe file that is an e-mail attachment…

    Or you get a CD or DVD from a friend at work, and it has hidden exe file that you or your computer do not want…. the CD is not on-line, but it is all bundled under one umbrella today…

    A lot of free websites offer great things, a coupon website, that requires you to download their printing software, and it brings advertising software with the coupon printing software… This is called malware, but it can and will phone home with your name, e-mail address, banking websites you have visited, and maybe all the medical websites you have read…

    Next time you apply for medical insurance you are turned down, because your files in some Texas repository stored and disseminated by the coupon company that got the info from your cookie files that you were reading a lot of web pages about cancer…

    Yes you were reading this information to learn what and how you can help your neighbor across the way, but the silly coupon software phone home and your web browsing history was misread by this insidious spy malware…

    Please read software privacy agreements, and remember they all have a clause they can change any time… Also toss your cookies and temp internet files all the time, that is your internet surfing history…

    Question #3: What is a firewall? Software or software and hardware combo as a security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to your on-line computer system. Windows comes with a firewall, but remember it is the most understood and attacked by the bad guys. Comodo is a free package with decent performance, these are built into Apple and Linux operating systems and they are not attacked daily as Microsoft products.

    A wired websafe router is good to place between your modem and computer. it main function: if you did not send a request through the router to the internet, when an inquiry sent to your router from the internet it will be ignored 99.99999% of the time…

    Right now the best protection is using Apple or Linux operating system, these are not the targets of a lot of virus and malware and have better operating system protection. If you are not comfortable learning a new computer operating system, then you need to understand running Microsoft you will have a certain number of hours to spend each week on security maintenance depending on your e-mail and surfing habits…

    A testing company for antiviral and malware products
    http://www.westcoastlabs.com/checkmark/search/

    I have not answered all your questions as you expected, but I hope i have given you some understanding to enable you to ask better questions…

    I have included the links of two on-line malware scanners you might find valuable..

    Your questions reminded me of the teen age boy next door, asking what is the fastest car? Then I needed to ask him, the fastest car in local the Mud Bog, the fastest car in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, or the fastest car at Pomona Drag Strip?

    JR
    References :
    http://www.westcoastlabs.com/checkmark/search/
    http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/
    http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml