Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Anti-Spam

Nowadays computer users have to worry about potentially harmful viruses, spyware, spam, and more finding their way into their computer. Hackers threaten hard drives, confidential information, personal identities, and the ease of checking and sending email. Nobody is safe anymore. So how do you keep the bad guys out and protect your information? Your best bet is to install some Internet security programs. If you are buying a new computer, though, most will come with pre-installed anti-virus and anti-spam software.

Security Software Programs: Spam Filters MailFrontier Desktop  Aladdin Mailshell Spam Catcher Universal  Symantec AntiSpam  McAfee Spamkiller  Stata Labs SAproxy Pro 2.5  Anti-Virus Trend Micro PC-cillin 2004  Norton Anti-Virus 2005  McAfee VirusScan  Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5.0  Anti-Spyware Spybot  PestPatrol  Webroot Spy Sweeper

Where to start?

• Too much unwanted email? You have three choices to remedy the problem.
• Create a new email address or two: one for friends and family, and another for everything else. Incorporate numbers into your screen name to make it more complicated to track, and never click on spam even to unsubscribe from it. Also, try not to post your email address anywhere on a publicly accessible Web page.
• Cost? Free.

• Buy an add-on  to your email program to help filter spam. Some good programs are MailFrontier Desktop,  Aladdin Mailshell Spam Catcher Universal,  Symantec AntiSpam,  McAfee Spamkiller  and Stata Labs SAproxy Pro 2.5.  When in doubt about a brand, check to make sure that it is capable of delivering valid email-only detecting and tagging spam services. Also check for programs that do automatic updates and are integrated with an online spam database.
• Cost? $20-$40 initial purchase cost, plus yearly fees for continued protection after the first year.

• Buy an all-in-one email and anti-spam bundle. Mac computers include them as part of Tiger OSX for free, but for Windows you will need MS Outlook  or MS Entourage.  They are both email programs and anti-spam with high-quality filters in one convenient package.
• Cost? $100-$400.

• Is your computer "acting funny," or processing things very slowly? Are there problems opening programs and other unexpected, unremediable issues coming up? Is your computer crashing?
• Anti-virus software  is the way to go because your computer probably has a virus. The longer you ignore it, the worse things will get. You want something versatile, that can handle both virus detection and spyware detection, such as Trend Micro PC-cillin 2007,  Norton Anti-Virus 2007,  McAfee VirusScan  and Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 6.0.  The software should be able to detect intrusions on multiple ports and be easy to use. A programmable scan as well as live updates are usually a common feature on most antivirus software programs.
• Cost? $30-$50 plus yearly fees for continued protection.

• There are all these annoying pop-ups all the time. Your homepage has changed. You get redirected from the Web page you wanted to go to. Your computer may crash or run slower than normal.
• 75% or more of American household computers have spyware on them. Get rid of it with an anti-spyware  program. Some programs are free and can be downloaded from the Web sites lavasoftusa.com and safer-networking.org. You can also try Spybot.  Otherwise there is also PestPatrol  and Webroot Spy Sweeper.  Main features to look for are real-time protection, automatic updates, and the ability to ignore cookies.
• Cost? Around $30.