This morning our friends at the wonderful First Friday (networking and skills share) asked my opinion on this article at the Guardian: “Can you protect your computer for free?”
To which I replied “Yes…
…but no.”
Anti-virus
For the simple, no-nonsense, reasonably confident user, the free solutions can be fine.
AVG free or Microsoft Security Essentials both work well. They won’t update as fast as their commercial alternatives but they will keep granny safe.
But what if your PC isn’t for granny? If your children use your PC, they *will* click on things they shouldn’t.
If you use your PC for business, you have a lot more to lose. You need some extra protection. Besides, most of the free licenses exclude business use.
Firewall
The Windows firewall is ok for keeping things out, but really you need to keep things in, too. If you do have some kind of malware infection, you need your firewall to prevent it talking to the outside world.
Which is where things get complicated. There are great firewalls like ZoneAlarm and Comodo, but they start adding extra levels of complexity and therefore confusion.
There are 4 kinds of firewall users in this world:
70% click on “allow” every time a message announcing a new application appears – this makes the firewall pointless
20% click on “deny” for every message – this tends to break most things on your PC eventually
5% like to think they know what they’re doing and most of the time they do
5% really do know what they’re doing
By the way, these percentages are in no way accurate.
Sometimes spending a little money saves a lot of headaches.
Our preferred solution
…is Eset Smart Security.
It has minimal impact on your system, unlike some of its bloated competitors.
It consistenly passes every test thrown at it and has the awards to prove it.
It has a rather nifty, intelligent firewall that does all the hard work without disturbing you.
It’s excellent value for money.
So, please, take a look at Eset Smart Security.
But if you buy nothing else
Take a look at Malwarebytes’ Anti-malware – the free version is great for cleaning up infections. The full version is even better at preventing them. Especially the rather excellent way in which it blocks your PC from talking to undesirable IP addresses.
At less than £20 it’s worth every single penny and a few more.
Want to know more?
Then those very same wonderful people at First Friday can help again. They have asked me to speak at their next meeting: ‘Back-bedroom or Back-office? Big IT for Small Budgets’ on 1st October. Why not come along – meet some new business contacts as well as meeting me, who could want for more?
Special rules regarding comments on this post
Anyone who comments that the best way to avoid malware infections is to “buy a Mac” or “use Linux” will be hunted down and slapped. Your time will come.
A Microsoft Certified Professional with many years of large corporate experience and training, he now focuses on helping small businesses make the most of their IT.
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