Defend your Computer: Part 2 – Antivirus Software

Welcome to the second part of the Defend your Computer Series. Last week, we looked at some of the best free firewalls available to help protect your computer. This time, we will be looking at ways to deal with threats after they have infiltrated your computers defences, and hopefully before they are inadvertently triggered. The best way to deal with viruses which have found their way onto your computer – whether dormant or active – is to use anti-virus software.

Today, we’re going to look at what I believe to be some of the best free anti-virus softwares out there. As mentioned last week, if you are looking for a security solution for a business or corporation, then it is strongly recommended to instead look at reliable paid antivirus packages available, as in addition to typically providing a more comprehensive feature set, and often better detection rates than free software, the free antivirus packages are typically only for personal use.
That said, let us now have a look at the free anti-virus softwares that are available:


2. Antivirus software – Containment and Eradication

I’m sure you are all familiar with the saying “Nothing is perfect”, and as with everything else, the same applies also to firewalls. There will always be an occasional threat which manages to slip past undetected, perhaps disguised in an otherwise benign program or script – just waiting to be executed. So it is vital that we have a way to detect and destroy these dormant viruses before they are triggered, and subsequently infect your PC, and this is precisely what anti-virus programs do. Five of the best free anti-virus programs are given below:



2.1 Microsoft Security Essentials


In regards to ease of use and availability, it’s hard to overlook Microsoft’s own antivirus suite. It has a clean, easy to use interface, and is very user-friendly. In addition to this, it has a relatively high detection rate, and will find most threats that are hiding on your computer. Scan speeds however, are not MSE’s forte, as it possesses one of the slowest scanning speeds of all the free antivirus programs, whilst its detection performance is about average.

MSE’s threat-blocking capabilities are a bit below par also, however if you have a decent firewall, it should take care of that side of things. Microsoft Security essentials can be downloaded from the Microsoft Windows website.



2.2 Avast! Free Antivirus


Avast! free antivirus is easily one of the best free antivirus programs available. It boasts a high detection rate, in addition to featuring an advanced ‘Heuristics engine’ which can allow it to detect previously unknown viruses and malware. It not only manages this, but does so also with one of the lowest levels of false-positives of all the free antivirus suites. On top of this, it also comes packed with a variety of real-time monitoring capabilities such as web, e-mail, IM and Peer-to-peer (P2P) monitoring.

Other features include boot-time scanning – to catch viruses before they load on start up – and a behavioural blocker. On top of all of this, Avast! is very light on system resources, so it won’t glut up your system like some other antivirus software might. If you are interested in trying Avast!, you can download a copy for free from their website.



2.3 Avira AntiVir Personal Edition


Avira AntiVir is another great antivirus program, with what has often been found as the highest detection rate amongst all free antivirus softwares. In the virus detection department, you would be hard pressed to find better free software than this. The downsides however, are that Avira does lack some of the features often seen in other free antivirus bundles, such as web and email scanning (these are however available in the paid version).

For the brief time I tried this antivirus suite, I was forced to endure a constant barrage of large pop-ups prompting me to upgrade to the paid version. Additionally, the interface wasn’t that great either, but that is a minor issue. It completed scans relatively quickly, and I did not have any problems while using it. So overall, it is still a great free antivirus program. If you wish to download it, just visit the Avira AntiVir website.



2.4 AVG Antivirus


AVG Antivirus is another solid contender amongst the best free antivirus programs, providing a wealth of features, including ones that you usually have to pay for, in addition to having a reasonably high detection rate for viruses and malware. Included in these features is AVG’s “Resident Shield” which provides on-access protection from viruses, warning you if you try to open a file which is infected. It is also quite user friendly, and keeps itself up-to-date with automatic updates.

It also comes with a fully-fledged behavioural blocker, providing Identity protection, and that extra layer of protection is always welcome. Some downsides however are that the “Resident Shield” can sometimes chew up a fair amount of system resources, and until recently, the detection rates of this software were not that great. It has picked up on that however, and now offers comparable detection rates to other free antivirus programs. If you want to download AVG Free, just visit their website.



2.5 Comodo Antivirus


Accompanying the Comodo firewall as part of the free Comodo Internet Security suite, we have Comodo Antivirus. Comodo has taken a somewhat different approach to dealing with threats than other antivirus softwares, with their “Defence +” technology assuming that any unknown file is a potential threat, rather than just checking files against a known list of bad files. This effectively means that it won’t ignore any unknown threats, and you will always be warned about the ‘unknown’ status of a file.

This functions similar to AVG’s “Resident Shield” where it warns you upon attempting to open an unknown file. Comodo does tend to have a higher than average incidence of false-positives, however this may be something you might be willing to overlook considering that Comodo does boast one of the best detection rates for new malware, rivalling Avast!’s heuristics engine. All in all, a solid performer, and it works well with the bundled firewall as well (other free antivirus softwares don’t have this). So if you want to download Comodo Free Antivirus, or the Internet Security Suite, then visit Comodo’s website.



Conclusion


Well, that concludes part 2 of the Defend your Computer Series. I hope you found it both informative and helpful. If you wish to comment, ask questions, or request additional content, please feel free to leave a comment below. In the next part of the series, we will have a look at some softwares dedicated to the detection of Spyware and Malware, in “Defend your Computer: Part 3 – Anti-Spyware/Malware Programs”.

Defend Your Computer: Part 1 - Firewalls

Internet use has its risks. Every time you visit a site, or download files from the web, you face the risk of your computer’s security being compromised by a vast array of viruses, spyware and malware. But does that mean we should avoid using the internet? Not by any means – the internet has revolutionised the way information is shared, and how we communicate with our peers, from anywhere in the world.

Instead, what you want to do is make sure that your computer is defended against these types of attacks, and equip yourself with ways to deal with them should they get past your defences. Now, this can potentially be quite expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing, but in the end, it comes down to just how much you value the data stored on your computer.

For businesses and corporations, I would strongly recommend a reliable, robust, paid anti-virus suite; but for the average user, there are a variety of free softwares which will be more than adequate for your needs. In this part, we will explore some of the best free firewall options that are available for your personal use.




1. Firewalls – the first line of defence


An old adage states that “Prevention is the best cure”, and it still holds true even for defending your computer from viruses. Choosing an appropriate firewall can block most intrusion attempts, and make it a lot harder for viruses to be downloaded on your computer. A firewall will block them from establishing an external link, or from opening at all, and thus limit or prevent much of the potential damage they might have caused. Three of the best free firewalls are listed below:



1.1 Windows Firewall

For most users, the default Windows Firewall will be sufficient to protect them and their computer. This can be accessed from the Computer’s control panel (under Windows Firewall). Make sure it is always turned on – a firewall is useless if it is not running! As this comes standard with every version of Windows, this is the simplest option available, and requires no extra installation.



1.2 ZoneAlarm Free Firewall

Boasting a position as one of the first free firewalls for Windows, ZoneAlarm has years of experience under its belt, and has a long history of providing comprehensive and reliable protection. Over the years, this firewall has been refined, and still to this proves to be one of the most robust, reliable firewalls out there. Now, this firewall comes packed with advanced security features, ranging from Identity Theft Protection and Anti-phishing meaures to ZoneAlarm’s DefenceNetTM, which leverages real-time threat data to quickly protect your computer from even the newest of threats.

It monitors both incoming and outgoing activity, and will immediately warn of any suspicious activity that occurs. This coupled with its 5-star rating from CNET establishes this as a very reliable alternative firewall, should you require more protection than what is offered by the basic Windows Firewall. You can download the ZoneAlarm Firewall for free from www.zonealarm.com.



1.3 Comodo Internet Security Firewall

The Comodo free firewall is also considered by many to be one of the best free firewalls available. It comes as a part of the free Comodo Internet Security suite – which I will describe in more detail in the next part. In addition to providing an excellent basic protection – helped by its Default Deny Protection feature – it also comes with a variety of advanced features, such as the ability to ‘lock down’ certain files and registry keys, stopping malware in it’s tracks.

Despite all this, it is still remarkably light on system resources, and this too received a 5-star rating from CNET. You can acquire the Comodo Internet Security Suite and Firewall from their website.



Conclusion

Well, that concludes the first part of the Defend your Computer Series. I hope you found it both informative and helpful. If you wish to comment, ask questions, or request additional content, please feel free to leave a comment below. If you wish to learn more about the free anti-virus software that is available, please check back for the next instalment, “Defend your Computer: Part 2 – Anti-virus Software”, which should be posted sometime in the coming week.

Review: "Photoshop in a Day" by Duncan Wherrett

Having used Adobe Photoshop extensively in the past, whether it be for website graphics, creating promotional material and posters, or even (as the name would suggest) photo editing, I often found myself scouring the internet for hours searching for the tools or methods which would allow me to get the desired effect for whatever graphic I was working on. Quite tedious, I assure you, but I do enjoy creating and editing graphics, so it was something I put up with.

Eventually, I happened to stumble upon Duncan’s e-book, “Photoshop in a Day”. Weighing in at over 600 pages, it sounded like quite a comprehensive Photoshop guide, and it claimed to be able to cater for even an absolute beginner to the software; effectively showing them the ropes and guiding them through detailed guides and examples, to help them in mastering Photoshop. It also promised to include higher-end content geared towards more experienced users also.


Naturally, I found the prospect of having such a complete guide at my fingertips quite enticing, but as always, one should do their homework before making a purchase. Though at only US$27, it wasn’t exactly going to break the bank, and for a 600 page guide and manual, that was surprisingly cheap. Nevertheless, did some research into the book, and found that in fact many people had been using it, and giving it positive reviews. More importantly, I could find no negative reviews (which are far more telling) on the e-book, and with that, I decided to take the plunge and buy it.

As it turns out, it has proven invaluable – in my case, as a reference more than a guide – and having detailed explanations on how to accomplish a wide variety of tasks and effects in Photoshop all in one place greatly cuts down the time wasted searching for them online. Duncan manages to describe all the techniques featured in his e-book in layman’s terms, and despite being a Photoshop veteran, I can appreciate how much effort has gone in to making them easy to understand, and even a beginner I feel would not have much trouble following them.

A 600 page guide might seem daunting at first; how is anyone meant to read through all that in one sitting? Well, while that certainly is an option, the e-book is written in such a way that how you use it is completely up to you. I’d expect most beginners could get away with reading only enough of the book to familiarise them with Photoshop, and then keep it on hand as a reference whenever they need to try something new. I use it this way, and often, I’ll keep it open in a window beside Photoshop so I can refer to it effortlessly while I work. You can also print it out of you wish.

Another big plus for “Photoshop in a Day” is the fact that its author continuously updates it in line with each new release of Photoshop, so even the risk of it falling into redundancy has been dispelled, and another nice consequence of this is that it is very backwards-compatible. On top of that, all the images used in the examples are also provided, so if you wish, you can practice the techniques taught on those images first before applying them to the ones you are working on.

Did I mention the entire e-book is in colour as well? Believe it or not, but this is actually worth a mention, especially considering that many photo editing techniques are heavily colour-related, and being able to see the results alongside the examples really helps you visualise what each technique will achieve, and the pictures complement the content very well – displaying menus, settings and steps needed to achieve the desired effect clearly and in a readily understandable manner.

From Duncan’s website, you can also download a set of sample pages taken straight from the e-book, so you can look at the quality of the content and decide if it’s right for you. In addition to this, he also offers a ‘Money-back Guarantee’, in case you are not satisfied with the purchase. Of course, many sites offer this, and some unscrupulous profiteers will not honour this agreement, bouncing email back and generally being un-contactable. People that do this almost invariably are picked up by protested vocally by their victims; yet to this day, I have not found any complaint regarding Duncan's e-book (feel free to look for yourselves if you wish). So you really have nothing to lose by trying it.

You can buy “Photoshop in a Day” from Duncan’s website, and at only US$27, it comes highly recommended. Hopefully you find it as helpful as I have!

Computer Running Slow? The comprehensive guide to speeding up your PC

Now, I’m sure you all remember the day you first bought your computer; the snappy loading times, quick execution and fresh new OS made it a pleasure to use. As the months roll by, the ravages of time seem to have taken their toll on PC, leaving you wondering just what happened to that lightning fast computer you bought.

The unfortunate reality is that continued use will almost invariably degrade a computer’s performance over time. This is often seen as unavoidable, and once the computer gets too slow many people will simply buy a new one, not realising that beneath all the dust and cobwebs, they may still find plenty of potential just waiting to be unlocked.

So enough talk, lets get down to business and speed up that computer! Firstly, we’ll briefly look at each of the common reasons behind this unwanted slowdown, and then talk about how to address them.

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Contents

Problem 1: Infection with viruses/malware
Problem 2: Accumulation of ‘junk’ on your hard drive
Problem 3: Fragmentation of your hard drive
Problem 4: Startup Programs
Problem 5: Registry Issues
Problem 6: Disk Errors and Disk Cleanup
Problem 7: Visual Effects and fancy graphics
Problem 8: Still no improvement
If all else fails

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Problem 1: Infection with viruses/malware

If your computer becomes infected with viruses or malware, this can easily be the biggest killer of its performance. If your computer is relatively new, then this is quite possibly the cause. To combat this, ensure that you have adequate antivirus protection for your computer, and use a firewall at all times.

The first thing you’ll want to do is purchase or download some antivirus software. Some good free antivirus programs include the AVG, Avira and Avast softwares. Download one of these and run a virus scan. It should detect and remove any viruses on your system. It’s suggested to run the scan a couple of times at least to ensure nothing was missed.

Once you are sure your computer is free of viruses, you can then run a scan for spyware and malware (optional). For this I suggest using Spybot - Search & Destroy. This is a free software dedicated to detecting and removing spyware and malware threats. Again, run the scan a few times to be sure you’ve got everything.

Lastly, make sure you have a firewall enabled. For most users, the Windows default firewall will suffice – you can find this under Control Panel -> Windows Firewall. If you want additional protection however, you can use the free ZoneAlarm firewall.



Problem 2: Accumulation of ‘junk’ on your hard drive

Over the course of using your computer, you’re going to install programs, save files, download content and perform a wide array of other activities on your computer, and all of these are going to take up space on your hard drive. Eventually, as it fills up, every time your computer needs to search for a file, it has to wade through countless thousands of others till it finds it, and this overhead can slow the system down. More importantly however, is that as space becomes scarce, your computer can’t simply save large files in one continuous memory chuck, and must instead break it up over the available space – increasing both read and write times and often drastically impacting system performance.

The solution to this problem is simple – just click on Add or Remove Programs under the Control Panel, browse the list and remove any programs that you don’t need. It should also show you how much space each is using up, to prioritise deleting the largest unnecessary files first. Then, go through commonly used folders such as My Documents – especially My Music, My Pictures and My Videos – and delete any large files you know you won’t need.

The alternative to deletion is to back up said files either on a CD/DVD, Flash Drive, external hard drive or online.



Problem 3: Fragmentation of your hard drive

As mentioned earlier, if there is not a continuous memory chunk large enough to store the file you are downloading/saving, it will be broken up into sections which are stored in different locations. Every time a program wants to access this file, it must first read one part, before then searching for the other part(s) and reading those. This constant searching and finding can increase the time it takes to read a file, thus slowing down your computer.

To counter this problem, it is suggested that you defragment your drive often. Windows comes already with a free defragmentation tool (just right click on My Computer, click Manage, and then click on Disk Defragmenter in the left-hand sidebar under Storage). This alone will be suitable for most people, and can provide a sizeable boost to your computer’s performance. It is recommended however that you clean up any junk or unwanted files on your computer first (see Problem 2).

Other free defragmentation softwares include Auslogics Disk Defrag and Smart Defrag. These will typically run much faster than the default windows defrag software, and often produce better results.



Problem 4: Startup Programs

By now, if you have followed all the above steps, you should hopefully have noticed a considerable improvement in system performance. However, one of the more irritating features that often plagues an ageing computer is incredibly long startup times. The culprit for this is often the growing crowd of programs on your system all competing for system resources at startup. However, many of these programs are ones that you don’t need or want loading when you start your PC.

One way to control what programs run at startup is to run msconfig – to do this, open your start menu, click Run, type in ‘msconfig’ (without quotes), and click enter. This will open the System Configuration Utility, and from here you select the Startup tab, and view a list of all the processes that can run at startup. If the process is ticket, it runs at startup. So now all you need to do is unselect the programs you do not wish to run at startup, and for the most part, you should be able to tell which process corresponds to which program. If you don’t know what a certain process does, either look it up or leave it alone. Once you are done, apply the changes and close the window. If all goes well, your computer should start up a lot faster next time you reboot.

To make the task of managing startup programs easier, there are several software packages to help you. Some free startup management softwares include Autoruns and WinPatrol. For casual users however, Starter by CodeStuff provides a more user-friendly interface.



Problem 5: Registry Issues

Having completed the previous steps, you should be now have noticed a marked improvement in your computers performance. If not, or if you just want to squeeze that little bit of extra speed from your machine, then its time to turn our gaze to the Windows registry. An excellent tool for cleaning up the system registry is CCleaner, which is free to download. It not only cleans and fixes issues with the registry, but can also clean up junk files such as those in your temp folder or cluttering your browser cache. It has other features too, including a startup manager, so it is definitely worth the download.

Before making any changes to the registry, it is strongly recommended that you create a backup of it first, and CCleaner will prompt you to do this before attempting to operate on the registry.



Problem 6: Disk Errors and Disk Cleanup

If you’ve come this far, and still aren’t seeing any sizeable improvement, you’ve probably got errors on your hard disk. You can detect and repair these errors using Microsoft’s Error checking utility. To run this on your hard disk, just open My Computer, right click on the disk you want to error check, click on Properties, and then select the Tools tab. Once there, just click ‘Check Now’ under Error Checking, and let it do its thing. This will usually take a while, especially if the disk is quite full. If there are errors, let it fix them, and then it might be worth repeating the preceding steps if performance is still an issue.

If there are no errors, then click on the General tab, and click on the Disk Cleanup button. This should help free up disk space, and if successful, should result in improved performance of your computer as well.



Problem 7: Visual Effects and fancy graphics

Out of the box, any recent Windows OS will be brimming with eye-candy, whether it be a picturesque desktop image, or the Aero interface of Windows Vista and 7. Many of these features are really not needed, and if you’re still in need of a performance boost, then these unnecessary features can be turned off.

You can do this by right clicking on your desktop, clicking Properties, and then selecting the Appearance, Desktop or Theme tabs. The theme tab will let you select from available themes, and if you are really pressed for performance, the Windows Classic theme will provide the best performance. Under the desktop tab, you can change or remove your desktop wallpaper. While doing this may increase performance slightly, I doubt it will be worth the trouble, but you’re welcome to give it a try. Under the Appearance tab, you will want to click the Effects button, where disabling menu shadows and not showing the contents of windows while moving them can increase performance a bit by eliminating redundant computation.



Problem 8: Still no improvement

Now, if you completed all of the above steps, and your computer is still as slow as a slug, you might want to try one or more of the following:

• Reinstall Windows: Back up the files you want to keep, and completely re-install Windows from scratch. This should theoretically leave your computer in a state similar to when you just bought it, so if its performance doesn’t improve after this, it’s likely a hardware issue.
• Install more RAM: If your computer is running on less than 2GB of RAM, then this is a likely problem for your computer’s slow performance. Simply installing more RAM can improve the speed of your computer dramatically, however make sure you find out how much RAM your OS and processor can support, and don’t exceed this, or else it is wasted. A 32-bit OS will be able to use up to 4GB or RAM; a 64-bit OS, 16GB.
• Overclock your computer: This allows you to squeeze some extra power from your computer’s processor, resulting in faster processing speeds, and consequently a faster computer. However, overclocking can be very tricky if you are not experienced with it, and it’s very possible to irreparably damage your processor by doing this. Do not attempt to overclock your computer without doing plenty research into it beforehand.

If all else fails

If nothing you try from the above list works, then you may have a hardware issue, in which case you can if you choose try to troubleshoot the problem yourself or hire a technician to do it for you. If your computer is older than a few years however, it’s quite likely that it simply isn’t powerful enough to cope with the demands of today’s programs, and your only option may be to bite the bullet and buy a new computer. Thankfully, these days you can get your hands on a decent computer quite cheaply, so you won’t necessarily have to break the bank to afford one.

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I hope that you have found this guide helpful and informative, and if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to get back to you.