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Community Newsletter: Q&A: Free vs. paid security software
- 6/8/07 9:43 AM
Bypassing a Windows password
by Double Deuce - 6/2/07 9:44 AM In reply to: system recovery on windows xp pro by azsanderfordBoot in SAFE MODE and see if you can log on as the administrator. If the administrator does not have password you will be able to log on as the administrator and delete the password for that user profile. Once on as the administrator just click on Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> "name of user account" -> change or delete password. At that point it will be self explanatory. Then restart your computer and log onto the user account.
Do it ethically
by dmont - 6/4/07 5:40 AM In reply to: system recovery on windows xp pro by azsanderfordSince this is your dad's computer from work...he should have the password for log on. Your dad should be able to log on and remove the password. If it wasn't his computer but an associates at work have your dad take the laptop back to work and the associate can remove the password.
To everyone who responded with ways to "crack' the password, you may be helping someone socially engineer a way to break into another person's computer. Some times in our efforts to be helpful we forget that there may be an ethical issue we are missing...be careful about help you offer to others.
GNU\Linux an option
by OttifantSir - 6/7/07 4:08 AM In reply to: system recovery on windows xp pro by azsanderfordThe GNU\Linux community says that to install any flavour\distro on a computer and use it, you have to be one of two things: Inexperienced Windows user, meaning you can use the programs, but not good at altering settings. You usually get help for that. Or, you must be a Windows technician. If you fall into the middle group, like me, where you are helping friends out with minor problems, it may not be a good idea to use GNU\Linux.
As with any other program, there are benefits and advantages to using GNU\Linux. You may have to spend a little time getting all your hardware to work, but a forum like LinuxQuestions or UbuntuForums are extremely helpful. Unless you delve deep into the configuration files, you will most likely get an answer within the day. It's also a question of what you want to do with your computer. Some distros are better at some things than others. Personally, I like Ubuntu, but OpenSUSE are a viable option for the not-so-tech-savvy.
The benefits are many. Where Windows (mostly) "just works" when you power on your computer, GNU\Linux needs some learning. However, GNU\Linux are generally more stable (crashes less frequently) than Windows. It's usually less "hungry" for RAM and processing power too. I ran Ubuntu GNU\Linux on a seven year old laptop, which had ONE great benefit over others that were just as old or newer: It had plenty of RAM for its generation. I used this with USB-Wireless, and never used my other computer for anything but storage and time-consuming tasks like converting video files.
Another "advantage" (some may say it's a nuisance) is that you will learn to know your computer better.
If you feel comfortable with Windows, but would like a more stable Operating System, you might want to check out Linspire and Freespire. They are made to look as much like Windows as possible, at the cost of some philosophies of the Free Software Foundation (headed by Richard Stallman).
Unless you simply wish to unlock this Windows version, which may require some cleaning up, I must tell you to seek advice elsewhere. If you want to start from scratch, setting up the computer the way you want to, get a Windows CD somewhere, or borrow a friend's computer and get a GNU\Linux distro. DistroWatch is a good place to start.
Hopefully I have been helpful. If you wish to consult more, contact me at ottifantsir (at) operamail.com
Virus and security software -free or fee?
by kaporter12 - 5/25/07 6:59 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have always purchased this software until recently. I now am using Avast and it is great and free. I read through the web site, read the customer testimonials and gained the confidence to give it a try. You will gain the information you need to make a decision by visiting a few sites and doing reserach. They will tell you how they make money and urge you to upgrade IF you need the added security. I do not. Give it a whirl!
Kevin Porter
Security Suites
by happygirlt - 5/25/07 7:13 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Try the free to try suites until you find one that you really like. That way you have nothing invested until you want to invest in it. The free ones sometimes don't always offer everything on them but you can get a general feel of the program. So save your money for now and invest it in one that you are totally happy with.
Freeware Yes
by beechkomr - 5/25/07 7:13 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have used FREE AVG from Grisoft for years and never have had a problem with virus attacks. The company is constantly improving the program. Recently, I purchased a new computer preloaded with the Security Norton Suite, a free 3 month subscription.. Ha. I immediately unloaded it, and replaced it with AVG. It is working quite well with Vista even. And, yes I am even running FREE Spybot - search and destroy and Ad-ware SE personal for just a long. Thanks to those willing to help the poor and weary.
I do just the same!
by lewist - 6/1/07 11:34 PM In reply to: Freeware Yes by beechkomrHi beechkomr! I use exactly the same software and find it works really well. Additionally there is Housecall which I am trying for the first time in a couple of years because it now runs in Firefox. My sons swear by it as an effective way of keeping their machines clean, without anything else installed. I prefer a belt and braces approach.
Security
by wiguel - 5/25/07 7:15 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
When I first started (Windows 3.?) budget was tight, etc. Bought into the Norton hype and had more problems than I needed to deal with.
Now, after 15+ years I have found that the following do the job quite well:
Spybot & AdAware, both of which have free versions and upgrades
WinPatrol - a little free program that I found on TuDogs. This
program STOPS programs from being installed until you
give permission.
AVG Antivirus
RegScrub - another excellent free program from TuDogs (an alternate
is EasyCleaner
My protocol is to run all, excepting Win Patrol at least once a week or after any particularly long surfing session. Be sure to check for updates each time you run these programs.
Mike, Oregon
AVG
by ellis feigenbaum - 5/25/07 7:18 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use the free version of avg at home, it comes well recommended by cnet.
Most of the companies that supply free anti virus software, generally have a corporate division that sells a similar software to the corporate world and provide the free version as a service to home users.
the free version of avg is slightly stripped down, but to the general homeuser , that sets their anti virus , paid or free to update once a day you will probably not notice much difference.
It scans incoming and outgoing email, has a resident sheild and will scan as often as you set it up to scan.If you happen to hear about a major virus attack during the day, you can always manually update .
For a business enviroment I like the avg stuff as well and in addition i like symantec corporate edition , it doesnt seem to be as bloated as the security suites they sell to home users.
As i see it , the antivrus vendors are trying to be all things to all people, but the downside is they are causing more problems than they solve by overloading the software to cover all bases. It is illogical that a pc would need extra ram to run security software ,but that is in effect what happens. Then because the software slows the pc down people turn it off, therby negating the whole purpose.
Paid Vs. Free Security, or How Much is Peace of Mind Worth?
by nextcase - 5/25/07 7:20 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dear Jasmine H.: I have had experience with paid internet anti-virus programs/suites that caused my computer to crash, requiring a re-install which took nearly three DAYS to bring back to where it was before the crash (Norton SystemWorks). The manufacturer said their program was INCOMPATIBLE with my computer configuration. This after I had used their previous edition without incident. To avoid any lawsuits, they paid me back for ALL of the products I EVER purchased from them. I switched to Grisoft's AVG anti-virus, and used it without incident (it's free), and used ZoneLabs free firewall, with only an occasional required restart, but no hackers to worry about. Then, McAfee came out with their all-inclusive Internet Security Suite, including anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall, and privacy shield. The edition I purchased was FREE after rebate. I also got Computer Associates (CA) version of the same thing, again free after rebate. I found the McAfee MUCH more user friendly, and the McAfee quarantined a Trojan horse, while the CA Suite MISSED IT! If, as I have my current set up here, you use MSN, or AOL, chances are you won't need ANY additional material, free or paid. On the off-chance that those ISP's fail to catch something, a paid, and then FREE AFTER REBATE all-in-one security package lets me sleep like a baby. Staple's and TigerDirect have these on sale now and then, with rebates attached. Oh, yeah...free is GOOD! Good luck to you. Dr. Bernie, aka NextCase.
Free anti-virus is garbage
by Wasn't Me - 6/5/07 8:01 PM In reply to: Paid Vs. Free Security, or How Much is Peace of Mind Worth? by nextcaseI am really skeptical at some of the replies here that don't run any anti virus s/w. I have had situations when running a clean install of Windows (any version) and once connected to the net, I and others have been attacked.
I do agree that the free firewalls are excellent, especially Zone Alarm . The spyware programs are good but you definitely need at least 4.
In my experience, the free anti-virus programs are all garbage. I do a lot of P2P and I get at least 80% of junk mail or spam in my mailbox everyday. The free anti-virus programs have always failed me in detecting malware in real-time .
If you go online to browse common and popular sites and use a web based email account then you will do just fine with a free AV program. If you have people that send you lots of email or have a lot of spam in your email inbox you need a paid anti-virus program, such as Kaspersky, F- Secure or Norton. There are various sites on the net that do reviews of anti-virus programs and rate them including the the number of viruses caught and all the paid ones do substantially better than the freebies. It's really a no brainer which is better in detecting malware.
Bottom line, despite what others say, there is nothing free in life and everything has a price attached to it, at least when it comes to anti-virus software.
Answer for Jasmine H: Are free security products any good?
by Watzman - 5/25/07 7:32 PM In reply to: Free vs. paid security software by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First of all, don’t “Auto-Renew” or renew at all. Even if you have, for example, Norton, and you want to stay with Norton, the best way to do this is to let it expire, uninstall it, then go out and buy a new copy of Norton (or a competitor, if you want to switch) at retail and install it from scratch.
Why? Several reasons:
1. It’s cheaper. These products are often on sale, in fact they are often on sale “FREE” (ok, that usually means “Free after rebate”, but if you the rebate exercise you should get the rebate).
2. You don’t want to give these firms your credit card number. There was an article on this recently, but just about ***ALL**** of these firms, once they get your credit card number, will “auto renew” every year and charge it to your credit card more or less until your credit card expires or hell freezes over, whichever comes first. The permission to do this is buried in the online fine print that you agree to if you renew online. While there are procedures for getting out of this, none of them is easy, and some of them are almost impossible to either find or execute. So the best way is simply never give them a credit card for online signup. [Brian Livingston’s Windows Secrets newsletter (which I highly recommend) for May 17th had an extensive article on this matter; Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee are all guilty, and what they are doing is really unconscionable. See http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/070517/#story1 ]
Now, as to your question: There are a few good free products. The best free AV product is probably Grisoft AVG. They have a paid product as well, and they both try to push you into the paid product and make the free product hard to find, but as of now, it’s still available (there have been rumblings that it might disappear). The free edition is available at http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/crp/0. Do note that this is JUST Anti-Virus, it’s not a “full service suite”, e.g. you will need anti-spyware separately, and optionally a firewall separately if you want one (personally, I don’t recommend using any add-on firewall for most people: they cause as many problems as they solve).
As for anti-spyware, Ad-aware still has a free edition, and Microsoft “Windows Defender” is still free. I find the combination of these two items to be more than adequate.
My own recommendation is as follows:
1. A good Anti-Virus package of your choice. My recommendations are Grisoft, Norton, Kaspersky or Zone Alarm. And, again, if you are patient, you can usually get the PAID products Free, or at least “Free after rebate”.
2. Microsoft Windows Defender and Ad-Aware.
3. The Windows firewall, but nothing further
4. ***VERY IMPORTANT*** ### ALWAYS ### operate from behind a hardware router that does NAT (network address translation ... they all do it). Use a router even if you have no need for additional ports and no plans or need to share your internet connection.
What you gain from the paid products (which, again, might be FREE) are integration, convenience and support (none of the free products have support). But as to the matter of whether or not the free products can do an adequate job, the answer is that yes, SOME of them can.
Regards,
Barry Watzman
Watzman@neo.rr.com
I have to add one more comment to my post ....
by Watzman - 6/1/07 8:41 PM In reply to: Answer for Jasmine H: Are free security products any good? by WatzmanI have to add one more comment to my post; while some people don't like it, IE7 is FAR more secure than IE6, or in SOME ways (but not all ways) than FireFox 2 (which is what I use). In particular, it has by far the best "anti-phising" measures of any current web browser, and that's important because none of any of the other tools do ANYTHING about a "phishing" attack, and falling victim to one of these is one of the most serious things that can happen. A Phishing attack doesn't infect your computer, it makes you (personally) a victim of identity theft, which is actually far more serious.
If you think you don't like IE7, click on the "Tools" menu (right side near the top) and put a check on the "menu bar" item. It makes IE7 a lot more friendly.
Windows Firewall is enough?
by warpete - 6/1/07 10:14 PM In reply to: I have to add one more comment to my post .... by WatzmanAre you really serious--or uninformed? Windows Firewall does absolutely nothing to stop malicious programs from sending your personal info OUT of your PC. It may protect dangerous stuff from getting in--but not from getting out. You need the free ZoneAlarm or any other GOOD firewall to handle this. Personally, I use COMODO Personal Firewall. It's free and protects my PC from any info getting OUT--without my permission.
I understand your point by stick by my comments
by Watzman - 6/2/07 6:56 AM In reply to: Windows Firewall is enough? by warpeteI do understand that the Windows firewall does not do anything regarding outgoing messages. But I stick by my point; I have found, and many others have found, that more sophisticated firewalls cause as many problems for most users as they solve. I personally continue to feel that the Windows firewall and operating behind a hardware router are enough for most people. Of course, it's a personal choice, and if someone wants more, that is there perrogative.
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