Click Here For WorkStation Optimizer Instant Access Now!

Simple protection need not be expensive or complex. There exist many free & well-respected products, as well as the ever growing range of commercial brands. Virus protection should be considered essential, and an emerging leader is AVG Anti-virus (www.avg.com), which is available for free and more than adequate for most users needs.

Often overlooked is Anti-spyware software, such as Ad-Aware (www.lavasoft.com). This type of software specializes in finding threats such as personal data gatherers. By combining these two types of software you will have an adequate amount of protection online. Versions of Windows currently available also include a Firewall, which, when properly configured helps prevent hackers from exploiting vulnerabilities in your computer.

Remember that installing the software alone won’t be sufficient. You must regularly run scans and install updates to keep your protection current.

Lastly if you have a wireless internet connection, it is essential you use the latest encryption scheme to prevent outsiders from viewing your online activities. You need to use WPA2 (or Wi-Fi Protected Access) which is still considered secure (ask your installer to do this for you). Remember to keep your computer up-to-date by performing regular Windows updates, and take regular backups of your files. Also consider switching to an alternative internet browser if you use Internet Explorer as it has a long history of security failures. We recommend using Firefox or Opera.

This means that users need to remain ever vigilant to avoid becoming the victim of a potentially very harmful computer virus. It is important for every computer owner to know that not all viruses are the same. Some computer viruses are just annoying, generating popup ads as you browse the web, or increasing the amount of SPAM you receive.

Other types of computer virus, however, can be more dangerous. Some computer viruses can wipe out a hard drive, or steal your personal information and files. To make matters worse, some computer viruses are able to hide in a computer for some time, activating at a future date and doing their damage when triggered by certain events or dates.

Fortunately, computer owners do not have to be at the mercy of computer virus coders. There are a number of measures computer users can take to protect themselves from viruses, Trojan horses, adware, spyware and other malicious code on the internet.

For starters, it is essential that all computer users install a good quality anti virus software program BEFORE their computer is connected to the internet. This is because there are programs that constantly search the internet, looking for computers that are unprotected by virus scanning software. A recent survey by a security organisation found that it takes only minutes for a computer to become infected with viruses and spyware. Installing an anti virus software program is vital to protecting yourself from these malicious programs.

It is also important to update that anti virus software program on a regular basis. In the past, many computer security experts recommended doing updates on a weekly basis, but most agree that weekly updates are no longer sufficient. It is generally best to update the anti virus software you install daily, and to schedule those updates to run automatically. Running the updates automatically will ensure you do not forget to update the software, and running the updates daily will ensure that you are protected against the latest threats.

Most users will want to schedule the updates to their virus scanning software to occur during the night, when they are asleep. Running these updates when the computer is not in use is a good idea for a number of reasons. For one thing, updating the anti virus software when the computer is not in use will ensure that there are no conflicts, and that the program is able to update itself to detect the latest computer virus. Running the updates after hours will also prevent the updates from interfering with web surfing or any other activity. Running a computer virus protection update can sometimes interfere with other software, so it is best to run it automatically, when you do not need the computer for other things.

You can protect your pc against different security threats prowling on the cyberspace by using free tools. The protection these programs offer is quite good. You may wonder why an earth to use so many spyware scanners? The answer to this question is simple. One scanner was not able to detect all threats, so it was appropriate to use several. All these spyware and virus detection and removal tools worked well and did their mission. Spyware Doctor is worth to mention, because it was the only program to detect register files infection. This phenomena reduced the performance of my computer remarkably, if it appeared.

When I bought a new computer, I decided to purchase Norton Internet Security 2009. The brand name was familiar to me previously, because as a Yahoo mail user I happened to know that Yahoo scans all attachments by using Norton Antivirus. So I thought it was a good choice. I have now used  Norton Internet Security 2008 and 2009 over one year. I was able to upgrade to the new version for free. After I started to use the 2009 version, I noticed that it was more user friendly and faster than the 2008 version. Many times when I used the older version I wondered, why I have to do so many clicks in order to get my database updated. Now in this version of 2009 updating is easy and automatic as well as scanning.

The free tools I used before detected several times all kinds of spyware, adware and viruses on my computer. It seemed that there were certain “security holes” in this system through which malware was able to access into the computer. In addition, it took time to scan the computer by using several different scanners. Norton Internet Security 2009 provides more comprehensive protection against all kinds of security threats. It has antivirus, spyware protection, two-way firewall, intrusion prevention, operating system and application protection as well as web site authentication. Based on my experience, I can say that Norton Internet Security 2009 has provided a very good protection and it has kept my computer clean. It has not even detected any serious infections.