About PC Protection Software

You can never achieve 100% protection against all the computer “nasties”. There are just too many ways your system can be compromised. However, you can achieve reasonable protection and still have a computer which performs well. Here are our current recommendations for computer protection.

Stay Up-to-Date

At the very least, keep whatever you currently have, up-to-date. That goes for the Operating System, as well as any Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Adware, etc., that you currently use. If you have Windows XP or Vista, you probably have “Automatic Updates” turned on. You can check that in Windows XP by going to Control Panel and clicking on Security Center and then note the setting for Automatic Updates. If it’s turned off, look at the bottom of the window for an Automatic Updates icon and click it. Here you can configure Automatic Updates to work the way you want it to.

Check each of your Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware etc., programs to see if they are set to automatically update. Usually you can right click the programs icon in the Notification Area (normally in the lower right corner) and make an appropriate choice from the menu that pops up.

You might also want to consider moving to a next-generation operating system. For Windows XP users that means either Vista, or the soon to be released Windows 7. Either way, you will have an OS that is built to better handle some forms of attack.

After you’ve updated what you have, you may want to reconsider whether what you have could be improved upon. Some anti-malware programs consume more of a computers resources than others; noticeably slowing its performance. Some are focused on detecting or removing only certain types of malware. It’s important to assess what you have, and decide if it should be improved or not.

Types of Malicious Software

There are several classifications of malicious software. Originally there was the virus, which got it’s name because of the way it makes copies of itself and sends them to places far and wide. It might attach copies of itself to all your document files, or it might search out other computers on a network and copy itself to them.

Later came a different type of intruder, called the Trojan Horse. Trojans pretend to be one thing, when in reality they are something else. A good example is a malicious program that pretends to be Anti-Virus software, but when run, puts some form of spyware on your computer.

Spyware is another type altogether. This is software designed to capture information about you, such as your credit card number, or your bank account information, and send that information to others.

Types of Protective Software

We believe that, in general, various anti-malware products are designed to excel at catching certain types of malicious software – such as viruses, or spyware, or adware. A program designed to catch viruses may offer protection against some other types of malware (malicious software), but it is generally not as good at catching spyware as a program designed for that job. And there are products which try to be all things to all people, claiming to catch all the common types of malware. Definitely, the lines are getting blurred.

Anti-Malware programs seem to fall into three categories. First, there is the “scanner” type. They are work “on-demand”, which means they only protect you when you invoke them or schedule them to run. The second category includes this scanning functionality as well, but includes “real-time” protection, in which the program actively examines files as you open them or download them – acting like a bouncer at the door.  A third type is the online scanner. These require Internet access. Everything happens through your browser and some sort of plugin or added software which then scans your computer for malware. These come in handy for the times when you are infected and the malware is actively blocking the installation or execution of your PC based protective software.

Overkill

Some people go to great lengths to protect themselves. They may install multiple types of protective software, thinking that “more is better”. The fact is, no matter how many protective programs you install, you can never achieve 100% protection -  unless you just don’t use a computer. What usually happens, is these well meaning folks end up with a different problem. They now have redundant software which competes for the computers resources, bogging it down, and competing with each other when an infection is detected, sometimes to the point of missing the infection entirely as these programs step over each other trying to do their jobs. Imagine two or three bouncers intent on being the one to kick out an unwanted intruder – each one feeling it is his responsibility alone and neither one communicating with the other… well, you get the picture. Sometimes the intruder slips by these bouncers as they fight with each other. You need to avoid that. You should always have at least one protection program that has real-time protection. We feel the optimal number with real-time protection enabled is no more than two!

Be careful that the programs you choose to protect you, don’t also tax your computer to the point of making it unusable. Instead of choosing a program which tries to “do it all” and as a result, is so large and sluggish that it takes most of your computers processing power, we recommend going with programs which are designed to do one job well, with a little overlap in functionality. Programs of this type tend to be faster and therefore do not tax your computer as much. Of course, how well they run greatly depends on how well they were built, and how fast your computer is.  The important thing to remember is – don’t use more protection than necessary.

Testing

We spent two months testing a combination of products to see if there was a mix that performed better than another. We created a test environment and loaded it up with all kinds of viruses, spyware, trojans, and rootkits. It was a real hodge-podge of bad stuff. We were not able to test every protective product out there, but we can say that we tested a lot of them, and in the end, we found what we were looking for! Two programs that are both fast, that play well together, are good at what they do, and have some overlap in functionality. So, without further ado…

Our Recommendation For Anti-Virus protection:  NOD32 Antivirus version 4 from ESET

Our current recommendation for Antivirus protection is a product called NOD32 Antivirus, from a company called ESET. NOD32 doesn’t have a catchy name but it is just about everything one could want in an Antivirus program. It’s light and fast, so it doesn’t slow down your computer. It offers real-time protection, which means it checks your email attachments before you open them, as well as that file you just downloaded. If you visit a web page that tries to inject some known malicious software into your system, real-time protection will stop it before it gets started.

ESET provides regular updates that are installed automatically. You don’t have to worry about whether you are up-to-date or not. For those who like to tinker, NOD32 has plenty of advanced configuration options, but most people can leave the settings as they are. Just let NOD32 do it’s job. Do you have a flash drive? NOD32 will scan that for malware as well. NOD32 will even tell you when Windows needs updating by changing the color of it’s icon in the notification area from green to gold. NOD32 can protect itself from corruption as well. ESET has built a very nice piece of protective software.

They also have a security suite called Smart Security 4, which includes a 2-way Firewall, Email Spam Filtering and other features. ESET’s products are purchased as a subscription, either one year, or two years. At the end of the subscription term, the software will continue to work as before, but you will not be able to update it unless you purchase another subscription.

For us, the icing on the cake is how well NOD32 Antivirus works with our next recommendation…

Note: See the Disclaimer a the bottom of this page.

Our Recommendation For Malware Removal/Protection:   Anti-Malware from Malwarebytes

Anti-Malware, from Malwarebytes.org,  is another quick and light program which is well built. It does it’s job so well, you’ll forget it’s running. We have been running NOD32 and Anti-Malware side-by-side for the past 4 months on Windows Vista, without conflict. There is some overlap in functionality with NOD32, but again, I have not seen these two step on each other when trying to do their jobs. Updates to Anti-Malware can be scheduled to occur at regular intervals, keeping you up-to-date without worry. The “paid” version, Anti-Malware Pro,  has real-time protection and an IP blocking feature that prevents you from accessing known malicious sites. In our tests, the combination of NOD32 and Anti-Malware performed the best as far as the total number of infections removed and in being able to do their respective jobs without conflict. I have no problems recommending these two be installed on the same computer system. Anti-Malware is not subscription based. You pay for it once, and it’s yours. Updates are free as always and they are constantly improving the product.

Someone to watch over you

I mentioned the IP blocking feature in Anti-Malware – which is really a method of blacklisting known malicious sites. There are two additional methods of blacklisting which you can use, and one of them requires no effort from your computer.

OpenDNS

Anytime you enter an address (also known as a URL) in your browser, that address must be translated into an IP address. IP addresses are the real addressing scheme that makes the web run. To accomplish that translation, your computer or Internet router must know the address of a Domain Name Server that it can send the address to for translation. Any reachable Domain Name Server will do. Now suppose your DNS servers did more than translate? Suppose they also maintained a list of malicious websites and actively blocked you from them? That’s where OpenDNS.com comes in. They provide the usual translation services that other DNS servers do, but they also maintain a database – a blacklist if you prefer – of malicious sites that may do you harm. If you inadvertently click on a link to one of these blacklisted sites, OpenDNS will alert you to the fact by redirecting you to a safe page on their website. Very cool! If that isn’t enough, if you mistype Google.com as Google.co, OpenDNS will correct the misspelling for you and send you on to Google.com. If you make a major typo, or enter a non-existent address, you will be directed to an OpenDNS page of text ads which looks an awful lot like a normal Google web page. The ads are how OpenDNS make money. Not a bad trade off really considering the extra protection they provide you, with no effort on your computers part. Interested? Here’s how to change your current DNS server addresses to OpenDNS addresses.

Note: This example is specific to the AT&T 2Wire Internet router.  The basic idea can be applied to your router.

Use your browser and go to http://www.opendns.com

On the initial screen you will see the ip addresses for OpenDNS.com DNS servers

In my case, they are:   208.67.222.222  and  208.67.222.220

Note: It may be different for your area, I do not know. But record whatever is on their homepage, or use the ones I listed above.

Obtain the Administrators password for your Internet Router

Access the routers configuration screens by doing the following…

Open a Command Prompt Window
Type:     ipconfig     (press Enter)
You will see some entries scroll by, look for the first one – it will look similar (but not the same) to the information below…

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : gateway.2wire.net

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe72::1096:6784:adfc:844%11
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.87
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254

You want to record the Default Gateway ip address for the Router, which, in the last line shown above is:  192.168.1.254

Open another browser window and remove whatever Internet address is showing.

Now enter the Default Gateway ip address. Press enter.

You should see the opening screen of your Routers configuration pages.

For the AT&T 2Wire Router, look along the top row for the “Broadband Link” icon and click it.

Then click “Advanced Settings”

You will probably be asked for the Administrators password. Enter that.

Somewhere on the next page, look for “Broadband DNS” or similar.

Look for “Manually configure your DNS information”. Click that.

You will see two fields where you can enter alternative ip addresses.

Enter the OpenDNS.com ip addresses you recorded earlier or use these…

208.67.222.222
208.67.222.220

Click SAVE amd close your browser. You’re done!

You should now be able to browse the Internet with an added layer of protection between you and the bad guys!

Gimme a Visual

While OpendDNS works “behind the scenes” to block the bad guys, having a visual warning before clicking on a link can be reassuring.  Imagine going to Google, entering your search key words, and getting back a page that has the bad sites marked with a warning symbol. There are many programs/services that can do this and the one we are recommending is called “Web of Trust”.

Web of Trust is a browser plugin that you add to your browser. It then communicates with it’s own database of blacklisted malicious websites, and will place a colored warning circle beside the links that appear in your browser as you surf the net. A green circle means safe, yellow is caution, and red means “don’t go there”. There are different categories that WOT monitors, such as “child safety”, “trustworthiness” and “privacy”.

The sites are ranked by other Web of Trust users.  As such, a word of caution is in order. You may come across sites which you know to be safe from past experience, but may be marked otherwise. Because the blacklist database is community generated, you will occasionally come across a site that may not deserve it’s WOT designation. That could be because of a bad experience a few users had with that site, and the users decided to retaliate by giving them a “caution” designation.

You can visit Web of trust at this link:  http://www.mywot.com

Protection for Free

If cost is an issue. here are some free alternatives which perform well and do not slow down your computer.

Malwarebytes.org “Anti-Malware” program. This version of “Anti-Malware” is free, however it does not have real-time protection. In other words, if you click on something malicious, it will do nothing to stop the intruder. It only works when you tell it to perform a scan.You can buy the Pro version for around $25.00 which oes have real-time protection. That’s a one-time price and includes all the updates. I highly recommend it. And if Malwarebytes ever approves me as an Affiliate, I will have the option for you to purchase it at a discount on the website. Until then, I continue to recommend it because it’s that good at removing malicious software.

ESET Online Virus Scan – (requires Internet access) This is a free Internet bsed scanner, which can come in handy when you have one of those nasty trojans that blocks the installation of your other AV programs. This is a scanner only. Once it has finished it’s scan, it is terminated.

ESET NOD32 AntiVirus version 4 - This is a free 30 day trial version of what is in my opinion, the best Anti-Virus product currently available. It has real-time protection. If I could only have one Anti-Malware/Anti-Virus product, this would be it. See the Disclaimer a the bottom of this page.

Avira Antivir Personal Edition – For those who want a free Anti-Virus program that doesn’t  use a lot of computer resources, Avira AntiVir is a great choice. It has real-time protection. It also has some nagging pop-up reminders to encourage you to purchase the product. They can be removed by following the instructions here.

Avast Home Edition – Honestly, my only experience with Avast was during those few months of testing various products against my malware infested virtual “test” machine. Despite it’s quirky interface, it performed well. It has real-time protection and I liked that it could be set to perform a scan at the beginning of the next bootup. That comes in handy for removing really nasty malware before it gets a chance to load. In evaluations that I’ve seen, it seems to be a bit ahead of Avira AntiVir, but not by much. If you can get accustomed to the interface, it’s a nice free product. I personally preferred AntiVirs’ interface.

Microsoft Security Essentials – Microsoft just recently released this free AntiVirus program and it’s getting good press for removing malware and not slowing your computer down. It has real-time protection.

OpenDNS – OpenDNS is a free service that focuses on blocking access to “phishing” sites and other malicious sites.

Web of Trust is a free plugin for your browser that will indicate possible malicious websites in your search engine results.

Wrapping it up

Those are our recommendations. If you follow them, you will have a protection system that doesn’t slow down your computer excessively, offers two real-time protective programs which focus on different types of malware, yet have some overlap and play nice with each other. You’ll also have three methods that block or alert you to potential malicious websites. Implementing these programs and services will not make you bullet proof however. That doesn’t exist. But you will be reasonably well protected. You still need to be careful of what you click on and where you visit on the Internet.

Some people will look at our recommendations and say we don’t go far enough. We won’t argue with that. There always seems to be “something else” that can be done when trying to protect your computer.  But if you couple our suggestions with your own common sense in avoiding risky Internet behavior, you’ll have a system that offers reasonable protection and isn’t burdened by too many tasks. You may actually enjoy your computer again.

Disclaimer: I am an Affiliate with ESET because I beleive in the product. Even if I were not, I would still recommend this program to anyone who wants a top-flight AntiVirus program.If you want to purchase NOD32 Antivirus 4 and save 25%, you can click the banner ad in the right column of this webpage. And if you do, thank you very much for your purchase!