Secure your computer in 3 easy steps for free

My computer environment is a mix of Windows and Mac computers. At home I have 4 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 NAS boxes all connected to a WIFI and wired network. Part of that is for work purposes since I also work from home, but that does not lessen the administrative load. From experience I have found that it is best to take preemptive measures to protect the Windows machines as they tend to be the most susceptible to viruses and other malicious attacks. I am in no way a professional network administrator, but from my experience the following suggested software can go along way to helping protect your personal information, secure your computer, and make any size network much easier to manage.

These 3 software applications not only protect your computer but won’t cost you a penny!

The reason I recommend a triple approach to security is that I have not yet found any one application that can do the job as well as all of these applications combined. The closest might be Avast, but why take a chance, go with the triple crown of security below.

Avast, In my opinion this is the best anti-virus program around, so good in fact that I bought the pro version. Avast includes so many advanced features that are lacking from the completion, this alone beats all the others based on that solitary fact and reason enough for me to highly recommend it.

Spybot Search & Destroy, detects and removes spyware, not well covered by common anti-virus applications.

Spyware silently tracks your surfing behavior to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven’t intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been “hijacked” (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware.

OpenDNS is the last layer of protection.

OpenDNS is a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. Our service is free and requires nothing to download.

The safer and smarter part with OpenDNS pertains to the way they protect your network. The OpenDNS system is actively blocking sites that can be dangerous to your network or computer.

The added time saver benefit is if you have a network of computers the benefits can be added at the router rather than at every computer.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

• Setting your Windows account to LIMITED instead of ADMINISTRATIVE can help prevent malicious applications from being installed while your surfing the web.
• Switch to the Firefox browser.
• Enable your browsers pop-up blocker software.
• Update your OS and Software, apply security patches.
• Spysweeper, not free but worth the price for protection.
• Ad-Aware, another anti-spyware application similar to Spybot S&D mentioned above. I use them both, if one is good two is better, I like to say.

All the above suggested applications are for the PC. Mac’s have usually had very little problems with security, viruses, trojans, etc. The only free Mac OS X anti-virus software I have found is ClamXav.

I hope you find this selection useful, if you have any other suggestions or your using one of the above applications I would like to hear your feedback.