You,Not,Have,Pay,For,Anti-Viru DIY You Do Not Have To Pay For Anti-Virus Protection

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0in;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0in;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} When we begin our computer journey and jump aboard theinternet we are told we need to buy anti-virus security software. Often a trialprogram will be packaged with your new computer that is set to expire a shorttime later. Then the program will ask for payment to keep you protected. Themost common two programs that come preinstalled on new computers are: Nortonand McAfee. While both of these programs are well respected by many users theyare also quite pricey.  There is no doubt that you need antivirus software on yourcomputer, but there are some effective products out there completely free thatcompare to those high priced programs. Yes, you read that right. Free antivirussoftware products that are just as superior as the expensive well known brands. As the internet evolves and so will the types of threats. Thereare now more problems and ways to infect your computer than ever. This is atrend likely to continue. Our job as an internet user is to become familiar withcommon threat types and keep our computer systems protected from them.  There are many types of security issues. These problems can comein many flavors and change rapidly so including them in this editorial would provepointless. In a short time from now the threats could be much different thanthey are today. Trying to keep up with those details would be a full time job. Notto worry, we do not need to be security experts to stay safe.  There are some common wide based categories that mostthreats fall under. Knowing this we can learn how to protect ourselves fromeach category rather than each threat individually.  The most common areas that need to be addressesare as follows: Microsoft vulnerabilitiesThese are exploits to the code inside your Windows, IE browserand Office products. The way to keep these risks to a minimum is by keeping yourWindows up to date using the Windows update service. I keep my Windows updateson automatic and they are downloaded and installed as released. This is free toWindows owners and can be found in your control panel. VirusesThese come in many types. From worms to trojans they cancause huge problems on the users system. This is where free antivirus softwarecan keep you protected. At the time of this writing, AVG, AVIRA and AVAST arethree of the top place award winners for free antivirus software. I have usedall three and settled with Avast as my protection software of choice. I alsotrust it enough to install it on the computers I assemble for clients. Spyware and MalwareItems that fall into this category can vary from - chaoticas viruses or simple tracking cookies from an advertiser wanting to see whereyou came from or where you left to. These buggers can sneak in from website graphicsand invisible code often with no warning at all. While Avast is one of thebetter anti-virus programs to also guard from spyware, it is not truly the software’spurpose.  Again there are free choices for spyware protection thatwork just as well as the high priced alternatives! One feature that is harderto get in the free spyware software is “real time protection”. I use SpywareTerminator which does offer real time protection and seems to be doing a greatjob on my Vista work machine. You can do a search for “free spyware protection”and look for review sites that evaluate several different programs available tochoose from. A frequent trick used by many *not so nice* softwarecompanies is to force a pop up that looks like a System Message announcing the user’scomputer  is infected by a virus. The boxoffers only one button, a link to remove the infection. This is actually a linkthat leads the clicker to a website that cleverly requests payment to solve theproblem. Many times there is no virus other than the one asking you to pay toremove it!  With all these free protection tools available for personaluse it is frustrating to see so many people who are lead to believe that theymust pay for safety. We may not be able to stop viruses and other maliciouscodes on the internet but we can do our part to protect ourselves and thanks toa few great companies out there, we can do it for free.