PC Security - The Basics
PC Security is an essential part of your home computer, without any security running you leave yourself wide open to viruses, trojans and other mailicious items such as unwanted pop-ups. All Computers today that run from a windows environment should have the bare basics for protection. The bare basics consist of resident anti-virus protection, a firewall that is able to monitor ingoing and outgoing ports, and an anti malware scanner.
Anti Virus Protection
A good virus checker is a must for everyone, some virus checkers are available free for home use whilst others are available for a trial period, after which you must either purchase the product within a certain amount time from when you installed it or delete it from your system. If you are of limited budget then I suggest that you try one of the freely available ones. A good starting point for a free virus checker is Antivir, other free anti virus solutions which also come into this class include Avast Home Edition. If you are going to be looking at fully licensed software then I would seriously consider either Nod32 or kaspersky Antivirus, both are excellent in their job of keeping viruses at bay. Once you have a virus checker installed then the first thing is to check for any further updates to make sure that you have the latest definitions, then after that, I would suggest you keep a regular check for more updates once a week, it is no use having a virus checker that is out of date with the current virus definitions.
PLEASE NOTE - Only ever install one anti-virus application otherwise you will find yourself with software conflicts. For information on what can happen when you install more than one virus checker read here, even though this article is old, the principle effects are the same. The only time you should have more than one virus checker is if you are running an online scan which is perfectly safe and can be done alongside your resident checker
Firewall Protection
A Firewall plays a major part in computer security. It detects and prevents, would be intruders gaining entry to your system. With a firewall you can also configure which programs are allowed to access the internet. On a computer there is 65536 ports, each of which can act as an access point in and out of your computer, the job of the firewall is to monitor and close down unwanted/inactive ports making you invisible or "stealth" on the net. A firewall actively monitors your computer while you are online for security intrusions. Intrusions can be caused by a genuine program wishing to access the internet, if you know the program wanting to access the net is genuine and you are confident it does not put you at risk then you can allow it access, likewise it will stop any incoming attempts from unknown outside sources. Windows XP does come complete with its own firewall but it only has the ability to monitor inbound traffic which leaves trojans free to broadcast out from your machine. The firewall for Windows Vista now monitors traffic in both directions
There are two type of firewall available - Hardware and software. Hardware firewalls mostly come today in the form of routers. As any Hardware and software issues, both have good points and bad points i.e.; a hardware firewall cannot flag you and inform you of repeated attacks, while software firewalls can only run on the computers they are installed on. The best way to configure a small home/office network is by using a hardware firewall complimented by a software firewall on each of the networked linked computers.
Firewalls can be found which are freely available on the internet for home users, a good one to start with is Zone Alarm Free Edition, Other notable free firewalls to watch out for include PC Tools Firewall and Comodo Firewall.
PLEASE NOTE - As with Antivirus applications, only ever install one software firewall on a computer otherwise you will find yourself with software conflicts. The only exception to this is that you may run a software firewall alongside a hardware firewall without problems ie: a router with NAT enabled, complimented with software firewalls on the computers attached to the network
Anti Malware Scanners
Anti malware scanners are for scanning your computer for other malicious files which are not directly classed as a virus or trojan. Some of the most common infections from this department amongst others include Vundo, Smitfraud and purity scan infections. Probably the best tool on the market (without the use of special tools) is Malwarebytes Anti Malware this tool was developed specially by a couple of experts who work on a day to day basis with malware removal and has the full support of other malware analysist and removers in the field who contribute towards this project by submitting new finds to the database as they find them, this ensures that you always have the latest threats covered giving you that extra piece of mind.
