Free tools to help protect your PC and Network
Although free tools are often surpassed by commercial tools they are much much better than having no protection at all. Although this is by no means an exhaustive list we would suggest that you look at these. Although we cannot be responsible for your choice of tools these are ones that we use ourselves and have found them to be satisfactory and do the job required. Some of these will be free for personal use but you will be expected to pay for them if you intend to use them within a business environment, others will allow you to test them for a period of time before being required to purchase them.
Staff that use their PCs at home or take data from work to home should also make sure that they are running this level of protection on their home PCs to make sure they do not bring in infections from home.
MOST IMPORTANTLY most of these tools must be updated on a regular basis to ensure they protect against the latest problems. Most infections are spread because people do not keep their level of protection current.
Anti-Virus |
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This is a piece of software or online service that you install to help prevent catching and spreading a computer virus. There are many different manufacturers of these products all of which offer a good level of protection. Things to look for in an antivirus product is one that will automatically update itself to protect against new viruses.
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AVG Free Edition |
www.grisoft.com
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Trend Micro HouseCall (Online Service) |
housecall.trendmicro.com
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Adware |
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Adware is advertising software that is often installed, either knowingly or often unknowingly, whilst installing shareware and freeware. Adware will usually continue to generate advertising, often as pop-ups, even when the user is not running the installed program.
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Ad-aware Standard Edition |
www.lavasoftusa.com
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Firewall |
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A Firewall is a piece of software and/or hardware that sits between your PC/Network and the internet. Its job is to screen the traffic moving across the connection and block unacceptable actions. By blocking such actions it protects your local resources from attacks from the internet.
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Sygate Personal Firewall |
www.sygate.com
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Agnitum Outpost Firewall |
www.agnitum.com
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Spyware and Trojans
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Spyware and trojans are often installed in the same way as adware but their payload can be much more alarming. They may also be installed just by visiting some internet sites. They can monitor your internet activities and report back to a central server often with passwords, personal details and even credit card information. They may redirect you to web-sites often of a dubious nature.
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SpyBot Search and Destroy
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www.safer-networking.org
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Spyware Blaster (Prevents installation) |
www.javacoolsoftware.com
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