Older computer w/ new high speed internet. What about spyware?

Question

My sis and bil just got high speed internet and will have a two year old computer. They are a little clueless, like me, about how to protect it. They don't want to spend money if they don't have to, so what sites are good to download firewalls, etc. for free? Or what is the best way to go about this?

Answer 1

Here's some ideas to "roll ya own" Internet Security Suite for free. Free is always the best.

1. For your Anti-Virus......(Always use only 1 A-V)

I like the FREE, AOL ActiveVirusShield. Don't let the name AOL scare you. ActiveVirusShield is made by Kaspersky which is one of top-rated anti-virus vendors in the world.

In recent tests, the most popular free anti-virus, AVG, was only able to detect about 82% of a very large sample of viruses. On the other hand, ActiveVirusShield was able to detect better than 99% in the same test.
Full test results are here:
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82&mnu=82

ActiveVirusShield has excellent virus detection rates and is extremely light on using your computer resources.

Updates many times per day to detect new malware.

Free to anyone, AOL member or not from:
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?


2. For your Firewall..........(Always use only 1 firewall)

An excellent free firewall is Comodo Personal Firewall. It can pass firewall "leak tests" that even most of the "paid-for" firewalls cannot pass.

And Comodo has a great support forum. Where the CEO / President of the company might even himself answer your question! Check it out at:
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/


3. For your Anti-Adware and Anti-Spyware needs...............(use 2)

Pick and choose, 2 anti-spywares from the list below and alternate scanning with them on a regular basis. New spywares are created literally hourly, so no single anti-spyware can really detect all malware. Have at least 2 on hand and alternate scanning with each every few days or so. All are free. All can remove as well as detect.

Spybot Search and Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

Ewido:
http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

Adaware SE:
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

A-Squared:
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

SUPERAntiSpyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Unfortunately, many "paid for" anti-spyware products are in fact either of limited usefulness or downright scams. When in doubt, look at the list of rogue anti-spyware solutions listed here:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm


4. And to protect your computer from ever getting infected with spyware in the first place............ (use them both)

SpywareBlaster:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

SiteAdvisor:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Everything here is 100% free!!!!!!

Great luck!

Answer 2

Get at least basic virus prevention. There are several good free ones for home users.
http://avgantivirus.com/ has a free one and the internet suite is not very expensive -- lot less expensive than the cleanup should you get hit.
The windows firewall should be the minimum requirement for a firewall.. By the way the average is 30 minutes from connection to attempted hack for broadband connections.

Answer 3

As long as your computer has an Ethernet card, you can receive high speed internet. However depending on your OS it may be harder to get it working. Your ISP should send you a disc, which you should use to get things working if your running anything before Windows XP.

Answer 4

well i am going to tell you my personal experience i just bought a linksys router with a built in firewall and on my actual computer i just turned on the basic windows one and then thats it. i have roadrunner and i have never goten a virus.

Answer 5

Try searching different types of things which have to do with firewalls for FREE at http://www.download.com/

hopefully it works