Software Programs For Internet Safety

With so many computers in the home, office, and public places, the number of people accessing the internet has grown at an astounding rate. Unfortunately, this has resulted in more criminal behavior such as an increased risk of Worms, Viruses, Malaware, Trojans, Hackers, and people trying to steal other users' personal and financial information. Fortunately, companies have responded to these security threats by creating software to protect users while they are connected to the internet.

Norton 360 version 3.0 Premier Edition: The "360" in the name of this product indicates the packages all-around protection, with software that contains such technologies as Antivirus, Botnet Protection, Norton Safe Web, Network Protection, Automated Backup & Restore, Norton™ Insight, Antispyware, Norton™ Identity Safe, Firewall Protection, PC Tuneup, Norton™ Browser Protection, and Norton™ Pulse Updates. The tune-up service is great for automatically protecting your system.

McAfee Internet Security 2009: While installation and support may be a bit challenging, this program improves on its predecessor in terms of being lightweight and robust. McAfee contains Antivirus and Antispyware Protection, Web Site Safety Ratings, Antiphishing, Shredder, Identity Protection, Parental Controls, and Data Backup.

Panda Internet Security 2010: Useful features are quickly being added to Panda with improvements year over year. Panda protects users from viruses, spyware, rootkits, hackers, online fraud, identity theft and all other Internet threats. There is also an Antispam engine, Personal firewall, back up data, and parental controls.

Webroot® Internet Security Essentials: Webroot includes Antispyware protection, Antivirus, Antihacker, Antidata Theft, automatic backup, privacy protection, email monitoring, global early response network, and protects up to 3 PCs.

Security Shield 2009: Security Shield includes Antiphishing, Antivirus & Antispyware, Firewall & Rootkit Detection, Parental Control, Spam Protection, Privacy Protection, and Family Network Protection.

Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009: Trend includes Antivirus, Antispyware, Antispam, Firewall, Identity Theft Protection, Web Site Authentication, Advanced Wireless Protection, PC Performance and Tune-ups, and 3 for 1 protection.

BitDefender Total Security 2009: BitDefender provides protection against viruses, spyware, hackers, spam and other e-threats. It also protects against new virus outbreaks and blocks attempted identity theft. It also has Instant Messaging encryption.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security: Includes Firewall, Antivirus, Antispyware, Other Security/Features, Firewall, specific tools for preventing identity, and Help/Support.

AVG Internet Security: AVG provides a Firewall, Antivirus, Antispyware, and Email support.

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009: CA includes Antivirus, Antispyware, Personal Firewall, Antispam, Antiphishing, Parental Controls, and CA Backup and Migration.

Kaspersky Internet Security: Kaspersky is an all-in-one tool that will help you keep your computer safe while surfing the internet. It provides features such as a virus scanner, firewall, popup blocker, email scanner, the ability to protect your computer registry, and a rootkit scanner.

Your home and office computers contain a huge amount of information about you and your loved ones. This can include tax returns, financial records, bank and credit card account numbers, family photos, and much more. You would not want any this important information to be captured by online criminals or get destroyed if your computer is infected with a virus. Anyone who uses a computer and logs on to the internet is vulnerable to attack. High quality Internet security software is critical for a computer and it is the first application that you should install on a computer. In order to protect your identity and personal and financial information, it is essential to have good security software installed.

Designers will prefer Macromedia and look for cheap Adobe software for their computers. Business professionals likely look for Microsoft software for managing and operating basic business functions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amy_Nutt

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PC Protection Guide - Best Free Firewall

Firewall is software that monitors the ingoing and outgoing traffic from your PC. It's a crucial component in protecting you from online threats. People usually installed anti-virus, anti-spyware but often they forgot to install it.

In my opinion, it is a slightly advance protection software and can cause some headache for those who don't know anything about computer. I would suggest you to read a few things about this software first before actually using it. It's because you're going to need to know about the processes going in or out from your PC.

In this article, I will share with you two best free firewalls available on the internet for you to download. The first software is Comodo Firewall Pro.

I use it personally and to be honest, I like it. But you need some knowledge on which processes to allow access and which to deny and if you don't have the necessary knowledge, you might allow the malicious process access into your PC.

If you would like to know which process is malicious, you can do so by searching it on Google. This way, if the process is malicious, you will know about it immediately and then you can deny the access.

The next software is ZoneAlarm. I didn't use it because I already use the Comodo Firewall Pro. I don't think you need two firewalls in one PC. Even though I didn't use this software, it actually gets good reviews among the PC users.

In fact, in order for you to know if your firewall is reliable or not, you can download simple software that will test it. It's called the Leaktest and don't worry about this software because it's not malicious and it's safe. I used it previously to test mine and it passed.

Surprisingly, there are few firewalls out there that didn't pass this LeakTest. So, test your firewall first after installing it to make sure it's good enough to block any access into and going out your PC.

But, having the best firewall in the world is no use if you don't know how to use it. So, learn more and apply it.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips - http://www.chuangcomputer.com/blog - Online threats have become a major computer security issue. Would you like to know the secret of securing your PC from dangerous spyware, adware, and malware programs that can ruin your PC, your finances, and your sanity?!! Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/5day/ for more info.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Azwan_Asmat

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How to Open Firewall Ports

Ports are communication channels for computers and networks. Certain applications that run over or connect to the Internet require the use of certain ports. Firewalls block the use of many ports because they can be like open doors, which viruses and hackers use to gain control of your computer. However, if you have an application that needs to use a port that the firewall has blocked, you can go into firewall and open that port. Following these instructions will allow you to open a port in the Windows Firewall and give you guidance for other firewalls.

Step 1

Go to the control panel and click on "Windows Firewall." If you are using another firewall application, open that application from the Programs menu. If you are running Microsoft Firewall, you will have to work with both applications.

Step 2

Verify the status of the firewall. The first pane that comes up is the general tab and it should indicate whether the firewall is on or not. If the Firewall is not on, chose the "on" option and click "OK."

Step 3

Open the Firewall application. Go to the "Exceptions" tab and choose "Add Port." Give the port opening a name. Type in the port number you want to open, then choose either "TCP" or "UDP." In most cases you will select TCP. UDP is used for connectionless networking that doesn't require an initial connection to send information.

Sources : http://www.ehow.com

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