August 1, 2008

Seems like lately, I've had a lot of discussions regarding software protecting against viruses, spyware, and adware, so I'd like to share my views on this subject.

First of all, I feel it is mandatory that everyone have an antivirus  program installed on their system.  As in past discussions, I've talked about AVG Antivirus, which is free, and I've been using for myself and customers for three years now with no virus problems encountered.  If it's free, why pay for it?

Security suites are a thorn in my side.  Whether we are talking about a brand new computer or an older computer, these programs significantly slow down computers, and many times, cause problems with other programs or aggravating problems trying to network computers together.

From my 20+ years of computer experience, I've never myself, nor any of my prudent customers had any viruses, spyware, or adware problems.  Why, well the answer's simple.  No software can protect you 100% against anything.  If you just click on any link in an email or on web sites, open any email attachment, or respond to get rich quick schemes, you're going to have problems.

You should always look at the email subject and who it's from before you open any email.  If the email has no subject, just delete it.  If an email looks suspicious, just delete it.  Banks, credit card companies, etc. never ask you for any passwords, personal data, etc.  Even if an email looks legit, use you noodle before giving any information or clicking on links or attachments.

If you are careful in your surfing habits and watch emails, etc., you won't have any problems.  I'm not saying you shouldn't have any programs to check for spyware or adware, just use programs which aren't running all the time in the system tray.  You can manually run a scan if you want to.

Every program running in the system tray uses system resources and takes time to startup when you start the computer.  I've seen a lot of side effects with the major suites like Norton Internet Security, MacAfee, etc.  I've had several cases lately with brand new computers having issues, when all we did to correct them was to uninstall the security suites, which also increased the speed of the computers.

You don't always have to spend money to get results.  Also, particularly with the major software manufacturers, you better watch out when you subscribe to a new subscription of definition updates.  Most of the companies will automatically charge your card when a new subscription is due without asking you.