Internet security advice

[snakehips]

Can anybody help a novice computer user?

I've been reading some of the advice on this great site but I'm still not sure what to do. I had Mcafee already installed when I bought the computer but the 'free trial' has run out.

Do you recommend buying something new or downloading something free? A lot of people have mentioned AVG, Bazooka, Spybot and Zone alarm to name a few.

Which will give me a relatively trouble free/maintainance free/worry free life?

Or is this asking too much?!

Any advice greatly appreciated

SH

[Mattk]

i use sygate firewall (free download) and avg anti-virus(free download)

both are trouble free and excellent products in my experience.zone alarm is also an excellent firewall but clashed with my xbox live and wouldnt work hence i switched to (the slightly better) sygate

[BillyNoMates]

Never looked at any free firewalls as I have a purchased one - Black Ice.

There are plenty of good free Anti-virus and Anti-spyware products. For Anti-virus AVG Free Edition is good as is Grisoft Avast.

For Spyware there is CCleaner, Microsoft Antispyware, Adaware, Spybot. I use all of these with no problems. Seems to keep my PC clean. Most important thing is to keep them up to date and use them regularly.

[fo3nix]

Yes, both of the above are good.

I use zonealarm for my firewall, and panda titanium for my antivirus. the latter can be found here:

http://www.scan.co.uk

and its something like �4 (not inc. p&p), and comes with a year's free subscription. I find it to be a lot better than norton: doesnt slow my system down as much, really does work in the background, and has more regular updates.

[jock]

Or buy a mac.

[fo3nix]

no, buying a mac is not a sure-fire way to be secure on the web (regardless of what a lot of people think).

true, they are more secure than wintel boxes. for one they are generally more secure as they tend to have fewer bugs than windows does (but not as few as some may think). secondly, and rather majorly, more virii creators etc. target wintel boxes as this is what the majority of people use. targeting macs would be less effective due to the smaller numbers using them, and they want to be as effective as possible.

if you own a mac, you'd be a fool to be on the internet with no antivirus or firewall.

[redmug100]

The best advice is to back up all your important data and downloaded programmes in a place that is not c drive. This means that you can do a clean install of your opperating system if you ever need to.

[snakehips]

Dear Mattk

Thanks for the advice. I downloaded AVG then Sygate Firewall ok but have had access problems eg. can't access hotmail, can't delete yahoo emails to name but a few. Could this be the virus scan or the firewall?

What can I do to 'get back to normal'? I've checked out the Forum sites but I they are far too technical for me.

Can you or anybody help?

Snakehips