Securing Your Computer

Security

Well security is a major concern these days with so many virus attacks on the rise.Here is something about securing your computer I wish it would help
1st thing get a proper anti-virus
Anti-virus is a must these days but which one to choose when so many are there in the market??
answer's here

1] Antivirus

Well after using almost a dozen of antiviruses i found the best 3 in the lot
1)Nod 32 by esset
2)Kaspersky Antivirus
3)Bitdefender
You should know that none of these are free but i think they rock without slowing down your system's performance
Out of the 3 Nod32 is The best and I'm currently using it right now works like a charm.
http://www.eset.com/
You'll get a 30 day trial there.
Among the free antivirus softwares AVG and Avast are good,the free version of mcafee is also impressive
And for all the Norton users : pls get rid of it! Its a thing of the past now(unless u have the latest)...It slows down the system like anything

2]Antispyware

Well most of us think that having an antivirus will make your computer the most secure thing on planet...Well then I guess you are wrong!!!
An antivirus is NOT capable of cleaning spywares/adwares ya those stupid ad windows that keep popping up while you are browsing the net or even not browsing

So which antispyware is the best in the market??
1)Webroot Spy Sweeper
2)PC tools Spyware Doctor
Spysweeper simply rocks with a clean and easy GUI that's the one I am using right now and I'm more than happy!
Free antispywares
Unlike Anti-viruses the free thingies are really good...
1)Lavasoft Ad-aware http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
2)Spybots Search and destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Well this combination will make your PC very secure and yet system will run with no speed differences
Best Combination:Nod32+Webroot Spysweeper

3]Firewall Software

Well If still you feel insecure,have a LAN network where the most deadliest hackers reign and ruin things then firewall is 4 u..
Basically a firewall(software) blocks any suspicious content thats being recieved/sent to/from the computer...A firewall tends to get very irritating for some users as it asks for conformation for even small things like installations!....But thats the price you pay for security...Actually a firewall is also a hardware so please mention it with a suffix hardware or software
The best firewall software I know is Zonealarm (free)but the PRo version is not free
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp
I dont thing there is a huge need for that all you can do is stop sharing in Windows(only if not necessary)
Goto Control Panel>Network and internet connections>Network Connections when you see your connection right click>properties and uncheck File Sharing for windows

Even If you are using Vista antivirus is needed(thanx to microsoft!)....Well nod32 is vista compaitable and very effective...spysweeper also works with Vista

If you are using Linux right now you've just read an article that is almost useless to you(unless you switch to xp again)

For those who can't get hold of the above software don't worry there's a solution...
Use dual booting Linux and Xp
Use Xp for your usual work,games and stuff
Use Linux for internet browsing
(for newbies I suggest UBUNTU linux u can order it 4 free from their website or can download it http://www.ubuntu.com/)

For Linux if you want I can write an article about the whole switching thing if you want.....Anyways hope you liked the article about Securing Your Pc and most importantly I hope it helps you do so....

Thank you
-Abhishek