Why Is An Anti-virus Solution Important?

A computer virus can totally ruin a computer or network of computers but it depends on what the virus was designed to do. A virus can erase your entire hard drive just for malicious purposes or it can get into your email contacts list and send an email to everyone on that list and make it look like you sent it. For all intents and purposes, viruses are bad and you need protection in the form of an Anti-virus programme.

Which Is The Best Anti-virus Programme?

Anti-virus programmes come in various forms and some are better than others. With all the threats coming from the Internet these days, it is more common to have a package that delivers multiple functions which include:

• Anti-virus protection
• Anti-malware / spyware protection
• Firewall protection
• Anti-spam protection
• Parental Controls to prevent children from viewing inappropriate websites.

You can still buy stand alone anti-virus packages or even some free anti-virus programmes but we highly recommend the following:

• Kaspersky Internet Security
• Norton 360 all-in-one security
• ESET Smart Security

Each IT professional has his or her personal favourite (we use Kaspersky) but we feel those three are the top products on the market today. Before you choose, make sure the package you want does what you expect. Not all packages have all the same functions. ESET doesn't have parental controls for instance but you can buy this separately.

Unless you really know what you are doing, we also suggest you DO NOT INSTALL ANY 30 DAY TRIALS because if you don't like that programme, you might have difficulties completley removing it and then installing a different anti-virus programme becomes difficult.

Will I Be 100% Protected?

Unfortunately not. No single anti-virus programme can detect all viruses, you just have to buy the best you can and be vigilant about how you use the Internet.

What Is The Difference Between A Virus & Malware / Spyware?

Not very much really. A virus is more destructive by nature whereas malware / spyware gets your computer to send information from your computer to someone else who thinks they might benefit from that information such as bank account details or credit card details. However, malware / spyware is, in our opinion, just as bad as a virus because it can ruin a computer and make it run so slowly it is unusable.

We've given you some information but if you need further advice or need someone to install these programmes for you, please Contact Us and in the words of Hill Street Blues "Let's Be Careful Out There!"