Fighting Viruses and Spyware. Google Pack Gives Us A Hand

You ever been attacked by viruses? Are you sure you haven't been? I was more than once, through my own stupidity. It is easy it happen to you. If you're unprotected, viruses can invade your pc in many ways.

Fortunately, is also easy to prevent virus, as well. For example, To help prevent some of the damage hackers do to my blog I'm tried the security software included on Google Pack. Since the topic is enough discussed on the net, I would like to share some things with you that you might be interested about Googl Pack.

What Is Google Pack?

For who don't know, Google Pack is a free collection of software from Google and other companies available for any user of Windows-based PCs. On march 2007, Google has included some additions to Google Pack. The updated software pack delivers a new security software.

One of better security software "Symantec Norton Security Scan" has been included in Google Pack. It is not really new, but an updated version of old Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition. However, the software provides all features to remove spyware and viruses, and users are able to have basic virus protection, featuring automatic security updates and scheduled scanning, all with no paid subscription required according to the Official Google Blog.

With Norton Security Scan, users have an easy-to-use tool that scans their PC specifically for viruses and spyware. In addition to the scan feature, the Google Pack version of Norton Security Scan removes all existing viruses, trojans and worms found on a user's PC and provides them with helpful tips on how they can further improve their PC security.

As I said first, Norton Security Scan replaces Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition which was part of the initial line-up of software when the Google Pack first launched in 2006. Visit its web site( free-protection.com) to learn more.

Google pack also has a fresh way to organize your photos. Google Photos Screensaver, turning it into a digital picture frame that displays the latest photos from, family, friends and favorite photographers. Users can show images from their computer, Picasa Web Albums, or photo feeds from other photo-sharing sites.

Google Pack also includes a number of free Google products, such as:

Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

Google Talk is downloadable application for Windows offers many features for communicating with your friends and family.It includes: Instant messaging, free PC-to-PC voice calls, send and receive voicemails, unlimited file transfers, gmail notifications on your desktop.

Google Desktop makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail, web pages that you've viewed, and more. Google Toolbar increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web.

Mozilla's provides the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client as well as other products and technologies, such as Bugzilla.

Spyware Doctor has been downloaded over 125 million times with millions more downloads every week. People worldwide use and trust Spyware Doctor to protect their PCs from spyware, adware and other online threats.

Adobe Reader software is the global standard for electronic document sharing. It is the only PDF viewer that can open and interact with all PDF documents. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

However, Google has also tied up a number of options to choose:

Skype allows you to make calls from your computer. Free to other people on Skype and cheap to phones and mobiles around the world.

Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you: Locate and organise all the photos on your computer. Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks. Share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web: it's fast, easy and free.

RealPlayer gives you the ability to download them all to your personal video playlist. Grab videos from thousands of Web sites with just one click. Watch them whenever you want and wherever you want. You can even burn your greatest hits to DVD*. Find the Web video you want - and Real it in.

StarOffice software is an affordable alternative in office productivity suites that runs on multiple operating systems, including Solaris Operating Environment, Microsoft Windows, and Linux.

Positive experiences

• It's free.
• Don't need to downloading the program.
• Very usefull and flexible for people to get just what they want.
• Good software: Google Earth, Google Photo Screensaver, Picassa, Firefox, Google Toolbar, Skype, Adobe Reader, Real Player.
• These products are still quite young and new features are added regularly usually without any action needed from me.

Negative experiences

• EVERYTHING in google pack, is basic.
• No Internet - no work.

Conclusion

It will be interesting to follow along on the scene of online applications to see what they have evolved into in a year or two. In my view, it's very very useful, but my words won't be descriptive enough to explain it, so just go on free-protection.com and check it out for yourself.

Antivirus Too Expensive??

So much of the software out there is so ridiculously expensive that it makes it nearly impossible for most people to get started with even basic computer tasks. Take for example someone who wants to learn to build websites. Purchasing Photoshop, Dreamweaver and a slew of other programs is already running you into a four digit price tag. So I'm going to show you how you can get by on a zero dollar budget and get access to amazingly powerful tools.

Let's start with graphic software. The Photoshop trial would be a place to start, but after it's up, you got to buy it. Not ruling this out, but it's not on target with what I'm trying to show you. Checkout a free online piece of software called SplashUp. It is a highly stripped down version of Photoshop (and based on flash) but it allows for some fairly advanced photo manipulation including blending effects, layering and filters. It even ties into some of the online photo storage databases like Flickr and Picasa. So there is a free alternative to Photoshop in the graphics arena.

Next let's talk about your general office suite of tools. The most popular suite is Microsoft Office and not surprisingly it is also the most expensive. We have several free alternatives here. The most powerful in my opinion is the free online office tools from Google known as Google Documents. Google Doc's gives you access to word processing, spreadsheets and presentations (in essence replacing Word, Excel and PowerPoint.) My next favorite office suite of applications is another freebie known as OpenOffice. It is the most popular choice on the Linux platform but has long been available for Windows. It completely replaces Microsoft Office and will save you hundreds.

Alright, let's talk anti-virus. Norton and McAfee are very expensive and unfortunately this day in age there is no avoiding anti-virus software. Fortunately there is a free alternative known as AVGFree from a company called GriSoft. I have no problems with it and it runs just as well as Norton and McAfee in my opinion.

Email is a big one. I hate seeing people use the email addresses their web service providers give them. Surely most don't know better but the reason they are given those addresses is so that they cannot cancel their Internet service (or change it) without losing that email address. Anyone who has changed their phone number or email address in the past knows how big of a hassle this is. So go to either Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail or one of any other free email services (though I recommend Gmail) and get an account. They usually have better spam filtering and antivirus tools than the service that your Internet provider will give you.

Well that just about wraps this up. There are hundreds more examples of free software that can replace the expensive stuff, in most cases but those will be in future articles. Until then, always look for a free alternative before you spend more than $500 for software. You will be surprised what you will find.

Virus, Trojan And Worms. Be Carefull..

Types Of Viruses

Trojan Horse
Trojan horse is a destructive program that hides themselves as an ordinary harmless programs. A trojan program installed successfully in a PC, can permit an intruder to access or modify any information available in the PC and worst still the software configuration of a computer can be changed to permit subsequent intrusions. Examples of Trojan horse activities are erasing files and directories, collecting passwords and sending sensitive personal information to other users.

Worm
A worm is a program that makes and facilitates the distribution of copies of itself; for example, from one disk drive to another, or by copying itself using email or another transport mechanism. It is able to spread functional copies of itself, and does not need any external help to propagate, to other computers via network. . They are often spread as attachments to e-mail messages, particularly via Microsoft email programs. The worm may do damage and compromise the security of the computer. It may arrive via exploitation of system vulnerability or by clicking on an infected e-mail.

Bootsector Virus :
A virus which attaches itself to the first part of the hard disk that is read by the computer upon bootup. These are normally spread by floppy disks.

Macro Virus:
Macro viruses are viruses that use another application's macro programming language to distribute themselves. They infect documents such as MS Word or MS Excel and are typically spread to other similar documents.

Memory Resident Viruses:
Memory Resident Viruses reside in a computers volitale memory (RAM). They are initiated from a virus which runs on the computer and they stay in memory after it's initiating program closes.

You may go to this link to know more about virus, Trojan, worms, and so on.

Click Here

What are the attributes should we consider to choose to protect your PC?

Antivirus software is a term used to describe a computer program that attempts to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software. The most modern antivirus software is now designed to fight a wide range of threats, including worms, phishing attacks, trojan horses and other.

Antivirus software usually uses two different techniques to accomplish this: (1) Examining (scanning) files to look for known viruses matching definitions in a virus dictionary or (2) Identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection.

The question is. How should I know what is the best antivirus that can protect my PC?

Here I post you some guideline on how to choose the best antivirus for your PC.

Every Antivirus in the net will have their strong and their weakness. Did you know what are the best antivirus in the world is?

The first in the ranking is BitDefender, followed by Kaspersky and ESET Nod32. In terms of price, Kaspersky much more expensive compare with BitDefender. But what we know, BitDefender is the first ranking. Yes. There must be some strong and weakness inside of that.

Let’s we make some comparison between both of them.


Kaspersky Anti-Virus : Main Advantages

Combined antivirus technologies. Kaspersky Anti–Virus 6.0 is integrated methods to scan for viruses: the reactive method using signature databases and proactive protection using behavior blocker and heuristic analysis.
Optimized for use on laptops. Peoples using laptops get benefits from an economy mode that conserves battery energy, and while the users of wireless internet services can easily automatically update their antivirus database anywhere. The update process can be done only a few seconds. Furthermore, the program(antivirus) has been optimized for use on laptops based on Intel Centrino mobile technology, and for use on computers with Intel processors that support Hyper–Threading technology.
Simple and convenience. Kaspersky Anti–Virus 6.0 is easy to installed and set up in a matter of minutes, while the context–sensitive help function helps users quickly understand the finer points of the program’s capabilities. Moreover, the program regularly notifies users of its current protection status and gives recommendations for dealing with virus epidemics and potential threats.

Antivirus – Scope of protection
Kaspersky Anti–Virus 6.0 scans email traffic for viruses according to the protocol via which it is sent (POP3, IMAP and NNTP for incoming mail and SMTP for outgoing mail) on any mail program, while plug–ins and treatment for viruses in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express mail databases are offered.
All HTTP Internet traffic is scanned for viruses in real–time, ensuring that infected objects are not saved to the computer–s hard disk.
Individual files, catalogues and disks can be designated for antivirus scanning. Users can limit antivirus scanning to critical areas of the operating system and startup objects to ensure that attention is focused on the most vulnerable areas of the system.

Proactive protection
With Kaspersky Anti–Virus 6.0 it is possible to compile lists of applications, the component structure of which will be controlled, thus helping to prevent malicious programs from undermining the integrity of the application. The product monitors the activity of programs and processes that have been launched in the computer’s memory and, at the same time, warns users of any dangerous, suspicious or hidden processes (that is, rootkits), and of unauthorized changes in routine processes. The application controls the status of the system registry and notifies users of any suspicious objects or attempts to create hidden keys in the registry. Proactive protection affords control over the operation of macros based on Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Office documents and blocks dangerous macro–commands from being executed. The system can be restored after malicious activity. Kaspersky Anti–Virus 6.0 can roll back any changes made to the system by malicious programs.

Fast operating speeds
iSwift and iChecker technology make it possible to limit scanning to new and modified files, or to limit scanning to potentially dangerous objects only. Antivirus scanning can be suspended during times of increased user activity to ensure that your computer’s resources are free for your use. The size of updates downloaded to users’ PC has been reduced almost 10 times (now amounting to several tens of kilobytes) in Kaspersky Anti–Virus 6.0, making our updates virtually instant.

Operating System Support Kaspersky
Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista x64
Microsoft Windows 98/Me
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition/Professional

Price: $39.95




BitDefender
The purpose of the antivirus module is to ensure detection and removal of all viruses in the wild. BitDefender Antivirus uses robust scan engines certified by ICSA Labs, Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, CheckVir and TÜV.

IMPROVED Proactive Detection
B–HAVE (Behavioral Heuristic Analyzer in Virtual Environments) emulates a virtual computer–inside–a–computer where pieces of software are run in order to check for potential malware behavior. This BitDefender proprietary technology represents a new security layer that keeps the operating system safe from unknown viruses by detecting malicious pieces of code for which signatures have not yet been released.

NEW Rootkit Detection and Removal
A new BitDefender module looks for rootkits (malicious programs designed to control victim computers, while staying hidden) and removes them on detection.

NEW Web Scanning
Web traffic is now filtered in real–time even before reaching your browser, providing a safe and enjoyable web experience.

Peer–2–Peer and IM Applications Protection
Filters against viruses that spread via instant messaging and file sharing software applications.

Full E–mail Protection
BitDefender runs on the POP3/SMTP protocol level, filtering incoming and outgoing e–mail messages, regardless of the e–mail client used (Outlook™, Outlook Express™, The Bat!™, Netscape®, etc.), without any additional configuration.

Antispyware
BitDefender monitors and prevents potential spyware threats in real–time, before they can damage your system. By making use of a comprehensive database of spyware signatures, it will keep your computer spyware–free.

Real–Time Antispyware
BitDefender monitors dozens of potential “hotspots” in your system where spyware might act, and also checks any changes made to your system and software. Known spyware threats are also blocked in real–time.

Spyware Scanning and Cleaning
BitDefender can scan your entire system, or just part of it, for known spyware threats. The scan uses a constantly updated spyware signature database.

NEW Privacy Protection
The privacy guard monitors HTTP (web) and SMTP (mail) traffic flowing out of your computer for what might be personal information –such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and other user–defined strings (e.g. bits of passwords).

Anti-Dialer
A configurable anti–dialer prevents malicious applications from running up a huge telephone bill at your expense.

Cookie Control
The antispyware component filters incoming and outgoing cookie type files, keeping your identity and preferences confidential when you’re browsing the Internet.

Active Content Control
Proactively blocks any potentially malicious application such as: ActiveX, Java Applets or Java Scripts type codes.


IMPROVED Deployment and Use
A setup wizard starts immediately after installation, helping users select the most appropriate update settings, implementing a scanning schedule and providing a quick path to the registration and activation of the product.

IMPROVED User Experience
BitDefender has redesigned the user experience, placing emphasis on ease of use and clutter avoidance. As a result, many BitDefender v10 modules require significantly less user interaction, through the convenient use of automation and machine learning.

Hourly Updates
Your copy of BitDefender will be updated 24 times a day over the Internet, directly or through a Proxy Server. The product is able to repair itself, if necessary, by downloading the damaged or missing files from BitDefender servers.

24/7 Support
Offered online by qualified support representatives and by accessing an online database with answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Rescue CD
BitDefender Antivirus v10 is delivered on a bootable CD. This CD can be used to analyze/repair/disinfect a compromised system which cannot be started.

Operating System Environment

Microsoft Windows Vista
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition


Price: $24.95


That's it. Now, I'm using Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6. I really satisfy with that. How about you?