I always know when AVG release a new version of their fantastic free anti-virus software as it usually results in a torrent of abuse being launched towards me by my readership – “you said this software was free and now it’s asking me for money or it’ll stop working.”

Now, I must admit that it is true that whenever a new version of AVG is released and an old version is discontinued, they do try and push users down the route of buying the more advanced package. I don’t blame them for this as everybody needs to make money, however those that actually bother reading the message will see that there is still a free option available. It is this version, AVG 8, which I will be reviewing today.

I have always pitched AVG as being the anti-virus checker that my readers should be using and amazingly the best thing about this application ISN’T the fact that it’s free – In actual fact there are plenty of reasons that you would want to use AVG even if you had to pay for it.

My favourite feature of the application is its non intrusive nature; it silently gets on with it – In my opinion there is nothing worse than a virus checker that gets you too involved and prevents you from getting along with the job in hand. Everything is done in the background so you want have to be involved if you rather understandably don’t want to be; it will update itself and even perform full system scans without you ever realising and then, if it finds a virus it will efficiently dispose of it.

Install and forget is a nice philosophy and beats gigantic boated pieces of software such as Norton Internet Security which prompt you every 15 seconds about problems that you wish it would just work out for itself; I’ve never understood a virus scanner which will actually ask me if I want to remove a virus it has found. In my eyes this is a stupid question – why would I voluntarily keep something that is liable to wipe my hard drive and provide me with months of extra unpaid work?

Version 8 improves on the background scanning of the previous AVG application and provides new and quite possibly overdue Spyware protection, along with a handy LinkScanner feature. The latter is a new component which provides you with a quick graphical evaluation of a sites perceived safety before you visit it whenever you do an Internet search in an engine such as Google. It works by taking the findings of those that use the AVG toolbar by warning you via a small graphical link if a site that appears in your search results is likely to be malicious.

Updates are provided free of charge for the life of the product and of course all the usual features such as e-mail scanning and resident shield are provided and turned on by default.

In terms of installation, the application is a 45.6mb download which can be obtained by visiting http://free.grisoft.com – It is worrying to see such the size has growth significantly from AVG 7.5’s 16mb footprint but this is still much smaller than many other virus checkers on the market. After advice given to me by our resident techie who resides upstairs from Refresh at Switch Computer Support, I would recommend removing AVG 7 before installing version 8 as by all accounts the installation program does sometimes simply ‘forget’ to remove the old version first which can cause problems.

I’m still genuinely amazed by the number of my readers who are still using paid for anti-virus programs after I have recommended time and time again a completely free solution. I’m assuming the reasoning is that the public believe that a free version of an application as important as a virus [...]]]>

I’m still genuinely amazed by the number of my readers who are still using paid for anti-virus programs after I have recommended time and time again a completely free solution. I’m assuming the reasoning is that the public believe that a free version of an application as important as a virus checker would be substandard and offer inadequate protection hence why I’m here today to try and change this perception.

I think there’s no better way to change this perception than to ask a home user to look at the typical anti-virus software of choice used by IT professionals. Rather than using the larger commercial applications these people often choose to use products such as AVG and this is for more reasons than simply cost. Many in the industry are very much under whelmed by the quality of many of the larger paid for solutions and without singling out individual products I can assume that this is because as a rule of thumb they are often intrusive, bloated and have the additional downside that you have to pay for them yearly.

For years I have recommended the anti-virus solution AVG and coincidentally they have just released a major new upgrade, version 7.5 which is completely free to download and use from http://free.grisoft.com. The software is fairly small in size (16mb) so shouldn’t take too long to download on even a modest connection and once installed it’ll just sit quietly down in the bottom right hand corner of your screen and will only pop up to bother you when it really needs to.

As you would expect the program continuously run in the background checking for viruses as you work but this isn’t a problem because it is such a small piece of software so doesn’t make a dent on the speed of your machine or resources available to other programs unlike many of the commercial products on the market. The majority of the day to day tasks of the program can be automated so that you don’t have to worry about updating the virus database of performing full system scans as this will all be done for you – In actual fact most of the time you’ll probably just forget it’s there.

A handy feature is that the software seamlessly integrates itself in to your e-mail client and rather than updating you on the progress of scanning each message it works completely transparently – if an infected message is found it is simply moved to the virus vault and you hear no more about it.

In terms of the security it is reassuring to know that the team at AVG release frequent updates to the virus definitions database so that you’re always protected against the latest threats. Recent certifications have been granted to the software by the likes VB100%, ICSA, and West Coast Labs Checkmark which provides additional piece of mind that you are dealing with a dependable product.

You may well be wondering why they go to all this effort to produce this product and then give it away for free especially since it isn’t supported in anyway by intrusive adverts. Alas, this isn’t just out of the kindness of their hearts but in fact there is a more comprehensive commercial version which includes features such as an anti-spam and anti-spyware filter along with an integrated firewall. These are all fairly minor problems as Microsoft provide a firewall in Windows XP by default and Windows Defender is a capable Spyware filter that can be freely downloaded from www.microsoft.com. With regards to anti-spam I did review the free ‘MailWasher’ package only four weeks ago and those that missed that particular week can view a copy at www.computerarticles.co.uk

The subject of ‘rogue diallers’ has been popping up a great deal in the media recently so I thought it was about time I recapped on exactly what a rogue dialler was and how you can protect yourself against them.

The idea [...]]]>

The subject of ‘rogue diallers’ has been popping up a great deal in the media recently so I thought it was about time I recapped on exactly what a rogue dialler was and how you can protect yourself against them.

The idea behind a rogue dialler is surprisingly simple; you inadvertently download a small piece of software which alters your dial up settings so instead of dialling your normal freephone or local call rate number to access the Internet your computer starts using a premium rate number instead. Whilst you are blissfully unaware that you are now paying a couple of quid a minute to access the Internet someone is getting rich by exploiting you. It is worth bearing in mind that those of us with broadband aren’t susceptible to these problems as a Broadband modem doesn’t ‘dial out’ as such and so it is impossible for a rogue dialler to change the dial up number.

A common misconception is that your phone company should instantly refund you if you are affected by a rogue dialler but whilst a case of a pensioner receiving a £500 bill from BT due to a rogue dialler is upsetting, it is not the fault of BT that your computer has been dialling these numbers nor are they the ones which have profited from your misfortune. Having said that I do feel the phone companies should be doing more to track down the numbers being used by these rogue diallers and prosecuting those responsible.

The best defence against a rogue dialler is to take matters in to your own hands rather than pretending the problem doesn’t exist and then expecting your phone company to bail you out if you are affected and luckily the steps you need to take are minimal:

First off ensure that your anti-virus software is up to date and your firewall is turned on – I won’t dwell too much on this point as I have covered anti-virus programs and firewalls many times in the past. If you missed any of these articles head to the online archive at www.computerarticles.co.uk to get hold of a copy. Performing a Windows update would also not go amiss at this point but you are all of course doing this on a regular basis anyway, aren’t you? Again, if you’re unsure of how to do a Windows update head to www.computerarticles.co.uk to download instructions.

The security settings for your browser should be left at least at the default level however if you have never changed these to a lower level then there should be no reason to worry. Should you wish to check your security settings then go to ‘Tools’ and ‘Internet Options’ in Internet Explorer however I recommend that you don’t set the security levels to maximum otherwise your browsing experience will be compromised by constant censorship.

Those of you who have no need to call premium rate numbers should consider asking their phone company if they can place a call bar on your line to prevent access to premium and international numbers. Do remember that such a call bar will prevent you from making legitimate calls to these types of numbers but I’m sure there are plenty of people who will be happy to live with this.

The scale of the problem has prompted BT to release a piece of software designed to protect your dial up settings to make it difficult for these malicious problems to make the alterations they require. This software is completely free of charge, takes very little time to download and is available from www.bt.com/btprivacyonline. If you install the program on your machine it will start when you first load Windows and will then monitor your dial up connection to alert you if it attempts to dial a restricted number. I would consider this a worthwhile download for most users.

That’s it for this week; take a few minutes out now to protect yourself and avoid the embarrassment of having to explain to BT next month why you can’t afford to pay that £500 bill that you’ve just received in the post!

I’m starting Click this week with an apology relating to the article that I published last week in which I mentioned an insurance quote I had received through Bartlett Davies Bicks and suggested that it was higher than I would have expected. This caused some upset and so I would [...]]]>

I’m starting Click this week with an apology relating to the article that I published last week in which I mentioned an insurance quote I had received through Bartlett Davies Bicks and suggested that it was higher than I would have expected. This caused some upset and so I would like to point out that Bartlett Davies Bicks is an independent broker and the quotes they offer as with any other insurance company will vary from driver to driver. I didn’t intend to imply that they were uncompetitive in the market place as obviously this is not the case, rather that their quote just wasn’t suited for me personally.

Anyway, now that’s out the way, I’m going to repeat an article that I published some weeks ago as I’m still getting at least an e-mail a day with people asking me the same question and it’s my hope that this will alleviate the problem. The problem I’m talking about is involving a bug in Windows 2000 and XP that shuts down your computer when it’s connected to the Internet – Those afflicted will find that their computer will give them a message saying that it has to shut down and give you a short amount of time to save your work; usually around 30 seconds.

To rectify the problem we need to download a patch from Microsoft and your latest Anti-virus software updates but to do this we have to prevent the PC rebooting as soon as you go online and so the RPC restart function has to be disabled which is done as follows:

Before you go online click on ‘Start’, then run then and type: services.msc. When the Services window opens up, scroll down the list to the first Remote Procedure Call (RPC), right click on this and select ‘properties’ and then click the Recovery tab. You will see the drop-down menus labelled First failure, Second failure and Subsequent failures and these will be set to ‘Restart’ as default. Change each drop-down menu to ‘Take No Action’ then click Apply and OK. Close the Services window and now connect to the Internet.

We have to now download a Windows patch which will prevent infection from affecting your system which can be done by heading to www.microsoft.com and clicking the link for the ‘Blaster Worm’ on the main page; simply follow the instructions to download and install this patch and the vulnerability in the operating system that allows this nasty file in will be removed.

Now simply update your anti-virus software and do a complete system scan, removing any viruses that it finds; it is essential that you download the latest updates otherwise the software will not find it. If you don’t have an anti-virus scanner then download the fantastic AVG from www.grisoft.com

That’s it; your PC is now clean and you sit back and relax, ignoring all the scare stories that you’re bound to hear about on the news over the coming weeks.

This week we’ll be discussion Firewall software after I recently received this letter from one of my readers from the Midlands.

You talked in one of your articles about Anti Virus software, and mentioned in particular the free product from Grisoft called AVG. Can you recommend a free [...]]]>

This week we’ll be discussion Firewall software after I recently received this letter from one of my readers from the Midlands.

You talked in one of your articles about Anti Virus software, and mentioned in particular the free product from Grisoft called AVG. Can you recommend a free Firewall product? Just for your information, my dad thinks so highly of your articles that he regularly sends them to me here in Hereford!

Mike Coleman, via E-mail.

For those of you who are not entirely sure what a firewall is, let me just briefly explain. When you’re connected to the Internet you essentially become a part of this worldwide network, which also has millions of others connected to it at any one time. The majority of these people using these computers will go about their own business quite happily but there are also those connected who have their own hidden agenda and who may try to invade your privacy or damage your machine. By using a number of different software tools, these people may try to fine your computer on the Internet and then exploit security weaknesses found in many operating systems or view information stored on your computer by the way of a Trojan Horse program that you may have inadvertently installed from an infected files downloaded off of the Internet.

If you are unaware as to what a Trojan Horse program is then think of the Greek legend which tells of how the Greeks won the Trojan War by hiding in a wooden horse in order to get into the heavily fortified city of Troy – You install the Trojan Horse from a mundane file such as an infected screensaver and this program in turn gives a hacker on the Internet access to your computer. The Trojan horse may give him the ability to remote control your machine, damage it or steal passwords and credit card details which you may have stored on your hard drive.

A Firewall basically sits between your computer and the Internet and tries to keep all hackers out of your machine by only letting the data in and out that it feels should be allowed, whilst ideally making your machine invisible to everybody else on the Internet. I won’t go into details of how the firewall software achieves this, as it isn’t important, although as requested I will tell you of a number of free software packages that will do this job. On the following sites, you may have to have a look around for a little while as the companies quoted also produce paid for versions, which offer extra support and features, and so they are obviously going to try and flog these versions first whilst making the free ones harder to find. The addresses you need are those of OutPost Firewall (www.agnitum.com), Zone Alarm (www.zonelabs.com) and Kerio (www.kerio.com), and although I haven’t comprehensively tested out these packages they all seem to include the features that any small business or home user is likely to need.

Once your Firewall is up and running head along to www.symantec.com and click on ‘Symantec Security Check for Home Users’ and then on ‘Scan for Security Risks’ which will make the website emulate a hacker trying to break into your computer so you know if you’re secure or not.

Windows XP users should also bear in mind that a simple but effective Firewall comes included with their Operating System and that this should be sufficient for most users – Simply go to your connection properties to check that this has been turned on.

I’ll finish by saying that sometimes precaution verges on the side of paranoia – If you use the Internet for just a couple of hours a week and have a low speed connection then I personally believe that a firewall isn’t actually necessary; I’ve seen examples of people who don’t even have their computer connected to their Internet EVER with Firewall software installed. Firewall software can sometimes have undesired effects as it may block legitimate items that you are trying to view from entering your computer and they obviously take up a small amount of system resources as it will always be running in the background; Assess your need for the product before installing.

Finally, always keep Windows up to date by running a Windows Update every couple of weeks and installing the latest critical updates that are released as these often correct security vulnerabilities recently found in the Operating System or its components. I would say that for the majority of home users, running Windows Update and having an up to date Anti-Virus package (such as the free AVG) installed should be enough.

]]> http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/free-firewall-software/feed/ 0 http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/virus-hoaxes/ http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/virus-hoaxes/#comments Sat, 06 Jul 2002 15:33:48 +0000 admin http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/?p=328

One of the jobs I carried out for a customer this week started off looking like a normal Windows corruption but upon further investigation things began to get a little bit interesting. Asked if any modifications to the computer or software had occurred over the past couple of days, the customer replied [...]]]>

One of the jobs I carried out for a customer this week started off looking like a normal Windows corruption but upon further investigation things began to get a little bit interesting. Asked if any modifications to the computer or software had occurred over the past couple of days, the customer replied by saying that he’d recently received a virus through his e-mail account that he subsequently deleted and he was wondering if maybe that was what had caused the current damage. As means of supporting his claim that he had a virus, he produced the following e-mail that had been forwarded to him from a friend;

“I have unwittingly been infected with a virus from someone’s e-mail. The virus sends itself to all the addressees in the address book of the computer it has arrived at. Since you are in my address book it may get to you. Take the time and remove it now. The instructions are easy to follow and I got rid of the virus in about 30 seconds. Some versions of anti virus software including Norton and Inoculate T have not been able to detect it. It is said the virus hides in the computer for 2 weeks and then damages the disk irreparably. The virus is called sulfnbk.exe. Many apologies for the trouble this is causing.”

Of course, after receiving such an e-mail, my customer immediately searched for the file ‘sulfnbk.exe’ and to his horror the file was found in his Windows directory and so obviously not wanting a virus on his machine he immediately deleted said file then got back to his usual routine. The problem with this little routine was that the e-mail turned out to be a hoax and in fact sulfnbk.exe is an important system file that’s present in every copy Windows 98. Every user with this Operating System who received the hoax e-mail and attempted to search for the supposedly infected file, would of course have found it and those who didn’t check out the authenticity of the e-mail first would then have deleted the file and therefore corrupted their Windows installation; very clever.

In addition, the e-mail suggests that the virus could have been sent out by your machine to everybody in your address book and so it urges you to e-mail them all with the removal instructions so they too can delete the file. Obviously all the contacts in your address book wouldn’t be too pleased that you’d e-mailed them instructions on how to quickly and easily corrupt their own Windows installation and as a result you may find yourself losing a couple of good friends!

So, there’s a lesson to be learned from all of this. Firstly, the Internet is even less safe than it may first seem; not only do you have to worry about real viruses, you also have to worry about hoaxes warning you about fictional viruses. It’s also important to remember not to always believe what you receive through your e-mail account, even if you know the sender. Finally, don’t encourage hoaxing by actually forwarding the e-mails you receive without first checking out a list of known hoaxes from a source such as www.symantec.com. At the end of the day, I’d make a guess and say that probably around 99% of the e-mails claiming to give information about a new virus are fabricated so just stop for a minute and think whether the information contained is likely to be accurate. The people creating these e-mails are praying on the vulnerabilities of new computer users to no constructive use and it should be stopped.

One of the first articles I wrote for the Herald Express focused on new Anti-Virus software that was available on the market and the benefits that they could provide to the average user. As an alternative to going out and buying the software I briefly mentioned a website I’d recently [...]]]>

One of the first articles I wrote for the Herald Express focused on new Anti-Virus software that was available on the market and the benefits that they could provide to the average user. As an alternative to going out and buying the software I briefly mentioned a website I’d recently discovered that allows you to scan your PC for free over the Internet. This website was put at the back of my mind for the last year or so until last week when I had a customer whose PC had a virus but as a result the machine wouldn’t allow me to run Norton Anti-Virus. Although there are a number of workarounds such as a Norton Rescue Disk I soon remembered this website and so fired up Internet Explorer to try and re-locate it via a search engine.

Once discovered it took around 10 minutes for the software to be loaded up into Internet Explorer but once there it made pretty easy work of checking the hard disk and quite successfully located and deleted the virus present in memory and the copy on the hard disk.

So, what are the advantages of scanning for viruses online rather than buying a piece of software? First off, and probably the one that will carry the most weight for the average user is the fact that it’s completely free of charge; there aren’t even any pop-up adverts to annoy you. Secondly, the list of viruses that the scanner can detect is constantly being updated so as new viruses are released and discovered, the scanner is able to keep up with this. You don’t have to worry about installing these updates yourself as every time you visit their website the latest version is automatically loaded up. Obviously if you were to buy an off the shelf product then you’d have to buy the latest version every year in order to qualify for the virus updates which could prove to become quite costly especially if you work for an organisation with a number of computers.

The only real disadvantages to the website is obviously that you have to be connected to the Internet to use it, although for those of you with free Internet access this shouldn’t be a problem with the other disadvantage being that the software doesn’t run in ‘real-time’. Essentially this means that unlike programs such as Norton Anti-Virus and Mcafee that stay running constantly in the background looking for viruses whenever you receive an e-mail, open a file or look at active content on an Internet, this website can only scan your computer when you ask it to. This would make it possible for you to download a virus one day and have it sat on your computer working away for a number of weeks until next time you do a thorough check online.

To make use of this free service point your browser towards http://housecall.antivirus.com and simply follow the onscreen instructions. The program will ask you which drives you wish to scan and in most instances you will only require to scan your ‘C’ drive (Hard Disk) although if you suspect that another drive has a virus on it; a floppy disk for example then you can specify that the program scan that instead.

With the current rate that viruses seem to be created at the moment and the number of computers that fall every year as a result I find it astonishing that very few users run regular virus checks. Personally I tend to pick up half a dozen or so a year but luckily since I know the tell tale signs of a virus I am able to prevent them from actually being installed on my system. Even if you have a virus checker, it is possible that it is out of date and so will not be able to detect the latest variants and so I recommend that all readers visit the site and get their computers checked out.

It is only if everybody ran these checks on a regular basic that we would be able to eradicate these viruses, some of which have been hanging around for over a decade from the wild once and for all.