Some background
There is a lot of hype about viruses and spyware at the monent and almost every pc we service has some form of spyware and virus detection software. The problem is, very rarely does this software protect the customer and 90% of the time, that software is the very cause of the problems. Now, for legal reasons we are not allowed to say what we think of various software packages, so we wont mention any names, but we will mention names of the software we do find useful, and rest assured that we have tried and tested all of the top brand names, and do not find any of them useful at all. That said, there is a way to protect your computer and never pay a penny, and we will tell you about those software packages further on in this article.

Firewall Protection
The most secure firewall that we can recommend is Outpost. They offer a free version which is more than fine for most home users and you can get a copy of it from here.

Virus Protection
One of the best and cheapest (free) Antivirus programs around is AVG. They are one of the only companies that actually want you to use their software and dont want you to pay anything - ever! I always have to ask myself what companies that offer free protection have to gain by letting you have free software. The answer is usually that they want you to buy something else. With AVG this is not the case, they just offer free protection. Full stop. And you can get it by going here. With over 5 million downloads, you have to ask why so many people prefer this software to other leaders of the market.

(Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Windows 7)

It will detect and remove any virus's it finds automatically, and alert you if you have any spyware that shouldnt be there as well.

Spyware/Malware Protection
Spyware or spying software and malware, or malicious software are an ever increasing threat to us or at best extremely annoying, but most of the software that people install to remove it, is actually the spyware itself. They do a 'free scan' and then find things that they consider to be spyware and then pop up boxes to tell you that you are infected and need to purcahse their software immedietly to remove it. These types of programs are malware themselves and can cause a lot of heartache. Once they are on your computer, they are difficult to remove, and the trick is to know what works and then stick with it, and dont allow the programs to get on your pc in the first place!

If you would rather pay a subscription to keep ypur computer spyware free, then we can personally recommend SUPERAntiSpyware. It is the most thorough scanner on the market, and with their Multi-Dimensional Scanning and Process Interrogation Technology it will detect spyware other products miss! You can download it now by clicking the picture below and they also have a free version!

We are always here to help, should you need it. Just give us a call!