MARC'S TECHNOLOGY BLOG - WHITHER SECURITY?
TECHNOLOGY ADVICE FROM A USER-FRIENDLY GUY!
Here's a little conundrum!
About a month ago I subscribed to a new virus protection system for my laptop computer. I had been without one for a good long while and figured it was only a matter of time before I rolled the dice on one website too many and ended up with a nasty virus that would suck up all my resources and cripple my machine to the point of uselessness.
I did my homework. I read blogs and reviews and user testimonials for the myriad of computer security programs available for download and finally settled on McAfee AntiVirus. Mostly because when it comes down to it, the “big” AntiVirus players are McAfee and Norton, they promise to do pretty much the same thing, but McAfee promises to do it cheaper. So I clicked, I downloaded, I installed.
The result? A nasty ANTIvirus that sucked up all my resources and crippled my machine to the point of being useless.
It was a nightmare. The first reboot of my machine took nearly 25 minutes, my Media Player would no longer access the web to get information on the CDs I was playing, streaming audio or video from the web was now impossible and forget about using sites like YouTube or MySpace. But coup de grace? What was the deathblow to McAfee AntiVirus? It now took as long as 90 seconds to open each and every email I received.
I know, right?
So McAfee had to go (I’ll spare you the uninstall debacle). But what now? I still felt I needed security on my laptop but security at the cost of turning my machine into a paperweight simply was not an option. So I dug a little deeper and discovered not only are their other options, but they are free to boot!!
The program I am using now is ClamWin. (www.clamwin.com) ClamWin rocks! First off, it’s free. It guards against all the current relevant online viruses AND spyware and it’s incredibly light. It uses maybe 1.5% of my CPU (McAfee used over 40! Sometimes as much as 55% when Outlook was running). One thing, if you are a person who downloads lots of pictures you will notice significant lag when bringing in photos; as much as 10 seconds for each. As for security while browsing, ClamWin is a no brainer.
An essential companion to WinClam is actually two programs: Adaware (www.lavasoftusa.com) and Spybot (www.spybot.info). Both are excellent tools for removing cookies and other troublesome little doo-dads that nickel and dime your resources, follow you around the internet and can report your activities back to the mothership. One thing to note about these is that they are not active scanners; they have to be opened and run like a defrag. Despite this they are extremely effective when used regularly. UPDATE: It has come to my attention that Adaware does not play nice with Microsoft Vista. My advice to Vista users is to hold off for a few months and then give a new Adaware version a try.
Firefox users (you are a Firefox (www.mozilla.com) user aren’t you?) can install the Siteadvisor (www.siteadvisor.com). While it is a product of the dreaded McAfee it has the virtue of being run through the open source of Mozilla, which keeps its appetite for resources to nil. It’s a cool little tool. When you execute a search on Google or yahoo or any of the other big search engines SiteAdvisor displays an easy to read evaluation of the site and quantifies how much spam or malware the site is known to send to your computer. It’s handy, and it works in real time.
Want to share some Tech Tips? Please let me know!
YOUR DEAN'S TEAM TECH REPORTER,
MARC MILBAUER
