By The Staff of Digital Home

Do I really need an antivirus?

Well, to simply answer that question the answer is absolutely yes, if you have internet access otherwise it’s not really necessary. If you’re using your pc to surf the world wide web, banking, shopping, downloading music or just reading the news you should not stay unprotected. If your pc is vulnerable so is your personal data like banking information, passwords, family photo and anything and everything your computer is used for. There are countless malicious websites that contain viruses, Trojans, worms and other malware, all meant to harm your computer. Therefore prevention is of the utmost importance safe guarding both you and your friends and family from prying eyes.

Well I’m a Mac I don’t need an antivirus, right?

Mac’s are becoming increasingly popular do to their aggressive campaigning and nonchalant statements that Macs don’t get virus. But the truth is as much as I love my Mac I have an antivirus because there are virus made for Mac. There may not be as many but as Mac gains popularity as will viruses. A virus can be written for any operating system regardless of whether its OSX, Win7 or Ubuntu. Do not allow yourself to be deluded by the hype and forsake yours and your family’s privacy over misguided ads. Did you know you can also download certain PC viruses on a Mac they may not affect your machine but they sure will affect your friends and family using PC’s. And if you have Windows on you Mac get ready because you are just a vulnerable as the next.

Antivirus Software and how they compare?

There are so many antivirus programs with so many options how do you choose. Well most mainstream antivirus are certified and offer very similar options but which ones should you be looking at most. First and foremost is how often are the antivirus definition updated, is it capable of all standard scans like boot time or the less common P2P and Registry scans, is it compatible with webmail programs like outlook or thunderbird, does it support all main stream web browsers i.e. Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome and IE. Customer support is also plays a very important role especially for the novice user. Antivirus like AVG use third party customer services which offer terrible support and usually point you in the wrong direction.

Norton Anti Virus 2010 is a solid antivirus offering more stability and no longer should be considered a resource hog. It is either on par or beats all other leading anti viruses in boot time, shut down time and on demand virus scans. The software foot prints have lessened enough for me to comfortably run it on my Pentium 3 1 Ghz win xp pc with 1 GB ram. The user interface is standard Norton style sleek and easy to use but it offers a lack luster in options and protection. For the expert user it may feel a little Therefore I would recommend Norton Internet Security which can be purchased with 3 licenses to protect the desktop, laptop and your netbook. For you gamers out there on WOW or the likes of Norton may still give cause some slowdowns but so do all the other antivirus. That’s not to say I still don’t have issues with the Norton. It is still very annoying to delete without Norton Removal tool, there costumer services could learn how to better support novice and expert clients and upgrading from an expired trial version is still a hassle. Enough so that Norton has you delete the program and reinstall it just because of a license key. Installing and configuring Norton could be simpler and can be a bit much for a novice user.

McAfee once again does the job right detecting and removing more viruses than most leading antivirus software. McAfee has excellent browser integration and works well on virtually any PC. With excellent options like PC maintenance and top notch anti-hacker protection it is one excellent antivirus. However that doesn’t change the fact the McAfee has terrible customer service and still has a heavier footprint than many leading antivirus softwares. If McAfee suits your needs I would suggest purchasing Total Protection due to its higher level of security options.

Webroot is an excellent anti-spyware and anti-virus package. It is one of the simplest straight forward programs on the market. With excellent detection time and a substantially low footprint this makes this sweeper a great choice.

Editors Choice

This program far surpasses the common every day antivirus making it my favorite antivirus on the market. BitDefender all around ease of use, speed and options makes it my choice in the crop. It is not taxing on your system leaving and has some great preset option like game mode. This is an excellent home are small business antivirus that delivers. It updates it database automatically every hour in the background letting you use your computer without intrusive interruptions. I can recommend this program to the most technically challenged individual or the biggest tech guru with high praises and results.

Kaspersky is a bit of a cumbersome antivirus making it difficult to find everything you want however it is comprehensive. Kaspersky may be too much program for the novice user but if you are comfortable with PC it’s a great choice. Its new sandbox feature is one to crave letting you install programs in a virtual OS rather than threatening your own. We did however experience some slowdowns when playing some of our favorite online games.

In short don’t buy Microsoft One Care it for the money any other antivirus program will offer you more options and perform much much better. It lacks mainstream browser integration, it’s very slow scans and don’t even mention support. Oh and if you want to install a free antivirus don’t use Microsoft Essentials. Some may consider it a winner but when you have free antivirus like Avast, AVG and Avira, MS Essentials isn’t essentially the best choice.

I have an Antivirus so I’m totally safe right?

Unfortunately a standalone antivirus is just one layer of protection and is not enough to be safe purchase a good router from Sonic Wall or Cisco Linksys. Stopping intrusions before they even make it into your PC is the best preventative measure. For just an extra $100 or $200 bucks a good router will give you piece of mind, save you money and you’ll have a much more capable and option driven router.