Introduction
The aim of this thread is for me to give you, members of the forum, knowledge and information about computers. I will cover forms of computer security, tweaking your computer, mainly tweaking the system, and lots of different types of customisation. I will also recommend the best applications to use, along with free alternatives.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FirewallsFirewalls are such an important form of security. They act as a gate between your computer and the internet, controlling traffic between different networks. The main purpose of a firewall is to let any traffic you want in, while keeping traffic you don't want out, such as malicious attacks from crackers/hackers. Firewalls come in two main forms, hardware firewalls and software firewalls. Also remember that security is built up in layers, and the firewall is a very important layer so a good firewall is necessary.
Hardware FirewallsHardware firewalls are very important, especially more so nowadays compared to a few years ago when broadband wasn't the standard for internet users. Nowadays so many people have a 24/7 connection to the internet and leave their PC's on for extended periods of time, a hardware firewall is necessary. A hardware firewall should not be a replacement for a software firewall (or vice versa), but instead should be used together to strengthen security. Hardware firewalls work as the first line of security and basically, if your hardware firewall is working well, you will in general have a secure network.
For routers, whether they are wired, wireless, or both, I recommend any router by Linksys. Linksys routers are user friendly and provide a good level of security and customisation. If you have a router with wireless capability and don't have any devices using wireless, turn the wireless off. If you are using wireless, 802.11g seems to be the standard today, so you can't go wrong with Wireless G equipment. You want to disable router setup from a wireless device. Use encryption, WPA is preferred, of WEP if your router doesn't support WPA. Remember to use a good lengthy password as well.
Lasty, when using hardware firewall security, you may find a lot of applications have trouble accessing the internet. A good place to look at configuring applications behind a router is
PortForward.comSoftware FirewallsA software firewall is also very important, as it acts as the gateway control for traffic between your PC and any network your connected to (such as a home network and then to the internet, or straight to the internet). A software firewall works great in conjunction with a hardware firewall, as it stops any inbound intrusions that get past the firewall, and one of the most important things a software firewall does that a hardware one doesn't is control outbound traffic. Software firewalls are good for controlling what software you want to access the internet.
RecommendedAgnitum Outpost Professional FirewallThis is my main recommendation for a software firewall. Out of the 15 or so different firewall softwares I have extensively tried and tested this seems to be the best in terms of security and customisation, while not eating away at your system resources (CPU & RAM). You can check it out over at the
Agnitum website and theres a good review on it
HERE. Now if you don't plan to purchase a legitimate copy, then aqquiring a cracked copy is a task I leave up to the reader.
Zone Alarm ProThis is my second recommendation for a software firewall. Zone Alarm Pro is actually a lot better than people think. Its almost on par with Outpost, maybe not quite as good, but still does the job. It has good parental controls and program controls, and is very user friendly for any bridgers to ;). Although now the newer versions of ZA Pro have integrated Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware, I highly recommend turning them off as they hog a lot of resources on your computer and can tend to make it very slow (stick to alternatives such as AdAware and Spybot etc). Again if you don't intend on getting a legitimate copy, finding a cracked copy shouldn't be too hard.
[Screenshot]Free AlternativesKerio Personal FirewallKerio Personal Firewall is most probably the best free firewall out there. Its better than Zone Alarm Free but just by a bit, but it makes all the difference. Don't bother with the Pro version though, its a load of rubbish.
Zone Alarm FreeZone Alarm's free alternative is a good recommendation also for anyone who doesn't want to use Outpost (for some silly reason) or cannot obtain a working copy of Outpost or ZA Pro.
Other things to note- Never, NEVER, ever use more than 1 firewall application. Using more than 1 firewall software simultaneously causes conflicts and security flaws in your system.
- For any of you who use P2P apps, I recommend getting Peer Guardian 2, which is an IP blocklist which works in conjuction with a firewall to give you an added layer of security while using P2P apps.
- If your using Outpost firewall, I high recommend using the plugin Blockpost if you use P2P apps. Alternate driver for Blockpost for large block lists
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-VirusA good virus scanner is the next layer of security I'm gonna cover. It is also an essential part of security, just like a firewall. The reason Anti-Virus software is so important as the internet is full of so many malicious files and software. The aim of a virus scanner is to keep your PC clean from any bad files. The main thing a virus scanner does is scan all your files on your PC for anything it classes as bad, and checks software for any suspicious activity. Anti-virus software also needs to be regularly updated, as new threats come out daily.
RecommendedESET NOD32 AntivirusThis is most probably the best AV software I have ever used. A review can be read
HERE and you can also read about it on the ESet website
HERE. Its very resource friendly and it can work all the time without you even knowing its there. Its also very advanced compared to other AV software. A comparitive of AV softwares can be viewed
HERE. Also if your looking to get a decent AV software legitimately, this is the one. With nearly daily updates and very good protection, NOD32 puts itself above all other AV software. For those looking to get a cracked copy, "
Nod 32 fix" is the best "crack" I've seen that works. Be careful what sites you go on trying to get this though.
[Screenshot]Kaspersky Anti-VirusKaspersky AV is great as well. It tends to work better when you scan when you need it, and NOD32 tends to work better scanning in the background. Kaspersky will pick up anything NOD32 would miss (which is very, very rare) and is the only other AV software I would recommend. Check out the
Kaspersky website. Again, finding a cracked version is left up to the reader...
Free AlternativesFree Avast! Anti-VirusAvast AV is building up its reputation as one of the best free AV clients around. In my opinion better than AVG Free, its more effective and just better in general. Only use this if you cannot get a copy of NOD32 or Kaspersky AV.
AVG FreeA popular free AV, probably the second best around. I'd only recommend using this if you don't like using Avast.