Protecting your computer from virus and spyware is one of the easiest things to do for the health of your computer. It totally floors me that most people don't keep their virus software up to date. I get PM's, phone calls, and emails 2 or 3 times a day about virus issues. There are some simple steps to keeping your computer safe.
First thing first - NEVER ASK ER33T TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR COMPUTER PROBLEMS!!! Now that that is out of the way, I'd like you to remember to NEVER ASK ER33T TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR COMPUTER PROBLEMS!!! If you ignore this you deserve whatever happens to you.
Now on to virus protection. Personally, I have had excellent results with free software. Some people recommend subscription based programs, but I'm a cheapskate so I stick with AVG. I've been using AVG as long as I have had high speed Internet and have never had a virus ruin my system. There are other free programs out there that may work as well or better than AVG but I stick with AVG because it is so simple to use. You download it, install it and you are done. It automatically scans and updates everyday. I have also had good luck with Avira, however it takes a little more fine tuning than AVG. The reason I don't like the programs that you pay for is that they tend to be very resource intensive. They do a great job of keeping you out of trouble, but I'd rather not deal with constant pop ups from my anti virus program. The reason these programs are such resource hogs is that they constantly monitor your system for incoming threats and watch all the processes to look for anything out of the ordinary. Cool if you have a ton of ram and a badass processor, but pretty counterproductive if you have an older machine. Especially if you want you machine to pump all available resources into whatever game you are playing.
http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=contentBody;mostPopTwoColWrapNo one anti virus program will catch every virus, whether you pay for it or not. In fact AVG and Avira consistently have better capture rates than McAfee and Norton. Some viruses are bound to get through, but running multiple anti virus programs on your computer is a bad idea. I use a program called MalwareBytes that can painlessly remove some pretty gnarly viruses and trojans that other AV programs can't. Personally I run Malware bytes every other week unless I've been doing heavy downloading.
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?tag=mncolAnother thing worth doing once a month is using Microsoft's free online scanner. Not only does it scan your computer for viruses from the web, but it scans your registry and runs a defrag on your hard drive.
http://onecare.live.com/scanThat's pretty much all you need to do to safeguard yourself from virus and spyware. There are other methods but this works for me and my customers as well as all of our business computers. There is always common sense of course. Don't accept anything over IRC, don't open email attachments unless you know where they are coming from and what they are, and don't ask random strangers on the Internet for help. Also, its good to remember that anything can happen to your computer's hardware or software and your data is only as good as your last backup. I've had customers come in with fried hard drives asking me to recover their $500-$1000 worth of I-Tunes who never had anything backed up. Sadly at that point it can be cheaper to re-buy the songs than do data recovery from a failed drive. So good luck staying safe online and NEVER ASK ER33T TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR COMPUTER PROBLEMS!!!
