Simple and free software to install for safer internet use

Remember when you connect to the internet, the internet connects to you and unfortunately almost all computers on the internet are under constant attack. So what’s the good news? Well many companies are trying hard to make the internet a safe place and there is a lot of good free (to home users) software, easily available to make you secure.
In the first instance make sure you have installed antivirus software. I recommend Avast (www.avast.com) for this because it has a lot of good features and is very effective. When you download it make sure you don’t accidently download and install Google Chrome, unless of course you want to. One of the nicest features of Avast is that it is easy to scan your computer before it properly starts up, called a boot scan. This can uncover problems that can’t be found by other methods. You could do this say once a week or maybe less frequently.
I also recommend you install a piece of software called Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org), yes a bit of a mouthful but well worth having. You can use this to scan for all sorts of dodgy software, called malware hence the name. This piece of software can be run once a week to remove the mess a lot of websites leave you with.
The final piece of defensive software that I recommend is a firewall. There are many varieties of these, even one from Microsoft, but I recommend you install ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com). Once installed it will ask you whether to allow or deny access to the internet every time a program tries to do that. You may be surprised how many times software on your machine accesses the internet without your permission. It is easy to say NO.
There is one more piece of software that is useful and desirable, that is Cleanup (www.stephengould.org). This software will remove all the old crap from your machine. It will probably save you a lot of space if you are a click-a-holic. It will possibly save you time too.
Well good luck with all this, plenty to do. If you have any worries please call me at GiaKonda IT on 01792422616.
If you allow friends to plug in usb devices into your machine you should be sure they are as responsible as you. In particular make sure they know where their devices have been and that they regularly scan them for viruses. Just plugging in a hacked device could damage your machine.