Don’t Turn Your Laptop Into A Zombie.
September 22nd, 2007 | 
Author: I’ve always advice my peers on this issue, but sometimes they made a mistake again and again, especially with selecting an anti-virus software for their notebook.
Since there’s so many anti-virus softwares in the market, I think the best things to note for newbies or normal users on how to safeguard your notebook are these 10 pointers.
The 10 things you should look at are:-
- Command & Control
It must be able to detect and destroy the viruses. I came across a number of them where the viruses are detected but unable to be removed.
- Usage Of RAM
Make sure of its system requirements. Anti-Virus companies tend to hype up their products and when the consumer buys it, the latter used so much of resources.
- Centralized Interface
You won’t want an anti-virus with so many window interfaces, wouldn’t you.
- Protection for Your E-Mail
It is important as you might want to use e-mail clients (SMTP,POP3) to receive your e-mail. With Spam and junk mail embedded with virus attachments very popular these days, this feature is essential.
- Compatibility
Very important, especially if working with Vista. Believe me, there are quite a number of them not supporting Windows Vista!
- Reporting Services
It’s important after a series of scans, the anti-virus will be able to generate a decent report, easy enough for the average users to understand.
- Tech Support
The unexpected happens, it fails. Duh, call them up and make sure the service is prompt. Check the official website on the technical support information. Note on how and what to do if the undesired happens.
- Recognition
This is to certify that the vendor has passed necessary standards of anti virus software industry. Sites from ICSA Labs, Virus Bulletin, West Coast Labs and the National Associate of Specialist Computer Retailers could be a proven research ground to see whether the ads are hyped or not.
- Licensing
It must be as simple as possible. You did not want to faced with complicated licensing terms from these vendors.
- Cost
Consumers most important factors, check how many licenses you are applying for, they might even gave you a discount for volume purchases!
I believe the ten points above should be justifiable for any newbie to kick start their search on any anti virus software.
Share me your views on the perfect anti-virus for you.
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Posted in Notebook Security | 
Tags: 10 things to note, anti-virus, laptop, notebook, views, vista, windows
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article aptop Info Today, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
These are all very good points!
Thanks for this post - I hadn’t realized that about compatability with Vista.
Actually, my boyfriend takes care of the anti-virus software on all our computers. I’m a hardware person - he does the software…
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
How do you feel about free anti-virus software like Ewido vs. the standard ones like Norton?
One thing about Norton, which is not my preference, is that it cosume a lot of RAM … although secure , your notebook will be moving like a tortise….
Anything that’s free is good …. but there’s a loophole behind it which we might not know… that’s why it free (I guess)
Recently i tried experimenting with AVG Free … and guess what…. anything that starts with the word patch , it detects as a virus or trojan …. some of the patches are important to my system program…. The next day I diched AVG Free… That’s coming from real experience.
HI,
Thank’s for this post. All this points are of very good. Any one can get a rough idea about selecting an anti virus from this post, But still it lacks some technical details.
http://www.marblehost.com
I developed an AMD 940 computer with Windows XP 64 set up, afterward contacting their web site and getting some on-line service, I found out that it is not compatible with Windows XP 64 . Symantec did not state on the box that it is not compatible with Windows XP 64.