Nov 2008: PC Viruses and Spyware Threats Need Layers of Protection
There is no worse feeling in cyberspace than logging on to your computer, and POOF! Everything is gone. Hello Virus.
There is no worse feeling in life than seeing your credit report, and POOF, you are the latest Identity Theft Victim.
Hello Spyware.
But I had Norton! Or I installed McAfee. Why did this happen to me?
I have been something of a virus spyware expert for over 10 years. How can this be?
The painful truth is, after years of testing and experience, I have concluded that no ONE suite or program can protect you fully.
The painful reality is that, me, a technician, a columnist, after years of experience, I got Wiped Out! Hello misery.
Well there is help on the Horizon. Hello PC Tools and hello Uniblue.
After testing literally dozens of programs, I have found the very, very best combination. A One-Two punch.
It is very similar to what happens if you catch the infamous new super-staph infection MRSA , you need two antibiotics to kill it. In cyberspace, you need two levels of protection to protect, repair and clean out the daily Internet threats and accumulating Windows errors.
The Norton and McAfee suites are famous, and frankly a terrible solution. They have added every possible feature they can, which slows down your computer, hogs your memory resources, and frankly is like an expensive Cadillac that will only do 30mph.
Even worse, neither suite catches all spyware.
I have now tested every possible solution with three important criteria: low resource use, maximum effectiveness, and low cost.
In first place is PCTools, www.pctools.com
First and foremost, half of their software is free! That is unheard of in this money-hungry industry. You can get free downloads of their Firewall, Antivirus and ThreatFire protection packages.
PCTools Spyware Doctor ($30) prevents and removes 95% of known threats. I highly recommend PCTools Registry Mechanic ($30) to provide daily repair of your Windows registry. Windows is constantly getting corrupted, and it is not a matter of “IF”, but “WHEN” it will finally crash and burn. In my testing, Registry Mechanic identified and fixed over 90%of all errors on a daily basis.
What about that other 5% of spyware, and 10% of the registry errors. That is where the ONE-TWO punch comes in.
I discovered another great set of protection programs at Uniblue, www.liutilities.com/ .
Their Powersuite ( specially priced at $60) is complete, efficient and catches everything, including those things missed by PCTools.
Important!! Only run one firewall, PCTools, Firewall Plus, and disable the Windows Firewall. In this instance two is worse than one. The same is true for antivirus. I recommend you use PCTools Spyware Doctor plus antivirus, and only use Uniblue SpyEraser2 without antivirus. Uniblue Registry Booster 2 is exceptional, and catches a few things miss by Registry Mechanic. The third part of Powersuite, SpeedUpMyPC is a great clean up and speed up utility at little cost in resources.
In today’s dangerous world of cyber threats, paying only $120 to keep yourself both totally safe and running fast and smooth, for total peace of mind is truly a bargain.
Will Green
Editor CAL Computer Review
Publisher, “Common Sense Computing”
www.eabundance.net/common.html
_____________________________________________________________________
June, 2009
INCREDIMAIL IS SIMPLY INCREDIBLE!
Let’s admit it: email is boring.
Whether it is Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or MySpace, you write a letter in blasé typeface, maybe there is a generic grandma-background
if you are lucky, you send it and turn on the tv for real excitement.
Au contraire, dear readers, you have been missing out!
Remember “Mission Impossible”?
Tom Cruise’s laptop sent emails off on a jet plane into the ether.
It was only Hollywierd special effects, until…..two Israeli geniuses said:” We can do that, and “voila”, Incredimail was born.
Now more than 20 million users later, Incredimail has spread world wide. And the basic version is FREE.
The fully loaded version is most affordable and well worth the pocket change.
IncrediMail Xe is a free email program that manages all your email messages, communications, contact details,
and email transactions.
IncrediMail is all about having fun with your email.
It is just like Outlook and Outlook Express so the learning is no curve at all.
• Choose from 100's of amazing email backgrounds
• Add fun emoticons and animations to your emails
• Bring your emails to life with animated 3D effects
• Get notified of incoming emails by special animated characters (we call them Notifiers)
• Manage all your emails from different accounts (like Yahoo and Gmail) in one place
Better yet, there are thousands of users banded together in Yahoo groups who create and give away incredible backgrounds, animations and letterheads for free.
I have hundreds of dolphin letterheads (my passion), and thousands of pictures.
People actually subscribe to my Daily email (the Daily IN-Spire just to get the letterheads), which goes out to more than 1000 people in more than 30 countries.
Now that is Incredible.
Each email has a background letterhead, imbedded pictures, and musical sound and animations throughout.
It is fun, interesting, artistic, free and creative, and even your children can do it… in fact it is so easy a caveman could do it……. Save 15% on your email boredom with Incredimail at www.incredimail.com.
Until next month, Be safe, and Be cyberwise.
Will Green
Editor CAL Computer Review
Publisher, “Common Sense Computing”
www.eabundance.net/common.html
