Do you ever ask yourself whether it is safe to download things off the Net? I know that I get asked that question several times a month. The fact is, that it depends, like most solutions. It depends on two basic factors: how decent your defences are and where you are downloading from.
You might be thinking: well, if my defences are decent, why would it matter where I download from and that is a good question, but so is: what do you think of as decent protection?
If your notion of decent protection is a free version of Avira, then you are going to have trouble. One day or another you will have problems, guaranteed. I can say that with my hand on my heart, because they have a paid version as well. If the free version is as decent as the paid version, why do people pay?
Because they are stupid? I do not think so. By the way, I am not having a go at Avira! They give away a marvelous product and as long as you are cautious, it may be all you need. Avira and all the other decent anti-virus software suites need a little help to keep you safe.
For instance, they will require you to run a firewall at the same time and use an anti-spyware program on a frequent basis. They will also need you to not put yourself at the greatest danger either by visiting a few forms of sites and not opening attachments from senders you do not trust.
If you run the free forms of these av software programs, you will see that some features like the firewall or and the email attachment scanner have been disabled. This is how you will pick up viruses. Another way that you lay yourself open to concerns is by downloading free utilities. These pieces of software almost always include tracking routines.
The software will do its job, but it will install a tracking cookie on your computer which will email home every day to its boss and tell them where you have been searching, so that they can spam you with similar items.
Porn sites are another decent example of dangerous web sites. You receive ‘free porn’, but they receive your IP address and possibly your email address as well, which means that they are able to either spam you themselves or and sell your email address on so that half the world can spam you.
So, free av software is OK, but you have to help it. On the other hand paid software from a dependable firm like Norton, Kaspersky and Nod, to name but a few, ought to take care of you without you having to do anything but pay and install and permit automatic updates. You can expect that from these companies and they can deliver that level of protection for $50-60 a year and then you can download anything you like.
The Net is very much a case of ‘you pays your money and you takes your choice’ and ‘free’ is definitely not always the best option.
