Internet security suite?

[John]

Hello everyone,

I live in the UK and have a friend (not very PC literate) who lives in
Finland, who has just decided to take the plunge and connect his laptop
to the internet via broadband. I mention his location, because I will
have to suggest and help in the installation/set-up of any software to
protect his laptop, which up until now has only been used for running
CAD programs and writing the occasional letter. The only way I can help
at this point is with either mobile phone text messaging, or talking him
through any process over the telephone. He's running Windows XP and I'm
not keen to suggest he uses the built in firewall (let's not get into
that discussion), so my question is, is there a suite of freeware
programs from one source that will give him a firewall, anti-virus and
spyware protection all in one package? I will burn the software and post
it to him, them talk him through the install, so it needs to be easy for
him to set up.

Thanks for any help.
John.

 

[Brian Robertson]

Hello everyone,

I live in the UK and have a friend (not very PC literate) who lives in
Finland, who has just decided to take the plunge and connect his laptop to
the internet via broadband. I mention his location, because I will have to
suggest and help in the installation/set-up of any software to protect his
laptop, which up until now has only been used for running CAD programs and
writing the occasional letter. The only way I can help at this point is
with either mobile phone text messaging, or talking him through any
process over the telephone. He's running Windows XP and I'm not keen to
suggest he uses the built in firewall (let's not get into that
discussion), so my question is, is there a suite of freeware programs from
one source that will give him a firewall, anti-virus and spyware
protection all in one package? I will burn the software and post it to
him, them talk him through the install, so it needs to be easy for him to
set up.

AFAIK there are no freeware internet security suites available. However it
is possible to piece together an effective and easy to use suite of
programs.

- AVG for anti-virus
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/AVG_Free_Edition/avg.html

- ZoneAlarm for a firewall
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/ZoneAlarm/zonealarm.html

- Ad-Aware http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Ad-Aware/adaware.html and Spybot
for anti-spyware scanners
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Spybot_-_Search_and_Destroy/spybot.html

- SpywareBlaster to help prevent spyware from being installed
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/SpywareBlaster/spywareblaster.html

- CCleaner to securely cleanup unnecessary and temporary files
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/CCleaner/ccleaner.html

You may also want to introduce your friend to an alternate (perhaps safer)
browser, like Firefox
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Mozilla_Firefox/phoenixmoz.html or Opera
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Opera/opera.html


HTH

 

[John]

AFAIK there are no freeware internet security suites available. However it
is possible to piece together an effective and easy to use suite of
programs.

- AVG for anti-virus
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/AVG_Free_Edition/avg.html

- ZoneAlarm for a firewall
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/ZoneAlarm/zonealarm.html

- Ad-Aware http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Ad-Aware/adaware.html and Spybot
for anti-spyware scanners
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Spybot_-_Search_and_Destroy/spybot.html

- SpywareBlaster to help prevent spyware from being installed
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/SpywareBlaster/spywareblaster.html

- CCleaner to securely cleanup unnecessary and temporary files
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/CCleaner/ccleaner.html

You may also want to introduce your friend to an alternate (perhaps safer)
browser, like Firefox
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Mozilla_Firefox/phoenixmoz.html or Opera
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Opera/opera.html

Many thanks Brian, I'll give your suggestions some thought before I
start downloading.

Regards,
John.

 

[Frank Bohan]

Hello everyone,

I live in the UK and have a friend (not very PC literate) who lives in
Finland, who has just decided to take the plunge and connect his laptop to
the internet via broadband. I mention his location, because I will have to
suggest and help in the installation/set-up of any software to protect his
laptop, which up until now has only been used for running CAD programs and
writing the occasional letter. The only way I can help at this point is
with either mobile phone text messaging, or talking him through any
process over the telephone. He's running Windows XP and I'm not keen to
suggest he uses the built in firewall (let's not get into that
discussion), so my question is, is there a suite of freeware programs from
one source that will give him a firewall, anti-virus and spyware
protection all in one package? I will burn the software and post it to
him, them talk him through the install, so it needs to be easy for him to
set up.

Thanks for any help.
John.

I think your question has been covered by other posters, but it might assist
your discussions with your friend if both of you install Skype.

http://www.skype.com/

===

Frank Bohan
¶ If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?

 

[pcman]

You can also use

Comodo AntiVirus 1.0 at http://www.yesitsfree.co.uk/antivirus.htm

Comodo Personal Firewall v2 at
http://www.yesitsfree.co.uk/firewall.htm

and

DCleaner 1.07.199 at http://www.yesitsfree.co.uk/spyware.htm

 

[canetoad]

Hello everyone,

I live in the UK and have a friend (not very PC literate) who lives in
Finland, who has just decided to take the plunge and connect his laptop
to the internet via broadband. I mention his location, because I will
have to suggest and help in the installation/set-up of any software to
protect his laptop, which up until now has only been used for running
CAD programs and writing the occasional letter. The only way I can help
at this point is with either mobile phone text messaging, or talking him
through any process over the telephone. He's running Windows XP and I'm
not keen to suggest he uses the built in firewall (let's not get into
that discussion), so my question is, is there a suite of freeware
programs from one source that will give him a firewall, anti-virus and
spyware protection all in one package? I will burn the software and post
it to him, them talk him through the install, so it needs to be easy for
him to set up.

I also suggest a little freebie SafeXP from www.theorica.net
It's a convenient way of shutting down some xp services that could put
your computer at risk.

 

[Bob]

Hello everyone,

I live in the UK and have a friend (not very PC literate) who lives in
Finland, who has just decided to take the plunge and connect his laptop
to the internet via broadband. I mention his location, because I will
have to suggest and help in the installation/set-up of any software to
protect his laptop, which up until now has only been used for running
CAD programs and writing the occasional letter. The only way I can help
at this point is with either mobile phone text messaging, or talking him
through any process over the telephone. He's running Windows XP and I'm
not keen to suggest he uses the built in firewall (let's not get into
that discussion), so my question is, is there a suite of freeware
programs from one source that will give him a firewall, anti-virus and
spyware protection all in one package? I will burn the software and post
it to him, them talk him through the install, so it needs to be easy for
him to set up.

Thanks for any help.
John.

I agree with Brian Robertson. I have running exactly what he
recommends! I seem to keep out of trouble OK.

Bob