• Why do you need an Antivirus?
• And why should it be good.
• Do you shop on E-bay,Amazon or the Like?
  
• Why do you need a firewall?
• And why should it be good.
• Why do Antivirus Packages usually cost a fortune?
• Choosing the Right package for you
• How can you get them legally for FREE!
• Promotions list
  
• Method 1
• Method 2
• Instructions - Method 1
• Instructions - Method 2
  
• Hub Stats
  
• Your Comments
  

The web is a dangerous place.Just because things are not obvious(such as attacks from hackers,etc) , It does'nt mean that it is safe out there.There are pitholes and traps you should try to stay away from.And this is almost next to impossible without a good anti-virus.

An anti-virus is a piece of software that protects a Pc from falling for Bad-ware/Malware.A good antivirus will prevent your Pc from majority of the attacks,though it can't do it 100% Spic and Span..But,having an Anti-virus on your system will ensure safety and will minimize the possibility of installation of Malware.

There are many Anti-virus packages,but most of them are no good.They have eye-catchy interfaces,Cool logos and what not,ut trust me,they are no good.A good Anti-virus will have many certifications and awards to its credit.But,a good anti-virus MUST have atleast one VB100 award to tis credit.VB100 is an award that is given to only those anti-virus packages that have successfully detected and/or eliminated ALL the "test" worms,viruses and trojans issued by the tester.

For more info on VB100,click here..

Usually Companies of AV(Anti-Virus) makers will have their list of Certificates and awards under Company-->Awards

Some Good AV Companies : Eset,Avira,ALWIL Software,MCafee,Symantec,Kaspersky Labs,AVG,etc...

The term "Best" ,when it comes to Anti-virus S/w'es,is only relative.There is nothing called as "The Best" Antivirus or something.Many people have misconceptions about this, too.

The best way to find out if an Anti-Virus is Good or not is to check out the Comany's history of Awards and Certificates.Please Don't try to visit any forums to find out how good an Anti-Virus package is,because:

• You'll get a more "biased" view
• Usually,it'll be non-technical persons commenting on the AV Package
• Some forums might even have links to pages containing malware for Evaluation purposes,maybe,which you might unknowingly click on

The Easiest way to Find out if an Anti-Virus package is good or not:

Is to Visit sites which contain more technical Details on Comparatives:

For a quick start,here are two good sites:

• av-comparatives.org
• av-test.org
  

Please note:

Good  Antivirus S/w are usually comprised of Anti-Spyware Engines,Anti-Virus Engines with a good On demand scanner.Premium AV suites offer proactive shields and firewalls in addition to the features mentioned above.The test reports consist of detailed statstics of each category...So be sure to check out if an AV package has good rating for its On-demand scanner and Anti-spyware and Anti-virus engines.

If yes,then,this one is for you.Ok,assuming that you have followed the above steps and installed a good Anti-virus package on your Pc,lets say,you go to online Shopping sites like Amazon or E-bay....you actually think you're quite safe just because you've installed an AV on your Pc and you start shopping.Lets assume you had 100$ in your account and you got a small gift for your friend from Amazon,say,for just about 10$ or so.The very next day you recieve E-mail notifications telling you that your cash was transferred/you were charged for about 50$ (This is quite less,actually) for something you din't purchase/transfer.Then you might wonder..and you rule out the fact that someone hacked into your Pc and stole your Credit card Number,just because you have an Anti-virus package installed in your Pc.

Now,that is the exact answer to your query as well - Your Pc was hacked.Why,you ask??

I'll tell you why,you din't have a firewall - Atleast not a good one.Or maybe,you do have one??

Aargh,now you're referring to that Windows Defender installed on your Pc??Please don't.It is probably the weakest firewall I've ever seen.But at the same time,it gives a false sense of security to its users.

Why do I need a firewall?

A firewall is a Program on your Pc that manages incoming/Outgoing connections made and recieved by your Pc,blocking unwanted connections.

So,this means,If you are online,no matter how much long,you definitely need a firewall.

Why should it be good?

Good firewalls can detect most of the external attacks and attempts made by hackers,waiting to steal your personal data.Again,here we have many certifications and awards,but I'm not going to mention them here,not now,atleast.However,here are two good,FREE,firewalls worth installing:

• Zone Alarm's Free Firewall
• Sunbelt's Free personal Firewall

Why do Antivirus packages usually cost a fortune?

Anti-virus Companies usually deploy a seperate team of Experts and Software specialists for testing  and evaluating their product's performance.Its like a stock exchange market,new virii are being evolved as we talk and new variations of the old ones are released as I type.The people from the Anti-virus Companies need to constantly find methods to detect and destroy such nasty Virii and they must also release updates constantly for their products to enable protection from such malware.And now you atleast would have got idea,I hope,why these products are priced so high...

First of all,you need to decide on which AntiVirus package,you're going in for.Depending on your choice,we have two ways of doing this:

• Download the free versions/Home versions
• Get a Legal license key for the premium version ;)

Method 1:

The good part about this method is that your installation will be mostly hassle-free.you won't be usually bugged to install using any keys,serials...or whatsoever...

The bad part is that you won't get much/any of the features included with the premium version of the product.

NOTE:Always choose packages that have an integrated Spyware scanner.Because,most of them usually wont! (Applicable only if you are following method 1)

Related products of this category (FULL version Download Links):

Avira, AVG, Avast and many more..

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Method 2: (Workaround for method 1)

The good part about this method is that you get all the Premium security features for FREE,without having spent a single buck from

The bad part about this method is that you need to upgrade your license say,for about once in 3 months or so....But it'll be worth it,for sure.

Step1: Download The trial versions from these links

Related products of this category (Trial Download Links):

Avira , BitDefender , Kaspersky.

Step2: Join these promotions for FREE using your E-mail ID (Must be Real).You can create a seperate E-mail Id for this purpose,as you will recieve Newsletters from the Sponsor..etc..However,It should be a legit ID and it must be yours.Please don't SPAM.

Before you fill in these promotion pages,you will need Google Translate to translate those fields into English,since most of these pages are not in English.If you're too lazy to open a tab,to get to Google translate,just Click here :)

Avira:

Link here.

Another one,here.

BitDefender:

Link here.

Kaspersky:

Link here.

McAfee

Link here.

Now install the Downloaded program and check your inbox for the Serial Number/License Key.The fact about these promotions is that they are completely Legit !

Now the difficult part will be the installation of the Serial Number/License Key alone.Post installation,you will have a completely protected PC without a Single buck spent from your pocket!!

Instructions for Method 1 Users:

If you followed the steps provided in Method 1,you will also need to install Additional Firewall Software and Spyware Scanners incase your free package does'nt have those (Most probably,they won't)

Instructions for Method 2 Users:

Just sit back and relax :) .And allow your Anti-virus to update frequently.Hope This hub helped one and all :)

This hub took 3 days to complete,with an average of 30 mins per day spent on it.If you liked this Hub,Please feel free to comment !