Antivirus software and all that stuff...

I get these questions almost weekly:

1. What is an antivirus (AV) program? I read that I need it.
2. What is the best antivirus program?
3. I have a subscription for my antivirus, but it expired. What should I do?
4. How do I install an antivirus program?

Ok, I suppose these are all acceptable questions. But, I'm sick and tired of answering them so often. Mainly, these questions are the result of big AV companies spewing out shitloads of advertising, catching gullible, naive computer users. Yes, these are our parents, grandparents, and friendly old neighbors. Those are also the same people who need, more than anyone, some form of AV program. Why? Because they download every gd thing they look at, like stupid desktop background slideshow apps and porn. Ok, enough venting.

Here are my replies to the above questions:

1. An AV program kind of protects your computer from getting a virus. Duh. Analogy: Do you let everyone into your house, even those you don't know? Like homeless people and shady sales people? Probably not. So, when you randomly download unknown crap to your computer, or visit warez sites, use P2P networks, or look at tons of porn, you are effectively allowing the "shady side" of the internet into your computer. Those shady entities like to install secret programs (aka, viruses) onto your computer that do things you wouldn't like. The AV program tries to detect when viruses get installed.
2. This is a dumb question. Why are people so infatuated with "the best", especially when they are not willing to take the time to consider what they actually want or need. These same people will go for years without using AV programs or doing backups, then suddenly (because they read some glossy magazine ad), they want the "best" AV or backup program. Well, there is no best. You should just look for an app that works and doesn't take over your system like a borg.
3. Let's see. If it expired, and you are happy and willing to spend the money to re-subscribe, then re-subscribe. Kind of like, what if your subscription to Penthouse magazine (does that still exist?) expired, would you re-subscribe? I dunno, that's your choice that only you can answer.
4. Read the installation instructions that come with the AV program. They are usually printed in english and might be in a pdf file or on a web site.

Alright, now that we have all that obvious, mundane crap aside, let me give you my opinion on antivirus programs.

If you use any version of Microsoft Windows, you should run an antivirus program.

If you run any version of any operating system, you should have a personal firewall (a software firewall that is running on your computer).

If you surf porn, warez, and p2p sites (specifically, illegal digital file trading/sharing p2p variants), or download every email attachment or file you come across, you should run an antivirus program.

I previously used AVG for a long time. I still like it, and not just because there is a free version. At the time of this writing, there is still a free version. That can go away anytime the company chooses not to offer a free version. I've always been happy with AVG, as the free version is limited to virus detection and AVG ships regular virus signature update files. AVG has also always imposed very low overhead on my computers, not taking over my system like the other AVG apps.

For my Windows XP and Windows 7 computers, I use Microsoft Security Essentials for an AV application and also run the Malicious Software Removal Tool whenever an update is available. Both are free when you run a legitimate, registered, legal version of XP or Windows 7 (and maybe other Windows variants).

On my XP and Windows 7, I always enable the personal firewall that is built into the operating system. I do not, I repeat, I do not buy or use third party firewalls. 9/10 of the time, they will conflict with the free Windows personal firewall.

For my home network, I always use a good router with a built-in firewall. I do NOT connect any computer directly to my home modem (the thing the cable or dsl company gives you).

On my and my wife's Ubuntu operating system instances, we don't use an AV program. I do use UFW for a personal firewall on each Ubuntu instance.

I DO NOT use Micorsoft Outlook for email, or any other fat/thick/installed email client. I only use web-based email (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), that also offer virus scanning on anything sent to me, anything I send out, and anything I attach or detach to an email.

I have never liked antivirus/security suite applications from Symantec, McAfee, and Sophos. I will not buy or install them. I think they are all bloatware, they try to sell too much crap to you, including subscriptions. These so-called "security suites" have gone so far beyond simply detecting viruses, that they can grind your operating system to a dead crawl. Fact is, virus detection is now a commodity product and these companies are selling any additional product they can think up. These are my opinions based on personal experience. I stand behind them.

Final tip: Don't be stupid when surfing the web. An AV program cannot compensate for your stupid decisions. Don't download things you are not highly familiar with, and this includes random shareware and free software. Don't download things from web sites you can't personally trust. And, for the love of God, stop forwarding chain mails, especially those with attachments. If you do this, you are to blame for much of the viruses on the internet and I hope you cannot sleep.

Side note for tech-savvy folks:

I've seen Macs with antivirus programs installed on them. I don't understand why, since I always hear that linux and unix variants don't need antivirus due to their inherent security architecture. So, if Mac OS is based on a unix operating system, why would people be installing antivirus programs? Or, is it BS to think a unix or linux os doesn't need an av program?

Issue: Microsoft Outlook Won't Send or Receive Email

This is a very common issue that I hear almost every week from various family and friends. Usually it's from people who are old or simply out of it. The problem is usually due to the email server not working properly, or a bad configuration in the Outlook email client.

Effective Solution: I tell the victim to uninstall Outlook and move to webmail, such as Gmail or Yahoo. There are so many reasons why you should not be using Outlook. A few are:

• With Outlook, you are tied to the computer that has Outlook configured for your email services.
• If you go on a trip or out of town, you pretty much must bring your laptop that has Outlook configured on it.
• With Outlook, you have to configure too much stuff (inbound servers, outbound servers, username, password, etc.)
• You have to install Outlook.

Web-based email, such as Gmail and Yahoo, don't suffer any of the issues listed above. You simply log in, from ANY computer, from almost anywhere in the world, and it just works. Since Microsoft owns Hotmail, I generally to tell the Outlook victim not to use Hotmail.

If someone comes to me with this same issue twice, and they have neglected to migrate from Outlook to some web-based email service, I very plainly tell them I will no longer assist them with their email issues. Case closed. I don't have time to help people who don't listen to me.

Tech Tip: Using search engines to find tech solutions

Almost every PC hardware or software question posed to me by friends and family has a simple answer that is clearly described somewhere on the web. Rather than just always give point-specific solutions, I feel it's important to teach process and methodology so these victims can solve issues on their own. This tech tip is the actionable embodiment of the famous proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

The Tech Tip: You can find the solution to most any tech issue by learning how to use a search engine. Here are the steps:

1. Open your favorite browser
2. In the address bar, enter www.google.com (www.yahoo.com, or www.bing.com)
3. Enter the tech subject your are interested in, or your tech question.
4. After you've entered your search terms, or question, or phrase, do one of the following (step 5, 6, or 7):
5. If using Google, click the "Google Search" button
6. If using Yahoo, click the "Web Search" button
7. If using Bing, click the magnifying glass icon
8. Read over the search results and pick ones that look useful, and click the links
9. Read the web pages that the search result links take you to and try to learn and apply the solutions they offer

You now possess the knowledge to leverage the web to find solutions to your critical IT issues and questions. Don't forget, you learned it here at the Effective IT Solutions blog.

Effective IT Solutions: History, Mission, and Objective

By profession, I am a software engineer. I spend much of my day writing software in Java, Python, and a bit of PHP. Of course, I do my fair share of debugging and refactoring, as well. However, in my spare time, I configure hardware, operating systems, and applications. As such, I gain quite a bit of useful knowledge that others find useful. People ask me often about their computer issues, and I am always happy to help. Which leads me to this blog. Most questions I get are had by many , so I plan to share my answers and advice in this blog. I refer to this this information as my Effective IT Solutions. Thanks for reading and I hope either now, or in the future, you find something at this blog that is helpful when you're in a bind.