Catatan Harianku Tentang IT

Free Software Alternatives

wikardi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:36:25 +0000

By CC-Staff

Introduction

This article is going to show you how you can accomplish tasks with similar or even better software. Why spend money on software when there are alternatives for almost every single category of applications that is being used on a daily basis?

There are many programs out there that can do the job for free, but not a lot of people have heard or wanted to try the alternatives. Granted there is a lot of popularity behind name brand software that comes from Microsoft, Symantec, Adobe and more, but how many people have heard of OpenOffice, AVG, and other products to do the same tasks?

I do beleive that people sometimes think that if it’s free that its not that good, or there is some type of catch to it. Granted there are tons of shareware and freeware files, but we are going to look at files that are completely free and provide a great alternative to spending hundreds of dollars for similar software.

Office Suites

It is a well known fact that Microsoft Office has been the standard in Office Productivity Suites for a while, with tons of features built in and no matter where you are there seems to be Microsoft Office installed on a computer whether it’s at home, work or school. There competitor, not free which is Corel Office, the more affordable office productivity suite made by Corel which offers the same types of programs that comes with Microsoft Office.

Did you know that there are free alternatives to Microsoft Office and Corel Office? Interestingly enough, there are two main free products out there that can do the same job and are even compatibile with the latter’s formats when it comes to documents. Two of the main competitors are OpenOffice‘s OpenOffice suite and 602 Pro Software‘s PC Suite. These two are amongst the most popular free office productivity suites out there. Both of these products fully support MS Office’s formats and will allow you to modify and create documents that can viewed and used on any of these office suites.

Antivirus Software

There are also few alternatives when it comes to completely free software to protect your computer. The big 3, Symantec’s Norton Antivirus, McAfee Antivirus Software and PandaAntivirus are the most used antivirus products today. These products will protect your email and your computer in real time from viruses, hoaxes and trojans while the latter two come with a free firewall with their product to make sure your computer is not open to attacks from hackers. All these companies claim to protect your computer but can a free alternative do the same?

As stated before, there are not too many free antivirus programs out there. One such free program recommended to users is Grisoft‘s AVG Free Edition. AVG Free Edition is a basic antivirus program without all the bells and whistles but will do the job and also comes with free virus updates! The downside is that it doesn’t come with technical support. Unlike their commercial competition there is no yearly service charge to continue updating your software after a year. Another free antivirus program is AntiVir from Free-AV.com. This program allows updating of the virus definitions for free and also comes with realtime monitoring like their commercial competitors.

Firewalls

Firewalls have been increasingly used within the past two years. Whether you have dialup or broadband, not having a firewall could be disastorous. There are many firewalls out there from Zonealarm Pro, McAfee Firewall and the list goes on. But there are quite a few freebies in this section. ZoneLabs produces their commerical product ZoneAlarm Pro and also has a free version, ZoneAlarm. ZoneAlarm is the most popular free firewall for the past few years. There are also other free ones to try such as Agnitum’s Outpost Free, and Kerio Personal Firewall just to name a few.

System Maintenance Tools

This is one thing a computer should not be without, system maintenance tools. These tools can be anything from cleaning the Windows’ registry, to deleting useless files and what not. The Software Corner has reviewed many of these programs, but there is a rarity in finding one that comes as a complete solution for free. You can download individual programs to do the same job.

Programs like Norton System Works comes with every practical cleaning and maintenance program for your computer and so does McAfee. There are also dozens of other commercial products that do the same but only varies on their functionality. But here we will take a look at free alternatives to maintain your computer in a clean and goodworking order.

As stated before there are not too many free alternatives for maintaining one’s computer without spending money or reading guides from the internet,(The Software Corner has some guides showing how to rid useless files), but here are some free programs that I think a computer should not be without.

For registry cleaning, I would suggest getting regclean which is a free program. There are also other freeware tools that can help you maintain your computer and you can download some from this site or check on searchengines for more programs.

CD Burning Software

There are only 3 major players when it comes to purchasing cd burning software and that is Nero, CloneCD and EasyCD Creator. They cost about the same thing and well they do come with a lot of functions. All of these programs also burn DVDs for those who have a DVD burner! All these programs support a wide range of CD burners and each of the respective programs have advantages and disadvantages. But the question is are there any free CD burning products?

Well the answer to this question is yes. CDBurnerXP Pro allows you to do a lot of functions such as burn ISOs and is capable of erasing CDrws, Rip Audio Cds and much more. Well there is a downside that it might not support your burner, so you should check up on their list to see if your burner is supported or not.

Conclusion

This article shows to people that there are good free programs out there on the internet that can do the same task as a commercially available program but without that expensive price tag. Although you do still pay for your OS, looking at and trying free alternatives of popular products could save you a lot of money in the long run and many freeware authors usually give free upgrades to the latest version so you are up to date, unlike commmercial software.

Article provided by:

Canadian Content Staff
Email: technology @ canadiancontent.net
http://www.canadiancontent.net/tech/

Keeping Windows Secure

wikardi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:26:49 +0000

By Christopher Walsh

Steps to making your computer secure and healthy

We have devised this important list of steps for Internet users in an attempt at keeping unwanted elements off of your computer. As a user of the Internet, your computer becomes an open door to spyware, virii, hacks and even backdoor trojans.

This guide will ensure that your computer is safe from these harmful components.

Spyware:

As a rule, spyware is defined as software which is usually installed on your computer without your knowledge which collects all kinds of information from your computer and sends it back to a third party. Common occurances of spyware can happen when you install “adware” programs such as Kazaa which install another application which embeds its-self in your computers file system. The motives to including spyware in software is simply monitary. Many software developers which use this form of trickery make the bulk of their profit from third parties which pay for each installation.

Here are some excellent tips on completely removing spyware from your system:

Download Ad-Aware. This is probably the most useful utility on the market. A personal version is available as freeware and free to install on any system. Ad-Aware is available directly from Canadian Content.

Check other spyware utilities. To each his own, there are alternatives available to the most popular on the market. Be sure to check these if you believe there’s something left on your system.

The best tip to avoiding spyware all together is downloading only the programs you trust. Never click “YES” when requested to install software from a web site unless you trust the source and you are expecting to receive the message.

Firewalls:

One of the most important steps on preventing attacks and PC hacking is installing a firewall. You could never imagine how much time and hassle may be saved by installing this simple utility.

A firewall is a small utility installed on your system which prevents unauthorised programs from accessing your Internet connection. They are also useful for filtering out unwanted port-scans which test your computer for vulnerabilities. If an unwanted visitor want to do harm to your computer, a firewall is the most effective way in preventing it.

We’ve compiled a list of firewalls available directly from Canadian Content. You are free to download and test them depending on your taste and level of computing:

Norton Personal Firewall. A commercial solution available to end-users. Effective and user-friendly.

Sygate Personal Firewall. A safe, yet advanced firewall solution. Sygate filters out most everything by default.

Download other firewalls. Canadian Content has compiled a comprehensive list of other firewalls available free for download.

We’d also suggest keeping your personal computer up-to-date. Microsoft Windows incorporates a more advanced Windows Firewall in it’s lastest Service Packs, eliminating the requirement for other third party software.

Anti-Virus:

Virii have plagued the Internet for years and this year is no different. Each month, we witness an increased number of virii floating around email address lists and what was a growing trend in unwanted rubbish being installed from web sites profiting off of it. Thanks to the latest Windows Service Pack (2), the web site virii have been eliminated for a large part, but that doesn’t stop the spread of virus-email and other forms of attack.

With that, we’d suggest keeping up-to-date software on hand to detect, combat and prevent these outbreaks in exposing your computer to the insecurities of the Internet and the new-age script-kiddies.

Be sure to look at the following solutions:

AVG Anti-Virus. A free, personal anti-virus program which makes available all of the features of a full commercial anti-virus program available to everyone.

Norton Anti-Virus. A commercial solution with access to daily updates; automatically!

PC-Cillin House-call. A free online virus scanner which wipes your system clean of known virii and possible threats. Highly recommended.

Other Anti-Virus programs. Canadian Content has compiled a list of useful anti-virus utilities free for download.

Whatever you choose to protect yourself from virii, make sure they are all up-to-date and competent at detecting the most modern forms of virii.

Update Windows:

If you’re a Windows XP user, you a most surely aware of the new capabilities offered which automatically keep your system like new. Unfortunately, some guides and web sites suggest turning off the default updates which supposedly slow-down your system. They actually don’t, and use only a certain amount of bandwidth when updates do take place. If you’re using a broadband connection, you’ll surely never notice automatic updates.

Make sure your Windows stays updated, follow these steps: Goto your control panel through the start menu, select “System”. From the box listing general details about your computer, hit the “Automatic Updates” tab. Make sure the automatic setting is setup for daily. This will ensure that each day your startup your computer, you’ll have peice of mind.

If you’re not using the latest version of Windows XP, goto the Windows Update web site available at Windowsupdate.Microsoft.com.

Secure Browsers:

As my colleagues will often mention, Internet Explorer is not the safest nor the best browser currently available. Every week, there are more holes found in the software and while windows update will also keep Internet Explorer up-to-date, Microsoft does not document nor does it make public all security glitches. It’s main rivals will often remind users that it’s not safe to use Internet Explorer anymore.

Please, take a look around at other browsers. You might warm up to having the option of tabbed-browsing. Additional peice-of-mind is always refreshing. We’ve reviewed a couple, too:

Opera. Fast, free, handy. Three words describe Opera. Other nice features include the quick options of built-in popup blocking and also the option of remaining anonymous. It’s also able to prevent ad publishers from getting surfing and browsing habits sent through http headers in Internet Explorer.

Mozilla Firefox. Open-source community-driven browser with tons of options, open secuirty features and the ability to filter out pretty much anything.

In any event, keep your chosen browser clean from malware and make sure you upgrade to the newest stable versions when they become available.

Conclusion:

By following the preceeding steps and choosing the best software available to you, you’ll give yourself peice of mind in your daily online activities. The most important factor in making yourself secure is keeping up-to-date and surpassing the status quo. Make your life easier and less stressful by keeping your computer clean.

Article provided by:

Canadian Content Staff
Email: technology @ canadiancontent.net
http://www.canadiancontent.net/tech/

Users Blamed for Virus Proliferation

wikardi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:40:20 +0000

By Alistair Dabbs

Blame for the recent proliferation of Windows viruses has been attributed to the indiscipline of computer users, but high-profile voices are at last speaking up in our defense.

Pilot error is an easy accusation to make, but how is it determined? Even when a black box recorder is retrieved after an aircraft accident, it’s not as if the pilot has given himself away by saying ‘Whoops!’ just before the bang. So a group of independent experts try to investigate all the possibilities one by one before attributing blame, and this blame might be directed at anyone — pilot, airline, air traffic control and so on.

Turning to less fatal issues, computer virus attacks are always due to pilot error. No-one else. You’re the idiot, say the experts, and that’s official.

Regular readers of this column will be familiar with my view that the only truly idiotic thing a computer user ever does on a regular basis is pay money to experts. So it’s with a furrowed brow that I heard one of George Bush’s advisors agreeing with me last week. ‘It cannot be beyond our ability to [...] write and distribute software with much higher standards of care and much reduced rate of errors and much reduced set of vulnerabilities,’ said retired lieutenant-general John Gordon at the RSA Security conference in San Francisco.

That’s easy to say but hard to implement. After all, this is a country whose experts can put an RC buggy on Mars but is unable to cobble together a working hole-puncher for presidential election polling slips. IT experts are aghast at such ignorance. Doesn’t this bloke know that computer users are the problem, not the systems? Oh if only we could just ignore the users and just keep their money… oh hang on, we do that already.

Indeed, one of the counter arguments from the IT industry was that fixing software security holes is too expensive to be worthwhile. Yet third party security specialists make a fair living out of doing just that. Now I’ve never really understood why small companies make money out of doing something that big, well-resourced companies supposedly can’t afford to do. For example, PalmOne (or whatever it wants to be called this week) says it no longer intends writing Mac OS X-compatible synch software for its palmtops because doing so is too expensive. Yet a whole army of teeny little companies, some of whom I suspect are little more than part-time hobbyist shareware authors, seem to have managed the task just fine.

The difference, if you haven’t already spotted it, is that the small company charges for its software, while the behemoth is expected to issue updates and patches for free. The behemoth has already taken your money, though, and just wishes you would go away or at least keep quiet when its software stops working properly. So I was very surprised to read Nick Scales of mail security service provider Avecho also agreeing with me. All the industry harping on about new viruses getting past anti-virus software, he says, as well as the subsequent blaming of the end user, is reminiscent of the train companies complaining about the wrong kind of snow.

He even dares to suggest that anti-virus developers adore viruses because each major scare boosts their profile, although this triggers a trail of thought whose logical conclusion is probably best to leave alone in the interests of legal decorum. File the story under P for Paranoia, along with the one about Microsoft supposedly helping fund SCO’s Linux law suits. Only idiots would believe that.

About the author: Alistair is a UK-based journalist with articles posted in several high-profile IT publications.

Article provided by:

Canadian Content Staff
Email: technology @ canadiancontent.net
http://www.canadiancontent.net/tech/