Often it is felt by all that if a software is a paid one, it is bound to be better than a free software. In case of protecting the computer from Viruses, Spywares and hackers, it is all the way more important to have a reliable security suite. But I can name some such free softwares that can do the work of protecting your computer equal to or even better than the paid applications.

Three important softwares round up the suite. These are:

• Comodo Firewall, for the firewall application
  
• Avast Antivirus (home), for an effective antivirus
  
• Spyware Terminator, for preventing hackers and spyware softwares from attacking the computer, and sending the personal information through the internet to the hackers

All these tools are completely free, and are as effective as any of the paid applications, if used in a combination. They together create a perfect Security Suite to protect the computer from threats from the web and other sources.


Comodo Firewall:

Comodo Firewall is one of the best known and most effective firewalls. Passed through extensive leak testing, so that nothing can pass through it's protection barrier, it has become the most dependable firewall, that can detect and prevent any attack on the computer. It protects against both external, and internal attacks on the computer. It works as well as the paid firewalls, but it's free. It prevents even those programs from accesing the internet whose trickery even passed through other firewalls. As all other firewalls, initially, a large number of pop-ups come up, telling that such and such programs (a huge number) are accesing the internet. But at first it shall be put into training mode to detect and allow all the programs that access the internet. Then it runs very smoothly. The notifications are too, better than many other firewalls. It is the first step to creating a leak proof security suite.

Download Comodo Firewall


Spyware Terminator:

It is a totally free Spyware detector, with results comparable to many paid spyware detectors. It is an award winning software used by millions of users worldwide. The popularity is all that is needed to prove it's efficiency. Spyware Terminator gives fast Spyware Scanning, Real Time protection and everything expected from a paid spyware detector. Like Comodo Firewall, it gives reports that are easy-to-interpret, making it easy to determine whether a program is needed to be removed. Does boot time scanning, very light and unobtrusive. Again, just like Comodo Firewall, it needs some attention in the Training period, but afterwards it works very silently and efficiently. I have been using it for quite some time, and it has never caused me any problem. It makes the second step to a fully free, completely secure antivirus suite.

Download Spyware Terminator



Avast Home Edition:

This is the last and the major step towards creating the free antivirus suite we have been creating for long. It provides great protection, even like the major paid antivirus softwares, yet it is free (surprising, isn't it)? Avast Home edition has an inbuilt Anti-Spyware, but I would insist upon using Spyware Terminator for the job. You can read about this antivirus in this post, here. Though paid antiviruses have better protection, but if these three tools are used simultaneously, they give a supreme protection. This protection can be even better than the paid antivirus suites. Avast Antivirus has a simple interface (which is lacking in the paid Kaspersky Internet Security 9), and an effective virus chest too. With small update sizes, and integrated Virus Cleaner, it is one of the most popular Antivirus Tools.

Download Avast Home Edition


This rounds up the Ultimate Anti- PC threat suite. All these used combined, can even challenge the paid applications like Kaspersky. An A-Z protection ranging from Boot-time scanning to blocking suspicious activities on the pc, these three tools will create your own free, personalised all-round computer protection suite. I have been using these tools for months, and have not got a single problem yet. All Viruses that affect my PC are captured, and every spyware is treated in it's deserving way. I get regular updates, and am quite satisfied with the protection these provide.

Before going into details of this post, I would like to create a background. You can see this anti-piracy post here, and read the comments from the people. Isn't it strange that everyone (except myself) who has made a comment on the post supports piracy? Does everyone who comes on this blog supports piracy so strongly? No. They do not feel so strongly, but are simply addicted to piracy. Piracy is like dope. The more you have, the more you are implored to have. And just like dope, there is a solution to get out of it's clutches. The people themselves have now found a solution to this. The answer is- Open Source, Free Softwares.

Many user-made, free, open source softwares have come up on the internet to solve the problem. As is evident, an Operating System, and a Word Processor package is nearly all that is required for the office work. Currently the market is captured by Windows (for Operating System) and Microsoft Office (for Word Processor). But both the applications have user made variants too. Open Suse (the free Linux based OS), and OpenOffice (the free word processor) do the work. Why resort to piracy when these free softwares can do the work? I am to describe about each of the two applications in this post.


OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source office software for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases etc., from Sun Microsystems. It supports many languages and computers. It even reads data from other office softwares. The special thing is, it is completely open source meaning that anyone edit the features, request new features, or enhance the suite. This gives you a chance to get your own requirements added to the suite, getting your wish catered to, as well as improving the already fine software. It has no licence, can be downloaded on any number of computers, gives ever increasing number of updates, and is available in your native language too, making it much easy to use. It is the choice of the day. Open Office can be downloaded here.



OpenSuse.org- A free Linux-based Operating System for the computers

Many developers round the world who believe that softwares shall not be paid for, have made a project of creating the world's most usable Linux. It is deemed to become a commom platform for Linux hackers and application developers. It comprises of all the things needed in an Operating System. Above all, it's free, and now-a-days, there is a big rush for Open Suse, which has ample chances of challenging Windows. Like OpenOffice.org, it consists of defect reporting, that will improve the Operating System. It is created by the people themselves. Anyone can register and add their codes to the Open Suse project. So, when the people themselves do the job, they will be content with it, and have their share in the promotion of the thing. Thus, it will become one of the most user-friendly Operating System, consisting of all the features that the users want. It will be (and is already becoming) a direct challenge to Windows. OpenSuse can be downloaded here.


Thus, when these, and many, many other softwares are present, one can do without resorting to piracy. If one need not resort to piracy, the world be cleaner, and no ThePirateBay verdict will be passed. Many other common applications used by people have substitutes, which some or in the other way, are better or atleast upto the mark of the existing giants.

I have spent quite a good time working with my Avast Antivirus. It has been taking a good care of my pc and I have got very well aquainted with it. So, here is a very useful information for people who have other antiviruses installed or are about to do it.

Benefits of using Avast Anti-Virus:
• Its updates are very small (of KBs). Whereas the updates of others such as kaspersky,etc are of few MBs.
• Its home edition is totally free.So there is no fear of any sort of piracy.
• It runs in the background and thus the system doesn’t get slow.
• With Avast comes free services like Webshield,Real Time Protection Access,Live Monitering which other anti-virus softwares don’t offer free of cost.

Demerits of using Avast Anti-Virus:
• It increases the booting time of the system.
• The Database of this anti-virus is not very large and hence many of the viruses penetrate its protection barrier.
On the whole I give it three stars out of five.