Don't be a fool when choosing your anti-virus program!

All your data relies on a good antivirus program do your homework people!

If I go to Best Buy and buy an antivirus program chances are that I will buy the worst anti-virus ever made, but the most commercialized! In a few weeks of browsing the web I guarantee you that you will be infected with a few combination of malware!

I work helping people get rid off malware (virus, spyware, trojans, rootkit, etc..) and protecting their systems, some of my clients have vital data on their systems and they cannot take any chances.

Here is my Anti-Malware formula:

1. Main antivirus: ESET NOD32

2. Backup antivirus: Online Free Scan; Kaspersky and Housecall Trendmicro.

3. Main Antispyware: AVG Antispyware (previously Ewido)

4. Backup Antispyware: XoftSpy, NoAdware, Spybot (Immunization -> Very important)

5. Firewall: Tiny Firewall or Comodo Firewall Pro or Sygate or Zone Alarm (One of them in that respective order of preference)

6. Clean Up: CCleaner (Run it at least every 2 weeks)

7. Hard disk Defragmenting: Diskeeper (On automatic defragmentation)

8. Registry Cleaner and optimizer (Optional): Error Nuker.

At this point your computer is very secure without compromising the performance much. NOD32 is coming out with a complete security program that should complement their strong antivirus.

I don't rely on only one program; instead I use the power of 3 very strong antivirus research houses (ESET, Kaspersky and Trendmicro). I install the lightest one of those 3 programs on my computer "NOD32", it only uses about 25 MB of RAM and scans every file that loads into RAM.

For antispyware I always use spybot since the very beginning, I love the way it immunizes the system with all known threats, then I use AVG antispyware resident shield to have a live protection. XoftSpy will scan my whole system in less than 3 minutes, so I run it as often as I want. Finally, NoAdware will pick up all those traces left behind by other programs, nice complement!

As for the firewall, I prefer to setup a router (hardware firewall) and never connect my computer directly to the modem. Also, a good software firewall should give me total control over which application actually has access to the internet and vice versa. Tiny firewall is really powerful but Comodo free firewall will do a great job too for almost all users!

Regular clean ups is a very good way to avoid malware as these sometimes hide in temporary folders as entry point into the computer. CCleaner does a very good job and best of all, it’s free!

Finally, after loading my computer with all these applications, I need to keep the hard disk defragmented at all times. Diskeeper has become an essential tool to keep performance up in busy multitasking environments.

Chances are that six month down the road this scenario will be adjusted to the best performers at that time.