Mary Landesman wrote an article on About.com, which brought up some interesting points. Three different free antivirus solutions were tested: AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic, AVAST 4 Home Edition, and AVG Free Edition. Of these; AVAST! (Which I use.) fared the best, detecting 92% of zoo viruses. AntiVir came second with an 85% detection rate, and AVG was in last place with only 81% detection rate.

When it came to being fast at releasing updates against major threats though, AntiVir was tops, with Avast! in second place, and AVG once again lagging behind in last place.

Although all three solutions claim to give protection against spyware and adware, they’re all fairly lousy at doing so. Avast! was again the best; despite scoring only 33%. AVG was yet again in last place.

As with everything else, you get what you pay for; so if you need an active all-round security suite I personally recommend the paid-for Kaspersky Internet Security Complete Protection , which has in test after test proved to be one of the best security solutions on the market. Linux users and geeky types may prefer NOD32/Eset Smart Security, which is also one of the best out there – Although I personally found it to be a bit bloated when I tested it last year (2008) in November.

I remember back in the days in the 20th Century when I was running Windows 98SE I had Trend PC-Cillin installed, (Not free) which failed to detect a particularly virulent virus which subsequently infected my system and disabled all protection. I installed a different paid-for solution, (I forget the name of it.) which the virus couldn’t disable and which detected and killed the virus. That goes to show that no antivirus solution; free or paid-for, is infallible.

I’ve always scanned with Lavasoft AdAware on a weekly basis anyway. – So if anything is missed by Avast! then AdAware; probably the best anti-malware solution I’ve seen, even topping Malware Bytes, will remove it.

What antivirus or security suite are you using? How would you rate it? Please comment.

Added 16th December 2009: Since I wrote this article a new free antivirus solution from Microsoft; namely Microsoft Security Essentials, has been released. In the opinion of myself and other testers; all other free antivirus solutions suck in comparison, and I strongly recommend that, if you’re not prepared to pay for an antivirus/malware solution, you download and install Microsoft Security Essentials

I’m getting a lot of enquiries with regard to this from the search-engines lately: It’s like there’s a rush suddenly developed to get rid of the things for whatever reason. In my personal opinion the Home Hub 2.0 upwards are quite sophisticated. – Much more so than their predecessors anyway; but each to their own. maybe the novelty’s worn off somewhat? Who knows?

Anyway; since I haven’t posted since Friday last; as I’ve been working flat out on other things to do with this blog, I thought it was worth an article all of its own: So voila: Here is the articulated article: – (~ Articulum Articulate’.)

It’s a bit of a conundrum to pin down exactly what people mean by “uninstalling” the Home Hub: ‘See the Home Hub (HH for short.) is never actually installed; hence the reason it doesn’t appear in Device Manager.

To be “installed” in the proper sense of the word; a device should be reliant on a certain standard of interaction and control by the computer’s processor: For instance; if I were to install a graphics card in a computer, the graphics card would interact with the north bridge of the chipset, the processor via the peripheral component interface controllers, (PCI/e to you and me.), the RAM, and the power supply or PSU possibly to a greater extent than any other component, depending on its power consumption requirements related to its performance.

A BT Home Hub, on the other hand, is a router; a glorified router true, but nevertheless a router. (A rose by any other name. – Shakespeare.) It’s essentially as installed in your computer as your uninterruptible power supply or UPS is. (If you don’t have a UPS I really do suggest you get one ASAP: My two have saved me from almost certain data loss, as well as possible hard-disk damage, three times in the last 12 months.) Your UPS connects to your computer; maybe even by means of a USB lead like my Belkin does. It even has related software installed on the computer. – But it’s not counted as an installed device. The software only enables the computer to understand its readout and user interface (UI). It doesn’t actually drive the device itself. That’s the difference: An installed device has a driver for it stored on the hard-disk, which loads up to the device in order for it to do its thing – Like a set of instructions,  when the system is activated. A non-installed device does not. Let me give you an example: –

I’m a human hardware device: I have limbs and a body. I know already how to move almost all parts of my body. My controller, the human CPU, wants me to perform a specific operation that I don’t have a clue how to perform. I know how to move, but I have no idea which moves to make in order to complete the task.

When the machine starts up and the human BIOS has asked me to identify myself so that she can report my status and characteristics to the processor, the human  CPU or processor sends me a set of instructions telling me a number of complex moves that I must execute in a certain way in response to specific commands. I obey, and although I have no idea myself exactly what I’m doing as such, I’m carrying out my role efficiently as a component in the human computer.

I hope that analogy gives you some idea of what it is that I’m getting at. here’s another way to put it: -

A router has its own processor and is a separate entity entirely from the computer. The router is a mini-computer in it’s own right. To say that a router is “installed” in a computer in the same way as one of the drives (A:, C:, D:, E:, etc.) is, for instance, is equivalent to saying that you are installed as part of me just like my arm is. It’s simply not true: We can communicate, we can interact. You might help me in some way if you feel like it; and vice-versa. – But I can’t instruct you to do exactly what I want and know that you’ll carry out my instructions to the letter every time I demand it; like my arm does, for instance, and like a computer’s installed component does too.

A router; on the other hand, is totally autonomous: It receives input from the source, processes it, and sends it to the computer. Likewise it receives input from the computer, processes it, and sends it to source. The computer can tell the router to slow down or “stop talking to me while I finish processing the last data”. It can even say “Shut up until I ask you to talk to me again” in a number of circumstances. If the processor fails inside the computer then the computer’s rendered useless; yet the router goes on sending data regardless.

In the same way, if I die you won’t die; but my arm which is installed will.

Have we laboured that point enough now?

OK; point made: So how do we uninstall the BT software that I installed when I started using the Home Hub?

You mean the Norton Security Suite – Ahem, err… With Difficulty. – But it can be done; using the Norton Uninstaller Tool from Symantec. Everything else, such as the Wireless Connection Manager, (Pointless software: Windows already has one and it’s much better with a decent UI too.) BT/Yahoo software, BT Broadband Desktop Help, and whatever else rubbish they provided, (I think even the Yahoo Toolbar, although it can be deactivated in the browser, comes under this category too.) can be uninstalled via Add/Remove Programs. Look for “BT” and uninstall everything that starts with it. (I hope I haven’t fallen behind the times; my original BT/Yahoo software was supplied around 5 years ago. – Yes I do get online updates.)

And that’s yer lot: It was worth writing for a few extra hits. I think BT and/or BT Home Hub must be one of the, if not THE, most popular subject on this blog. Enjoy your new router. – By the way; BT Home Hubs might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s a lot worse out there. If you can; try before you buy.

Let me know how you get on BTW. See that empty box below? That’s for things called “comments”: You, my readers, have to make them for me. No you don’t need a degree in engineering to make a comment: Just type something, anything: Even tell me you love me if it makes you feel better. (Unfortunately I’m the Ice Maiden’s Boss; so you’ll almost definitely draw a blank.) Just comment; or am I all alone out here in this corner of cyberspace? 

In cyberspace; everyone can hear you scream. – It’s probably recorded on You Tube!

Sorry if this post appears a bit late: I’m watching the Darwin program on BBC4.

Having done so I’m finding it rather difficult to think of any suitable pictures other than the ones I’ve used already: I’ll come up with something eventually though no doubt.

During 2007, Computer Shopper magazine tested a number of free and paid-for antivirus solutions. NOD 32 came second to Kaspersky. By the time I tried Kaspersky for myself they’d released a new version which was so bloated I thought of Norton. I’d tried NOD 32 previous to this on a single-cored Pentium 4-driven system, however, and was quite impressed by its functionality, ease of use, and small footprint.

During this month; November 2008, I got the chance to try out the full version of Smart Security from ESET, the makers of NOD 32. As a rule I always try out anything new on my second machine, which happens to be currently fitted with a 2.2GHz single-cored Athlon 64 processor.

I installed the product: Installation was quick and painless and I soon had it up and running properly after it had updated itself with all the latest files.

The firewall isn’t intrusive. It keeps track of what’s going in and out; but unlike some it doesn’t continually ask you whether you’d prefer to allow or deny every single connection. It accepts everything acceptable that’s flowing from trusted software which is already installed and does its job silently.

The antivirus scan is well hot: It even informs you if files are corrupted, incomplete, or don’t have a valid checksum, in addition to telling you if any files are infected with spyware or a virus.

The anti-spam I didn’t really try out so I won’t present any data on that.

My overall verdict is that it’s a very good security suite; but the problem is that it has a large footprint: If it almost occupies an entire core; even on a single-cored 64-bit processor, then it’s too big for my liking. On a quad or six-core processor-driven machine things might not be so bad; but certainly I’d say it used far too much CPU for a single or dual-cored machine.

A strange twist to this article occurred whilst I was writing it: I heard a loud click from my second machine, which was right next to me, and a metallic noise. Then nothing appeared to happen out of the ordinary for about a minute, when suddenly that machine stopped, switched off without shutting down.

I hoped that the fault wasn’t as I expected; but on opening the machine my worst fears were confirmed:

The Shuttle motherboard used in its construction, like most other socket AM2 motherboards, keeps the cooler attached to the socket AM2 CPU by means of a fixing where a metal loop attached to a lever is hooked over one of two lugs on the enclosure around processor socket. This lever appears on the other side of the cooler with a similar metal loop attached to it. This other loop is hooked over the other lug and tension is applied to it by means of another lever; therefore the processor and cooler stay in close contact while the cooler is tensioned downwards onto the face of the processor so that heat transfer is maximised with the help of some heat-conductive grease.

The model of Shuttle motherboard used (Now discontinued.) uses a rather brittle material to make the CPU surroundings including these lugs that the cooler depends on to stay in contact with the processor: Not a noticeably brittle material, but nevertheless to brittle for the purpose. I’ve had one or two of these machines returned under warranty with the lugs snapping off after a number of months, rendering the entire motherboard worthless and inoperative. That’s exactly what had happened to my machine (Kustom Komputa Exel model A101-s) which was one of the original machines built by Kustom Komputa in the days when a single-core Athlon was incorporated in them rather than a dual-core. This syndrome I’ve affectionately christened "lug-rot".

So what to do? Suddenly I was reduced to a single machine. Of course I can get by quite easily with only one computer; but it’s always better to have two: I use both at once occasionally, and I always have a spare if one breaks down, as had happened recently when the hard disk died on the other one.

I was planning to publish the article about ESET SS that day; but needs must, I had no backup, and if the other machine went down, as Sod’s law would make sure that it did if I had no backup, then I’d be totally stuffed.

I checked the junk cupboard: I had an old wrecked machine from about 4 years ago which the PSU had burnt out on. It had been checked since and the motherboard was still working. It was an Asrock board, still in a case, and the processor and cooler were still attached. I’d removed and dumped the burnt-out PSU, also I’d used the DDR RAM sticks and the hard drive from it. – Otherwise it was complete except for DDR RAM, PSU, and SATA leads: There was even a SATA DVD-RAM drive fitted but unconnected.

The processor was a 1.8GB AMD Sempron, which was a bit weak for my liking, as well as being only 32-bit, despite the motherboard being 64-bit capable. Seeing I didn’t have any socket 754 single-cored Athlon 64s in stock, which was the only other processor the board would take, the existing 32-bit Sempron would have to do. I had a brand new 300 Watt PSU and a 250 MB stick of DDR2 in stock. That would at least work; although rather weakly. I could use the hard drive from the failed computer…In fact I might be able to simply pop it in and boot up just as before without any problems.

I’m trying to keep this from taking on the proportions of a novel; in other words keep it short: So to cut a long story short I built it as planned and powered up: Rattle rattle rattle. – The hard-drive was having a fit. When it eventually booted it was unbelievably slow and the hard-drive was still thrashing. I had a driver CD for the board, which I managed to install eventually, but the performance didn’t improve to a level which I was anywhere near happy with.

I ended up taking note of everything that I had installed on the system partition C: on that disk and reformatting the partition, reinstalling, optimising, finalising… And now I have a second machine again that works well. I found another 250MB stick of DDR which I installed, and that made the performance so much better. Surprisingly, after reinstalling the Windows XP Home OS and activating it with just the 250MB RAM installed, it told me that I needed to activate it again after installing another 250MB stick!: A notice appeared at boot saying that the hardware specs had changed significantly and that I must reactivate this copy of Windows. – That’s the first time I’ve ever had to reactivate after installing just another single stick of RAM!

So usual scenario: A few hours building it (2 in fact.) and a whole day plus some installing, verifying, optimising the software. It was fun, but it delayed my posting to my blog.

Have you ever built a computer? What was your experience?

Have you ever tried ESET Smart Security? Do you agree with my findings?

Leave a comment below why not? Come on, don’t be shy, don’t leave it to the spammers to make the only comments. – Which I delete if the Akismet anti-spam software doesn’t get there first. Your comment probably won’t be deleted, even if it’s a negative comment. I have a good comment system set up: Use it why not?