This is an excellent solution to a prolific problem. Average computer users are becoming infected by fake antivirus at an overgrowing rate. In fact, more fake antivirus products are installed on more PC’s than actual security products. Thankfully, a kind programmer has put together Remove Fake Antivirus 1.53.

     Remove Fake Antivirus 1.53 removes Alpha Antivirus, Antivirus 2010, Malware Doctor, Antivirus Pro 2010 etc. In fact, the product removes 30 different fake antivirus software from a user’s computer.  The software scans quickly and thoroughly completing a scan in less than 5 minutes.  All a user will need to do is reboot at the end.  Remove Fake Antivirus 1.53 will also place a log file on the desktop called rfa.log detailing the removal procedure. I also like the command line feature that allows the program to be run on auto start up etc.

  The author of the blog free of virus has also put a lot of time into tracking and removing fake antivirus. The software maker has been studying fake antivirus since February and provides in depth write-ups of how fake antivirus functions and exactly where the antivirus installs itself into (registry locations etc.) Definitely take a look at this software if have something running across your screen telling you are infected.

Download Remove Fake Antivirus 1.53

The complete removal list below

Introduction:

        G-Data Antivirus is a new security product just released in the United States.   The software has garnered a significant amount of attention because of the high detection rates.   In fact, it was one of the best antivirus that PC magazine has ever tested due to it's detection accuracy.  We now take a closer look at G-Data’s antivirus technology.
        One of the first features that stands out with G-Data Antivirus, is that the software utilizes two scanning engines rather than one.  This theoretically allows the antivirus to have higher virus detection rates but also comes with some performance problems (read more below.) G-Data utilizes Bitdefender’s and Avast’s scanning engines simultaneously.  Bitdefender and Avast are well renowned and have some of the highest individual detections rates at 97% and 98% respectively.

Virus Detection Performance:

       As stated last week on how to compare antivirus, G-Data has all of the premier security lab’s certifications.  They include West Coast Labs, ICSA, and Virus Bulletin certified.   In the main antivirus comparison test, AV comparatives, G-Data scored an advanced + rating (the highest rating.) G-Data had an amazing 99.8% accuracy which exceeded all of the other mainstream antivirus products tested.  Not bad for an antivirus that has just become available to the U.S. market.
       I have heard conflicting reports based about G-Data’s false positive rate. Some users have said that there have been false positives.  However, according to the latest antivirus test, G-Data excelled with the least amount of false positives detected.

G-Data's Drawbacks:

       One thing were G-Data fails to perform on, is it’s slower scanning speed.  The software only scanned files for viruses at 8 megabytes per second.  This is about half of what G-Data’s competitors' Avast and Symantec achieved at around 18 megabytes per second.  G-Data states on their website that they have now incorporated multi cpu core scanning (called ParallelScan) in their 2010 version.  However, the improvement has been small even with a dual core processor. Multithreading scanning only reaches about 10 megabyte per second in real world uses.
       In addition to the slower scanning, G-Data also tends to be a resource hog.  The program uses significantly more memory than competing antivirus products.  A lot of users complain that they have trouble running the software on computers with less than 512 megabytes of ram.  Users have reported that the antivirus can sometimes use upwards of 300 MB of memory.  Therefore, G-Data antivirus 2010 should probably on be used on more powerful systems with at least 1 GB of Ram.

Lackluster Product Support: 

       The final problem seems to be product support.  Since the company is in Germany, a lot of users are having problems talking to support agents. Novice users should probably stay with an antivirus that is a little more user friendly.

Conclusion:

       G-data is probably best suited for the security nerd and not the average user.  I say this because the program requirements are too high for the mainstream system and there isn’t sufficient product support.  The program will need some more refining before it can enter the typical computer user’s household.  However, if you want the best antivirus detection available check out G-data. Download G-Data from the company's website here.

     I have heard this line many times before. Is Norton better than McAfee? Is Kaspersky better than Avast? What is the best antivirus? Thankfully there are many ways to validate how an antivirus stacks up against their competitors.

      The first way is to find one of the many antivirus comparison companies and view their reports. One of my favorite is av-comparatives.org . You can view their latest report here. The company basically takes all of the well known antivirus software and runs a battery of tests on them. They use approximately 2,309,850 viruses on their test machines. They then rank each antivirus performance according to a battery of malware including backdoors, viruses, bots, and Trojans etc. The company then takes scanning times (Winners: ranked left to right, Avast, Symantec, Avira, and Sophos.), Detection Rates (Avira McAfee, Symantec, Avast then F-Secure 99.5% through 97.5%) and Missed Samples (Avira, McAfee, Symantec , and then Avast lower is better). Finally they assign an overall score with Avast, Symantec Norton, and Bitdefender ranked the highest.  McAfee is ranked in a tier below the following antivirus. There are also four levels of certification with the av comparatives rankings depending on effectiveness.

    There are also other ranking services including WestCoast labs. This laboratory again tests an assortment of antivirus variables. Unfortunately, the company only provides two certifications platinum or a regular certification. So, Antivirus software either has a certification or it doesn’t as the company doesn’t rank antivirus software. However, it’s still good to check for WestCoast labs certified antivirus.

     Next, is ICSA labs. I like ICSA labs because they not only test antivirus but antispyware and anti spam as well. I believe that ICSA labs is one of the original malware testing services so I presume them to also have the most experience. However, the company like Westcoast labs only provides a certification rather than a ranking.

     Finally is Virus Bulletin. VB is the same as the last 2 certification companies in that they only provides a single Vb100 certification. This Vb100 certification means that the antivirus product detected 100 percent of viruses in the wild. Only 15 of the 26 security products that they tested passed. However, according to Av-comparatives no antivirus scored 100 percent detection.

      Some things that virus testing services don’t tell you. The first thing is the virus testing or comparative labs do not usually test free antivirus products. Free antivirus usually have modified code or scaled down functionality from the full versions. Therefore, you can’t say that full antivirus software and a free antivirus software detection rates are even close to similar. This is unfortunate because most antivirus these days are free antivirus. Just do a quick Google search for “antivirus” and the first program is free avg. However, don’t be discouraged. Check out av-comparatives and then make sure the software also has certifications on the other three sites listed above. This should answer most users’ questions about what is the best antivirus or what antivirus is better?

I know we usually only look at free antivirus software but today I also wanted to take a look at a free firewall software.  Also don't be concerned by the name the software is also compatible with Windows Vista.

Background:
Interestingly, Windows 7 and Vista already come with a firewall built into the core of the Windows operating system.  However, the firewall is under utilized as it only provides inbound protection and not outbound.  Outbound protection is crucial to a secure computer because Trojans and viruses will often try to contact a hacker’s website to send a user’s personal details, download additional viruses and automatically install them, or sit idle waiting instructions from an attacker to attack other systems.  A firewall can also be instrumental in detecting unknown viruses or other malware.  If an unknown program attempts to connect to the internet, a user will alerted to the program and its location.

Review:,
Windows 7 firewall control adds this crucial outbound protection to the already built in windows firewall.  Therefore, a user will not have to deal with additional firewall software that will hog CPU and memory.   Windows 7 firewall control also adds individual application protection.   While the standard firewall has a basic application setting, Windows 7 firewall control lets a user tweak inbound and outbound settings for each and every application detected.

The free firewall add on also includes zones settings.  This will allow a user to create customs zones based upon usage.  For example, a user can set a zone to only enable internet browsing or only p2p traffic. I personally liked the LAN only setting which allows a computer to only communicate with computers on a LAN and not on the internet; this is great for local servers. The different security zones can also be activated with a simple hotkey.

Additional Features:
Windows 7 firewall control includes many of the similar features in other firewalls including port forwarding and rules based firewall.  However, there are a few features that I think really make the software amazing.

Taskbar Integration – currently not available on a regular windows 7 or windows vista computer.  A user can easily access the firewall from a simple icon rather than navigating countless menus.

Special Firewall Modes – In addition to the standard enable or disable all connections, the firewall includes an expansive or insecure connection mode.  This mode is perfect for a public hotspot in which a user only wants to give a specific program access through the hotspot.  For example, you’re at a coffee shop and only want to browse the web.  You can enable insecure connection mode and only allow the web browser but not other programs, to access the internet for an intermittent period.

Shell Integration -  The Windows 7 firewall control can be integrated directly into the Windows shell.  When a users right clicks a program,  the firewall will give the user a ton of available options such as adding the application to a zone or blocking etc.

IPV6 support - a user can easily discern and categorize IPV6 traffic with this firewall.

Conclusion:
Windows 7 firewall control is a must have freeware for any Windows 7 or Vista computer.  Download it here.

Avast 5.0 Introduction 

Avast was one of the first free antivirus products that I ever used.  I have always really liked the software for its abundance of features including the screen saver scanner and all of the different shields like the p2p shield.  The only problem I have had with Avast, is that the interface has really lagged behind their competitors.  I honestly think the menus haven’t changed for maybe 7 years.  The lifted Sim City sound effects (when you click a button) also started to drive me a little crazy.

Thankfully, all of this has changed with the Avast free 5.0 beta update.  The interface has really improved and now looks like a top notch antivirus product comparable to the latest Norton and McAfee versions.  See the shocking software evolution below.

The previous Avast 4.8 shown below

The new Avast 5.0 Beta displayed below

A Norton antivirus 2010 comparison screenshot

Avast 5.0 beta technology

       In addition to the new look, Avast has also made a lot of advances in their antivirus technology.  The first is that Avast 5.0 Beta includes spyware and anti rootkit detection built in.  The anti root kit detection now has real-time protection versus a passive system hence, the Avast behavior shield.  We are not exactly sure why Avast doesn’t call their product an internet security software because it includes all of the core features (anti rootkit and spyware technology) into their software package.  Just a quick note Free AVG doesn’t include rootkit detection and only includes the technology in the full version. Avast 5.0 also includes a boot scanning feature similar to Free AntiVir which will allow you to scan a system even before Windows completely starts.  This prevent viruses from locking themselves into memory so that they can easily be deleted.

      The underlying antivirus system also has numerous improvements.  The first being that the free antivirus now supports multi threading.  This will allow Avast 5.0 to break up a virus scan to all of a computer’s cores.  According to infosecurity magazine,  this will allow the Avast to scan up to more than fifty percent faster than the previous Avast 4.8.
In addition, to the free version Avast will also release a full Avast 5.0 software.  The antivirus software will include completely new functionality called sandbox mode.  This will allow a user to surf the internet without worry of contracting a virus through their internet browser. This is very similar to the ImmunOS feature found on this website.

      In conclusion, Free Avast 5.0 is an excellent upgrade compared to the 4.8 software.  Download the free antivirus here before it is even officially released.

Download

Get Avast 5.0 beta here