The Internet is not only a great source of information and entertainment. Sadly, it is also a source of serious security threats such as viruses, trojans, and other malware caused by cyber criminals. Every computer that is connected to the Internet runs the risk of getting compromised by these malware. (Want to know the most destructive viruses? Read Top ten most destructive viruses of all time.)

To keep protected from such threats online, security software like antivirus should be used.

What is Antivirus?

Antivirus software is a type of computer program that is designed to protect you from various types of malware that may harm your computer. This software is capable of detecting, cleaning, and preventing viruses, trojans, worms, keyloggers, and even spyware.

These mentioned malware can do various things to your computer. It can delete or corrupt an entire hard drive, intercept and steal sensitive information, or use and control your computer to send spam and viruses to other computers.

Recently, major antivirus companies have made products that can detect, prevent, and even remove spyware and adware. Antivirus software that have this feature already eliminate the need to purchase or use anti-spyware software.

How Antivirus Software Protects You

To ensure your protection, antivirus software runs every time you boot your computer automatically, staying resident in the computer memory. Most modern antivirus also protect themselves from being terminated or killed since there are some malware that do that.

When loaded into the memory, it silently monitors the files being accessed and received. It scans those files and compares it to a database of viruses to determine if it is one. Some use behavior or heuristics to detect viruses that are currently not in the database. It observes the behavior of the file or program and once it calls specific instructions that are common among malware, it will tag it as a possible virus and halt the file or progam.

Those techniques are called definition-based and heuristics or signiture-based detection. Once it detects a virus, most will prompt the user that the virus has been detected, and will ask the user for an action. It asks if the user wants to clean, delete, quarantine or isolate the infected file. Some may be configured to automatically attempt to clean the file or simply keep the file isolated where it cannot do any harm.

Modern antivirus software also work and integrate with other software to further protect the user from viruses. These software include Internet browsers, office application suites, email clients, instant messaging clients, archiving and other file management software, and peer-to-peer applications.

If you suspect you have a virus in your computer, you can run an on-demand scanner to scan specific folders or storage devices in your computer. It can also be programmed to automatically scan the entire computer on a set schedule like every boot-up or at midnight when no one is using the computer.

Determining if your Computer is Infected with Malware

A lot of computers still get infected with viruses and other malware and still not be aware of it. Here are some of the common signs:

• Computer hangs every now and then.
• Boot-up time takes longer than usual.
• Your computer acts strange (pop-ups, disabled software, among others).
• Some software gets disabled or fails to run.
• Internet access becomes slower than usual
• A lot of error messages pop-up.
• Computer fails to boot.

These are just some of the most common signs that your computer is infected with viruses or other malware. If you suspect that it really is a virus, you should immediately install an antivirus. There are several free antivirus software that you can use such as AVG, Avira, and Avast!.

If the malware in your computer prevents you from installing antivirus software, then you should clean it up using free online scanners. Most antivirus vendors offer free online virus scans. It may take a while for the scan to complete especially when you have a lot of files or malware in your computer. For more information on scanning your computers for viruses, learn how to check for viruses on your computer.

Free or Commercial Antivirus?

Your choice of antivirus software greatly depends on your budget and your preference. If you don’t have the money to spend for a commercial software license, you can always go for freeware applications.

In terms of functionality, free antivirus software generally gets the job done. It is well-capable of detecting and removing viruses and other malware. The only difference is commercial software usually has more advanced features and customer support if ever you run into any problem.

Choosing the Right Antivirus Software

Whether you go for free or paid software, you should still choose the one that fits your needs. Of course it must be easy to use and effective in preventing malware from entering your computer; however, there are still some things you should look for.

• Update frequency – Every day, new malware is made and released, that is why it is very important that you choose one that frequently updates its virus definitions and the entire software as well. An out-of-date antivirus is as good as no antivirus at all, in most cases. You can determine how frequent the software is updated by doing a little research on user feedbacks.
• Detection methods – A good antivirus does not rely only on one method of detecting viruses. It must use at least two to ensure protection from new threats.
• Intergration with other software – There are many ways that viruses and other forms of malware can infect a comptuer, and having an antivirus that integrates with other software adds another layer of protection by preventing infections through the software it interacts with.
• Process Protection – The antivirus must also protect itself from malware that attempts to disable or modify it. A lot of malware attempt to kill or reverse engineer antivirus products in order to evade detection. A good one should be able to prevent itself from being automatically terminated by ending its process.
• Accuracy – Though this is not much of an issue, a good antivirus must be accurate in detecting viruses, where there should be lesser false positives and definitely false negatives.

There are a lot of antivirus software out there and it can be quite difficult to try out every one of them, so here are some products (both free and commercial) that you can try out:

Freeware:

• AVG Antivirus Free Edition
• Avast! Home Edition
• Avira AntiVir Personal Edition
• ThreatFire Antivirus Free Edition

Commercial:

• Eset NOD32 Antivirus / Eset Internet Security
• Symantec Norton Antivirus / Norton Internet Security
• McAffee Antivirus
• Kaspersky Antivirus
• BitDefender Internet Security
• Zonealam Pro with Antivirus

Antivirus System Requirements

Remember that antivirus software consume system resources in order to constantly be on guard for various malware that may enter your computer. You must make sure that your computer is fast enough to meet at least the minimum system requirements, both hardware and software.

In some cases, especially on older machines, antivirus software may considerably slow down the computer especially when running other resource-extensive software Internet browsers, photo editing software, and media players.

The average system requirements that most modern antivirus software need is at least a Pentium 4 processor or its equivalent, 256-512 MB of system memory (RAM), and Windows XP as the operating system.

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