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Lenawee PC Users Group met Monday,  May 11th, in the Lenawee County Library meeting room,  starting at 6:00 P.M. and ending at 7:45 P.MThere were 16 members present.

There were two presentations.  Bob Warwick discussed the recommendations of Consumer Reports for security software.  They stated that several free programs provide better security than most of the commercial suites.  Bob tested the recommended software and found that the anti-virus program detected a particularly bad "Begal" trojan that McAfee missed.   The software they recommend is Avira for virus detection and blocking, Microsoft Windows Defender for spyware Etc. and Spamfighter to eliminate most spam from your inbox.  Bob also recommended turning off Windows XP firewall and using Zone Alarm.  The article appears below with links to the various software providers.

 

"Security software

A free 'suite' matches the best pay products

This article is the archived version of a report that appeared in June 2009 Consumer Reports magazine.

Failing to keep your computer safe from online threats can shorten its life and lead to the theft or corruption of data, including sensitive personal information. Yet our 2009 State of the Net Survey shows that 35 percent of U.S. households don't use software to guard against inadvertently downloading "badware," including programs that spy on your online activity, and 18 percent don't use a program to block potentially destructive online viruses.

If you've been avoiding security software because of its cost, our latest tests bring good news: There are fine, free programs to protect against viruses, badware, and unwanted e-mail spam.

Of the seven free software programs we tested this year, the best (from Avira, Microsoft, and Spamfighter) are the same no-cost programs we recommended last year, though all three performed notably better than their 2008 versions did. They were on par with the best pay suites we tested. Even the less effective among them (Alwil Avast and AVG antivirus, and Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Safer Networking Spybot antibadware) proved no worse than the lowest-scoring pay suites.

We evaluate free and pay software with actual threats we capture on the Web and some that we modify to represent threats too new to have been discovered. The best programs this year detected 80 percent or more of the modified threats and updated their databases within a day or two to detect all the actual threats. The worst program detected no more than 70 percent of the modified viruses and detected few of the actual threats within our test period."

Paul Hover showed us an electronic device that was from a book "Cure for all Diseases".  Basically it was an oscillator that produced very low high frequency current.  Just shows you that the old snake oil cures are still around in the 21st century.  He also showed us a website, quackwatch.com, that debunks the thousands of "cures" for every ailment.

 

During our question and answer period, we discussed the new Windows 7 which was released this week for wide trial testing by anyone brave enough to give it a try.  It appears to be based on Vista technology with more emphasis on integrating personal computing into the larger area of home entertainment.  No one in the group has given it a road test yet, though a few of us have downloaded the operating system.

 

 

The LPCUG meets monthly on the third Monday at 6:00 P.M. in the Lenawee County Library meeting room and everyone from the computer novice to the expert is welcomed. The club website can be easily be found simply by Googling the “Lenawee PC”.  Anyone with an interest in learning more about computers is invited to attend the meetings.    We usually have a question and answer session and a main program.  Come join the fun!  Note: the May meeting was our last meeting before Summer break.  Our next meeting will be on September 21st and the program will be our annual net security program.

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