Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro (Trial) vs Online Armor Firewall (Free)

With the release of windows 7, many security software such as antivirus, Anti Malware, Firewall, etc seems to start to loose their popularity. At the present moment, I must say, yes Windows 7 has perform very well in the security improvement of their new operating system

I have tested windows 7 for almost 7 months now, it's very stable & secure from outside intruders compare to their previous operating system before. Windows 7 provide their users with the new generation of windows firewall, their most advance & much much better in performance & setting (more experience user will appreciate this)

But still, if you want better protection in the firewall, security company who provide firewall service is still outperform windows 7 firewall

The firewall software from those reputable company who focusing on the development of it's product such as Comodo, Tall Emu/Emisoft (online armor), Agnitum (Outpost Firewall) & Zone Alarm, would be a wise choice to improve your security arsenal.

From my experience & personal test, for personal user/home users, my recommendation will come between two product Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro (Trial) vs Online Armor Firewall (Free)

If you're still using 32 bit operating system, the top choice would goes to Online Armor (Free), while very slightly the Agnitum Outpost Firewall pro would come in second, not only because you have to pay for their product (cause the free version is still hasn't been updated since May 2009), but simply because the latest Online Armor (version 4.0.X) provide better HIPS protection than Agnitum Product. On ther hand, if you're using and older PC it would be better if you use Agnitum products, cause Online Armor is more resource hungry compare to Outpost firewall, you WILL feel slowdowns greatly for quite a while in some case when your browsing or downloading the internet.

Since Online Armor is free, I see no harm except the resource hungry thing to put Online Armor as the top choice, but since Online Armor "Mother Company" Tell Emu has been taken over by Emisoft & seems stop their product development on the 32 Bits Operating System only, choosing Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro (Trial) wouldn't hurt either except their Price.

If your using 64 Bits Operating System, yeah it's suck, the only top choice is the one that would cost you some money, Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro (Trial), but as long as you use your common sense, the build in Windows 7 firewall is just about enough

Outlook Express Alternatives for Windows Vista & Windows 7 Users

It's interesting for me to find out how much people got so attach to microsoft product & how microsoft keep on taking advantage of it! The latest case that I learn is on the product called Outlook Express. As soon as Microsoft realize their user attachment on this product, the Outlook Express development and supported has been stopped by Microsoft. They release their new Operating system (at the time Windows Vista) without the Outlook program, but to make things last suspicious they released a new email client which they called Windows Mail, but most people didn't realize the appearance of this "new free Outlook Express email client substitution"!

Why isn't many people realize the present of this "new free Outlook Express email client substitution"??? Smooth, Smart, Excellent Strategy is the way I view it. Cause as soon as Microsoft release Vista, they also release Microsoft Office 2007(they both release at exactly the same time at January 30, 2007, here is the proof Vista release & MS Office 2007 Release). What made it so worst is that the fact that they cunningly made the name Outlook so visible as the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007!!! But things don't end here, Microsoft again stopped supporting Windows Mail too and released yet another program - Windows Live Mail.

The way I see their strategy, they simply playing this scenario, if you want to continue using Outlook pay for it! the price is a little more around $100, will you pay $109.95 to be precise for it? I know some of you would, but hell not me.

If you buy Windows 7 you won't find the new free version of Outlook. Unfortunately, for those of you who got so attach to it, Microsoft "stopped developing and supporting Outlook Express" after the version 6 of the software, they secretly & silently say: pay, pay, pay if you want it! But if you buy Windows 7 based laptop (VAIO in my case) it has Windows Live Mail preinstalled, and for those of you who wanted to use Windows Live Mail you could download it as the Microsoft Developers Notes web sites offers Windows Live Mail as a free download , or you could directly download from Windows Live Mail Download . I could only found one software that work similar to those Microsoft software it called Pegasus Mail, Ill be looking for more and will put the update when I found one.

Web of Trust

So far the most thing I wrote on this blog is a about security application, specially the free one, such as Free Anti-Virus, Free Anti-Spyware/Malware, Firewall, etc.

Well this time I'm gonna write something called Web of Trust or simply people called it WOT, an add-on program for your web browser, well not all web browser, but it support the most web browser that most people use : Mozilla Firefox, Chrome and... yes, the old very known for it instability, slowness and it's unsafe-tines, the Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Have you ever heard of it? or probably already using it? Probably most of us have already heard or probably already using WOT, but the surprising fact is, that the number of people who never ever heard of it is equally as much as the sand in the sea... Well it's o.k if you never heard of WOT, but how about McAfee SiteAdvisor (MSA)? or Norton Safe Web Ratings(NSWR)? See, some people still doesn't understand what it's all about. But, even for some people who do know what I'm talking about doesn't found it's useful enough and refuse to use it, but please do listen to what most expert say "prevention is better than cure!!!".

So, what is WOT? and how does it protects me from being infected? Well, WOT is simply a tool that rate web site for it's trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and/or child safety of the website. It calculates the reputation of a website through a combination of user ratings and data from trusted sources. WOT uses a traffic-light style rating system to show the safe-tines level of a website (Red, Yellow & Green, there is also Grey for website that they haven't rated yet).

Why do I choose WOT instead of McAfee or Norton or other similar tool? Simply because it's the best one that I have ever used, and because MSA and NSWR come in a bundle with the McAfee or Norton product if you decided to buy one, but if you like to try them, you could download it for free from their website, but with limitation ofcourse, you'll HAVE TO PAY if you want to use the full future of it. Another reason why I choose WOT, is because I found some compatibility issue using MSA or NSWR, so WOT come as my top pick.

When you install WOT, it would directly open a new tab to their web site http://www.mywot.com/, then you will be given a choice about it's setting (I would advise you to choose the basic setting than the advance setting, cause I found that, if you choose the advance setting sometimes, even it rarely so, it would slowdown your browsing experience).
After the setting process you will face some registry form asking you to fill some form in order to joint their community, but you could just simply ignore it and just close the web-page if you're not interested.

If you like to use WOT here's where you could download it:
1. From the collaboration page between WOT and Panda Security
2. Directly from Web of Trust website

If you like to try some other similar tool, here is some list of it:
1. McAfee SiteAdvisor
2. Norton Safe Web Ratings
3. AVG LinkScanner
4. BitDefender Anti-Phishing Free Edition
5. LinkExtend

Computer Security Paranoia & Save Computing

Lately there is so many review over the internet about security paranoia, either it's just a review, or a discussion on blog, etc.

Some number or people, few people I believe could use a PC without any AV at all and yet remain virus-free, but most people could not have that kind of luxury, simply because most people didn't have enough knowledge or using their PC at high risk environment, not because they like that risk, but because "their needs" force them to enter that high risk environment.

When we're talking about knowledge in computing world, you could never have enough, no matter what, technology keep moving on, and if you're not someone who is constantly following it, than you will surely outdated. So I believe, unless your an IT guy or an IT expert, that would place you in the "not enough knowledge" position.

Personally I realize, my position as one of the "not enough knowledge" position, cause even though I read & try to follow up with the technology in computing, still I don't have any background on computer science, just someone who is "force" to use computer in a daily life and force to adapt with it.

So when it come to computer security, I would say most people would be in a vulnerable position, and that few people who laugh on other people because they tried to equip them self the best that they can as the paranoid person would be an arrogant statement. Because we, as most people of the world who use computer didn't know as much as them, there's probably last than 1% of people who is a real computer nerd, even though there is some people who think and believe they are nerd and support the nerd opinion, which would place them as both arrogant and foolish.

I don't mind to be called paranoid person on this matter because I provide my self with the amount of equipment that been suggested on the book, even though it still could not give any guaranty I could be 100% save. The fact is, there's no antivirus software or any security software that could provide 100% protection, that's why no test in the world give 100% score on it's test to any security software vendors.

I decide to stay on the saver side, or you may say the paranoid side, I will continue to use my own personal free security suited, and the combination didn't seems to compromise my PC performance significantly. The free suite which contain :

1. Avast Free Antivirus as my real time Antivirus protection
2. Outpost Firewall Free, since XP firewall is far from perfect
3. Spyware Terminator as the antispyware protection
4. ThreatFire as my zero-day threat protector
5. SpywareBlaster as the passive immunization protection.
   
6. Sandboxie as virtualization.
   
7. and an on demand scanner such as Malwarebytes (as an anti-malware scanner), A-squared Free & SUPERAntiSpyware

Every people have their opinion, so is on the matter of their own PC security, and I'm happy with my own so far. For me "it's better be save than sorry"

Spyware Terminator Totaly Free Anti-Spyware Program

For a while I have been very frustrated with the way that the new version of Malwarebytes real-time protection performs, on how it's has become to heavy & severely compromise my computer performance, so I look a round to found a worthy replacement, and a came across this program, and "old", "dying" but has been reborn again to become a very amazing piece of software, it's called "Spyware Terminator".

Spyware Terminator is a FREE & easy-to-use program, it's provide real-time protection against spyware, adware, keyloggers, trojan horses, browser hijackers and other malware threats.
Here are the Key Features of Spyware Terminator :

• Free for personal & commercial use

• Fast Spyware scanning & removal
• Free Antivirus (Clam Antivirus) integration & protection
• 100% real-time protection
• HIPS protection
• Multilanguage Support
• Free automatic updates
• Free scheduled scans
• Free support

By default, the real-time protection is not activated, and if you choose to activated it there are two level of protection option you could choose :

* Basic (for novice users)
* Advance (for more experience user)

You can also enable the built-in antivirus (Clam Antivirus) that being bundled as an optional addition to increase the protection that would extends the power of real-time analysis by comparing program code against a database of known viruses, Trojans, and worms.

I install Spyware Terminator along side AVAST 5 Free, Outpost Firewall & Threatfire, and I must say, it's very light on my resources (Pentium 4 with only 1 GB of RAM), cause even after I activate all the real-time protection module, it didn't show a significant impact on my PC performance. The only Impact that I do feel is the longer amount of time it takes to start my firefox web-browser (about 7-10 second), but it does not effect the browsing speed once the firefox has already opens & running.

Overall Spyware Terminator is a very flexible on the way it's protects you, you can turn off all the real-time protection, or made an adjustment to it, or if you wanted to, you can turn-off the real-time protection completely and use it only as and on demand scanner.

Like I said in the first place, since the new version of Malwarebytes real-time protection has become to heavy & severely compromise my computer performance, I would say Spyware Terminator is the perfect choice. Not just because MBAM is a shareware which mean that is provided to users without payment on limited basis of it's functionality (no real-time protection modules, no automatic updates & no malicious websites blocking), while Spyware Terminator is a Freeware which mean it's fully functional for an unlimited time with no cost, monetary or otherwise or simply people would say completely free, but because the fact that it's an excellent product that is easy to use, light on system resources and offers excellent protection.

Desktop Customization

I'm bored with how my desktop looks lately, thinking on moving to Windows 7 initially, but still filling SICK when thinking about the fact that the windows 7 was just another "Microsoft brilliant strategy to make more money" after the failure of Vista and on the other hand, releasing new service pack for the already perfect XP SP3 to be better would do more harm than good for them, why? Because it simply would make no money for them LoL

So I look around, downloaded & try all the program that I came across with, after sometimes, I finally manage to found some combination that being able to refresh the way my desktop look.

Not really happy with it, still looking around for more tuning up that could make my desktop look better without compromising my PC performance, specially something that could make the XP start-up bar to became totally transparent without changing the original XP look, hope someday I could find it

My personal review on Avast 5

After using Avast 5 on my desktop PC for around 3 month, I could only say that I'm very impressed with it.

I have 2 desktop PC & 1 Laptop, I used Avast 5 & Kaspersky internet security on each of my Desktop PC, with windows XP as the Operating System, while on my Laptop I use Vista as the OS and install Avira-Free on it.

In my previous experience on the older version of Avast & avira, Avast was the lightest for my PC while many other people experience Avira-Free as the lightest, but now after two of them release their newest version & engine, I have to agree with the majority voice, Avira are slightly lighter than Avast. While KIS the one which cause you money to use it..... what can I say, resource hogs, there is no other word could represent it.

For performance & protection I fell that Avast & Avira are both quite equal, again KIS come last, KIS didn't detect some virus & malware that both Avast & Avira detect.
For scanning speed, Avast was impressive!!! The Full Scan takes no more than 45 minutes! while Avira takes oner 1 hour & 40 minutes to finish, KIS runs like a crawling turtle, it takes over 3 hour to finish, almost 4 hour instead.

I wasn't quite sure before by looking at avcomparative last test on Avast, but yesterday at Monday, April 5, I run across this artikel from Softpedia which made more review over this 3 Anti-virus, along with some other such as Microsoft Security Essential (MSE) & NOD 32.
After reading that article, i found out that my judgment was proven to be true on those 3 Anti-virus program.

I have removed KIS from my other PC and switch to Avast, I was also planning to use Avast for my laptop, cause eventhough Avira better on detection & removing virus & malware, but Avast5! Free provide much more features to offer, which provide better protection on prevention against threat with it real time shield which include :
1.File System Shield
2.Mail Shield
3.Web Shield
4.P2P Shield
5.IM Shield
6.Network Shield
7.Behavior Shield

Also the address link for Avast offline update change into the following link

Uninstallers / removal tools for common antivirus software

Removing an Anti Virus software can be a real trouble sometimes, than just a few moment ago I came across to Eset Knowledgebase that provide the list of removal tools for most common antivirus software, here is the list :
Avast
Avira
AVG
BitDefender
CA
CounterSpy
F-Secure
Kaspersky
McAfee
Panda
Symantec (Norton)
Trend Micro
Webroot
Zone Alarm

Brigandine, my old favorite RPG game

Brigandine is an RPG game that use to be played on Sony Playstation 1 back on the late 90's, although the game was not as famous like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, etc, but this game has always be my favorite one along with Suikoden 2.

Just recently I'm able to play it on my PC using a playstation simulation program called ePSXe which I believe to be a freeware, the software developer of ePSXe also provide other simulator for playstation 2 and if I wasn't mistaken playstation 3.

The software work great, but the problem is getting cd program of the game, so far I haven't really look over the internet for it, but I do manage to find the .iso program for both Brigandine (English version, 1 CD) & Brigandine GE (Japanese version, 2 CD) and also the Suikoden 2.

For those of you who's looking for playstation simulation software for your PC, here is the link to download the ePSXe & pSX

Avast 5 has been release

Avast 5 has just been release, I just have personally downloaded and planning on installing it to see how it impact with my PC performance.

so far from what I'm reading the difference between free, pro and internet security should be significant, not like the avast version 4.8 were the free and pro has very little difference, or should I say there is no difference at all.

The Avast free version 5 are lacking sandboxing and firewall
While Avast 5 pro are only lacking firewall

In my personal opinion at the moment Avast pro would be the choice between the 3 product, cause if were talking about firewall, I believe we should say Avast is a new player in this area, so it would be a gamble to trust them in this matter while other mature and well know firewall are out there for free.

For the sandbox...... cause there's not much of this kind of product out there, even though this condition are similar with the firewall case, it's better to have one rather nothing at all.