Friday, March 4, 2011

AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 Review

The design:
The buttons on the new interface are big and clear, though it was hard to fit all these buttons into a small interface. It was desirable to have a smaller interface combining all the buttons but it would be hard to use and f\very fuzzy in critical times to look for the right option.
AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011
Lab-Testing Results:
Back in the years it was hard to test the free antivirus along with the full commercial antivirus due to difference in engines design and availability of certain features. Nowadays it became easier and there is no significant difference between free and paid antivirus. At that time, AVG shined and won the Platinum anti-malware certification from West Coast Labs, an honor also achieved by Kaspersky and Webroot but not by any other free product. ICSA Labs certifies AVG for virus detection, and it received the VB100% award in all ten of the last ten tests by Virus Bulletin.
AV-Test.org ran a months-long whole-product test last year in which norton, Kaspersky, and PC Tools took the top three positions for virus detection and for successful virus blocking. AVG's recognition achievement was correct at the back of the top three, but its score for successful blocking was notably lower.
A more recent report from AV-Test ranged products on virus repair, usability, and overall protection. AVG scored 4 of 6 probable points for repair, 5 for usability, and 5.5 overall. F-Secure, Kaspersky, Norton and Panda managed even higher scores, but AVG shines again because no other free product achieved those scores.
Fast Virus Scanning
To scan an approximate 250 GB of local hard disk storage, AVG on the clock achieved nearly 27 minutes on full scan basis without any exception. This is really fast and it was accurate. A lot of malware and viruses were detected and removed after finishing the scan. The first time optimization was also quick and it scanned all the hard disk, repaired all the detected errors and offered a link for full separate purchase of the system optimizer which many find as un useful attempt to make the user buy it.
After running all the tests, it was noticed that the product's root kit scan runs in a separate component. AVG contacts verified the need to scan separately for root kits. It didn't find anything that the regular full scan missed. At least it was quicker and easier to finish especially on large hard drives.
Summary:
AVG Anti-Virus has a robust set of features and a broad scope of protection, making it one of the best antivirus software applications we reviewed. The 2011 edition brings new features that improve the solution, and it maintains the level of protection and ease of use we’ve come to expect from AVG. It was particularly liked the addition of cloud antivirus technology and the progressive web protection from Link Scanner. While not quite the overall best antivirus software, we can definitely recommend AVG Anti-Virus 2011.
AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 is better at removing malware than most free solutions, but not at malware blocking. With the current release it has the full power of AVG's paid solutions, and the independent labs give it top marks. Add some unusual extra features and you have got a solid choice for free antivirus protection.
Pros:
1. Excellent scores in independent tests.
2. Fast antivirus scan.
3. Above average in my malware removal tests.
4. Link Scanner add-in blocks malicious exploits.
5. Multi-function toolbar. One-time system tune-up
Cons:
1.  Didn't thoroughly remove detected threats.
2.  Link Scanner missed many phishing sites.
3.  Below-average root kit and scare ware blocking.

RockMelt – Your Browser. Re-Imagined!


10 of the Best Firefox Addons for SEO and Web Development

I have seen a number of great articles on the web with people’s preferred Firefox addons. I agree with some them and have also found some new ones to play with. So to return the favour, so to speak, I am going to release what i think are the most useful Firefox addons in regard to web development and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). An additional bonus is that ‘Top 10’s’ always make good link bait in SEO (there’s a tip for you SEOs and blog writers!). This list is written in no particular order so lets start…
1) ‘All in One SideBar‘ this, and it has to be said is my favorite, allows you to access and manage all your Firefox addons through a side bar which is incorporated in to your browser. This is real over kill if you are a normal web user, but for a developer it isn’t half handy. Highly recommended, therefore instead of having a link to the Firefox page, here is the link for the developers’ site to show my support. http://firefox.exxile.net/aios/index.php
2) ‘Web developer tool bar‘, I prefer this to the ever popular firebug, which i also have installed, although it doesn’t have any functions to debug javascript, it is a great tool for development and tests CSS on the fly. Keys to remember after installing are “ctrl shift f ” and “ctrl shift e”. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60
3) ‘IE Tab‘ if you are a developer, you should already be using this as it allows you to switch to what your site looks like in IE while being in your Firefox browser. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419 As for a test in later versions of IE, I recommend Multiple IE. http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE
4) ‘Grease Monkey‘ this allows you to alter the way a given web page is displayed by adding bits of javascript.https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/748 For instance, you can get a script for Grease Monkey that puts numbers next to your search results in Google. From http://www.addedbytes.com/tools/ Very useful for quick SEO queries.
5) ‘Live HTTP Headers‘ for advanced SEOs/developers, lets you see the header request in regards to web 2.0 technologies. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829
6) ‘Tabs open‘ relatively does what it says on the tin. It is very useful when you have got as many tabs open as I have! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1956
7) ‘Delicious Bookmark’ because like many developers I use mutliple computers at home and at work. I uses Delicious so that I can easily access my bookmarks anywhere. Delicious Bookmark for Firefox, intergrates the bookmarks into Firefox so that I can quickly add favorites to my Delicious account. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615 To use this tool, you will need a
Delicious account. https://secure.delicious.com/register
8 ) ‘ColorZilla‘ allows you to select a color from a given webpage and gives you it’s hex value. Great for design. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271
9) ‘GA?’ This is a nice little SEO tool that allows you to see if Google Analytics is installed on a given site by a nicely colored icon in the bottom right of the screen. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5631
10) And finally, the ‘Smart Digg Button‘ this allows you to Digg articles like this straight into your Digg account.https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4878
All that is left to say is a massive thankyou to the developer of all the Firefox addons and keep up the good work, Firefox rocks ! If you think that you known of any better addons that I have missed, feel free to email me or leave a comment so other users can see what is available.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Norton Internet Security 2011 Review

Interface
norton Internet Security 2011 is full of some changes to its interface; however the design is heavily suggestive of the earlier versions. It keeps the black dark theme, organized by yellow text. There are good numbers of options in the interface which make it a little crowded. You can find a lot of options sent to the taskbar and the taskbar icon.
Below each category are several controls specific to that area of protection. So, under computer protection, there are text buttons for instantly initiating a scan, for forcing a virus database update, for accessing your History or Quarantine, and for viewing Application Ratings.
Security controls have been condensed into three sections in the main window:
  1. Computer protection.
  2. Network protection
  3. Web protection.
In each category there is a series of controls that regular user can use to handle their application. These controls are active by default. The gold indicator moves to the right and changes color to red to demonstrate that it's been deactivated. The option of deactivating is not limited to regular deactivation but it has a timer for deactivation. This timer gives the merit of extra security in case you forget to reactivate any option that you decided to deactivate for some time. If you click on the name of any control button, such as antivirus, a pop-up will appear summarizing what the feature does.
Ease of Usage:
The visual of the program is very attractive and helpful for the novice user but it contains a lot of irrelevant stuff for your security. At the bottom of the screen you can find a big yellow dark map of the world. This dark yellow world map shows yellow dots that according to Symantec shows yellow flashes when Norton antivirus blocks a threat to one of its user in the location of the dot. More attention-grabbing is that below the map there are a series of mobile application style buttons. From there you can access Norton Online Family which is:
  1. Norton Online Backup.
  2. Norton Safe Web
The options for scan are:
  1. Quick scan.
  2. Full system scan.
  3. Custom scan for viruses and malware.
Norton Internet Security 2011
A new feature added is that Norton can scan your Face book wall for malicious links. There are also on-demand reputation-based quick scans, full scans, and custom scans for users who want Norton to immediately scan their installed programs.
Norton provides the user after any scan with a full detailed report of the scan progress and the scan time. More-detailed information, including scan duration and a deeper dive into threats exposed, can be read under the History option from the main window. There's also a link so that you can follow in case you believe that Norton missed something in its scan, although as the reputation-based protection full-grown, the need for on-demand scanning develop into less of an matter when measured up to with the "always-on" protection.
Installation
As a new modification which basically is new from two years ago only, the new Norton beast comes with an installation package which is handy and fast. As you run the installer, the program is ready to operate in about a minute which is impressive especially with Norton previous installation bad experiences. The speed is double considering past performance. The installation process is also the first time that you will interact with Quorum, Norton's behavior-based detection engine. The user will be asked to contribute by sending anonymous data to Symantec's shade. Sitting data submission out, according to Symantec, will not affect your security.
The firewall and web protection engines unfortunately haven't been upgraded or updated. This was a big down for new enthusiasts for the Norton 2011. At the same time, users have to put in mind that the firewall and the web protection were very effective in the previous versions and blocked all the intrusions. Web protection blocks all web exploits of websites and enhances browser security.
The new Norton adds only 109 MB to the user ram and consumes around 2 seconds of boot time which is barely noticed when the processor is warming up at the beginning. The program is light and better than previous versions.
Norton Internet Security 2011 performance
Conclusion: Norton 2011 is one of the top internet security software available in the market. Armed with a strong history of excellence along with huge modifications to the interface and the program load on windows it is for sure a good choice for your PC.

Ultra Portable New Vaio S Series Review

If you are a big fan of Sony Vaio s series you will be greatly glad of their new release of S series at 13.3-inch. Sony has decided to invade the market with a brand new product that dazzle the minds of the consumers and at the same time compete in design and in portability. The design is outrageous and the performance is far more reaching than is expected.
Vaio S seriesThe new enormously equipped machine falls down to the dimensions of 24 mm thick with a very light weight of 1.7 kilo grams. This design and dimensions gives it the right to be called the ultra portable laptop from Sony. The performance gear is outrageous. This notebook comes with 8 GB of DDR3 ram at 1066 MHz this amount of ram is sufficient to run a work station not an ultra-portable laptop. It has a secured state hard drive with a good capacity. The graphics are very well chosen to be ATI Radeon 6630M which is the new product from ATI designed especially for ultraportable laptops to use less energy and deliver super performance. If you talk about the display, watch out you is criticizing a display that comes from Sony- The lead world manufacture of displays. The display is based on a resolution of 1366 x 768. Surprisingly enough and very fiercely thrown, Sony announces that powerful piece of gear will last up to 14 hours of demanding and continues work. This is amazing with all these specifications where is the battery that can handle all this?
If you look at the connectivity that is offered by the laptop, you will be surprised that Sony has added the WEB instant boot support to help you remote boot your computer and fix problems. 3G connectivity along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are among the powerful connectivity solutions available.
The display is extremely bright and very vivid. It is suitable for watching high definition movies and play complicated games that require big displays to enjoy.
The release date of the S giant is said to be March 2011, but who knows will it be available for sure.