Full security suites. Should you run them?

Below we list several reasons why you should not run them and not let a sales person at staples or any other store talk you into one.

1) Money. These things cost money, and we at Megatron can recommend software that will protect your computer just as well, and not cost you anything.

2) Reliability. Most security suites integrate themselves into the operating system so tightly that if anything goes wrong with it, nothing that is internet related will work. This is more of a nightmare for us then for you because most consumers blame their ISP rather then the security software they are running. The most troublesome internet security suite we have encountered to date is Norton Internet Security. We hate that product with a passion. When it malfunctions, and it eventually will, none of your internet applications will work.

3) Not needed. Windows XP comes with a firewall already built in. Adding a security suite that contains a firewall is not needed. They disable windows built in firewall when it installs anyway because no more than one firewall can exist on a computer. Installing more than one creates conflicts and unpredictable results.

4) Most people do not know what a firewall is. If you do not know what a firewall is and how it works than you do not have the knowledge necessary to properly answer any questions they ask you. Mostly having to do with what to block and what not to block. This is one of megatons biggest tech support nightmares. Email clients are quite often getting blocked by firewalls home users install and thus cannot get their email.

5) Computer not powerful enough. Most home PC's are bought off the shelf because of their low price tags. What most people do not realize is that these computers are junk. When it comes to a computer the term "You get what you pay for" is really quite true. These computers are generally low end computers with 256meg or less memory and a Celeron processor. These computers are not powerful enough to run full security suites. A full security suite installed on any computer with less then 512mb of system memory will slow the computer to a crawl despite what the system requirements on the box say. In most cases you need double the memory that is listed.

6) Conflicts. Most computers built by name brand computer companies usually come with virus software installed. Problem is people will buy new software like these security suites and not remove the old software. Conflicts occur when more than one security package is installed on a computer. Software that is no longer in use must be removed from the computer. A step that most people do not take.

Megatron's biggest complaint is the firewall. Firewalls are not generally needed for dialup users. High speed users should have a firewall, but if you make sure your windows operating system is kept up to date with all it's security patches then a firewall is not really even needed.

The problem with firewalls is the configuration. They ask questions constantly. Always prompting you if you want to block this or that. The problem is most people do not know what they are blocking. Thus if you block something that is not supposed to be blocked then something will no longer work. The biggest problem is email. Unfortunately when people are running a firewall it takes far longer to diagnose a problem because the firewall interferers with that diagnosis.