BleepingComputer.com: Protecting Daughters'-at-college Laptops, Since They Won't

Hi all, I hope my topic title is clear:

I have 2 daughters in college. they both have new Dell wireless laptops, and they both spend a LOT of time online. MySpace, facebook, aolim, and I'm sure some music sites they shouldn't be using, as just a few places they go to.

They have 90 day Norton antivirus, but not much else.

I am sure they will not run spyware or other diagnostic tools with any frequence, so whatever I install in their computers will have to be automatic.

I guess they need personal firewalls, commercial antivirus, spybot. But what else?

I am not too happy with Norton stuff...the files are so large and slow. What is a better choice?

Fry's here in austin was offering 3user Norton anivirus for free after rebate; is this good enough if I have to buy commercial software?

Thanks for a really great source for reliable computer info...way better than Kim Komando, though she is cute.

chuck in austin, where's its cold

Hello:

I'd suggest contacting Information Technology Support at the universities your daughters attend. Universities generally have security products that they recommend that their students use, and often these programs are at a very low cost or free for the students because of special license arrangements the University has with the software companies. This is the case for many other programs as well.

So first, find out what the universities have available, make sure your daughters get that software, get it installed and configured and then check here what else may be done to strengthen the security.

That said, one program I would recommend regardless: SpywareBlaster. This program is free and blocks a lot of spyware and cookies from being placed on the computer. Once it is set up, the only thing your daughters would need to do is to check for updates about once a week and enable the protections.

You can get SpywareBlaster here: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
And here is a tutorial on how to use it: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/use-spywareblaster-to-protect-your-computer/

Orange Blossom