Software Utilities

Software Utilities is a very large category. Let’s look at just a few categories. Perhaps these few are the most important utilities you will select: firewalls, virus checkers and spyware/malware checkers.

Firewalls are the object of probably the biggest love/hate relationship among computer users. The purpose of a firewall is to deny access to your computer and data by programs from other computers. The assumption of firewalls is that all unauthorized entry is malicious in intent. That is a fair assumption. There is no valid reason for someone to walk in off the street and rifle through your desk.
In this world of interconnected computers, where at least theoretically, all computers on the World Wide Web are connected, unless you have some defense anyone and everyone can see your desk, (if they want to). Are you frightened? You should be. Not everyone needs super security all the time, but we all like to have doors that we can use to control access to our homes and offices. So much for the Love part of the relationship; now for the Hate.
By now most people have used the Internet to “get something off the Web.” If you have ever downloaded a program from a commercial Website, you may have seen the little pop-up window that tells you that “you appear to be behind a firewall,” and then politely asks you shut down your firewall to allow the download to proceed. This is not a fun moment for lots of people, especially if you are working in an office environment where you may need to get permission from IT to download anything; even important stuff.
In a home office, such as a small web design company, you should have a firewall and you should learn how to operate it; how to turn it on and how to turn it off. You might also want to make a reminder sign for yourself when you shut it off, so that you turn it back on.

Virus checkers and spyware/malware checkers are a must! If you ever put anything into your computer, including new software that comes in a sealed package, you need a these. There are bunches of these out there and they all do a pretty good job. Whichever virus and spyware/malware detectors you choose the features you need are:
1. Automatic updates on a daily or weekly basis.
2. Automatic scheduling and running of scans of your computer. You should do a scan of your computer on a daily basis and scheduling it for times that you aren’t using the computer is the best policy.
3. Mail scanning. Amazingly, even today, mail scanning is looked upon as an option.
You should also think about getting these from the same manufacturer so that they work together. Today this is easier as many manufacturers are integrating the products.