How will these utilities speed up my system? D1

How can software utilities speed up your computer?

Anti-virus

Anti-virus software speeds up your system by eliminating the following problems:

-          Viruses, that cause the following issues:

o   Messing around with the settings of your computer so it is more difficult to use.

o   Someone planting a virus on your computer and causing it to run slowly, because the software is using up all of your RAM space.

o   Someone planting a virus onto your computer and using it to take over your computer.

o   If someone plants any sort of virus on your computer that needs to run in order for them to use it, this will take up your RAM space and make your computer slower.

These things are the reason why you should always have some sort of software that protects you against viruses, so it will keep your computer running at its fastest.

Firewall

Having a firewall will speed up your system because it will stop any unauthorised connections from connecting to your computer, by the use of ports. What this does is it blocks any connections that you don’t want, say for instance, if someone tried to hack into your computer they wouldn’t be able to do it because there are only certain ports that will be open, these ports will allow you to use the applications that you want to. Not to be hacked, and if they hack you it can slow down the performance of your computer. This is why you should always have a firewall.

Software Utilities - P3

Software utilities – P3

There are many different software utilities, they have many different functions but the two main ones that I am going to write about is virus protection software and firewalls, as these both have an important function in keeping your computer safe and sometimes you can get a programme that has both pieces of software in one.

First I am going to explain what virus protection software does, this piece of software has a vital to any computer, since it stops any infections from getting into your computer, although no anti-virus will protect you 100% from viruses, it can protect you 97% of the time, simply because new viruses are made every day, doing different things to harm your computer.

So what is a virus?

A Virus is a piece of software or malware that gets into your computer system and it can severely damage it, doing things that can stop you from loading your computer, to using it as a key logger to find out personal information, like credit card details ECT.. and this is why it is vital to have anti-virus software to make it almost impossible for this to happen.

There are many different companies who offer many different anti-virus software, a few of them are AVG, Norton Anti-virus and Mcafee anti-virus. Some of these are free, but some of them you have to pay for.

So what might happen if you don’t have anti-virus software?

If you don’t have a good piece of anti-virus software, then if someone hacks into your system and plants a virus on it, then you could face things like: your computer is unable to boot up, fraud, constant pop-ups advertising and more things that you wouldn’t wish for on your computer and that is why having anti-virus is vital.

  

The other utility I am going to talk about that is for your computer system is a firewall, windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 and some MAC Operating Systems have a firewall that is already installed into the operating system. A firewall is a piece of software that filters any unwanted traffic coming in through the internet, the firewall opens ‘ports’ for certain connections you are using, and connections that are unwanted are automatically blocked by your firewall, stopping any unwanted trespassers from getting into your computer system.

So what would happen if you don’t have a firewall?

If you don’t have a firewall, it will allow trespassers access to your system, giving them access to all of your personal details, including your bank account details, and possibly more, anything that you have stored on your computer, it can also allow people to ‘plant’ a virus into your computer. So both a firewall and anti-virus is vital for your computer.

Sometimes people switch the firewall off as it speeds up the connection to the internet because it doesn’t have to pass through the firewall first, but this is unadvisable, as it will leave your computer open to hackers, who will hack into your computer and steal your personal information. So keeping a firewall on at all times when using the internet is what you should do, as it will keep any unwanted traffic away from the compter.