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Anti-Virus Software for 2 Years on 3 Computers only £44.99!

Save your money in this credit crunching time by purchasing your AVG Antivirus and Security software from Brandstar!

With Brandstar’s offers you can save up to £38.99 on AVG Anti-Virus Software!!

Want to find out more? Click on the image below!

Product	RRP	Brandstar Price	Saving
AVG Internet Security 2 Year 3 User	£83.98	£44.99	£38.99!!

Want AVG Internet Security for 2 years for 10 computers instead? RRP is £225.99! Why not purchase 4 copies of the ‘AVG Internet Security 2 Year 3 User’ package at £179.96 saving you £46.03 and leaving you with 2 copies of AVG Internet Security left over should you need them for other machines!

Want to find out more? Click on the product image!

Memeo Send is a program which can be downloaded for free from Memeo.  It enables users to send large files over email for a small charge.  The whole idea behind the product is very similar to Filemail.com which we reviewed last week.  A key difference between the two is that Filemail have attachment size restrictions, which Memeo Send do not have.

Once downloaded there is a short installation process before you can start sending files.  It is annoying to have to download the program, however it is nice that you can just open it an you’re away, whereas with Filemail.com you have to find the website etc before you can do anything.

To be able to use Memeo Send you must register your email address and password with them.  This can seem very confusing at first but literally, on your first time of using the program, just enter your email address, password and your registered name, then you’re ready to start sending.  This is a slightly different setup to Filemail.com, you just have to enter your email address in for that.  Sending is very simple in both services, just select the files you wish to send and then you’re on your way.  One great extra feature of Memeo Send is that you can send folders as well as files!

The received email is very nicely presented by both applications.  However, you can personalize and brand your Filemail.com emails with their corporate package, which cannot be done on Memeo Send.  Although, Memeo Send does have a great tracking feature which let’s you know how your email is doing and whether it has sent/been downloaded etc.  This feature is also available on Filemail’s Corporate package!

Memeo Send try to get the recipient to register with them.  However, this can be avoided by downloading the files via their web browser.  File downloading on Filemail is also very easy, simply click on the link and then download.  However, on Filemail, files do expire after a few days so you must download before then!

Prices on Memeo Send are very different to Filemail and it would be down to the sender to identify which service is best suited to them.  Memeo Send give you 3 free emails and after that you must purchase either 10 emails for £6.58 or 50 for £32.90.  This compares to Filemail’s free emails for up to 2GB messages, $4 per month (£2.43 at time of writing) for up to 10GB messages (Premium Package) or $45 per month (£27.29 at time of writing) for unlimited file size along with other features (Corporate Package)

To conclude, if you need to send lots of small emails I’d recommend Filemail.com.  However, if you want to send less frequent emails over 2GB go for Memeo Send.  Although, if you want to frequently send secure emails with personalized features then I’d say go for Filemail.com’s Coporate package.

See Also:
Filemail.com Review

Have you ever had a problem sending large emails to other people?  Many web-based email accounts have a limit to how many bytes worth of attachments you can send at any one time.  Filemail.com is an online large email sender which resolves this problem.

The service can be used for free (up to 2GB) or can be subscribed to for $4 per month (£2.41 at time of writing) or $45 per month (£27.12 at time of writing).  Obviously the more you pay, the more features you get.  For example, in the $4 Premium Package you can send up to 10 GB, have password protection and keep track of uploads/downloads.  The features are even more extensive for the $45 Corporate package, including giving your email a real brand image.

Filemail.com is really easy to use.  Simply type the recipients email address, your email address, a message, upload the file(s) and then click send!  It couldn’t be much easier!

We think Filemail.com is a great website and will most definitely resolve the forever occurring issue of how to send big files via email!

Have you ever used Filemail.com?  What do you think of it?

Today is our last post from our Password series!  It’s always important to treat all your passwords with care.  It’s essential that you do so because you never know who may want get hold of your password or pass phrase until it’s too late!

• Reveal – Make sure you keep your passwords away from everyone (even family), especially children.  You never know who they may accidently tell.  You never know who may pass on your password without thinking.  The only exception to this is a joint account created with a spouse.
• Protect Recordings – Make sure you store any passwords you’ve written down in a careful place!  Never put it in the bin with out shredding and ripping the paper up profusely.  If you save them on your computer make sure the file is well hidden and not easily accessible.
• Email – Never give your password out via email.  If you’re emailed asking you to go to a website to verify your password it is more than likely to be a phishing scam.  Click here to find out more about phishing!
• Regular changes – It is a great idea to regularly change your password, depending on its length. If your password is around 8 characters long then we recommend you change it every couple of weeks.  If it is strong and 15 letters long we think it should last for years!
• Control of Computer – We suggest that you should only access profiles and accounts when you’re on your own computer.  It can be dangerous to do so in internet cafe’s etc because criminals can easily access previous used passwords using their technical equipment.

We hope that you’ve found the Password Series interesting and helpful!  Don’t forget to check out the Microsoft Password Checker to test the strength of your passwords!

Below are a variety of formulas that people often use to create passwords which are easy to guess and therefore easy to hack!

• Sequences – Try not to use sequences of letters or numbers as they are very easy to guess.  E.g, ’123456789′ or ‘abcdefg’ or ‘ddddddd’
• Look-alike – It is always good to use look-alike symbols instead of letters, e.g. ‘a’ is ‘@’.  However, we only recommend doing this when you combine them with a variation of letter cases.  No professional account hacker will be fooled by ‘i’ as ’1′.
• Personal Details – Don’t use your personal or family member details as your password.  E.g, name, date of birth, address, username/login name.  Hackers will try this information first.
• Dictionary – Hackers are now using some top quality software that can guess passwords from dictionary’s in all type’s of languages, even if the word is spelt backwards, misspelt and includes substitutions.
• Variation – We recommend that you have a few passwords instead of using just one for everything.  If one system is hacked into, and you use the same password for everything you may as well consider every account that you have on the Internet as hacked.
• Storage – many people are beginning to use online storage.  We would heavily discourage this.  If your online storage is hacked into you may have personal documents saved.  Consequently they will all be accessed by the criminal.

Finally, don’t forget to check the strength of your password with the Microsoft Password Checker!

Below is a 6 step method to creating a strong, good quality, easy to remember password!  Our method is easy to remember, just think the ‘S and 5 C’s’ method!

1. Sentence – Think of a personal sentence of phrase that you find really easy to remember, e.g. I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars.  This is known as a pass phrase.
2. Compatibility – Some systems, whether it be on the computer or online, may not allow spaces in your password.  If the system you’re using does allow for spaces use the pass phrase from step one and move to step 4.  If not then move to step3.
3. Conversion – If the system doesn’t allow for spaces convert the phrase.  For example, take all the first letters from your pass phrase to make a word, e.g. ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ changes to ‘ihtpratb’.
4. Complicate things – Make the password harder to guess by varying between upper and lower case letters and throw in the odd number too.  For example, your pass phrase could change from this  ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ to ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ or your converted pass phrase could change from this ‘ihtpratb’ to ‘Ih3PrA2b’.
5. Characters – Now try to replace any words, letters or numbers with symbols and alternative characters.  For example, your pass phrase could start as ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ and change to ‘! h@v£ 3 p£t R@BbIt$ & 2 BuDgEr!g@r$’ or your converted pass phrase could start as ‘Ih3PrA2b’ and change to ‘!h3Pr&2b’.
6. Check – Finally, check the strength of your password using the Windows Password Checker.  The stronger the better!

Over the next few weeks we’re doing a series on passwords!  It is always important to have a good password.  Having a strong password makes it even harder for any hacker to get into your private accounts and information, etc.

Here are some good ways to ensure you have a good quality password:

• Length – It is ideal to have a long password.  By long we mean at least 8 letters long but if possible even longer!  Generally, the longer it is the harder it is the hack.  Many systems now also allow for spaces in your password.  Therefore it may be a good idea to invent a long phrase rather than a word.
• Use the whole keyboard – It is a great idea to use letters, numbers and symbols in your password.  The greater the variety of keys the harder it is for an attacker to break into your account.  Surveys have shown that having a 15 character password using both letters and numbers is far stronger than having an 8 character password with just letters.  In fact it’s 33,000 times stronger!
• Make it memorable – It is essential that your password is really easy for you to remember!  However, it is also essential that other people, even your friends, wont be able to guess it easily!

Finally, check out the quality of your password with the Microsoft Password Checker!

We’ve now come to the end of our Antivirus Comparison Series.  To finish everything off we’re going to give each software a rating and a rank….

Software	Rating	Rank
		6
		7
		3
		4
		2
		5
		1

From all our investigations over the past few weeks we can conclude in our opinion AVG Internet Security is the best software around!  We were really pleased and excited to see that Avira and Kaspersky have so much potential and are on the verge of being world class products.  Norton 360 and McAfee, for us, were the biggest let downs.  The quality of product and service just isn’t as good as you expect.  In many cases you’re better off going for a smaller brand or AVG!  All software used in the comparisons were the best available home software from the brand at the time of writing.

I think the interesting and most important thing to take from the investigation is that the two biggest household names are rated as last.  Consequently this whole survey really asks this question…’do the big name brands always provide  the best service and product?’

Want to find out more?  Check out the original comparison articles:

• Norton 360 vs AVG Internet Security
• McAfee Total Protection vs AVG Internet Security
• Trend Micro Internet Security Pro vs AVG Internet Security
• Avira Premium Security Suite vs AVG Internet Security
• avast! Professional Edition vs AVG Internet Security
• Kaspersky Internet Security vs AVG Internet Security

Over the past month we have been comparing antivirus software.  Below is a table which summaries our findings!  We’ve put all the results into percentages to make everything fair!

	Alternative Software %	AVG % in Comparison
	64%	86%
	63%	88%
	75%	94%
	69%	88%
	77%	82%
	67%	90%

As you can see from the table, AVG is by far the superior antivirus software when compared to the others.  Throughout the entire comparison process we were very impressed with the potential of some of the lesser known software like Avira and Kaspersky.  In a few years time they could really be battling with the rest!  Look out for our ratings table in coming weeks!

Google is developing an operating system (OS) for personal computers, in a direct challenge to market leader Microsoft and its Windows system.

Google Chrome OS will be aimed initially at small, low-cost netbooks, but will eventually be used on PC’s as well.

Google said netbooks with Chrome OS could be on sale by middle 2010.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” the firm said in its official blog.

The operating system, which will run on an open source license, was a “natural extension” of its Chrome browser, the firm said.

The news comes just months before Microsoft launches the latest version of its operating system, called Windows 7.

To continue reading this article on the BBC click here

Watch this space!!