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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!

Over the next few weeks we are going to run a series of comparisons between different Anti-Virus Software.  In these comparison post’s we’re going to show you the main features that the two products provide and then tell you which we think is better through our rating system. Our ratings are worked out by the amount of ticks the product has.  Further points are awarded for faster download, simpler/better installation and cheaper price.  This time it is Norton’s 360 v3.0 vs AVG’s Award Winning Internet Security v8.5.

Feature
Download Time	Average	Fast
Installation	Quick but slightly tedious (you have to register for a second time.)  Doesn’t help you set up the general running of the software.	Takes an average length of time.  Quite extensive and helps you set up the basic features of the software.
Antivirus Technology
Identity Protection (Including Phishing Protection, Checks Links, Keeps you details safe whilst shopping online, etc)
Antispyware
Backup Software
Automated Virus Updater
Protects against Viruses, Bots, Spyware, Rootkits, Worms, Trojan Horses, etc.
Online Storage Available?
Helps Secure and Monitor Networks
Download and Instant Messenger Screening
Firewall Protection
RRP	1 Year: £59.99 2 Years: £109.99	1 Year: £39.14 2 Years: £58.71
Available to Download from Brandstar?
Overall Rating	9 out of 14	12 out of 14

So to conclude, from our investigations and playing around with the two software’s, we can announce that we think AVG Internet Security is the better software of the two. It may not have any backup software within the package but it works out cheaper to get AVG and then buy yourself a decent back up tool and external hard drive.

Next time we’ll be comparing AVG Internet Security with McAfee Total Protection.

Dabs is our eighth recommended retailer for Christmas presents.  Dabs specialise in electronics varying from Laptops to Electronic Components to MP3 Players to Mobiles to Books to Software, just to name a few.

Their website is very simple to use and well laid out.  They also have an option to browse by brand which could come in very helpful!

Our Sixth recommended retailer for Christmas Presents is Misco!  Misco are an electronics company, they sell a wide range of products which include; Computer Hardware, Laptops, Digital Cameras, Desktops, TFT’s, Printers, Servers, Wireless Networks and Software!

They are worth having a look at as they have loads of great deals which could save you loads!

Our fourth recommended retailer for Christmas presents is Amazon.co.uk! You name it, Amazon sell it! Amazon have a wide range of products available for very reasonable prices! Products vary from Books to DVDs to Cd’s to Games Accessories to Garden Equipment to Jewelry and much more! A great way to get your last minute presents is their voucher system where you can choose to either email, print off or have your vouchers posted to the recipient.

Check it out!

Brandstar have recently released a brand new Software page!  The software page attempts to tackle the problem of not knowing which software is worth buying and downloading.  After all, there are so many options to choose from!  It covers a variety of both free and commercial products in the genres of Computer Security, Media, Office Applications and System Tools.

It’s worth checking out!

For years I have not found a decent backup utility but over the last 20months I came across two, they are like London buses, you wait ages and none come and then there they are…all in a line

Memeo and SecondBackup are the utilities and I will look at them separately as they are both good in their own ways and suitable in different ways for different people.

Memeo – I came across this by accident when I ordered a Buffalo Drivestation it was on the disk that came with the external hard drive. It is very simple to install and setup and it runs in the background backing up as you go. So you are nearly always 100% backed up if the computer is on and the drive is connected. The utility also allows you to register an account with Memeo to backup to their online service, an excellent way of keeping data stored off-site. You don’t have to buy a Buffalo External hard drive to get the software, you can buy it direct from Memeo.

The software also has a very useful One-Step Data Restore utility with a shortcut created on your desktop when you create the backup profile.

It is not free but at the same time it is free and you can try it for 30 days before you commit to buying.

SecondBackup – I came across this program when I needed something a bit different from Memeo. SecondBackup allows you to create a backup profile which consists of a selection of files/folders that need to be backed up, the location, the backup start time and the frequency. It also allows multiple profiles so for example you could backup your photos every Monday to 1 external hard drive, and your music to another external hard drive on a Tuesday.

SecondBackup seems to work incredibly quickly and a feature that Memeo doesn’t have is that it can backup from an external network location. So one setup we have is the software installed on a Small Business 2003 server backup data from a shared folder on an old Novell server. Which works brilliantly!

As I said both programs backup in different ways, so it is very hard to say which one is best. But if I am honest I am leaning towards SecondBackup, however if Memeo worked for me and I was buying a Buffalo drive then I wouldn’t buy Memeo as well.

No excuses not to backup when these two programs make it so easy!

You may have read on the Brandstar Blog many reviews about the latest version of Microsoft Office (2007). But some people want an alternative, either because the cost of Office can’t be warranted for their purposes or because they just want something that isn’t Microsoft.

A pretty brilliant piece of software called OpenOffice exists and is available free of charge! That’s right FREE! OpenOffice consists of applications much like Microsoft Office does. These being Writer (much like Word), Impress (like Powerpoint), Calc (like Excel), Base (like Access), Draw and Math.

You will notice that there is no equivalent for Microsoft Publisher, so if that is what you are after then you might have to cough up for that! Otherwise Open Office offers a decent package that looks and works much like the more commonly used Microsoft Office.

With so many people using Microsoft Office you need to ensure that choosing an alternative package isn’t going to cause problems sharing files. OpenOffice can open Microsoft Office files and can save as Microsoft Office files.

I could go on and on but if this might be of use then check out the website at www.openoffice.org and download it now! You can download it with or without the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). You need this to run the software so if you don’t have it installed make sure you download the right version.

Personally I still prefer Microsoft Office (especially 2007), there is just a more finished feel to it. There is also one more application missing from OpenOffice, Outlook! And I use Outlook with the calendar function every day of the year so certainly couldn’t do without it!

But for those not doing a great amount with an Office package then this is a great way to save yourself some cash!

Enjoy and let us know what you think