Sending large files to a friend without a web service? Create a torrent!

There have been times that I have needed to send large files (like I'm talking around 1Gb or more) to my friends...and well, you know - something over 5Mb is just plain rude to send through email. There are 3rd party services like transferbigfiles.com, yousendit.com, FilesOverMiles.com and others. It's great to have these available, but sometimes I just don't want to use a 3rd party service, but I do want to take advantage of the great features that the Bittorrent protocol gives me.

So, how do I send a copy of a DVD of home movies to my family?

Here's a great article from www.bootstrike.com: Creating a [Private] Torrent using uTorrent (Guide/Tutorial) Version 0.51 - the title says it all.

The summary goes something like this:

• Install uTorrent
• Identify your IP address and upload port for uTorrent incoming connections (you will need an address that will be yours for as long as you need to upload the file to your friend/family)
• Enable the self-tracking feature of uTorrent via the setup options.
  
• Note your tracker URL - - i.e. http://yourip:incomingport/announce
• Add a Torrent with your file or folder you wish to share, add your local tracker to the torrent. Enable 'start seeding' and 'private torrent' then click 'Create and save as...'
• Send the Torrent file to your friend/family and have them drag it into their Torrent downloader.

To get optimum performance from your BitTorrent client, check out the great guide provided by bootstrike.com here: http://www.bootstrike.com/Articles/BitTorrentGuide/

Antivirus Now available: Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ 

A new free Antivirus to rival the likes of Avast!, Avira and AVG (huh, a lot of 'A' packages, eh?)...or so we hope. Microsoft has retired it's Live OneCare product in favor of their new Microsoft Security Essentials package.  So far, initial reviews have been favorable (See yesterday's post).

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

In its first week, it has been downloaded over 1.5 million times...not bad, but it will be interesting to see how it performs in the long-term. 

I've installed it my pc in lieu of Avira and Avast!.  I usually go for Avira when configuring my personal customer's machines...no registration key to enter once per year, but this might be a good alternative due to its pure simplicity.

Client download is small, I've noticed no system slowdown and it even picked up a virus that Avira missed (but this might be because I did not perform a full scan with Avira before loading MSE).

One word of warning, though: If your Windows version isn't valid (i.e. it fails the WGA test), then it will not install.

Have you tried it?  What do you think?





A new free antivirus has hit the virtual shelves!

PC World Reviews Free Antivirus Solutions: Avira comes out on top, but there are some notable surprises...

In the latest issue of PC World, they review the top free Antivirus solutions available including (but not limited to) Avira, AVG, Avast!, Comodo and others.

Not surprisingly, Avira comes out on top.

Here's the quick summary:

Avira has the best heuristic protection, making it great to prevent unknown threats. Also, scan speed was a plus, while it got negative points for its interface for non-techies. The one thing that always bothered me about Avira was the advertisements for the pro version, but thankfully, there are ways to get around this. This seems like the best for technical folks.

Avast! has a great anti-malware mechanism, but the interface is still the same as it has been for years: clunky, clunky, and oh, did I mention? Clunky - it's not intuitive to a new (or sometimes longtime) user how to scan your computer. I have, however always liked how it allows you to run a boot-time scan in addition to a screen-saver mode. One bad mark from me is that you have to re-register every year. Not that this is an issue for me, but for 99% of my home-users that I support, they let it expire and never re-register. *shakes head*

AVG is the darling of the Internet. It has a pretty friendly interface, and it was fair at blocking new unknown threats. Overall speed wasn't the greatest and its malware detection wasn't up to snuff to Avira. With that said, it did do a good job of preventing false-positives. I can see this as a toss-up with the new (and not fully reviewed) Cloud Antivirus for being the friendliest for non-techies.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta (which has since been released) is a newcomer to the AV market, replacing the OneCare line. This one actually scored pretty well, cleaning malware with ease, including new unknowns. The biggest ding against it was its scan speed. It is noted in the review that this is beta, so there is a possibility that this could change with the full version.

PCTools Antivirus rated poorly, ok, terribly with regards to spyware protection. In addition, it "left the door wide open for about half of the malware in our tests." It scored dead last in detecting new unknown threats. Also, it didn't schedule a scan by default, nor is it set for automatic updates without manually configuring after installation.

Comodo Internet Security has a special place since it also is a freely available commercial solution (unlike the others), and it includes a firewall product (which was not reviewed). The bad? The default installation changes your default browser search engine, installs a social toolbar, and switches your homepage to hopsurf.com. Yikes. It scored a 74.6% malware detection rate, and produced the most false-positives of any of the programs reviewed, which in my book is unacceptable. Finally, it has a prompt-to-accept action based methodology that prompts you to allow or deny certain actions from being taken. This reminds me (and apparently, the reviewer too) a lot of the old firewall programs of a few years back.

A couple mentions but weren't included in the final scoring was ClamWin ("not ready for primetime" - mostly for its lack of active scanning, and virus detection was mediocre), and the new kid on the block, Panda Cloud Antivirus, which from initial showings seems like a great contender.

Interesting stuff...over the years, I've always been a fan of Avast! but I have to say, I've been using Avira on my home computers as of late. It does do a great job, as long as you keep the advertisements to a minimum. I will be trying Microsoft Security Essentials soon, though - I like to keep track of what's out there!

Not that this reflects the free apps specifically, but the av-test.org quadrant map shows some good information with regards to AV effectiveness, which is indicative of the company's free offerings which (I would guess) use the same scanning engine.