word programme and anti-virus for silver surfer

hilspars

My father at 78 has just decided to join 21st century and has got a laptop and wi-fi broadband.
He wont be using it for ordering/paying for anything or banking etc, just for surfing the net and writing a few documents up.
Can anyone suggest how he can get word without having to pay for office (expensive and most of it he would never use)
Plus, which anti-virus/firewall would be best for him - not too expensive, secure and not taking up too much space on his laptop. Also, ease of use.
Thanks

myxbox

Hi there

For a Word alternative that has the look and feel of Word 2003 and is free , i would recommend KingSoft Office 2012 free edition
here :http://download.cnet.com/Kingsoft-Office-2012/3000-18483_4-75563178.html?!!!!!mncol;txt

Or Libre Office, which is free
here:http://download.cnet.com/LibreOffice/3000-18483_4-75337651.html

For Anti Virus the excellent Avast Free version
here : http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html

For Malware Scanning , Malwarebytes is one of the best and free here: http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?!!!!!rb_content;main;pop

You should be ok to use the built in firewall that comes with Windows.

Hope that helps

brewerdave

Another free word processor alternative is OpenOffice available from http://www.openoffice.org/
Also on my wife's netbook we use Microsoft Security Essentials which is also free.

MattLFC

ESET Smart Security, period. Nod32 (incorporated within ESET Smart Security) has been consistently amongst the top performing AV's for 15 years now, having not missed a single in the wild virus since testing begun in 1998. It is also so quiet and low-resource using, that you don't even realise it is running.

Don't put a price on your security - http://www.eset.com/home/whyeset/compare/

PS. You can buy it from Amazon, PC World, Currys etc, cheaper than direct from ESET

giraffe69

Agree with Libreoffice. Easy to download and install. Easy to use. Best of all free. OPenoffice is no longer being developed but is perfectly ok also.

tombruton87

libre office is definitely the way to go. it is open office as such but with loads of licensing clauses sorted out. I won't bore you all with the details. kasperski would be the best antivirus to use and will offer the best protection don't pay anymore than 25 a year. avg, norton, eset just don't cut the mustard.

Also when setting the laptop up for him setup an admin and user account. get him to use the user account. this means that stuff wants to install it will ask for the password for the admin account and hopefully make him think twice when a virus or other nasty pops up for install

MattLFC

eset just don't cut the mustard

:rotfl:

My god what have you been smoking, I want some!

Kaspersky is good agreed, certainly one of the only few (alongside probably F-Secure) I would go near, but not that good. There's a reason most geeks have been running Nod32 (incorporated into ESET Smart Security) for the past 10 years...

http://www.eset.com/home/whyeset/compare/

Kaspersky and NOD are pretty much neck and neck (or thereabouts) in a lot of respects, both labs do a tremendous job, but overall, Nod has a much better reputation for consistency, and it tears Kaspersky to pieces for raw performance, in all respects. Most users prefer their antivirus to protect them as best as possible, without slowing their productivity down, Nod32 has always provided this (other labs have spent the best part of the last decade trying to catch-up).

I pay for ESET Smart Security (£23 for a 3 PC license iirc) despite the fact my bank (Barclays) gives me Kaspersky for free, that is a statement in itself.

tombruton87

in all the independent tests i have seen eset has failed to recognise man in the browser attacks that did not have previously known sigs. kasperski has came out on top. Seeing as man in the browser attacks are now the most common new threat on the internet. I would rather go for a product that I have seen be successful in all the tests I have seen, rather than something that has failed in all the tests I have seen.

results sites show on there own pages are not accurate. Are you really that naive to believe they are the best at everything in such a competitive field

What is your standing in the security community, What level of crest are you and are you a member of any owasp chapters.

Owain_Moneysaver

Get Teamviewer (or other remote access software) and put it in his Startup menu so it starts automatically every time.

Also remove every icon for IE and install firefox. Set up his bookmarks for him.

st999

If all he wants to do is write a few letters then why doesn't he just use Wordpad, supplied free with every version of Windows?

MattLFC

tombruton87 wrote: »

in all the independent tests i have seen eset has failed to recognise man in the browser attacks that did not have previously known sigs. kasperski has came out on top. Seeing as man in the browser attacks are now the most common new threat on the internet. I would rather go for a product that I have seen be successful in all the tests I have seen, rather than something that has failed in all the tests I have seen.

results sites show on there own pages are not accurate. Are you really that naive to believe they are the best at everything in such a competitive field

What is your standing in the security community, What level of crest are you and are you a member of any owasp chapters.

Aha, so you watched the recent BBC Click programme (speaks volumes), and now suddenly you're a security expert, despite the fact you have not yet finished school??

I'm a time-served Unix/Linux administrator. On the Windows front, I hold MCSA (2007) and CompTIA A+ and Network+ (2009) qualifications, as well as an (antiquated admittedly) NVQ Level III in IT Install & Support (from the NT4/early-NT5 era). I also formerly held an MCBS and was part-way through the process of attaining a CEng accreditation before I realised the whole BCS is generally pointless/a waste of money in the grand scheme of things.

Now when you have finished school, and stopped believing everything the dumbed-down BBC Click tells you is true, then I will take some notice of what you say.

A little bit of information in the wrong hands, can be very dangerous. This is true, very true, damn those BBC Clicksters...