There’s an old adage that says you get what you pay for and in the case of antivirus software that’s kind of true. That’s not to say free antivirus programs should be dismissed out of hand though – some are actually very good and may well be sufficient for some people. In terms of independent testing, AV-Test.org results over a period of time show that free antivirus programs do, on the whole, score lower than the paid-for alternatives in the marketplace and our own experience has taught us that free programs also tend to suffer from a lack of additional features, less than stellar support, an obsession with up-selling, or a combination of all three. Whether or not any of those issues are a deal breaker for you will likely depend upon what you use your computer for, how you value your data and your personal financial position.

Category 5/6,/6A cable, single-mode fiber, and multi-mode fiber vary in capabilities and price. Copper cable comes in many different flavors, but the most common are Cat5E, Cat6, and Cat6A. The speed, frequency, and cost increase with each level. According to TIA recommendations, Cat5E is legacy, Cat6 is the minimum, and Cat6A is recommended. Fiber cable is divided into single-mode and multi-mode. It’s immune to electromagnetic interference, provides more bandwidth, and can be run at longer distances. This extra functionality comes at a cost– installation and material are more expensive. The right cable will depend on how big your facility is and how much bandwidth it’ll need.

WiFi 6 allows devices to send more data in one transmission, resulting in a 20% improvement in speed through higher order modulation (1024-QAM). This higher order modulation increases the efficiency and speed of data transmission on your network, providing an extra 25% improvement in speed and performance.

Firewall capabilities vary quite a bit from basic home firewalls to advanced NextGen firewalls designed to protect critical enterprise systems. All firewalls can detect certain kinds of known malicious traffic. They can block traffic from IP addresses associated with malware and phishing attacks — or block traffic to ports that are not used by legitimate traffic. More advanced firewalls can also inspect the contents of data packets and detect known malware signatures.