Security Software for your PC

[Sin]

For most people I would suggest getting a dell and talk with them about upgrades....Please rememmber if you go to one of there show rooms, the younger people there will most likely give you straight answers on your questions, the older ones just woant your money. the Younger ones will tell you if you can get something better somewhere else or things you can do to your computer that Dell dosn't provide. usually the shaggy haired looks like they've been up all night guy knows a lot more than his bosses do about the hardware..........i would know...i am one of them.

If you are going for Strictly gameing go with alienware computers....they are really good, but a little pricey.

I hope this knowledge is usefull

 

[dubljay]

Here's another way to protect against those nasty viral infections...

Oh thats a great one MACaver :rofl:

 

[Simon Curran]

OK I have a question,

Regarding browser hi-jackers, I know a lot of people might suggest a different OS or a different browser, but anyway...
I am using XP with the built in IE6, Norton Internet Security, Ad-Aware,Windows anti spyware and Spyware Doctor
Even still, I made the mistake of selecting a particular page (namely jubii.dk) as a start page once, and now I can't change the damned thing, regardless of how many registry clean ups I run, how many times I manually reset it...
I am definatley not what could be considered as a computer expert, so I am asking those of you out there who know more than me, any suggestions as to how I gan regain control over my computer, because it is really starting to annoy the hell out of me.
Thanks for any help in advance,
Simon

 

[modarnis]

I also use both adaware and spybot. Better safe than sorry

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Disable the auto-recovery feature in XP.
Make certain your AVS and Spyware checkers are the latest versions with latest dats.
Scan again.
Reboot

Now try changing it. If it works, reactivate the auto-recovery thingy.
If not, try going to cexx and typing in the site name thats locking you in. They may be able to give you specific removal instructions.

 

[Kreth]

What Bob said... Also, you'll generally get better results removing spyware if you boot to safe mode, then run your scan. A lot of spyware apps have a process running that just reinstalls them if you clean them. By scanning in safe mode, you only have barebones Windows processes running...

Jeff

 

[Pale Rider]

I had never thought of starting in safe-mode to run the spyware scans. Sounds like a great idea.

Also here is a great Anti-Virus scan that I have found that does wonders in locating the roots of the problem. I run it more so then I do the McAfee and it does an excellent job:

AntiVir Guard

Really worth checking out...

 

[LT2002]

I had never thought of starting in safe-mode to run the spyware scans. Sounds like a great idea.

Best way to diagnosis most problems is to go to its simiplest state....for MS OS that would be SafeMode.

MS spyware program has proven good competition for Spybot and Adaware.

 

[mantis]

i find avg from grisoft the best anti-virus
although it's free...
sygate firewall is good too
do not rely on ad-aware from lavasoft.. it catches lots, but not as much as it misses!
maybe it's the best so far.. but still not that effective!

 

[Andrew Green]

One more: Try to avoid running as "Administrator" whenever possible

But the most important thing you can do is keep things up to date. That will stop most attacks right there.

The basic cycle is:

1. A security flaw is found.

2. It gets announced that it has been found

3. A patch gets released (Often at the same time as 2)

4. After that, by monitoring the patch and what it changes, someone creates a program to exploit it, do the damage and spread to any other unpatched systems it can find.

5. User, who failed to up date their system, gets infected. Their system spreads the program.

So if you keep up dated and don't run trojans, chances are all the vulnerabilities will be patched before they hit you.

But, that said, I work of Linux now I still have to use WinXP sometimes at work, but not very often.

 

[mantis]

lucky you
i have to be on xp and 2000 all the time
even if i want to use linux i have to run it off of a virtual machine running on XP!
how sad, huh?

 

[bignick]

Try using a live distro instead for running linux. There are some prebuilt live distro's that are actually designed with the idea of recovering a linux/windows box. Linux Defender is the one that is popping into my head.

Also, as far as wireless security goes, it's pretty worthless from what I've seen against any sort of determined effort to use it. Here I'm talking about the Wireless Encryption Protocal (WEP) that a lot of people use on their routers. Which means try to avoid doing things like giving your computer descriptions like "Firstname Lastname's PC". I'm a computer science major, and one of my friends is doing his senior research project on the subject. He cracked the encryption for an access point at his place and found that the person had named their computer after themselves, and he did some searching on the internet and within minutes knew who she was, where she worked, etc...

 

[mantis]

im trying not to be pessimistic about free wireless since Google is going to be working on it..
those guys are going kookoo in changing everything!
i heard they're buying the gov't's old backbone to have their "own version of the INTERNET"...
they have imagination, money, and the skill to do it man..
let's just get some popcorn and watch em do it

 

[arnisador]

Work restricts me too, but I have one Unix box and one Windows atrocity on my desks.

 

[Shicomm]

Hitman pro

This is just the best software to fight spyware.
It's freeware

 

[Shicomm]

I you just want to kill spyware but don't want to install any software , try the online scan from Ewido at : http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan

They also have some "installable" software that you can use but i've allready seen some amazing results from their online scan!

 

[Shicomm]

2 more great tips :

Spybot search and destroy

Great ( free ! ) software that can crush over 170.000 types of malware.
Not the most user frienly but it's powerful !

more info at www.spybot.info
---
Malwarebytes anti-malware

Very nice programme that can do almost the same as spybot S&D but it's more user friendly.
The basic function ( scan when you ask the software to do it ) is free to use.
They also have a paid version with some kind of 'live filter' that actually prevents malware getting inside.

Must have !

More info at www.malwarebytes.org

 

[Hawke]

I have been using avast (http://www.avast.com/).

I read some reviews on AVG (free version) and some of the things I discovered is that after 30 days it will no longer scan emails (I think yahoo does this for free using McAfee). Anyone know the difference between the paid version and the free version of AVG?

Also SiteAdvisor is a nice little tool when surfing the net (http://www.siteadvisor.com/).

 

[Shicomm]

The paid version of avg updates more often and gives more protection if i'm right...
The 'free guys' still don't cut the mustard with me as i frequently get machines from customers with infections from various sources...

I pay about 30 euro's a year for kaspersky ; yes, it's not free but there's peace of mind knowing that my valued data is secure...

 

[Matthew McMullen]

I use to have McAfee Enterprise on my home computer for Anti Virus and I used Spybot S&D and Adaware to do the periodic spyware scan until they couldn't get rid of a spyware program that both Adaware and Spybot said they found and removed. I ended up switching to Vipre which is an active Spyware and Virus scanner it isn't free but it uses very low system resources and it was able to clean that spyware program out of my PC and it has a 15 day free trial. I think I paid $50 for 2 years. The company's website is sunbeltsoftware.com.

As for wireless security I use a MAC filter on my router if your MAC address isn't there it won't let you in.