Best way to protect your system

[spacemanspiff]

Somehow I've managed to avoid most of the nastier viruses and spyware, up until about a month or so ago. Now I'm having to run my whole arsenal of spyware proggy's and registry washers and whatnot almost daily. I'm not running anything to intercept that crap before it gets to my system.

What's the best anti-virus software to stop crap from getting installed, both from emails and from visiting websites, and to check my system for hidden files that can reinstall malicious bulllshit.

Is there such a thing?

[Jim]

Norton Internet Suite works pretty well for both. It has been quite a while since I have gotten anything or even had to use any kind of washer system.

Or, just so Cleo doesn't have to tell you, get a mac.

[Cleo]

It's called Mac OS X.

[spacemanspiff]

Cleo, if I didn't have to buy all the software I use all over again, I'd be a Mac daddy by tomorrow.

I thought Norton might be the way to go, but there are so many different packages and programs. Thanks Jim.

[Cleo]

At least I'm predictable. LOL

I've been over a friend's house a lot this last week using her two Windows XP computers. They both have Zone Alarm and Norton, but they still have crap that has gotten installed from surfing and e-mail. Between Zone Alarm popping up all the time and the computer opening up stuff that it wasn't asked to I don't know how she can get any work done.

[MrYum]

Ouch...sorry to hear that Spaceman

These days ya damn near need a condom on your puter...

I hesitate to jinx myself, but so far have never had a problem with virus/trojans. I run Norton's AV and Internet Security. Have both set to update automatically every day. Also, run adaware and spybot weekly...keeps things nice and tidy.

Good luck getting things cleaned up.

[Useless]

Don't you wish those damned virus coders (who I am positive are all employed by Symantec) would start writing viruses for Macs? It wouldn't have to be something dreadful. Maybe just a simple trojan that continuoulsy changes their homepage to micros*ft.com.

[josho]

my windows machine is pretty virus/spyware/etc free..

-- knock on wood --

for spyware control i use "spybot search and destroy" and "spyware blaster" in combination. both you can find on google for free.

as for the anti-virus software, if you insist on using outlook, you could get motino ( www.motino.com ) but it isn't free.. i believe you get 30 days to try it. I have tried it and it does work really well (infact, the best spam blocker i've ever used.) i don't use it any more though, because i've ditched outlook. way too many virus being sent through e-mail. instead of outlook i run "foxmail": http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/download.htm
it was first written in chinese, but they now have an english version. it's free. it allows you to turn off HTML or show it only if you want it to. it has built in spam protection, but unfortunately it's not as good as motino.

i also run "norton anti-virus corporate edition" with real time file protection enabled -- very good program and a lot less resource intensive than the home/regular editions, but it's far from being free. i don't know of any free virus scanner i'd recommend, but i'd highly suggest obtaining norton corp edition no matter what you must do to get it

wow this was a long post, sorry.

[urb]

Norton Internet Security is a good software solution.

It's got anti-virus + firewall.

If you're using Outlook or Outlook Distress, you may be safer switching to view emails in text mode only.

Important things to know about Norton
1) Norton's privacy settings are not anti-hotlink/.htaccess friendly. After installation you may find that images are blocked - the only way to unblock is to switch off the Privacy totally.

2) Norton includes a sneaky Ad blocker which removes some banners, depending on the size of the banner and what html is included around the banner. AdSense links will also become unclickable.

3) Norton adds unwanted Javascript into the source code of a page being viewed.

The sad thing is that these are factory settings and surfers generally have no idea about them.

[seb]

i use
Zonealarm for firewall

Adware and Spybot for spyware

and Norton for viruses

[Cleo]

Originally posted by Useless Warrior
Don't you wish those damned virus coders (who I am positive are all employed by Symantec) would start writing viruses for Macs? It wouldn't have to be something dreadful. Maybe just a simple trojan that continuoulsy changes their homepage to micros*ft.com.

After two years of trying one of the anti virus companies finally did manage to write a trojan program a few weeks ago that could delete documents in the owners home directory. Apple has already released a fix that closes this security hole but even if they didn't there is no way to cause it to spread since Macs don't have the virus spreader known as Windows Outlook.

I really don't see why Microsoft isn't sued for releasing a faulty product.

Don't use IE or Outlook and you will be much safer.


sudo rm -rf microsoft

[RawAlex]

Okay, here are the RawAlex tips for keeping your system clean and neat and tidy and (rarely) infected:

1 - Install a hardware firewall. Any of the linksys / dlink / cisco dsl router / cable mode routers will do the trick. They will stop ANY outside attempts to connect to your system, as the outside people cannot directly talk to your PC. You can then block specific ports as you feel the need to limit this even more. (today alone so far, my firewall is showing over 150 failed attempts to open ports directly on the system)

2 - Do not accept attachments in your email. Filter all attachments, and either forward them directly to hotmail, or ask people to use hotmail / yahoo mail to reach you for attachments. They have very good and VERY current filters, major virus outbreaks will be filtered before you get them!

3 - in email, always turn off the preview pane. You should never have an emai opened without your permission. A very high percentage of spams use a 1X1 img src tag to track people who actually read mail - this means you will get tons more spam if you email address is confirmed.

4 - Every moring before you start working, run adaware and any other spybot program you are comfortable with.

5 - Don't install any software that you are not 100% sure about. Programs like Kazaa and others also load a shitpile of crap onto your system (like gator and others). If you do install new software, reboot your system, and run your spybot programs right away to remove any bullshit. Run the again after the first time you run the new piece of software.

6 - If you want to trade files with kazaa of others, get a second PC with nothing important on it except that, and run it there.

7 - always password protect shared directories when sharing on windows. Most viruses check all drives and all visible network drives, and try to infect them all. With a simple password on directories, the virus cannot get into networked computers.

8 Run WINDOWS UPDATE every chance you get. Keeping your system up to date will keep out most of the crap. Most auto installed junk uses security holes that have long since been patched but still work on most PCs because people don't update!

More than anything, don't do stupid things, don't open mail from people you don't know... and stay up to date!

Alex

[DangerDave]

What Alex said....

1,2,3,8 will keep you 99.9% safe..

DD

[Greenguy]

So 4, 5, 6 & 7 only keep you 0.1% safe?

[DangerDave]

Smarty Pants! - 4,5,6,7 are not required actions.. they are choice matters!

|pcwins|

[Cleo]

Wouldn't it be safer just to make your PC wear a condom?

[Linkster]

First off - your email program is important - Ive found that Eudora is the easiest to protect - and what everybody said about preview panes - dont use them

I use BitDefender antivirus - it allows you to monitor anything trying to write to the registry - and although it can be a small pain when you are installing software, its the best at stopping trojans and iframe exploits. And a heck of a lot cheaper than Norton

Lavasoft adaware is a daily function here - of course its important to get the updated library as they come out almost every day

Last - use cwshredder and hijackthis any time you even think you might have gotten infected with adware - always D/L the newest version (theyre both free and updated almost daily) and you can keep clean - Ive had some pretty bad infections in the past and this is just a culmination of what ive gone to.
BTW - those last two programs have never failed to remove any kind of hijack Ive had and Ive recommended it to others here and it has always worked with the newest version.

[Smoothie]

RawAlex and Linkster,

Great tips! I do some of those things, but apparently need to do more. I have a virus program and 3 spy programs at this point, but still I get hit now and then, mostly when reviewing or checking links.

Definitely going to get a hardware firewall...I use ZoneAlarm Pro but obiously it isn't enough.

[Rorschach]

http://www.slackware.org/
http://www.gentoo.org/
http://www.freebsd.org/
http://www.openbsd.org/

[mogart]

go and get :

- Sygate Personal Firewall
- Mozilla - very good and easy to use email client and browser

[troy]

Not many people are aware you can close some holes yourself.

Here is a good adress for some easy things you can do to make windows safer.

http://grc.com/default.htm

Especialy the 3 muskateers are very interesting and easy to aply.

Hope it helps.

|rasta|

[CelticTiger]

Excellent post RawAlex! I never bothered my ass with any Windows updates. It's now at the top of my to do list.

[lassiter]

Originally posted by seb
i use
Zonealarm for firewall

Adware and Spybot for spyware

and Norton for viruses

Ditto to all four. It's a jungle out there, but that combination will handle 98% of all threats, as long as you keep their data files updated and scan regularly.

Or buy a Mac. Yeah, I know. But I'm also a gamer, darnit.

And Cleo, tell your friend that it's an easy toggle setting to keep ZoneAlarm from popping up. Almost all the popups are alerting one to probes that are in fact being blocked by ZA, so there's really no need to be alerted. One can inspect the activity log at any time without having to be interrupted by ZA popups.

When I first installed ZA a couple of years back, I was getting my ports probed (oooh that sounds obscene) about 20-30 times an hour. Now it's about 800-1,000 an hour (since I'm on a very well-known regional DSL provider and thousands of bots are set to probe that entire IP range 24/7). |ohhhhh|

[lassiter]

Originally posted by mogart

- Mozilla - very good and easy to use email client and browser

Oh, yes, that's another one. Using Mozilla instead of IE will prevent maybe 4/5 of all web-based malware exploits from affecting your system. Plus, checking your coding in Mozilla can reveal a lot of coding errors (particularly with tables) that IE often ignores. And vice-versa, actually, since I've found that Mozilla itself doesn't catch a few errors that can break a page in IE. I always try to check my work in both browsers before uploading a site or a page.

[Cleo]

Originally posted by lassiter
And Cleo, tell your friend that it's an easy toggle setting to keep ZoneAlarm from popping up. Almost all the popups are alerting one to probes that are in fact being blocked by ZA, so there's really no need to be alerted.

It went nuts when I tried to login to her Linksys WiFi router to set it up. I tried just ignoring it but then it blocked access to the router. I ended up using my Mac to setup the router.