Is anyone protecting their parents pc?

[besafe]

Do your parents rely on you to secure their PC? What do you reccomend for them? For my mom it must be easy to use with few alerts and relatively light on resources.

Presently I have PC Cillin for her PC but am considering changing. Any suggestions? Could go with a suite or individual programs. Could go free or paid.

[WSFuser]

my computer is shared so its easy for me to go and configure/secure it.

currently i use nod32, comodo firewall, linkscanner, and ad muncher. it hasnt caused problems for my dad.

later when i install fd-isr, i will go with a packet filter (ghostwall or chx-i), prevx1, and geswall for my dad. hopefully it goes well.

[ThunderZ]

I`m in charge of protecting my In-laws PCs. They usually want free stuff with little or no user interaction required. So, depending on the OS and resources available either AVG or Avast, Cyberhawk, XP firewall or 4.x vers. of ZA free. Would love to have them use Firefox w\NoScript and Sandboxie.... I guess they are just to used to IE and just can not grasp the concept of Sandboxie and other programs of it`s type.

[coldplay]

I'd like to see some setups for least amount of user interactions

[the Tester]

I do.
Zone Alarm free and Avast.
Spyware Blaster.

[Jarmo P]

I installed Avast to my father's PC cause he wanted free AV and it is in finnish language that is a must for him. He is very happy and has never had a problem with it..
Uses win SP2 firewall, no other one can be used because of the language barrier.

There is also SpywareBlaster and he likes to scan his PC to find tracking cookies so there is also Ad-Aware for that fun. CCleaner is also available in finnish.

I am happy that he has used Firefox from the start, so telling not to run IE is no problem.
It was though too hard to try to get him to use Noscript. Some sites were not working as expected, "what a stupid extension", hehe.

Originally Posted by besafe

Do your parents rely on you to secure their PC?

My parents computers are secured the same as mine:
NOD32 + Windows Firewall + Windows fully updated + Firefox2
Simple but secure

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Me parents do what I tell them. And so they safely enjoy the net. My father, who's a more vigorous user, has learned the simple beauty of deny then ask rather than allow then wonder.

Sygate firewall, AVG just for fun and FF. Nothing else needed.

Mrk

[lodore]

I do this pc is shared so its easy lol.
i use kis6.0 on this pc because its light on resources and has a very high detection rate.
the pdm can be annoying at times when my mum is on the pc thou.
it does settle down and isnt to bad now. i put it on advanced mode since i want the extra control.
lodore

[tansu]

I installed ubuntu with XP in my fathers PC. DualBoot.
I must have removed Ubuntu before leaving the house, after some playing. But I forgot.
After a month or more, I visited them and saw that (since they dont know dual booting) they are booting the default OS from Grub and using Ubuntu and quite happy with it. So I made some adjustments and left it like that. Everybody is happy

[CJsDad]

I gave up with installing software on my mothers computer, everytime I do it gets removed sooner or later.
When I ask her something like 'What happend to the AV I installed" shes says "Oh, I dont know"
I'm not going to waste my time any more.

[Antarctica]

At home it's in fact reverse.I'm in charge of protecting my children's PC.

[optigrab]

Originally Posted by ThunderZ

...They usually want free stuff with little or no user interaction required.

Same here.
Avast
XP firewall
Spyware Blaster
Spybot S&D Immunization
Coming Soon: Freeware BOClean
Coming Soon: Remote Desktop Management (!) so I don't need to walk Mom through "service calls" over the phone.

[zapjb]

My folks had been using a computer with Windows 95 for about 6 years. It finally died. They asked my advice. I told them to ask around their friends for a used box with Windows 98se. And not get anything newer. They found one & they are happy. And I am relieved.

In my experience fixing NT kernel & non-NT kernel (98se & before) computers. Shows non-NT kernel computers have next to nil malware problems. Even with no AV & PF.

Most everyone except those here & like knowledged computer users can't protect their computer. I'll say it plainly. Most everyone with a M$ OS newer than 98se can't protect their computer.

So depending on their age (mine are old), ability & willingness. Windows 98se might be a good choice for your parents also.

[cheater87]

My parents finally let me install some stuff. I have spybot for its bad download protection, spyware blaster for kill bits, spyware terminator for real time and my parents installed Norton with Mcafee firewall included (LOL irony) and I have superantspyware as a scanner.

[Monkey_Feces]

Im surprised your parents are even aware of computer security. My mom is always asking me which button is start, which one turns of the computer, which icon is the internet, and if I have been looking at porno.

[Notok]

I've set family up with various combinations of Prevx1, NOD32, AVG, ZoneAlarm, and Look'n'Stop without complaints. This includes for the in-laws who are quite far from being computer literate.

[ErikAlbert]

My family doesn't listen to any of my advices, not even a backup, so they will learn it the hard way.

[besafe]

My mom is dues for renewal next month to Trend Micro PC Cillin. I want to replace with:

AVAST
Zone Alarm Free
Spyware terminator (without HIPS enabled)

In your opinion, does she lose any protection or functionality with the free apps I have listed? Once Boclean goes free I may add that too. Does it give alerts or just sit there waiting?

Whatever I out on her system must not give many alerts or require many user decisions.

[cheater87]

I think that set up looks great. Its good to not have HIPS turned on in Spyware Terminator it has some pop ups come up when it wants to ask for your input on what to do.

[namdog]

Highly suggest you to use Powershadow (http://www.powershadowsecurity.com)

I use this software to protect my parents PC.

This software is foolproof. Even no need to update. These are most important features for elder beginners.