Help:Light protection for 512 Mb ram laptop

I have laptop(amd sempron 3600 + 512 Mb ram) with windows xp home-sp3

Formatted just minute ago. Ready for action. Can you help me setup for light protection?

Ps: I am behind of NAT/SPI Router. Finally I am a student so i havent any money say me free software please. Thanx.

 

I've done it before (512 ram)...and seemed ok.
Avira + Online Armor free.

Alternative way:
Frequent backups ( images ) + no antivirus + Prevx Edge free + Online Armor + Sandboxie and Firefox + installed some on demand scanners like a-squared free, MBAM, SAS.

Alternative way:
No antivirus + no firewall ( windows firewall enabled) + frequent backup images + sandboxie and firefox + great attention while surfing (+ forget warez downloads) + run only known applications (this setup does not offer outbound protection).

 

for free you can use sandboxie or geswall or DSA(dynamic security agent)and malwarebytes free/superantispyware free

 

My son has a laptop (Amd Sempron 2800+ 512 mb ram)

It has the following....

A) Router
B) Windows firewall for inbound
C) DefenseWall containing all internet facing applications in stronger than limited user environment
D)Avira free with following modifications
- set check at writes only (no read and write)
- increase the packed files control to 10 nested/deep and skip limitations on size or number)
- set heuristics to HIGH of guard
- set heuristics to low of scan

Kees1958 suggested this set up and i am very happy with it, and it runs very light.

It also has firefox web browser with extensions, WOT and adblock plus

 

Have been using GSWall Free(real time) Windows Worm Door Closer (does it thing and exits) and Windows FW(no exceptions) on a PIII 650MHz with 256 of RAM connected to wireless LAN behind a NAT router. Firefox with NoScript for surfing.

Use MBAM, SAS, and Cureit for second opinions.

All things considered the ol laptop is quit snappy.
Some can`t believe it even runs XP.

 

Add another user that ran Online Armor free + Antivir free on XP sp3 with 512 Ram. It was light here too.

Another free pairing would be PCTools Firewall Plus and Drive Sentry.

 

I really have not found much lighter than the stuff in my signature.
I feel pretty secure.
Most would want a Firewall from this century however.
Pc Tools seems pretty good.

 

Windows limited user with software restriction policy
Windows Firewall or IPcec rules
Firefox with NoScript and Ad Block plus
Returnil free (Returnil free has File Protection and Anti-Execute modules)

 

I suggest AntiVir free with Sandboxie/GesWall.

Also use a browser other than IE, Secunia Software Inspector to update your programs and an image and file backup programs.

 

The first thing to do when considering security should ALWAYS be a limited user account.

Failure to do that but loading up on a whole crapload of other "security" software, is as smart as spending thousands of dollars on the latest state-of-the-art burglar alarm, but leaving your front door unlocked and wide open.

 

I have a Celeron with 512 MB RAM and XP Pro. I am running Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 on it. It consumes about 28 MB RAM and doesn't drain the system.

 

Prevx Edge is very light. Along with Windows firewall you shouldn't notice any slow downs at all.

 

Lightest and free, your a a student so time and intelligence enough to realise this. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=200772


Combine with the latest Avira free, set heuristics high and check to write only with samrt file extensions and you are absolutely safe

 

Don't forget yu don't need anymore to go through the hassle ofall of it. Concentrate on 4 points:
- create a LUA
- set default ACL for windows, as explained in the thread
- protect uset startup, as explained in a thread by tlu
- Don't follow all the proposed road to set up SRP. Instead, use the .txt file given by tlu at the end of the thread, save it as .reg file, execute it and you have default SRP. You will be able to tweak it afterwards in the registry.

As ParadigmShift said so well:
No install...
No bugs...
No crashes...
No hooks...
No fees...
No English translation...
No malware infiltration...

Just a protected operating system and wonderful peace of mind.

 

First thing is a backup program with a secure zone. If you have the money, I would recommend Acronis. A friend bought a used laptop at auktion yesterday, and it took me 11 hours to install and configure everything. I installed Acronis and created an image. When I tested the image, it took Acronis 6 minutes to restore those 11 hours of work. It'll pay for itself the first time you get bitten by a BadDog!

As mentioned in above posts: Non-Administrative User Account, Windows Firewall (Online Armor Free is great, but creates 5 continuously running processes), Firefox with NoScript-WOT(or SiteAdvisor)-AB+ Addons - No Third Party cookies, MVPS Hosts File, Windows Worms Doors Cleaner.

CCleaner & ATF Cleaner. Also, a "noautoruns.reg" registry entry to prevent worm infections from using your thumb drive on school computers. See Nick Brown's Blog for this.

Either Avast, AVG, or Avira - Free! In addition use McAfee's Stinger as a standalone and Multi_AV.exe in F8 Safe Mode.

Consider running Sysinternal's Process Explorer & Autoruns in order to trim-up on non-essential processes.

It takes a full 768 MB of RAM to load XP, but 512 MB will work. Trying FreeRAM XP Pro might help, but an addtional 256-512 MB RAM would be best.

Use strong passwords and change them at least every three months. If you do online banking you have a user name and password. I have one additional level of security when banking - the bank snail-mails me a code sheet - when I login using my regular user-name & password, I am prompted again with a code that I look up on my code sheet and enter the corresponding code. These additional codes are never used again.

If the reason you "cleaned" your hard drive is because of an infection, you may wish to consider the following:

If your computer has been hit with a memory resident virus or MBR infection, simply deleting the c:\ partition may not be enough when multiple partitions are involved. There are a lot of re-infections occurring with the newer strains of Virut, even after FDISK/FORMAT. I don't know what your personal situation may be. So the "best practices" for dealing with these types of infections would be to delete all partions,turn off the power to the computer, cold-boot back into your installation disk, create your partition(s) and format them, then proceed ahead with your Windows installation.

 

Loaded and running XP Pro w\SP3 on 256 just fine.

 

OMG. LUA + SRP + SuRun = wonderful protection. i use ondemand antivirus only

Thank you very much @tlu, @Lucy and @Kees1958.

 

you can also add sandboxie(free) or DefenseWall Hips(paid)

 

i added sandboxie too. Thanx for additional security. I found my light configuration now.

 

your welcome