How would you defend this laptop?

How would you defend this laptop?

Pentium II 300 Mhz.
96 MB RAM
Windows 2KSP4

Want lightest defense possible.

Fire away!

 

try this old hips arovax shield....... if it runs with 96 mb memory http://www.arovaxshield.com/

 

processguard/and or Process Blocker 0.3
http://www.processblocker.com/
http://diamondcs.com.au/processguard/

also add this one to protect your start folders/registry againts trojans it is very light

 

try sandboxie only if its run

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie

 

for Sandboxie(windows 2000,xp,2003,vista,32 bit only)

 

Speaking from experience, you can use Arovax, yes. I used Outpost v1 Free for a very long time on 2ksp4. Now I use more ipsec rules. So here are my tips.

Use Avira Free.
Use Arovax for hosts and startup protection.
Use something other than Outlook/Outlook Express if needed. I used Calypso/Courier. Never download email content when checking mail, only fetch headers. Delete known spam then you open legit mail and bring it to your machine. Always open email as text only, never richtext or html. If there is something to see, it should show as an attachment.
Use a router (obvious).
Have a password that is strong.
Use sandboxie. Preferably, buy it so you can force applications into it. It does cause a slight delay, but the benefits outweigh it.
Use Firefox, Kmeleon or Opera for the browser. KM is probably best on slow machines, or older versions of opera, in the 6.xx range.
Use the Proxomitron with a good filter.

Much of the above is for running in admin. Setting up as a user mitigates a lot of threats.

Now I will state that I set this up on a dozen boxes for 3 years with mulitple users, and we have never had an issue. Not one. But, the users were told under threat of bodily harm not to deviate from some simple rules.

Never click on anything you did not request.
No reputable company ever solicits you, you always solicit them. So don't click on anything you see.

Never open an email from someone you don't know if you don't expect it. They will resend it if it is important. As a business, they will also call you if they need to.

Get used to not seeing all the pretty stuff online. It drags down slow machines and flat is not needed.

Never, ever, and I did stongly state EVER install anything without my OK. This is probably the most important rule next to fixing the email issue as reading text only.

Your experience might be different from mine, but 2k posed no threats in an environment where it is ran sensibly. With that much ram, you are pretty limited. Seriously consider looking at your services and autostarts and paring down what you absolutely don't need.

Good luck.
Sul.

 

Why don't you try DefenseWall HIPS http://softsphere.com
It takes about 4MB RAM on my computer, it is really light and you will forget that it works for you.

 

I would not use a full suite. Make sure you have an active hardware firewall/protection in your router and use a light HIPS such as Defensewall or a extremely light AV such as nod32 2.7

 

How about "Trust no Exe". It works on Win 2k/NT/XP. Link here :
http://www.beyondlogic.org/solutions/trust-no-exe/trust-no-exe.htm

 

Running as a restricted user (LUA) would not decrease performance in any way that's noticeable. This would protect your OS.

If running as a restricted user, then the good suggestions others have mentioned here should be geared towards protecting the user account (from drive-by downloads or accidentally allowing malware like a keylogger to run). SRP+KAFU would be another option to consider, in terms of not noticeably slowing your system any, and providing very strong protection using built-in features of XP. I don't know of any security software that would provide less impact on performance.

The Windows Firewall has very little, if any, noticeable performance degradation.

Sully's suggestion about K-Meleon running faster than other browsers on slow machines has been my experience as well. Also consider Chrome, if performance is your highest priority.

 

Remember, this is not an XP box. It has LUA capability, but any SRP features are limited. There is no firewall in W2K unless we're counting IPSEC--which is an option.

Currently, the PC is running w/LUA, and has Softperfect Firewall, and DiamondCS old freebie RegProt, MVPS HOSTS file, and Spywareblaster installed.

Some good suggestions here. I'm going to look into Arovax Shield.

Any more suggestions?

 

My bad. I Missed that.