Need your help...A question for you.

O.k. here is my question, between CounterSpy, Spy Sweeper, Ewido and SpyBot Search & Destroy which would you keep if you could only choose two for each of the following users?

1) A combination for a high risk user..A porn downloading freak.
2) A combination for a low risk user.

All 4 would be nice but right now the focus is on just two for each user to get them headed in the right direction.

The anti virus, firewall, and anti trojan programs (yes I know Ewido is considered an anti trojan program) are taken care of, and please no comments on extras like HIPS, I'm just looking at the very basics right now, the people I'm dealing with have no knowledge or very minimal knowledge about security for their PC.


Thanks.

 

Imo Ewido & SSD for both.

 

Thanks.
Anyone else here have any ideas?

 

Ewido definitelly for both, it is most likely the best realtime AT followed by A-Squared.
For 1. use any AS, try all for a few minutes to see RAM usage, user interface and so on.
For 2. If you do not use IE 6, but IE 7, FF or O, then quality AV and Firewall should do it.
To 2., you can allways visit a "nasty" page, even if you don want, so 1. is more recommended.

 

Both computers are run on 512MB of RAM so I'm not really sure how all 4 would run on their computer, that was one reason for suggesting 2 programs instead of 4 and I'm not about to explain running a program On Demand, especially with the one who has this fascination with porn sites.
As I previously posted I'm dealing with people who have very minimal experience in PC protection.
I consider myself slightly above the newbie stage but I'm miles ahead of these people just to give you an idea.
This is why I'm trying to make this as simple as possible for them.

 

Hello,
I would go with Ewido and Spybot.
Counterspy and Spy Sweeper are a bit heavy on ram.
As to your porn freak - downloading videos is harmless. It's what you go through to download videos that can be tricky. I browse porn sites quite often and have never encountered anything significant. You just need to know how to do it and which sites to go to.
The best thing is to use Firefox with javascript off (manually or via extension). That way, the user will be safe from in-site exploits, and the greatest danger that will remain is what he downloads. I hope the user is not so dumb to believe an exe file is a movie, or something of a sort. As long as he sticks to .avi and .wmv he should be ok.
There is a general misconception about p2p and porn as being avenues of malware - that is not entirely correct. It's the contents people download and run on their pcs (cracked software and bullshit exes a la porn) and not the means themselves.
And best of all - set a limited account!
Mrk

 

Thanks for the help, now you bring up another subject which I have read about but briefly, set a limited account, how do you go about doing this, I would like to try it for myself on another computer here at my house.

As for my friend who is a high risk user, he down loads alot of porn daily, always talks about the sites, the movies he watched, etc.
Not really sure which sites he goes to but I do know he has alot of them.
Just trying to help out a friend, after that he's on his own

Thanks.

 

Hello,

First your best friend - help.
Type in "how to set limited account in windows ... 98 / 2k /xp" in either google, microsoft site or such, and you will get tons of results.
More directly, go to Control Panel, User Accounts.
There, you can add a new account. Select it to be limited / restricted, whatever you fancy - make sure you read all the options carefully.
Then, reboot and log in as the new user. Limited account will not be able to install software. You will have to log in as admin to do that. But for day-to-day use, it will keep the stray souls from wandering too much.
The admin account (as well as the default admin account - visible only in safe mode) should both have strong passwords (not 12345). The limited account can be passworded, but it's not a necessity.

Second option, use Restriction Policies to limit an account, either admin or limited. For instance, you can prevent running of new executables on a machine, or disable internet options in IE, changing of homepage, disable access to ftp.exe, telnet.exe etc ... This can be used in conjunction with limited account for further impregnation.

This takes some work and discipline but can be a great complement.

I suggest you do some thorough reading - you will only benefit from it - and then start playing with accounts, policies to see how they feel. Once you master them, you will feel better and more confident having learned something new, plus you will have in your hands cheap and powerful tools that will greatly expand the flexibility of your options, regardless of the ram or processor.

However, if you do need more help, ask I'll try to help.

Mrk