Quick advice with a security setup for Vista

Hi everyone,

I am new here, been reading through your forums for hours now looking for advice and guidance.

My system crashed 2 days back and it's a fresh install of vista home basic from the manufacturer. My previous setup was avast home free edition, with HOSTS file (from MVPS) and spywareblaster immunization with on demand MBAM scans but no firewall or HIPS or IDS.

I run a 1 year Compaq laptop and my basic requirement is very a light and minimal resource using security setup, but effective just the same, (heavy gamer), and free (Still a student).

I figured this is a good time to get a secure system going. After my extensive research today on your forums, firewall guide and matousec, I have finally decided on this config.

• AVAST free
• Windows firewall with Vista Firewall Control from sphinx
• MVPS HOSTS file and spywareblaster immunizing the system
• As for H.I.P.S, I have installed Dynamic Security Agent (in line with the light programs), I am a non techie so figured EQsecure was beyond me
• Installed Threatfire as an after thought, just to see how it performed
• MBAM.

​

I am also a safe surfer (I think), use firefox with adblock, flashblock and WOT, and I generally steer clear of shady websites.

Is this an okay setup? Or too much?

I also want to know is it ok/necessary to have both DSA and Threatfire running together? So far the system has been running fine, but booting and start up times are significantly slow.

Any and all advice and recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance and keep up the great work. And thank you for all the awesome advice that is already posted here. It has been an eye opening and very educational experience, and I am truly enlightened by all the information put up here, albeit a tad overwhelming.

Nessa

 

I suggest Avira Free and Online Armor Free. If you surf safely...why not use for some more risky surfing sessions Sandboxie...then you need nothing else. For OnDemand scans you can install whatever you like as these scanners use no or very little system resources in the background.

When possible use a limited account on Vista.

For additional security Prevx Edge (seems really light) and threatfire.

 

Dynamic Security Agent and Threatfire are similar apps so in my opinion it will be overkill,i think threatfire will be better choice cause it is smarter than DSA

 

Hi jmonge,

I've seen many of your posts around the forums!

Thanks for the advice!!

Nessa

 

your welcome

 

For some reference nessaA if it helps any, someone tried that comodo leaktest on Online Armor recently and here is the result LINK

dja2k

 

Hi NoIos,

Thank you so much for your superfast reply! I have tried sandboxie, but that completely stalled my system, I just don't understand vista. I have attempted returnil also because I constantly like trying out new software, so it seemed liked a safe thing to do, but it was a little too complicated for me. I am seriously considering Online armor, but how much of resources does it take up? I believe it was very recently updated for vista? And is prevx freeware? I have been very impressed with its size and reviews here, so will give it a run, downloaded it already
I read somewhere on the forums that DSA along with cyberhawk (Old threatfire) is a good combo but is it necessary to keep both? Am not sure about that, DSA seems to be taking up a lot of memory.

I was worried cos I ran the leaktest from comodo and I ended up with 180/260 or so and felt quite vulnerable so to speak.

Thanks again, sorry for so many questions

--Nessa

 

Honestly never had a problem with Sandboxie under Vista or XP.
With Sandboxie you can run your browser in a sandbox so everything that happens while surfing will be dropped when you close your browser and will not affect your system. You can also run most of the programs with Sandboxie, just right click and select Run Sandboxed.

Returnil is a great program...there is a free edition of it with some limitations but it is great for everyday use or if you want to just try some programs. Same thing for the program Shadow Defender ( no free version ).

Online Armor Free ( there is a paid version and a free one ). Great product, for many the best firewall. Currently I have no issues with Online Armor Free and Vista. It's safe to go with it. Online Armor also has the component Program Guard which is a HIPS.

Prevx is not free, but it's trial version will never expire and will alert you for malware and threats. The trial does not allow you to block or remove the malware, but at least you'll know that you have a problem...then you can use other software, ask others for help...or why not ..buy Prevx edge ( but I'm sure you'll find a solution without spending any money.

I can't help you about DSA. Never used it. But threatfire is valid.

 

OH WOW!! A picture really is a thousand words!!

And seriously, all you guys (and gals) are really the best. I have never had such quick or encouraging responses from any forums anywhere. I am awed!​

Thanks, dja2k

P.S. since you re a beta tester for Online Armor, could you you can help me out with its cpu and ram usage? how efficient is it in vista? Cos my system needs all the ram it can get to chug along. Thanks again.

 

Hey thanks, NoIos. Such a detailed reply, I am quite gratified. I will definitely follow up on your advice. . Downloading online armor and Prevx right now.

--Nessa

 

Here is what its running at right now on Vista Home Premium SP1. I am running a slightly never beta version than the public beta available so it might be lower or higher just a tad give or take. If you are interested in Online Armor, I encourage you to go to the Online Armor forums and visit us there. Have a great day!

dja2k

 

You're welcome.

Just a small notice.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=232088

if you check that thread you'll see that there are users in this forum that report a delay when starting applications (using sandboxie) and online armor is installed. So if you notice this don't worry. Personally I've never experienced it, can't explain it though.

This was just a notice, nothing to worry about...just an effort to provide all infos available.

 

Prevx is standalone? Thanks again NoIos, what does your name mean by the way? Have a great day!!

 

Thankyou dja2k, I'm already there . You too have a good day!

 

It means No Virus.
No ( well that's an english No ) + Ios ( Ios is the greek word for virus )

Have a great day too.

edit: Standalone? ...Prevx is a regular software that you have to install it. You don't need any other prevx software to run it, it's not portable, it's not component of a suite.

 

Hi again, Sorry, reply whenever you can.(My mistake about the standalone part, I didnt see it install, just found the program folder.)
Anyway, a doubt, How do I shut Prevx down, i.e. close the program from the system tray? All I can find is stop edge monitoring, no exit or anything? And the program is so secure I cannot kill it in task manager. A little confounded. Thanks once again. And yea, cool name!

 

You're right the installation is a bit strange. You run the installer...then seems that nothing happens...you'll have to wait. A small window will appear near your tray icons that will inform you that Edge analyzes your computer and will show analysis progress.

When the analysis ends edge will start protecting you.

About stopping it: actually it seems that the only option you have is to disable it for a certain time period or till next reboot. If you open your task manager you'll find the process prevx.exe. Even if you kill it Prevx will restart itself immediately. I think that is a protection measure. So i think that or you have to disable it or uninstall it.

There is a related thread
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=225190
There you can get an answer from persons that work for Prevx.

 

Right, I managed to stop it with task manager after disabling it. Thankyou.

 

If you have a desktop, put on Rollback RX. I once had a power outage and the computer crashed and wiped all but the original Windows Vista snapshot. I was able to boot up from it and I was back in business. I deleted all the corrupted snapshots and let Rollback RX create new ones.

 

Hi NormanF,

Thankyou for your advice. I have a laptop so there is always battery backup, I live in a country where there are regular power outages so its second nature to have power back up somewhere. But I do have system restore enabled, despite lots of advice to the contrary. I've just installed macrium reflect, it does the same thing as Rollback Rx, does it not? But I am having a little trouble figuring out how to make an image and deciphering the options (Not a noob but a non techie ). Have exams so planning to learn after they are done. Thanks once again

 

Okay, quick heads up on my setup, Online Armour and Threatfire installed along side Avast, So far so good.
There are 4 processes for OA taking up a total of less than 10000 K running memory and Threatfire seems to be taking up around 4000 k in total, which is more resource hungry than my earlier setup up. But I have noticed no actual system slowdown or perfomance glitches till now. (This is with vista's aero interface and other GUI nonsense disabled).

Best of all I score 340/340 on the Comodo leak test with this setup (Threatfire constantly wants to kill and quarantine the test before it is done, had to allow the processes to proceed!), I am quite chuffed with the results.

Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped me out.

--Nessa