Security that you use and its purpose - DISCUSSIONS

I use only antivirus and firewall as an active defensive software on my machine. No active registry watchers, no trojan shields, no process guards, no anything else. I do from time to time on demand scans with Ad-aware, MS Antispyware, or recently downloaded Spyware Doctor. I do also hijackthis scans regularly as well as antivirus system scans. And all this progs find NOTHING - not even single threat.

I'm on LAN behind the NAT, using Firefox with secure option set, OS - Win XP SP2 with all available critical updates. I do not share files and printers - disabled. I reduced amount of services to absolute minimum (only 7 basic system services running). I have also blocked DCOM RPC, RPC Locator, and NetBios disabled with Windows Worms Doors Cleaner (UPNP, and Messenger I get rid off with XPLite). My OS is also well tweaked.

My point is, do I need all these applications you talk about? I don't want to slow my computer down with tons of protective software consuming system resources and slowing down CPU. I know it's always a trade between speed and security, but so far I have had no problems for months. Do not think I like risk - I do not, but simply I don't want to waste my machine power when there is no need for it. Probably I would have more problems with setting up all this software and checking all possible options - and finally getting frustrated with computer slowdown - than see a benefit of this.

Where is a border between efficiency and protection? It is possible I am wrong, and some day will be sorry of not getting enough protected...

 

To be honest , my opinion is you only need what you have . Especially if you surf safely . Other programs are nice to " layer " your security as one bad " hit " by a nasty and you may be down for awhile . I would still suggest another program , such as a Zero Day Attack protection program . Other than that , you should be ok . But !!!! If your computer has the resources , it is always good to layer , JUST IN CASE . Good luck in your quest

 

What's a zero day attack protection program?

 

hehe! This! http://www.qualystem.com/en/rescue.html

Its purpose is to create a bootable image CD for the event of system failure. But also allows me to post here with harddrive disconnected

 

98se,

Do you think by using that program you mentioned 'Qualystem Rescue' you could create a running system off a usb drive instead of a cd/dvd? I would like to be able to access the net and run many of my favorite programs right off a usb drive instead of the cd/dvd.

 

Re: Purchase now?

Blue,
Wow!!! You "current setup" is quite thorough. I'm impressed. I have a couple of questions and you can PM your answer or post it here as you see fit.
1) Lavasoft's Ad-aware Pro has Ad-watch which monitors your registry and you have Giant Antispyware (now MS AntiSpyware) which I believe has an active component that monitors your registry. You also have RegDefend (which I'm curious to hear your opinion on). Do you have a problem with multiple softwares competing to monitor changes to the Registry, or have you disabled that feature in some products in favor of others?
2)I notice that you also use WebRoot Spysweeper, Lavasoft's Ad-aware Pro (I use), Spybot Search & Destroy (I use), and Microsoft Antispyware (I use). What do you think about Spysweeper (I see it is rated #1 by many)? Which do you rely on most/first? Does Spysweeper find things that the other 3 that you use leave behind often?
Thank you for your time and guidance.

{Edit by BlueZannetti 3/4/05 - the remainder of this post resides in it's original location here}

 

Re: Purchase now?

dallen,

I made a conscious decision to not enable any of the realtime features of my antispyware applications. I don't have firm experience here, just a gut level feel that, as you remark, the various security program could end up fighting it out in the background. For realtime malware monitoring I decided to base everything on my AV and AT. Although they are not marketed in competition with antispyware applications, decent AV's and AT's do seem to deal well with the installation portions of spyware. Some nonfunctional residual bits may be left over, but my personal experience is that they cover the field well with the most aggressive and insidious components of the infestation and thats fine by me since a demand scan with an antispyware package will sweep up the residual pieces.

With respect to RegDefend, my attraction was two fold: (a) I've been impressed with Jason's previous efforts, and (b) I wanted some rock solid registry protection. As Jason has already noted here, most other applications of this type poll registry keys for changes and reset the original value if required. RegDefend sits at a lower level so the request for the change is intercepted and dealt with before any actual changes occur. Seems to be a preferred approach to my way of thinking. I realize there could be unintended cconsequences here, that's a risk I'll take for now. RegDefend is the only registry monitor that I have running, so there are no contention issue. At this point I like it a lot. Extremely stable. Does one thing and does it well. Nice spartan approach.

On the antispyware front, Giant Antispyware (now MS Antispyware) is my first line defence here. It is the one I rely on most. Lavasoft AdAware and Webroot Spysweeper are roughly tied for second. All have found bits and pieces of spyware missed or neglected by the others. A good discussion of the current situation is spyware control, based on Eric Howes Anti-Spyware Testing effort by Brian Livingston is here. My experience seems typical and likely reflects both the volume of spyware and the speed with which it evolves. I would recommmend any or all of these products. I also use Spybot S&D on occasion and when I use it, items invariably missed by the other players are located. This is one of the reasons I don't fret about the number of seemingly duplicate spyware applications. At some point in the future there may be one or two prime players covering 99% of the field (as is the case in AV's), but the antispyware folks are a long ways from that today.

Blue

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

I don't know how IMPORTANT certain programs are or THE MUST HAVES but I would like to know if all I need is what i have and that is...

anti-virus-avg free edition
spywareS&D
spywareblaster
as for firewall...I think I'm useing the windows firewall.
IE...6.0<<( I don't know the settings on it or what they should be either )

I just want to know the absolutely neccessary softwares to have..
If anyone could reply directly, I'd be greatful!!!
Thank You for ALL replies in advance.

 

I JUST TRIED TO RUN ADAWARE IN 'SCAN FOR ADS' BUT A WINDOW CAME UP AND SAYS: INVALID SCANNING OPTIONS, THE SCANNING MODE YOU HAVE CHOSEN REQUIRES THAT ONE OR MORE DIRECTORIES ARE SPECIFIED.

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

You could add these free choices, Resa05:

Ad-Aware
Microsoft AntiSpyware
Zonealarm free firewall

Ad-Aware & MS Anti would be additions to your spyware protection, MS Anti has real-time protection which the other free choices don't have.

Zonealarm will provide you with outbound network protection, something MS firewall doesn't really have.

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

before i download and install zone alarm is there anything anyone wants to say that i should be advised of or should know before doing this? such as maybe settings and stuff....i need great direction and instructions because i'm know a very computer literate person so to speak thank you all


also i already have adaware...i just forgot to mention it

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

Don's suggestions are good. They will provide you with good anti-spyware protection as well as a good firewall. You might also want to look at a free anti-trojan:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

This is a good product. My setup is different than yours, but adding some anti-spyware and a good anti-trojan should certainly make you more secure. However, since you seem to be new at this, I would not start adding too much to your system unless you have a good image copy so that if things go crazy, you can recomver easily. If you do not know how to create an image copy, try to find some friend or local computer depot that will make one for you. I would hate to see you get into trouble installing these programs. Problems to occur from time to time.

Rich

 

Click on the "Select" button that is to the right of the ADS scan and check the box next to the C: drive. Make sure you also perform a Full Scan, and if you are not sure of the results, ask before deleting anything. Sometimes anti-spyware products give false positives so you don't want to delete files that are important to your system, even if the product suggests that you delete them. Chances are, you will get a lot of alerts concerning tracking cookies and such.

Rich

 

what is an image copier? i always get critical files when i run adaware and i always remove them?

 

An image copy, creates a duplicate copy of your current hard disk, so that if, for some reason, your system becomes unusable, you can restore the image copy and the hard disk would look like it did at the time that the image copy was taken. It's sort of like making a backup copy a a word processing document, just in case the document becomes corrupted - only in this case you are copying every file on your disk.

If this is too complicated for you to understand, you probably will need some assistance in creating an image copy.

Rich

 

hi all

me I have a pretty minimal set-up but its served me well

Firewall: ZAF zonealarm free
Backup: True Image
Anti Virus: NAV Norton AntiVirus
Anti Trojan: A2 A-Squared Free
Anti spyware:Spybot & Adaware
Browser: Firefox with adblock and Flash block i also use spyblocker and its pacfile

to secure IE from attack

i use IE spyad Spybot immunization function SWS SpywareStopper and spywareguides active X Block list

to secure sensitive files I use Ax-Crypt

i have also striped my version of windows with 98lite which helps to close down a lot of other problems and make it run better

I have also applied Bugoff, HTA Stop 2003, DSO Stop2, Anti-Polymorphism Patch and Saved Passwords Lock Patch to lock down a few more security holes

also to help ensure I'm fully patched up I use UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack

to help keep my system stable i have Norton Utilities which i use for error checking and general maintenance

to help protect me email I use spamgourmet

self analysis of my security set up generally not to bad a couple of weaknesses though

1.) zaf because its not as good as other firewalls or so I'm told its also rather out dated as I don't like the newer versions to bloated

my problem here is that I find other firewalls to perplexing to use

2.) lack of real time monitoring nav does come with a guard but that's all I got so I'm venerable to other forms of malware

but the prob here is that apps like process guard SSM are difficult to use also there are very few ATs around that work with 98 even fewer are free and even less than that are still supported and as far as I know none of the free supported ATs that work with 98 come with background monitoring

other than that I think I'm in pretty good shape

 

Hi people and thanks for your help so far although I have been invisible and not a member until today. Although I rely on my PC for my occupation I consider myself a relative novice in terms of PC setup and have found this forum valuable already.

I am in the process of setting up a brand new PC at the moment and am taking the time to research my stuff properly before I even connect to the internet. I don't want a system cluttered with millions of cross-over applications - I am trying to cover all bases without going overboard. My new system (Pentium 4 3.4Ghz with HT and 2 GB DDR2 RAM should be able to handle a bit mind you )

I will see if anyone has any comments on my setup so far (2 or 3 of these programs have been added based on my time here - the rest I had already sussed out) and then ask a couple of questions if that's ok. I should also note that I have partitioned my hard drive into a C/D drive ..................C drive for Windows/programs and D drive for all data. As I set up the PC and add programs I am sure I want I am imaging C drive with Ghost 2003 (DOS) and burning images to DVD so that at any time I can return to a clean PC and format D drive if I have to without having to reload Windows. Weekly backups of crucial data are taken onto CD/DVD

Current security apps:

NOD 32 antivirus (Paid)
Zonealarm Pro (paid)
Spywareblaster
Spybot w/teatimer om
Pestpatrol Corporate w/keypatrol etc.......... (not much comment on this that I've seen.......unnecessary??)
IM Secure
Adaware SE
TrojanHunter
Registry First Aid (Rosecity)
Mozilla


I think that's it. My main idea here is for people to pick my novice ass to pieces

I also am interested in people's take on no hardware firewall. I have a connection with the only cable internet vendor in my area (Telstra) who use this ridiculous "heartbeat" system that causes occassioanl dropouts -maybe 1-2/day- on every router I know of. My internet is that crucial I cannot afford even brief dropouts. I do prefer to stick with cable though. Having said that I have an ADSL connection as backup for that and a dialup as backup for that Is my Zonealarm Pro enough?? Am I lacking in terms of worm protection?

Any comments welcome.

Ed.

 

Hi Eddievh, welcome to Wilders.

Your set up is pretty good. You may want to take a look at the first post which has this link: Security that you use and its purpose

In regards to Telstra, I too am on Bigpond, and use their cable, you see the router that works really well for me in that link above, no dropouts here

Hope this helps...

Cheers

 

Thanks Blackspear,
I was hoping I'd done a fairly good job there Also thanks for your thread on extra settings for NOD32 - I did a search on Google for just that and this is how I found Wilders. I also wouldn't have bought NOD32 without the reassurance of having that thread to fall back on (it ain't quite as user friendly as some) so maybe you can start charging commission

Cheers,

Ed.

 

My pleasure.

Not too bad at all.

No problem, and you will enjoy Wilders, it’s a great place to hang around, learn and chat.

LOL, just wanted to make things easy for everyone else, it’s not so hard when you have someone walk you through things.

I have sold dozens and dozens of Netgear routers, and would seriously take a look in that direction with Bigpond, you won’t be disappointed. You simply get rid of Bigpond Login (heartbeat), place in the DNS servers (Telstra are the only one I know that require this) and the router will maintain your connection from there.

Cheers

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

I think my security setup is better than even Blackspear's...

Mac OS X

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

You forgot to mention its purpose. But if there isn't one in the first place, that's forgivable.

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

Its a Mac. What better purpose do you want??!!

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

Its purpose is to be a Mac? There is nothing else to be gleaned from that statement.

 

Re: Security that you use and its purpose

you've never seen a mac *drool*