Does this look like a good security setup?

Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by kdm31091, Jul 18, 2006.

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  1. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    Hi guys. I'm new here so I didn't know where to place this thread, so I decided to put it here...I apologize if this is the wrong spot...

    Anyways, I was just wondering if you would be able to tell me if my current security setup provides good protection. I use Firefox browser 99% of the time (although a former Opera user I feel more secure because I can add security extensions to Fox) and when I'm not using Fox, I have IE7 at least which should be at least a LITTLE more secure than before. hehe.

    So, with the following security apps, and using Firefox, am I protected from most major threats? I'm concerned about rootkits especially, so if none of these will help with them, can someone point me to anti-rootkit free software (not RootkitRevealer which won't remove them, but a removal program).

    And finally, the list.

    AVG Free realtime antivirus (I've tried the other freebies but AVG simply runs the best on my system; I just hope its effective enough)

    Clamwin on-demand antivirus

    SUPERAntiSpyware

    Spyware Doctor 4.0

    A-Squared free

    Ewido free

    ProcessGuard free version

    (gotten from oldversion.com since this is no longer available) Sygate Personal Firewall

    Do you think this setup is secure enough?
     
  2. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    as long u practice safe hex and be careful, your setup should be fine.

    also id personally remove clamav, spyware doctor, and a-squared to reduce overlap. id also use antivir, but im guessing u already tried it.

    for an antirootkit solution, u can try f-secure blacklight. the current version expires sept. 1, 2006.
     
  3. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    Well I can't really remove Spyware Doctor since I paid for it, so that'd be kind of a waste of money. But I can kill A2 and Clamav.

    Will I still have good virus detection with just AVG? The only reason I got rid of Antivir was that I heard (and saw) that it has a LOT of false positives, and I hate to be a broken record and have the same complaint as everyone else, but the updates don't always work to well. Also, Antivir seems to have a free lisence limit now - it says Expires ______, and its usually about 3 months away. Is this renewable for free or what?

    Also, I forgot to point out I also have the free version of Winpatrol.

    I tend to get paranoid with time limits on products. When Blacklight expires, what would an alternative be? Yes, I know I'm weird.
     
  4. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    then i guess u have to keep it. as for superantispyware, u can keep it or leave it. your choice
    well it did score lower than antivir and avast...but like i said, surf safely and u will be fine. also remember to scan regularly with ewido.
    there may be a new build with a later expiration date. i dont know of many antirootkits tho. id recommend unhackme but its not free.
     
  5. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    I read some test results over at AV-Comparatives, and AVG scoring 7% in one area, was just not acceptable, because I know the other products won't catch the other 93%. lol.

    So I've taken away AVG and reinstalled Antivir. It works pretty good. I hope False Positives become less problamatic, but then again, since 98% of the time I'm SURE it's false, its a very minor annoyance. But when it's hard to decide, it can be annoying.
     
  6. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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  7. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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  8. Meriadoc

    Meriadoc Registered Member

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    'Setup = AVG, Clamwin, SAS, SD, A2 free, Ewido free, PG free and Sygate'

    All these look great to me and you use Firefox so you should be alright most of the time, just watch where you surf. As for ie it can be made safer. You have the free versions of Ewido and A2 so just remember to scan!:)

    Darkspy is one of the main ones I use along with IceSword (look for a good tutorial) and a few others plus tools for investigating drivers, registry, disk etc. Blacklight is fine for a scan and is probably easier to use, depends, but I have 'rootkits' that beat it so you should be aware of that, although dont let that put you off BL its a constant battle between security developers and people who write these.
     
  9. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    kdm31091, u can always set the heuristics to a medium level to lower FPs a bit.

    thats a good link for antirootkits TheTOM_SK. why do they list unhackme as free tho?
     
  10. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    Maybe someone, who tested it, thought, that it is freeware with registration via email.
    Depends on this, I would say, that it still works after 10 times, but then it is illegal to use it.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 18, 2006
  11. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    Just out of curiosity, how can IE be made safer? I'm aware of Spywareblaster, but then again, I never thought I could make IE safe enough to be trustworthy.
     
  12. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    When you disable everything in IE, then it is as much safe as possible, but it is a bit uncomfortable to use due to disabled things like cookies, scripts, flash, java and etc.
     
  13. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    Is Opera also pretty secure? Not trying to start a war but it seems to crash less then Firefox and move faster in general. I might switch to it.
     
  14. sosaiso

    sosaiso Registered Member

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    I believe Opera is MORE secure than Firefox. Just because of the lower marketshare.

    I don't know too much about it, but if you like it, go with it. Personally, I think Firefox is more configurable.
     
  15. dog

    dog Guest

    Your setup looks more than fine. :) .... Opera or Firefox .....it doesn't really matter - I prefer FF over Opera because of the extensions/configurablity .... but regardless both are excellent. ;)
     
  16. Meriadoc

    Meriadoc Registered Member

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    'Just out of curiosity, how can IE be made safer?'

    Thanks TheTom_SK,
    ...yes disabling everything in internet options makes ie safer but 'uncomfortable,' when you trust the site you can relax things. You know of SpywareBlaster, Spybot has a blocker plus there is many more - google how to make ie safer. I tested greenborderpro recently, a virtual/sandbox approch which I like and worked well on my system but theres many more.
     
  17. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    If IE was safe enough I'd probably use it regularly, considering I bought the AdsFilter program for it to kill ads. IE7 is really beautiful, but it's not fast enough for me sometimes. And it doesn't have recovery of tabs after a crash, a Firefox/Opera feature I really use often.
     
  18. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    Speed is about settings as well, I can not imagine noticable difference between browsers. Eg, when I tried FF 1.5.0.4, I considered it extremely slow, but my friend gave me some settings and it really improved FF's speed, it was almost as fast as IE7. My firewall blocks external images (mostly Ads anyway) as well as scripts and etc, so without all this junk, any browser loads fast. I use no ext and IE's cold start takes 1 sec, loading Wilders 3 secs. IE7 misses many features, but IE team is working on it. Well I do not use quicktabs or moving tabs anyway. :)
     
  19. Meriadoc

    Meriadoc Registered Member

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    FF is a favourite of mine also kdm31091, I like tinkering, personally being able to add to it, the community, as well as the safety. I think using FF is one of the most important in your setup.:)
     
  20. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    I thought Quicktabs was a nice idea, but personally I think its faster to just click the tab to switch in most cases.

    Firefox's extensions are AWESOME and make it great, but I wish Opera could have the same extenions because Opera is at least faster. Some extensions do speed up Firefox, but I hate how slow it is to load; I realize there's a Preloader, but I shouldn't need to have that running just to get a browser to start quickly.
     
  21. Notok

    Notok Registered Member

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    It kind of sounds like maybe you have an extension or two that are causing some problems. For just about every extension there are usually a couple others that do the same thing, so you might try some alternatives. I use both FF and Opera for different things, and really don't notice any real difference in speed. Pages load about the same, and the difference in startup time is maybe a second or two.

    That's really the only reason that IE loads faster, you just don't have the option to disable this "feature". I guess the question is whether that few extra seconds is really worth worrying about.
     
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