What is your security setup these days?

No real-time - check my sig.

 

Thanks, got it.

 

SafetyFirst:

What happens to all the untrusted processes, and any malware which might have downloaded as an untrusted process when you disable DWs protection?

 

DW offers to terminate all open untrusted processes.

Any malware which might have been downloaded are either sandboxed and then erased, or treated by Online Armor HIPS or Zemana AntiLogger.

 

Vista Laptop: Defencewall, Prevx, Winpatrol Plus, Windows defender+firewall+UAC+LUA+DEP

XP workstation: Defencewall personal firewall 3.0 (beta), Prevx, Winpatrol Plus

Defencewall personal firewall 3.0 is great!

DW PF 3.0 + Prevx, what a combo!

 

Updated setup:

AntiVir Premium
Outpost Pro (6.5 version)
Prevx Edge
KeyScrambler Free

 

Simple Set Up:xp2

1)Prevx3
2)Mamutu
3)Mvps Host File
4)K9 WebProtection

Simple Set Up:vista service pack2

1)Prevx3
2)DefenseWall
3)Mvps Host File
4)K9 WebProtection

Simple Set Up:vista service pack2

1)Prevx3
2)MalWare Bytes AntiMalWare(Paid)
3)Mvps Host File
4)K9 WebProtection

 

still the same on 3 computers, 3 different computers that is, and works like a charm and blazing fast.

 

going down the path of no AV finally. after much deliberation ive decided to make the leap. currently i decided to go with

Real-Time:
Sandboxie with all browsers and pdf readers and p2p programs forced
Mamutu
WinPatrol
Rollback Rx

On-Demand:
SAS
MBAM
Hitman Pro
SpywareBlaster
UpdateNotifier

i used sandboxie only ondemand previously but now im keeping it on full time and im still considering to add PC Tools FW. what are ur thoughts on me adding PC Tools FW v6 beta to this setup?

 

Almost 3 years here and this is my setup on Vista:
MSE
Windows FW
SpywareBlaster
MVP Hosts file

 

prevx and mamutu for now

 

KIS beta. Along with Comodo the only acceptable HIPS for Seven x64.
Maybe also UAC, Noscript and DEP for all processes are worth being mentioned

 

If you limit lan traffic (assuming you have more than 1 computer), and you are very careful about not storing sensitive information, and you do no banking or other type transactions, why would you not go without AV? I mean, you have Rollback RX, and you probably have imaging of some other kind you can restore to.

Then again, if there are old variants floating around, and you use something like Avira free but only use it real-time and only on writes, it consumes little resources and does not much other than catch what it knows about.

Going no AV can be great, I am doing it now for some time. But whilst many proclaim the AV to be an outdated technology, if it does catch last months virii with little resource usage, and you don't need to do anything other than let it update every few days, is it really that much of a detriment? Considering the size of our machines today it poses neglible resource usage, and while not providing so called '0-day' coverage, it can still serve a purpose.

lol, not trying to disuade you, only that you sound like you have been weighing options, as I do all the time, trying to simplify, and this whole AV thing I am still undecided on as I can see there can be a benefit. You know, more knowledge is always better the same as more opinions always help build a better outlook.

Sul.

 

removed Mamutu and add appranger
so for now it is Prevx and AppRanger

 

My set up now since I last posted way, way back.

In Real time:

OA++ w/ipBlacklist 3.5.0.32
DefenseWall 2.56
SpywareBlaster (probably don't need it but I still like it after all these years)
CookieWall ( another old favorite)
KeyScrambler
WOT
EAZ-FIX v.9

On Demand:

MBAM
SAS
WinPatrol+ (really not needed for real time. On hold for now)
Ccleaner

All behind a Linksys Router.

 

thx for the insight and i was considering the scan on write only option but im really trying to pinch my resource usage down as low as possible while still feeling safe so thats really what made the final descision for me to go completely without an AV and AV's in general seemed to cause system issues in some way or another for me.

 

man antiviruses can not keep up againts malware

 

I just noticed in your signature that SpywareBlaster is listed as on demand.
Curious, how do you run it on demand?
It uses no resources but basically sets killbits.
Not a scanner.

 

AV cannot hope to keep up as they are retro-active. However, looking at what they do with an open mind, if they can identify a known threat they can still be of benefit, assuming of course they don't slow things down or otherwise cause issues. I suppose if you have everything locked down, and think an older virus (that the AV can identify) has no effect on you, then it is fine. But I also believe that even if you do have things locked down well, as there are so many combinations to do that, as represented in this rather large thread, it also may not hurt to have AV chirping when it does find something.

I waiver back and forth on whether it is beneficial to use or not to use, as both sides of the equation have merit.

Sul.

 

i have spyware blaster free installed. not running in realtime since i didnt pay for the professional version and i run it maybe once a week for its immunization ability.

 

You running IE or Firefox? If running Firefox, or at least a FF-based web-browser, your only protection is protection from "bad Cookies" (Tracking Cookies), which should indeed be harmless, so not much point there. If you're using IE or an IE-based web-browser it's of course a completely different case...

 

proactive is the way to go,hackers are way to smart

 

i have both browsers and use FF mainly but im pretty paranoid about privacy so tracking cookie protection is good enuff, better than nothing especially wen all im doing is running it once in a while.

 

I disagree, AVs can be pro-active in real time. I agree not always but the better ones do a pretty good job. I still say that a good AV and Sandboxie, DefenseWall or Geswall is about as good as you want to get with a good router.

 

Hackers are way to smart? Then why cant we start educating users to be smarter. It seems so much time is spent on prevention after the fact, boy what if it were more based on prevention on the first click.

People have to learn that internet surfing is no longer like watching TV.