What would be your choice for your wife?

Hi,

I would suggest using an AV (like NOD32) and an AS (like SAS PRO/MBAM PRO) - both with real-time protection, Geswall (for sandboxing the browser) plus Keyscrambler (against keyloggers) and may be Linkscanner Pro (to avoid malicious sites).
This combo seems to run quietly and smooth without constant pop-ups giving a fair level of defence.

 

anyone can help.....

 

Sorry had not seen it

First a little intro

Most advanced PC user have their hard disk split into two partitions: one for programs and for data. By buying an external hard disk you create the opportunity to backup and recover your programs partition with (paid) Acronis or the freeware version Maxxblast (when you have a Seagate or Maxtor) or the nice freeware program Reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp Be sure to create a rescue DVD to recover your image backup.
With another freeware program like Syncback http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware You can backup and restore your data partition).

Returnil is able to shadow (=virtualise) your harddisk or a partition, meaning all changes are written to a scrapbook (also files you download). After reboot the scrap book is flushed down the drain and everything is in its original state. This is not very usefull when your wife downloads f.i. music files (which will be thrown away after reboot). To tackle with this you can tell returnill to shadow only tour programs partition (often called C\ while data is on D:\). This will have the same effect, with this difference that files downloaded on your Data partition are not thrown away. Problem with f.i. music files with digital rights associated with it, is that your DRM rights are stored somewhere in C:\Documents and Settings\All users\DRM. This means that after a reboot you have effectively purged your lisence (music file won't play or won't allow you burn a copy on CD/DVD).



DefenseWall has an easier approach, it simply does tag downloaded files by internet facing programs as untrusted. Untrusted files can do no harm to your system. They are not allowed to do much harm = called policy management protection. Untrusted downloaded music files will still play and you will be able to play/copy music files with digital rights. Note DW is the only Sandbox/HIPS which works out of the box with all sort of DRM files (GesWall Pro, SafaSpace, Sandboxie all WON'T) and has total untrusted file control (so basically you do not have to worry about untrusted files on your harddisk = like criminals with chains and and electronic belt to monitor where they are).


Sologuard, provides simular protection as DW (only DW is stronger and protects against more threats), but restricts this only to the programs listed in Sologuard and programs started by the listed (watched) programs and NOT the files downloaded by these programs.


So simply put

Returnil = creates a copy which is thrown away after re-boot of everything (full) or only of a selected partition

DefenseWall = marks programs and files as untrusted. Untrusted files and programs can do no harm.

Sologuard = has say 80% of the protection of DW against programs marked (listed in SoloGuard) to watch, no files are protected.

 

thanks Kees for the detailed explanation...

damned, i missed out the Defensewall Giveaway last year and recently the 50% discount...

 

Looking at your sig, you can make a combo of

Twister Antivirus + DefenseWall (when outbound protection is ready in 2.50)

or

ThreatFire (with outbound custom rule enabled) + DefenseWall

And use a router or Windows/Vista FW for inbound

Skip the rest

 

For a free setup you can't go past Sandboxie and Returnil which would be one of the strongest combos around along with least resource usage with no updating of any blacklists required.

Sandboxie can also be configured to stop all outbound connections from anything running sandboxed except for what you allow and even configured that no app can run or execute within the sandbox except for what is allowed.

Control Your Sandbox