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ALL-ROUND SECURITY, ANTI-SPY. ANTI-VIRUS


Atnes

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Hello to all,

A question: My Sophos Anti-virus etc. expired two days ago, and I decided to install something else instead. I was told that Zone-ALarm was a very reliable tool in all points (ALL-ROUND SECURITY, ANTI-SPY. ANTI-VIRUS, Firewall...), but it seems rather expensive, at least to/for me: 69, 95 Euro. Any suggestions about some other software? Maybe even free - but still good? Your answers will be highly appreciated.

 

Thanks, Atnes :unsure:

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Hello to all,

A question: My Sophos Anti-virus etc. expired two days ago, and I decided to install something else instead. I was told that Zone-ALarm was a very reliable tool in all points (ALL-ROUND SECURITY, ANTI-SPY. ANTI-VIRUS, Firewall...), but it seems rather expensive, at least to/for me: 69, 95 Euro. Any suggestions about some other software? Maybe even free - but still good? Your answers will be highly appreciated.

 

Thanks, Atnes :unsure:

 

 

I use the following (not at the same time) :

 

AVG 8.0 Free, Spybot 1.6 beta, AVG Anti-Rootkit (now discontinued, but I go to alot of "less-frequented" sites, and am unwilling to pay for net-security to get the AVG Security bundle, whatever it's called), Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008, and am using F-Secure's firewall. I am not paying a cent, and haven't got anything worse than a tracking cookie in the last 6 months. (note : I am also a frequent downloader, and put myself at risk, so that should say something).

 

Hope this helps.

Fantasy is the celebration of what we no longer are: individuals certain of our meaningfulness in a meaningful world. The wish-fulfillment that distinguishes fantasy from other genres is not to be the all-conquering hero, but to live in a meaningful world. The fact that such worlds are enchanted worlds, worlds steeped in magic, simply demonstrates the severity of our contemporary crisis.
Scott R. Bakker, Why Fantasy and Why Now?

RPG Codex - Putting the 'Role' back in RPG.

The Age of Decadence - A game everyone should look forward to.

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I use the following (not at the same time) :

 

AVG 8.0 Free, Spybot 1.6 beta, AVG Anti-Rootkit (now discontinued, but I go to alot of "less-frequented" sites, and am unwilling to pay for net-security to get the AVG Security bundle, whatever it's called), Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008, and am using F-Secure's firewall. I am not paying a cent, and haven't got anything worse than a tracking cookie in the last 6 months. (note : I am also a frequent downloader, and put myself at risk, so that should say something).

 

Hope this helps.

 

A lot, thanks, it helps a lot! But is combining different protection systems really 'safe'? I was told that one shoud be cautious with using different protection tools at the same time ? :blink:

Best,Atnes

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A lot, thanks, it helps a lot! But is combining different protection systems really 'safe'? I was told that one shoud be cautious with using different protection tools at the same time ? :blink:

Its called Layered Defence

 

I use Windows Defender and WinPatrol

 

I also use avast! Home Free anti virus.

 

They all work well together.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein

IE7Pro user

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A lot, thanks, it helps a lot! But is combining different protection systems really 'safe'? I was told that one shoud be cautious with using different protection tools at the same time ? :blink:

Best,Atnes

 

I've heard the same thing, so I generally have only the firewall on at any given time. To do scans, I load them up individually, rather than have them running real-time. It saves me precious RAM, and gives me something to do with time I don't consider worth doing anything else with ^_^

So, generally, if you have them on auto start-up, they -might- cause conflict, but, again, I'm not against having to run the executable myself.

Fantasy is the celebration of what we no longer are: individuals certain of our meaningfulness in a meaningful world. The wish-fulfillment that distinguishes fantasy from other genres is not to be the all-conquering hero, but to live in a meaningful world. The fact that such worlds are enchanted worlds, worlds steeped in magic, simply demonstrates the severity of our contemporary crisis.
Scott R. Bakker, Why Fantasy and Why Now?

RPG Codex - Putting the 'Role' back in RPG.

The Age of Decadence - A game everyone should look forward to.

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I've heard the same thing, so I generally have only the firewall on at any given time. To do scans, I load them up individually, rather than have them running real-time. It saves me precious RAM, and gives me something to do with time I don't consider worth doing anything else with ^_^

So, generally, if you have them on auto start-up, they -might- cause conflict, but, again, I'm not against having to run the executable myself.

 

 

Thank you! :)

atnes

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I've heard the same thing, so I generally have only the firewall on at any given time. To do scans, I load them up individually, rather than have them running real-time. It saves me precious RAM, and gives me something to do with time I don't consider worth doing anything else with ^_^

So, generally, if you have them on auto start-up, they -might- cause conflict, but, again, I'm not against having to run the executable myself.

An honest man,an honest man!!!

Now, I know where to go to find one. :P I appreciate that.

:) davey

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A layered defence might mean, for example, a hardware firewall/router, a software firewall to monitor and control outbound, some kind of blocker for known bad sites, like a Hosts file, an AV, a malware scanner or two (or three, for plenty second opinions), some kind of behaviour blocker (for zero day threats), some kind of application (or personal protocol) to (1) clean out unwanted files, (2) check all applications are plugged/up to date.

 

I've found that Avast AV works well with a lot of other software, Threatfire ditto, Comodo Firewall ditto (once it's trained), SAS and MBAM and A2 great for second opinions (and should a bit of cleaning actually be needed), MVPS Hosts file a useful blocker - which also prevents a lot of ads, and disabling scripts on the browser/running adblock plus (a Firefox extesion) caps it off nicely.

 

There are many applications from different vendors that work well together. And probably a few that don't. You need to try a few combos out, with variations, if you want to go that route. Check that all the holes (as much as practically possible) are covered, no conflictions/lockups occur, resource use is reasonable.

Much fun. 'Bit addictive.

 

Or you could grab yourself a nice suite, from, say, Kaspersky, or Avira. Possible (but slim) risk from that is if you get some malware that targets the brand you get, and is actually able to shut it down, you're coozed. (To quote a highly tech term.)

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A layered defence might mean, for example, a hardware firewall/router, a software firewall to monitor and control outbound, some kind of blocker for known bad sites, like a Hosts file, an AV, a malware scanner or two (or three, for plenty second opinions), some kind of behaviour blocker (for zero day threats), some kind of application (or personal protocol) to (1) clean out unwanted files, (2) check all applications are plugged/up to date.

 

I've found that Avast AV works well with a lot of other software, Threatfire ditto, Comodo Firewall ditto (once it's trained), SAS and MBAM and A2 great for second opinions (and should a bit of cleaning actually be needed), MVPS Hosts file a useful blocker - which also prevents a lot of ads, and disabling scripts on the browser/running adblock plus (a Firefox extesion) caps it off nicely.

 

There are many applications from different vendors that work well together. And probably a few that don't. You need to try a few combos out, with variations, if you want to go that route. Check that all the holes (as much as practically possible) are covered, no conflictions/lockups occur, resource use is reasonable.

Much fun. 'Bit addictive.

 

Or you could grab yourself a nice suite, from, say, Kaspersky, or Avira. Possible (but slim) risk from that is if you get some malware that targets the brand you get, and is actually able to shut it down, you're coozed. (To quote a highly tech term.)

 

Wow! Thanks. 'Bit frightening - smell after a lot of work & computer knowledge. I think a nice all-in-one package my be better for me and my capacity, after all.

Atnes

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Hope I haven't put you off the idea of putting together your own "suite", it's not actually that difficult, and usually there'll be a user around (found via Google search) that has the same setup you're thinking of using, and who has commented on the setup.Here is a search example of the sort of thing I mean.

Of course, the price is often right, too!

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Hope I haven't put you off the idea of putting together your own "suite", it's not actually that difficult, and usually there'll be a user around (found via Google search) that has the same setup you're thinking of using, and who has commented on the setup.Here is a search example of the sort of thing I mean.

Of course, the price is often right, too!

 

 

Dear Tarq57,

Well, you did not put me off exactly, though you did frighten me a bit, hahaha, but this isn't too bad; a healthy 'stage fright' is much better than thoughtless courage and enthusiasm, I suppose. Thanks for the link, though, a lot of useful conversation, priceless tips etc. It seems to me, however, that compared to me everybody else is an expert in the field :blink: - and that I really might produce a perfect AV-tools-jam in my PC.. I still haven't decided what to do. At the moment, I am tersting the ZOne Alarm for free - 12 days trial left - but I am definitely not going to purchase it. It's too expensive. ... Best AV protection seems to be a never-ending dilemma (or trilemma, for that matter, hehehe), right? No wonder...

 

Thanks again, Atnes

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Best AV protection seems to be a never-ending dilemma (or trilemma, for that matter, hehehe), right? No wonder...

What I use

 

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein

IE7Pro user

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I would recommend:

 

  • avast Anti-Virus
  • Comodo Firewall Pro (Firewall ONLY)
  • Windows Defender for free resident protection or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware if you'd like to support this excellent program.
  • SpywareBlaster to protect your browsers
  • Firefox

 

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I do not use a software based firewall as my ISP supplied DSL modem has a built in hardware firewall and a software based firewall slowed down my browser too much.

 

I'm starting to like Avant browser a lot:

http://www.avantbrowser.com

 

Also read Dynamic Security Protection: Reviewing IE7 Security Enhancements:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community...gmt/sm0306.mspx

 

IE7 with IE7Pro has more features than bare bones Firefox that requires security vulnerable and memory hungry add-ins and extensions to equal IE7Pro.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein

IE7Pro user

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IMHO security starts with the users brains, then second, using a secure operating system. That isnt XP....Vista, Linux, BSD etcetc is.

 

I use a nat router, Vista firewall, Windows Defender and seem to bounce around between Avast, Antivir etcetc. Im using Firefox 3 RC3 as current builds of IE8 are unstable and not ready for public beta. Though I will probably goto IE8 when I can as FF3 does not have the reduced permissions mode that IE has without using something like sandboxie.

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I do not use a software based firewall as my ISP supplied DSL modem has a built in hardware firewall and a software based firewall slowed down my browser too much.

 

I'm starting to like Avant browser a lot:

http://www.avantbrowser.com

 

Also read Dynamic Security Protection: Reviewing IE7 Security Enhancements:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community...gmt/sm0306.mspx

 

IE7 with IE7Pro has more features than bare bones Firefox that requires security vulnerable and memory hungry add-ins and extensions to equal IE7Pro.

 

Thank you, YoKenny! Great links!

Atnes

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I would recommend:

 

* Kaspersky AV

* Zone alarm pro

* Superantispyware

* SpywareBlaster to protect your browsers

* Firefox

 

Hi, Soulja, how much did you have to pay for all this? ZoneAlarm pro is not free, is it? What about Kaspersky? And why Firefox? I dropped Firefox and am back to IE again.

Greetings, Atnes

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I would recommend:

 

  • avast Anti-Virus

  • Comodo Firewall Pro (Firewall ONLY)

  • Windows Defender for free resident protection or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware if you'd like to support this excellent program.

  • SpywareBlaster to protect your browsers

  • Firefox

 

 

Thanks, Tarun. Why Firefox?

Best, Atnes

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Sorry, but you cant really justify all your arguments there:

 

Clearly, Firefox is faster than IE7 in some areas, however as I said in another post IE8 has a new revision of Trident under the hood with many optimisations that may very well change this situation.

 

To say that FF is more secure than IE7 is untrue in the situation of using both on Vista. The key thing here is that IE7 on Vista has protected mode and FF3 does not. This is a very important thing because if a security exploit is found in IE7, in the end it really cant do anything because of protected mode sandboxing all the securiy tokens for the session. To get the same in FF you have to run other programs and mess around to set it up.

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First of all, I am not making an arguments. Secondly, I was just trying to give a simple answer that I think is understandable for someone who never used FF before . Yes, IE8 "beta" has some new optimizations, but remember FF3 RC is still under development. As for IE7 having protected mode on Vista and FF doesn't, while this statement might be true for some that running Windows Vista, but not for those running Windows XP.

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Perhaps I should explain - generally in logic when someone is talking about "arguments" they dont mean having a frothing dispute of bitter verbage and anger between each other. Its more like, A + B = C, which indeed is an "argument". The idea in science is that people can discuss arguments and test their validity where in cases where data doesnt support the argument, other arguments are posed. It is not meant to be an ad hominen thing - like saying, A + B = C because whoever doesnt agree is an idiot. Thats an example of an illogical argument.

 

Simply, I dont agree with the idea FF is more secure to IE7 on Vista. To me, anyone who considers security as important should not use an insecure operating system like XP. For those who cant afford Vista, there is Linux that has far less overhead. I'm not interested in comparing which product is more secure on XP because the basis of that whole discussion is just plain made silly by the fact that the operating system is inherently weak.

 

MS got pounded heavily about these problems and long story short, Microsoft turned it around with the Secure Development Lifecycle and Vista was the first MS OS to go through the SDL. Bill Gates sent an all staff email about trustworthy computing, and everyone was put on alert. They spent alot of money recruiting industry security experts, everyone had to go on security training and many of things to radically change what code was being put out. Yes, XP was back hacked in XP SP2 which took many developers away from Longhorn (the Vista development project) but really, there is many things about XP that is not fixable without re-engineering base compenents. And that re-engineering is Vista. This is why the driver models is different, this is why there is address space randomisation, this is why all the services were reconfigured for least priveledge....hundreds, literally hundreds of things are different in Vista under the hood.

 

To use a BSD catch cry - "it takes a *system* to be secure" not some add on program or little tweak. You cant protect an inherently unreliable system by using anti virus, firewall and spyware third party applications.

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As I am recovering from a root canal on a lower left molar and imbibing in pain killers every three hours I came across this that sort of shows how I feel:

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/jekylhyde.htm

 

Firefox lovers:

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/fanboy.htm

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein

IE7Pro user

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