[Snooker]

Suggestions on what you can do to secure/clean your PC. I'm going to try
and be general, I will assume a "Windows" operating system is what is
being secured here.


UPDATES and PATCHES
-------------------

This one is the most obvious. There is no perfect product and any company
worth their salt will try to meet/exceed the needs of their customers and
fix any problems they find along the way. I am not going to say Microsoft
is the best company in the world about this but they do have an option
available for you to use to keep your machine updated and patched from
the problems and vulnerabilities (as well as product improvements in some
cases) - and it's free to you.

Windows Update
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

Go there and scan your machine for updates. Always get the critical ones as
you see them. Write down the KB###### or Q###### you see when selecting the
updates and if you have trouble over the next few days, go into your control
panel (Add/Remove Programs), match up the latest numbers you downloaded
recently (since you started noticing an issue) and uninstall them. If there
was more than one (usually is), install them back one by one - with a few
hours of use in between, to see if the problem returns. Yes - the process
is not perfect (updating) and can cause trouble like I mentioned - but as
you can see, the solution isn't that bad - and is MUCH better than the
alternatives. (SASSER/BLASTER were SO preventable with just this step!)

Windows is not the only product you likely have on your PC. The
manufacturers of the other products usually have updates as well. New
versions of almost everything come out all the time - some are free, some
are pay - some you can only download if you are registered - but it is best
to check. Just go to their web pages and look under their support and
download sections.

You also have hardware on your machine that requires drivers to interface
with the operating system. You have a video card that allows you to see on
your screen, a sound card that allows you to hear your PCs sound output and
so on. Visit those manufacturer web sites for the latest downloadable
drivers for your hardware/operating system. Always (IMO) get the
manufacturers hardware driver over any Microsoft offers. On the Windows
Update site I mentioned earlier, I suggest NOT getting their hardware
drivers - no matter how tempting.

Have I mentioned that Microsoft has some stuff to help secure your computer
available to the end-user for free? This seems as good of a time as any.
They have a CD you can order (it's free) that contain all of the Windows
patches through October 2003 and some trial products as well that they
released in February 2004. Yeah - it's a little behind now, but it's better
than nothing (and used in coordination with the information in this post,
well worth the purchase price..)

Order the Windows Security Update CD
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

They also have a bunch of suggestions, some similar to these, on how to
better protect your Windows system:

Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/


FIREWALL
--------

Let's say you are up-to-date on the OS (operating system) and you have
Windows XP.. You should at least turn on the built in firewall. That will
do a lot to "hide" you from the random bad things flying around the
Internet. Things like Sasser/Blaster enjoy just sitting out there in
Cyberspace looking for an unprotected Windows Operating System and jumping
on it, doing great damage in the process and then using that Unprotected OS
to continue its dirty work of infecting others. If you have the Windows XP
ICF turned on - default configuration - then they cannot see you! Think of
it as Internet Stealth Mode at this point. It has other advantages, like
actually locking the doors you didn't even (likely) know you had. Doing
this is simple, the instructions you need to use your built in Windows XP
firewall can be found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320855

If you read through that and look through the pages that are linked from it
at the bottom of that page - I think you should have a firm grasp on the
basics of the Windows XP Firewall as it is today.

But let's say you DON'T have Windows XP - you have some other OS like
Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000. Well, you don't have the nifty built in
firewall. My suggestion - upgrade. My next suggestion - look through your
options. There are lots of free and pay firewalls out there for home users.
Yes - you will have to decide on your own which to get. Yes, you will have
to learn (oh no!) to use these firewalls and configure them so they don't
interfere with what you want to do while continuing to provide the security
you desire. It's just like anything else you want to protect - you have to
do something to protect it. Here are some suggested applications. A lot of
people tout "ZoneAlarm" as being the best alternative to just using the
Windows XP ICF, but truthfully - any of these alternatives are much better
than the Windows XP ICF at what they do - because that is ALL they do.

ZoneAlarm (Free and up)
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/c ... wnload.jsp

Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) (Free and up)
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html

Outpost Firewall from Agnitum (Free and up)
http://www.agnitum.com/download/

MY FAVORITE RIGHT HERE BELOW ( PRO )
Sygate Personal Firewall (Free and up)
http://smb.sygate.com/buy/download_buy.htm

Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall (~$25 and up)
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf/

BlackICE PC Protection ($39.95 and up)
http://blackice.iss.net/

Tiny Personal Firewall (~$49.00 and up)
http://www.tinysoftware.com/

That list is not complete, but they are good firewall options, every one of
them. Visit the web pages, read up, ask around if you like - make a
decision and go with some firewall, any firewall. Also, maintain it.
Sometimes new holes are discovered in even the best of these products and
patches are released from the company to remedy this problem. However, if
you don't get the patches (check the manufacturer web page on occasion),
then you may never know you have the problem and/or are being used through
this weakness. Also, don't stack these things. Running more than one
firewall will not make you safer - it would likely (in fact) negate some
protection you gleamed from one or the other firewalls you ran together.


ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE
------------------

That's not all. That's one facet of a secure PC, but firewalls don't do
everything. I saw one idiot posting on a newsgroup that "they had
never had a virus and they never run any anti-virus software. Yep - I used
to believe that way too - viruses were something everyone else seemed to
get, were they just stupid? And for the average joe-user who is careful,
uses their one-three family computers carefully, never opening unknown
attachments, always visiting the same family safe web sites, never
installing anything that did not come with their computer - maybe, just
maybe they will never witness a virus. I see that AntiVirus software is an absolute necessity. You can be as careful as you want - will the next person be as careful? Will someone send you unknowingly the email that erases all the pictures of your child/childhood? Possibly - why take the chance? ALWAYS RUN ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE and KEEP IT UP TO DATE! Antivirus software comes in so many flavors, it's like walking into a Jelly Belly store - which one tastes like what?! Well, here are a few choices for you. Some of these are free (isn't that nice?) and some are not. Is one better than the other - MAYBE. I personally love Symantec AV.

Symantec (Norton) AntiVirus (~$11 and up)
http://www.symantec.com/

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (~$49.95 and up)
http://www.kaspersky.com/products.html

Panda Antivirus Titanium (~$39.95 and up)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/
(Free Online Scanner: http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/)

AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System (Free and up)
http://www.grisoft.com/

McAfee VirusScan (~$11 and up)
http://www.mcafee.com/

AntiVir (Free and up)
http://www.free-av.com/

avast! 4 (Free and up)
http://www.avast.com/

Trend Micro (~$49.95 and up)
http://www.trendmicro.com/
(Free Online Scanner:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/houseca ... t_corp.asp)

Did I mention you have to not only install this software, but also keep it
updated? You do. Some of them (most) have automatic services to help you
do this - I mean, it's not your job to keep up with the half-dozen or more
new threats that come out daily, is it? Be sure to keep whichever one you
choose up to date!


SPYWARE/ADWARE/POPUPS
---------------------

So you must be thinking that the above two things got your back now - you
are covered, safe and secure in your little fox hole. Wrong! There are
more bad guys out there. There are annoyances out there you can get without
trying. Your normal web surfing, maybe a wrong click on a web page, maybe
just a momentary lack of judgment by installing some software packages
without doing the research.. And all of a sudden your screen starts filling
up with advertisements or your Internet seems much slower or your home page
won't stay what you set it and goes someplace unfamiliar to you. This is
spyware. There are a whole SLEW of software packages out there to get rid
of this crud and help prevent reinfection. Some of the products already
mentioned might even have branched out into this arena. However, there are
a few applications that seem to be the best at what they do, which is
eradicating and immunizing your system from this crap. Strangely, the best
products I have found in this category ARE generally free. That is a trend
I like. I make donations to some of them, they deserve it!

Spybot Search and Destroy (Free!)
http://www.safer-networking.net/

Lavasoft AdAware (Free and up)
http://www.lavasoft.de

CWSShredder (Free!)
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Hijack This! (Free)
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

SpywareBlaster (Free!)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

ToolbarCop (Free!)
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (Free!)
http://kephyr.sureshot.xaviermedia.net/spywarescanner/

Browser Security Tests
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/

The Cleaner (49.95 and up)
http://www.moosoft.com/

That will clean up your machine of the spyware, given that you download and
install several of them, update them regularly and scan with them when you
update. Some (like SpywareBlaster and SpyBot Search and Destroy) have
immunization features that will help you prevent your PC from being
infected. Use these features!

Unfortunately, although that will lessen your popups on the Internet/while
you are online, it won't eliminate them. I have looked at a lot of options,
seen a lot of them used in production with people who seem to attract popups
like a plague, and I only have one suggestion that end up serving double
duty (search engine and popup stopper in one):

The Google Toolbar (Free!)
http://toolbar.google.com/

Yeah - it adds a bar to your Internet Explorer - but its a useful one. You
can search from there anytime with one of the best search engines on the
planet (IMO.) And the fact it stops most popups - wow - BONUS! If you
don't like that suggestion, then I am just going to say you go to
www.google.com and search for other options.

One more suggestion, although I will suggest this in a way later, is to
disable your Windows Messenger service. This service is not used frequently
(if at all) by the normal home user and in cooperation with a good firewall,
is generally unnecessary. Microsoft has instructions on how to do this for
Windows XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/ ... opspam.asp


SPAM EMAIL/JUNK MAIL
--------------------

This one can get annoying, just like the rest. You get 50 emails in one
sitting and 2 of them you wanted. NICE! (Not.) What can you do? Well,
although there are services out there to help you, some email
servers/services that actually do lower your spam with features built into
their servers - I still like the methods that let you be the end-decision
maker on what is spam and what isn't. If these things worked perfectly, we
wouldn't need people and then there would be no spam anyway - vicious
circle, eh? Anyway - I have two products to suggest to you, look at them
and see if either of them suite your needs. Again, if they don't, Google is
free and available for your perusal.

SpamBayes (Free!)
http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

Spamihilator (Free!)
http://www.spamihilator.com/


Hope it helps.

>>> Snooker <<<

[AdamNF]

Grrr

[ofaolain]

My self, I use Norton Internet security as my firewall and Virus scanner. I like the fact that if you are downloading from a p2p network such as Kazaa or any of the others out there it detects viruses, and trojans and deletes the virus and cancels the download automatically reducing the amout of viruses downloaded off these networks.

The firewall is amazing. It's a personal firewall, intrusion detection, privacy control, add blocking and spam alert. This is my personal favorite but there are many out there to chose from.

As for spyware and adware. I use spysweeper 2.61. It is amazing, it finds everthing. I have just started using it recently and couldn't believe how much shit I still had on my system. It's much better then the adaware and spybot I used to use.

[Snooker]

Thanks for the welcome and Adam you sure are doing a good job ... your posts are very helpful

[RoyalHighlander]

Snooker Snooker:

Hey Adam are you the owner of this site ??? If you are , My mistake i didn't know it wasn't allow ... Because i thought this was a forum for all people to put there thoughts or whatever ...

[color=#] [/color]
Hey Snooker dont mind him..hes not the owner.. Im the Mod here and I think that your post was a good one. There were some things there I didnt know how to access so I think its a good addition. I hope some of the members use that info to help thier comps work better and safer too... welcome to the borad BTW...

[RoyalHighlander]

Adam I also saw your post about this subject too and I think between the both posts our members will be able to protect and keep thier machines running better thanks to both of you.. They are both stickys too now...

[AdamNF]

Seems very silly to create a thread about the SAME thing someone else did. If you made a post about, why you like fish and asked everyoine else do theyalso like fish..wouldnt it be dumb for me to make one too?

RH. is there a way me an Snooker to make these into one big thread instead of being two. Seeing there about the same things it doesnt make much sense having two.

[WestieLee]

now that my hubby's kid is "enhancing" her mind with all the dumb crap on the internet, i need to be able to protect my computer from crapping out on me.

So far we have been through internet explorer errors, the constant changing of my home page, lots and lots of pop up windows that don't bother getting read and whatever else kids think that it's ok to download/install.

I run windows ME on the main computer that we have, it has all my web site design stuff that i have backed up to the most recent updates that took place, the ability to unload the digital camera pictures, my printer and whatever else. If this thing craps out, i don't know what to do.

anyway, the topic i'm trying to aim at is parental filters. i don't want to have to go out and buy one and only get a one year subscription like anti-virus and whatever.

anyone know of a good freeware program for this? there are settings in IE that i set too but i'm not wanting to have to go through all those sites and physically type them in myself. any help would be great. Thanks.

[DMP08]

I know this is in XP, so it should be in yours WestieLee.

Open your internet options (location in tools in your internet explorer window)
Go to the tab called filters
Then you can select certain filters, such as what you want filtered out. Problem is, this site may be blocked...I know it is for school due to 'nudity' and 'offensive language' which I find dumb. So when you want to visit, you'll have to change the settings then change them back when the youngin' goes on. Or what you could do is create them their own account with the settings and just password protect your account. Make sure you set the account to LIMITED so the child can't see your files or change settings. Hope this works for you.

[norad]

I'd like to add to this. The software firewalls are good, I have used a few of them, but to be honest, a router may be an option for some. In fact, if someone is running a system with limited RAM, a router would be your best option since it takes no resources. For people that don't know what a router is, it's a hardware firewall. No installation required.

UPDATE

$1:

AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System (Free and up)
http://www.grisoft.com/

AVG free is now version 7. Version 6 is being discontinued. I use it and just wanted to let people know.

[Scape]

Bitdefender

All in one program.

[norad]

One more thing on security/privacy. Ramdisk!

I'm not sure how it is done, but there are sources on the NET that explain it pretty well.

After a reboot ramdisk will delete temp files and internet files. As mentioned, you will have to look on the NET to get instructions on how this is done.

[PluggyRug]

This is good from Microsoft, comes with some nifty tools.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx

Regards Frank

[Canadaka]

I now use Microsofts Antispyware as my primary spwware/adware removal detector.

I think its awsome, works great, i especially like the realtime protection, that i can enable on peoples computers that tend to get lots spyware.

I preer to disable real-tim emyself to save memory.

The extra tools are great too, simple to use.