did i get good COMPUTER SECURITY Advice?
here’s the thing, i am damn near computer illiterate so my boyfriend advised me to use these free programs rather than spend crazy jack for a program at best buy like norton 360
what i want to know is this, will using the programs below give me good computer security, and please i am not looking for other ones just now, just opinions on the ones below,
i wrote them down EXACTLY as he wrote them…….
comodo firewall with defense plus
avira antivir
spyware terminator with hips off ( whatever that is )
firefox 3 with noscript and adblock plus
superantispyware free
malwarebytes anti malware
are those good programs?
Tagged with: adblock • anti malware • avira antivir • best buy • Computer Security • crazy jack • firefox • good computer • hips • norton 360 • noscript • other ones • spyware terminator
Filed under: Computer Security
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Well i think he is looking after you very well and
you wont have many problems with that little army.
But just a few observations if you dont mind.
The defense plus may nag you a shade…allow/not allow
and you may have to teach it…but can be disabled until
you learn about the rest of the program if you find it a prob.
As well as the hips off…make sure you uncheck the
web security guard also as they will both slow you down.
Also as Mole said always update particularly before
scanning and this of course means SAS and MBAM
as well as the others.
ED G’s suggestion of Web of Trust(WOT) is good
and i would also recommend that..very small prog
and just a browser plugin.
Finally .Your interests on your 360…was that the right order.
I agree with your boyfriend that not spending money on Norton is a great idea. The programs listed are good, but I offer a better anti-virus solution http://www.avast.com and download the Free Home Edition.
Its good as long as you keep your PC updated with updates.
You might want to add a cleaner like free ccleaner.
the Avira-Antivir is the best.PERIOD,and it is free,go to http://www.download.com,it is the 3rd most downloaded program,i have been running it for years and never had the first problem,it will ‘bug’ you to upgrade to the paid virsion,but just x it out.and the free spyware should be a good one
just use
Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus for 30 euro’s your in america so the rate of the euro to the dollar is 1 point something
it uses 256 MegaBytes RAM
Comodo is well liked by propeller heads cause it monitors & notifies about many system functions, changes, requests, and so on; but, if you’re not well versed in real tekky stuff, it may be overwhelming.
(optionally, Zone Alarm is fairly good for the technically challenged)
Avira also a good choice according to many.
Spy. terminator not sure.
super antispy: too many popups & config issues for me.
Malwarebytes; very good at removing existing rubbish, but ‘realtime’ protection is lacking (in free version)
By far the best advice he’s given is to use FF w/NoScript.
So, overall, they look like a combination that will give fairly good defense.
I would advise one other technique:
A handy arrangement is ‘dual browser’ session:
You can have as many different browsers open as you want at the same time , without significant slowdowns (if the site is not overly ‘robust’).
Attacks from the internet, using ‘blended’ methods are becoming more pronounced & Windows users are especially vulnerable due to the systems flexibility which permits remote machines to enter & access other 3rd party applications on your machine and get it to do something it was not intended to do.
This is especially true of using browsers as ‘launchpads’ for payload delivery. IE, being deeply woven into Windows, is a prime target, and makes using Firefox, with ‘noScript’ add on even more urgent.
Use Firefox for general & everyday surfing needs, especially to sites you don’t know anything about. Depending on how many plug-in’s and add-on’s you "hang" onto FF, it’s faster than IE, & inherently safer.
Download site: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Try viewing a site with FF first, and if it does not allow the interaction you require, switch & use IE (via "copy" the URL from FF & "paste" into IE) but only when it’s absolutely necessary; or to use ‘Active X’ or ‘Flash’ scripting: Use these at your own peril.
Flip back to FF when finished.
Special note for both browsers: "Logged In" sites must be "logged out" when finished, to terminate ’session cookies’.
**************
Note: Current threats include ‘Antivirus 2009′ or variants.
Because architecture of the Internet (notably ‘Flash’ scripting), vulnerabilities are readily exploited in Internet Explorer, & it is now >>urgent<< that you use Firefox with current ‘NoScript’ add-on, which will prevent "opacity-based attacks".
NoScript: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox...
This dual set-up will drastically reduce web based threats to your system, with low system overhead.
Credible anti-virus software which is free, this has been around for a while and quite a few people use this;
AVG Anti-virus: http://free.avg.com/
For a firewall, Windows has software firewall already, and if you buy about any decent router it has a hardware/software firewall as well. You don’t need more then that.
I would use Google Chrome for a browser instead, but FireFox is good and it’ll be more flexible if you want a bunch of add-ons for extra protection. (It’s entirely up to you, FireFox is just fine but I find it a little bit ‘heavy’ in memory usage, although it’s latest versions don’t leak memory as bad anymore.)
If you use Google’s Gmail it’ll scan your files for viruses and protect against the ability to accept or have others send you executables which could be infected by viruses. Preventative measures would solve most of your problems, if you’re pron to accepting files from others which are probably infected with crap.
Spybot S&D is *the best spyware/maleware removal software out there, it even offers live registry monitoring software. etc…
Yup they are great little programs. They aren’t as efficient as some of the paid programs but that’s what you get for free pretty much. They are good at preventing them not so much at finding them..if that helps.
Keep malware bytes -
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
Kepp comodo Firewall
http://www.download.com/Comodo-Firewall-Pro/3000-10435_4-10460704.html?tag=mncol
Keep Avira
http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol
Superantipsyware is also goo
http://www.download.com/SuperAntiSpyware-Free-Edition/3000-8022_4-10523889.html?tag=mncol
As for the rest…not to sure if you REALLY need them or not..
hope that helps
Those are all good programs.The only weak one is spyware terminator. They will give you very good protection. But like many users who post answers here, Your boyfriend makes a big mistake. He is having you put Comodo firewall with defense plus. Here’s why it’s a big mistake. You have said that you are near computer illiterate. So when Comodo pops up with one of it’s many warning that don’t make and sense like. "phqr.exe is trying to install a global hook’. or "ehmsas.exe is trying to connect to the internet" You have to decide to allow or not allow. Now the wrong answer could allow a trojan program to connect with the outside world. Or the wrong answer could cause a good program you need not to work. I put Comodo on at least 10 computers 2 years ago. I’ve changed 9 of those to something else because the avg joe won’t be able to configure Comodo Avira is one of the best free program, But does not have anti-spyware protection. But with firefox you should be ok. If you want hard as nail protection while online with free programs you should look at sandboxie. If I set up a computer and the user is a computer illiterate, I set it up with Norton Internet Security 2009. There are other good suites. So you have more than one to pick from. The weak link on getting infected is almost always the person using the computer. So I like a program that takes out the user making a wrong choice. I also like to add Web of Trust(WOT) or Mcafee site advisor. That will really help, you will not be going to known bad web sites.
I use inbox.com and it has website advisory just like McAfee does . you can download virus scanner from there for free.
It’s better to stop thinking "antivirus" programs will protect you.
Instead you should:
1. Set up and use almost exclusively a limited user account.
http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2004/06/17/157962.aspx
2. Google the phrase "social engineering" and read the first five results.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22social+engineering%22&btnG=Google+Search
3. Install Windows updates automatically.
http://www.updatexp.com/windows-automatic-updates.html
4. Use Firefox with the NoScript extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/722
5. Turn off autorun in Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/967940.mspx
6. Do not install or run "antivirus" software. It doesn’t actually protect you, it uses up system resources, and it makes you unnecessarily paranoid.