Kit your PC out for free: No cost anti-virus software Discussion Area

Zahc · 22 November 2006 at 2:38PM

I take your point, Steve, but surely all you're saying is pay attention to [ones] security measures.
Check stuff that you've downloaded before installing, playing or viewing. Don't visit dodgy sites and other common sense stuff.
A key logger has to report back at some time and this should be picked up by a decent firewall/AV. I'm just worried you're going to scare the skin off some folk who read this thread.
You could, of course, go to the high street to bank and shop; with all the attendant threats that go along with it.

Zahc

geoffreyq · 22 November 2006 at 2:59PM

Spamihilator doesn't support Internet Explorer 7 according to its website

alanferrier · 22 November 2006 at 3:02PM

I've got AVG and I!m just getting messages saying as from Janury the free service is ending and I will have to pay

superscaper · 22 November 2006 at 3:03PM

alanferrier wrote:

I've got AVG and I!m just getting messages saying as from Janury the free service is ending and I will have to pay

STICKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wolfman · 22 November 2006 at 3:08PM

A second pc is quite an extreme measure. I think you're being a little over paranoid.

There are ways of reducing such problems.

1) AV/Antispyware. Some of the better ones do, or they detect something running in the background that shouldn't be.

2) A decent software firewall (NOT the Windows one). These will stop outgoing requests. This is also done per port, and per application. So if Firefox uses port 80, and another app tries to use that port, the firewall should throw a "do you want to..." message.

3) Use a browser like Firefox or Opera. I do like IE7, but you're generally less likely to have a problem with the former. Don't browse anywhere unknown, or download/install anything you're unsure about.

4) Download and use SnoopFree (http://www.snoopfree.com/), it's free. It's very good at guarding against keyloggers.

5) Banks should have reasonable procedures in place. For example my bank never asks for the whole password. It asks for 3 random digits from it each time and this is done via dropdown, not entered in a textbox.

6) For shopping you can get online credit cards that generate a new number per transaction. Cahoot do one. Very handy.

steves_3 · 22 November 2006 at 3:28PM

Zahc, Wolfman,

I entirely agree with you both.

Sensible browsing, antivirus etc will reduce the risk right down, but if you want to be **sure** then a second PC could be a good idea. (Another way to look at it is instead of a "clean" PC, use it as a "dirty" PC...). It's also simpler than trying to keep up with all the different bits of AV, Spyware etc software that you need (physical practicality maybe a different matter however)

My overall point though is that the bad guys are getting more professional. Whereas before they were generally mischievious out to cause damage and mayhem, now they are criminal gangs out to get money. These sort of people will do their best to be stealthy (after all if someone finds out, their source of income could vanish) exploiting bugs that no one knows about.

This "snoopfree" sounds interesting I'll have to look at that, maybe useful at work...

Of course what I'd really like to see is 2 factor authentication (such as SecureID like tokens) for all bank/credit card related stuff....that'd kill off keyloggers in an instant.

Anyway carry on with the free tips they're great!

Regards

Steve

tankard_2 · 22 November 2006 at 3:47PM

mike3000 wrote:

Better than AdAware from Lavasoft is SUPERAntiSpyware Professional.

Again it's free and found far more than AdAware did which i have been using for the last 2 years.

I agree with you mike3000

I don't care for AdAware, nor Spybot myself.
I much prefer SuperAntiSpyware, and AVG Free.

redux · 22 November 2006 at 3:51PM

Thanks to Woby_Tide for the anti-virus comparison links

I have had AntiVir for three years or so; on the basis of those tests, I think I might recommend friends with AVG to change.

Anti-spyware - I've had Spybot S&D and AdAware on here for a long time. Also JavaCool SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard, which block a load of stuff from getting in at all in the first place, and I'd highly recommend - any other scans never get anything more than very occasionally (1 in 20 scans) one new cookie.

I used free trials of Webroot SpySweeper, Sunbelt CounterSpy, PC Tools SpywareDoctor, and they all seem to pulse about 30 to 50% of CPU use every 3 seconds or so, which put me off. Now I have AVG rather than Windows Defender.

Somewhere between all these programs they add loads of sites to the browser's Restricted site list; I've read that the IE-SPYAD list is the best but haven't used it.

Useful comparison and other recommendations at
http://spywarewarrior.com/asw-features.htm

superscaper · 22 November 2006 at 4:08PM

tankard wrote:

I agree with you mike3000
I don't care for AdAware, nor Spybot myself.
I much prefer SuperAntiSpyware, and AVG Free.

My thoughts on the subject is 1 good firewall, 1 good anti virus app and then as many anti spyware/adware apps as possible. There is no single app that will find everything. Adaware is very good at clearing out the tracking cookies that other anti-malware doesn't even flag up. To me it has a slightly different objective in targeting adware rather than general spyware. Of course the definitions are a bit blurred but I don't think you have anything to lose (other than time) by scanning your pc with as many decent legitimate anti spyware programs as possible.

toontastic · 22 November 2006 at 4:29PM

And don't forget hijackthis from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php this will show you programs running on your machine and will let you know about any bad programs which shouldn't be there. If your not sure what the details are then simply pass the file which hijackthis creates through this website https://www.hijackthis.de/ and it will give you an idea of good, bad and unknown stuff. Very very useful and can solve many a problem.

Kit your PC out for free: No cost anti-virus software Discussion Area

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