What Security do you use?

steven07968

I use:
Kaspersky Anti Virus
Win XP Firewall

Every now and then I use Trend Micro online Anti Virus checker to double check for viruses.

I seem to have a problem with Kaspersky though that it sometimes seems to switch itself off??? Any advice as to what further programmes I could do with, or a better AV package I could get?

Wouldn't mind a parental control package as well, anyone advise anything like that? As my girlfriends brother comes round a lot to do homework but just hammers MSN Messenger, which I'm not mithered about, just prefer to stop him doing it whilst doing homework, or set a time limit on a certain XP Account.

herbert_goon

I use

Smoothwall 2.0 for proxy/filter/firewall/NAT
I host my webserver on the DMZ - it's constantly port scanned of course but all ports are blocked except 80.

On my internal network i run a SUS server for internal updates and patching new builds, MBSA and HFNetChk for patch management. I run adaware on each client. I also run a remote virus scan so often (can't abide problems AV causes with my experiments!).

My wireless goes through it's own firewall and DMZ DHCP is turned off and it's not on the default subnet. SSID has been changed but as it's only 11mbps wep is off for performance reasons. Anyway, i trust my neighbours. Due to NAT it is non routable to the internal network.

On a more practical note:
I use firefox whenever I can (some sites are still impossible).
I never run under an interactive admin account.
I have my IE security settings set to prompt for everything including JS.
I patch every "patch tuesday".
I never surf warez or pron.
I use webmail rather than outlook/express.
I never let autocomplete save my passwords.
I backup regularly.
I check my event/server/ids logs.
I never use IM software.

...and i constanly look behind me.....

I would also recommend that everyone knows how to rebuild their PC from scratch, as if it happens (and it might to any of us that's possibly the only course of action.

superscotsman

There is a school of thought which says that the anti virus systems are as bad as the viruses themselves. I have used various systems in the past, and still got zapped. This time I am not using any security at all. But I am taking the following precautions;

My email address is one of those free ones.
I clear out my cookies folder every couple of days.
I use disk cleanup every day or two.
I visit fewer websites.
I have cut down the number of things I have downloaded.
Just in case, I back up everything to a zip drive every week.

So far so good, and I have lasted longer than ever I have with a security system.

I agree that internet explorer is a weak point.

shopbot

superscotsman wrote:

There is a school of thought which says that the anti virus systems are as bad as the viruses themselves.

Why would that be? I've not heard that before - would be interesting to know the thinking behind it.

superscotsman

Not certain. I have just heard people who have more knowledge of computers than I talking this way. I have had an anti spyware system that kept popping up every now and again at the most annoying times, so I uninstalled it, but part of it was still attached to my files, and the thing still kept popping up...until I got a CD from some computer magazine with that Czech system (AVG?) on it. That was a free gift, and it came with another free gift: a virus. I have had lots of firewalls and anti-virus systems, and every one of them has given me grief. They also lull the user into a false sense of security.

theloft

Now that Sygate has been taken over by Symantec and discontinued their Personal Firewall Products, does anyone have a good 'free' alternative ?
I have tried ZA (loads of problems) & another popular one (can't remember the name), but Sygate has been the best of the bunch. Have now remembered the other one - kerio pf. Had problems with that as well.

intel

theloft wrote:

Now that Sygate has been taken over by Symantec and discontinued their Personal Firewall Products, does anyone have a good 'free' alternative ?
I have tried ZA (loads of problems) & another popular one (can't remember the name), but Sygate has been the best of the bunch. Have now remembered the other one - kerio pf. Had problems with that as well.

Read this as Sygate is still relevant


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=123712

Im starting to think you work for another firewall company. :rolleyes:

And stop editing your posts (please), they make no sense after a while.. :beer:

theloft

intel wrote:

Read this as Sygate is still relevant.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=123712
Im starting to think you work for another firewall company. :rolleyes:
And stop editing your posts (please), they make no sense after a while.. :beer:

I have thanked you on the other thread, but don't understand this post of yours at all!! Why should you think I work for another firewall company ?? This is the first time for 18 months that I have posted anything about firewalls, and only because I was concerned about Sygate. The only edit I did was to add the name of the other firewall (kerio pf) which I could not rmember to start with. I think I should be able to edit my posts if I need to, thankyou.

GreenFingers_2

I currently use the following utilities for looking after my machine…

Norton Firewall
Norton Anti-Virus
Spybot S&D (Advanced mode)
A-Squared
Ewido Security
TDS Process Guard
Spyware Blaster
Spyware Guard
Ad-Aware SD
CW Shredder
Hijack This
Ccleaner
PurgeIE Pro
PurgeIE Pro Plugin Manager
Super Winspy

Flash is disabled
Scripting is disabled,
Several thousand Host File entries are set up in Spybot

The only bad file picked up this last year or so has been by Spybot and although deleted I suspect it was a false positive.

netlang

I use a firebrick https://www.firebrick.co.uk fantastic piece of kit. The firebrick will not stop you being infected with Spyware or Adware but it will stop anyone trying to hack into your network.