What Security do you use?

bubblehelp

Security is not just about antivirus, there are a lot of other factors to be taken into account.

However I would never trust or use an online scanner. In pronciple they are a good idea, in practice they cause more harm then good.

Say you have no PC security and suspect a worm or virus.

So you use an online scanner and clear the infection, feel happy and safe. Except in all likelyhood you have been hit by a worm while you were in the glow of a clean computer.

so what do I use..

AVG antivirus, and firewall. Paid for version - 50% discount if you are in a given group of employment such as education , charity, scouts, and a whole other bunch of groups.

AVG firewall works, and does not nag. Overall it is fast, and has almost zero impact on the computer.

Next Spybot search and destroy. Free and takes care of teh pesky spywear.. Except I want to keep spyware out of the computer not clean it up.

So add in Spywearblaster. Again free. A bit of extra protection is always good.

I use the Hosts file to make serfing faster, and block a huge list of advertising, popus, and other Junk. Faster surfing, and less adverts. Must be good.

The I use an IP blocklist for super protection. A tool developed for Peer to peer networks, called Peerguardian to block adverts, P2P sites, Governement, and spywear. All in all many millions of dodgy addresses, all with a Massive improvement in bandwith saving. If you block those ads, you aint downloding the stupid flashy graphics. its free as well.

And finaly for email I use PMAIL which unlike microsofts Outlook / Outlook express can not be infected by email viruses.

Oh I have 25 years experiance in IT. I am an It Manager in a University, and have a nice secure PC.

On a final note.. Install Peerguardian, (it is easy to use - install and forget) and watch how many people are scanning your computer, stealing your bandwidth. All of them a potential threat. An avarage of 1 scan per second.

Finaly would you leave your front dore unlocked when you went out, because you had an alarm system..? because that is what you are doing if you use an online scanner.

Finally UPDATE UPDATE and Update all of your security no matter what you use.

TOtal install time is around five minutes. Set up automatic, and time saved because of computer problems HUGE

Have fun.

COl

sra

***Board Guide Note***

Thread Split:

Browser Debate

jammiev

avg anti-virus, win xp firewall, ad aware se antispyware, spy bot, all free of course.

firedog_2

Wow - this thread has been truly enlightening. I am amazed at some of the lengths people have had to go to to protect their PCs.

I don't have any protection at all & I've never had a single issue in over 14 years, the last six on broadband.

Well [he says smugly] perhaps I'm just lucky

judderman62

or maybe you have a collection of viruses that you are unaware of and are spreading around the net

Just another posibility

david29dpo

none, i have a apple!

Toxteth_OGrady

Aaaahhhh.......security thru obscurity.

But even apples get worms eventually.

"The Renepo worm reminds Mac users who may have felt smug that most viruses target the Microsoft Windows market that they should be careful not to turn a blind eye to security."

- Sophos.

:cool:

TOG

Blackjack_Davy

Well I currently have:

Norton Internet Security - Firewall and AV
XP's firewall
Spybot S&D
Adaware SE
Spyware Blaster
Spyware Doctor

I currently have an ADSL modem but I'm thinking about getting a Router. I still get some malware that gets through so I restore my backup every month or so.

fgaughan

Best is Linux apple got about 6 virus in the wild
Linux 1
micro$soft 100000000000ions

theadore_2

firedog wrote:

Wow - this thread has been truly enlightening. I am amazed at some of the lengths people have had to go to to protect their PCs.

I don't have any protection at all & I've never had a single issue in over 14 years, the last six on broadband.

Well [he says smugly] perhaps I'm just lucky

sounds a bit too good to be true, are you behind any kind of hardware firewall, in a router possibly??

even if you don't have any serious issues i would strongly suggest running a couple of spyware programs (just freeware like spybot or adaware), you may find it increases your speed slightly


i currently uses zonealarm and avast, and run spybot and adaware once every few weeks.