What Security do you use?

fgaughan

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

Sorry i don't believe that for a minute
Bet if you run a anti virus or spybot search and destroy bet it will find one that shouldnt be there

Unless your running Linux :-)

charlieheard

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

An unprotected Windows PC currently lasts less than 5 minutes on average before it is infected with a Trojan or Worm.

Just because you can't see it doesn't mean its not there. "My fridge keeps food fresh indefinitely. I put some food in there 14 years ago, and it's still fine - although I haven't checked it for 14 years"

judderman62

charlieheard wrote:

An unprotected Windows PC currently lasts less than 5 minutes on average before it is infected with a Trojan or Worm.

Just because you can't see it doesn't mean its not there. "My fridge keeps food fresh indefinitely. I put some food in there 14 years ago, and it's still fine - although I haven't checked it for 14 years"

seconded and nicely put.

Sadly it is also this sort of "head in the sand" approach that allows viruses (Virii ?) to spread

key215

i use built in norton antivirus
spybots
and adaware

apintofstella

bubblehelp wrote:

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

Being stuck with PMAIL at work (it's just plain horrendous) it isn't completely secure either -

see http://www.pmail.com/newsflash.htm#secunia

Toxteth_OGrady

Current top 5 security products (as voted for by users) on Wilders Security forum are:

1. NOD32 - Antivirus
2. ProcessGuard - Unauthorised program blocker
3. Ewido - Antimalware
4. KAV - Antivirus
5. Outpost Pro - Firewall

Full result here.

:cool:

TOG

Art_2

Tesco is doing a special offer at present on Norton products.
They are selling Norton AntiVirus 2006 for £29.97 and Norton Personal Firewall also for £29.97.
If you buy the two products together they are selling the two for £36.97.

www.tesco.com


Regards,
Art.

charlieheard

Art wrote:

Tesco is doing a special offer at present on Norton products.
They are selling Norton AntiVirus 2006 for £29.97 and Norton Personal Firewall also for £29.97.
If you buy the two products together they are selling the two for £36.97

Alternatively, you can use AVG or Avast antivirus for £0.00 and ZoneAlarm or Sygate firewall for £0.00.
If you get the two products together they are selling the two for £0.00

Lara

AVAST has just been voted world virus protector in the world. Excellent especially as it's free, we didn't know about it and bought Norton six weeks ago!.....................................:mad: :wall: :doh:

Wiggly_Worm

We use Broadband and a smoothwall firewall. We also use Linux. So I guess the firewall's just for show really. Virus? What's one of those?