OT: spyware/virus protection

[toriaj]

I'm getting a new computer :D :D :D in a couple of weeks. One of my relatives is building it for me, it should be pretty sweet. I already have the monitor, external HD, and Pantone huey :)

What spyware and virus protection should I get? I have Webroot SpySweeper and Norton Antivirus on my current computer. They were fine until about 2 months ago when I got some spyware. Neither of them would detect or remove it, even when I contacted customer support. Apparently they protect only against the things THEY protect against, if you get something else, you have to pay big bucks to remove it :mad::(:eek:

Should I stick with Webroot/Norton? I've heard that SpywareDoctor with Antivirus is pretty good, and I've heard that even some of the free ones are good. I don't mind paying, and I would especially like it if they give you some free options if you still get infected. All suggestions welcome!

P.S. How about firewalls? I've never had a specific one, just Windows or built into the virus protection.
P.P.S. This one looks good: AVG Internet Security (http://www.grisoft.com/ww.product-avg-internet-security#tba1). But is it compatible with Vista Home Premium?

[tim11]

Best things in life are free. So are best Spywares:
Spybot: http://www.spybot.com/en/index.html
Ad-aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/

Both offer free personal use.

[Rhys]

Windows Defender is free from Microsoft.
AVG antivirus is also free.

Personally, having worked with a badly virus-infected computer recently and finding that only a reformat and reinstall was the solution, I would suggest the solution is not trusting antiviruses and antispyware. They help but cannot stop everything. The computer I was working on was owned by a woman who used exclusively myspace and that was where the virus came from. That virus kept opening websites at random when the browser was active, calling up some quite nasty porn sites. I could have saved the lady's data and asked if it was needed but as it was not, I simply reformatted and reinstalled before adding AVG antivirus and Windows Defender.

Antivirus and antispyware products attempt to pre-emptively catch nasties with heuristic scanning but they're still playing catch up as quite often the heuristics don't recognise the newest nasty. They help but like a suit of armour, the armour will have weak spots and gaps that can be exploited. That computer had McAfee antivirus which was badly infected with a virus. Yes - McAfee was virus infected. I scanned McAfee with AVG and found that McAfee had been infected and was disseminating viruses - quite a score for the virus writers!

My recommendation - store only software on your computer's C drive. Store all your data and email on a separate D drive. Don't be cheap and get C formatted as C and D. Put a second drive in, instead.

[raven15]

Most anti-virus programs seem a lot like viruses themselves. They substantially slow your computer, take money frequently, and open or refuse to open a large number of legitimate programs and websites (I'm sure people who have had a bad virus disagree, but my web habits must be pretty tame). I am currently running a free licensed version of Symantec, which stays pretty well in the background and doesn't irritate me. Not sure what I would do other wise. I use Ad-Aware and SpyBot also.

[Screenclutter]

For a firewall, try Comodo: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

AVG Antivirus is another one. Both of them found three trojans that I knew were in my computer. Neither were able to remove it, so I reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP. It is very easy if you have a 2nd hard drive in your computer.

Norton Internet Security didn't catch this, so now I don't have it installed anymore. Their site was useful though, it mentioned that one of the trojans I had was very difficult to remove. Another forum recommended that the only true way to remove the trojan I had was a reinstall.

[Rhys]

Norton in my experience seems to eat up processor time without giving anything in return. Several times AVG has killed viruses that Norton missed.

I moved to the model of data on a USB hard drive and only the OS/programs on the main drive. That way I can carry all my data with me from machine to machine.

[DigitalJ]

NOD32 Antivirus by Eset is very good and is also light on resources. If you prefer free AVG is also good.

[Rhys]

NOD32 Antivirus by Eset is very good and is also light on resources. If you prefer free AVG is also good.

It's certainly an interesting antivirus product although the only copy I have ever seen was the pirated version that the boss of the company I used to work for demanded be installed and used on every computer that was serviced. I quietly put AVG free edition on until he complained he couldn't charge for that so I told him he couldn't charge for a pirated version of Nod32. He disagreed and said he preferred to think of it as "activated". I slapped my resignation on his desk a couple of days later. I was not prepared to be party to a criminal enterprise.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

AVG Free (ie freeware) beat Nortons on virus detection in a recent PCUser magazine test of virus checkers. It didn't get the best results but it was pretty darn good - and free - and a little lighter on system resources. I use Ez Antivirus on one machine but prefer the freeware AVG thats on my other machines. AVG updates are smaller and frequent, hasn't missed anything yet touch wood).

Good to hear your ethics Rhys. Hope it didn't penalise you too much. My old boss did similar stuff (made me invoice someone for services not rendered, resigned the next week).

[Rhys]

AVG Free (ie freeware) beat Nortons on virus detection in a recent PCUser magazine test of virus checkers. It didn't get the best results but it was pretty darn good - and free - and a little lighter on system resources. I use Ez Antivirus on one machine but prefer the freeware AVG thats on my other machines. AVG updates are smaller and frequent, hasn't missed anything yet touch wood).

Good to hear your ethics Rhys. Hope it didn't penalise you too much. My old boss did similar stuff (made me invoice someone for services not rendered, resigned the next week).

Nah. I started my photo business a little while later.

Actually, that was my solution to the same bottom-of-the-barrel companies I used to encounter in Britain and in Europe. I ended up working as a freelance TEFL tutor in Eastern Europe and as a freelance computer technician/tutor in Britain.

It's nice to see there are other honest and ethical people around. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one.

[DigitalJ]

You can download a trial version of NOD32 that will work without restrictions for 30 days. After that its $40.00 for a year. It is extremely effective and you would not even remember its there except for when it finds viruses. It is better than AVG but for free AVG is really good.

[Visual Reality]

If you want free, get AVG. Best free Anti-Virus and it is fast, won't slow down your machine.

If you want the best, get Kaspersky. It is also very fast and your computer will not even know its running.

[toriaj]

Thanks for all the suggestions! There are so many opinions out there. Right now I'm leaning toward AVG Internet Security (http://www.grisoft.com/ww.product-avg-internet-security#tba1), Kaspersky Internet Security (http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/internet-security.php), or ESET NOD32 Smart Security (http://www.eset.com/smartsecurity/index.php). It looks like either of those would have everything I'd need. Any reason I should NOT go with one of them (besides that none of them are free?)

[redwingchick]

My Dad runs a computer business (repairs and such) and recommends AVG Anti-Virus. I have had it for a few years and nothing has ever gotten past it.

[DigitalJ]

I would suggest trying them before. Alll of them have trial versions so you can evaluate. what I like about NOD32 is that it picks up viruses in links even before you download anything.

[eman]

AVG had offered their full package version for free for a limited time, and someone had uploaded the full version to megaupload. Last time I checked it is still there, if anyone is interested in trying it, even if the free registration might already expired. Here is the link for the package http://www.megaupload.com/cn/?d=ZZFOZBS7 and the link to the free offer article http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/12/26/download-avg-anti-virus-pro-for-free/

[BLWNHR]

I have considerable computer experience, manage several domains, both locally and internationally. On every machine we run Norton AV Corporate with no anti-adware software or firewalls (on the local machine, we run firewalls in the servers). I've run Norton Corporate on my own machine, as well as about 20 other people on their private machines and if I've had adware twice in the last 5 years I would be unlucky.

The best piece of advice I can give you is consciously think before you click on anything if you're on a site that you have reservations about. Nothing on the internet is free, especially if it comes from flashing pop-up adds. Don't ever click on these! If you are hanging around dodgey sites then be really careful you don't accidentally click on the wrong thing. Likewise with installing software from web sites.

Microsoft Defender is a resource hog and is not worth running. So, what's my recommendation?

For starters use Mozilla Firefox, this is so much more secure than Internet Explorer it isn't funny.

Run Norton Home, it is nearly as good as the corporate one.

If you want to save money then look at AVG, I know plenty of people who run it and don't have problems, but IMO you get what you pay for.

Forget about software to stop pop-up adds, these are as bad as the software themselves. Firefox does everything these do, is fast and free. If you do get something then install AdAware, if that fails then try SpyBot as a last resort. Be careful where you download these from, I've seen them packaged with adware/spyware for the ultimate irony.

It is all about being sensible. Don't install the Google/Yahoo/anything else toolbars for Internet Explorer/Firefox. Don't install desktop search programs. All these things slow the computer down giving the illusion of adware/spyware. Crap like Nero Scout & Search do no favours for fast running either.

Keep windows up to date. This is very important.

Remember, be careful what you click. No software is any match for sheer stupidity.

[Visual Reality]

This is good advice from BLWNHR. On top of what he said, I would also recommend the Opera browser. It is considered better than Firefox by some, doesn't need any plug-ins to have full functionality, and even shows camera EXIF data in the properties of an image on a page. This lets you check camera settings used by someone posting pictures on a forum.

www.opera.com

As far as Norton goes - I could recommend their latest, but not their past products. They seem to have finally taken heed of their resource hungry software and rid it of whatever slowed everyones machine down before. I don't think it's as good as Kaspersky Internet Security 7 for a home user though.

[BLWNHR]

They seem to have finally taken heed of their resource hungry software and rid it of whatever slowed everyones machine down before.

I think they've started to use the corporate engine or something, this version uses no resources and is fast.

[Opensourcer]

I'm using (all of these are freeware applications):
AVG antivirus (virus-only protection)
Spybot Search & Destroy (spyware protection)
Sygate Personal Firewall (to control applications connecting to the internet)
HijackThis is worth mentioning because you can scan your registry for suspicious entries like toolbars in your internet browser, or programs that start with the operatng system, and you can get rid of them.

However my firewall doesn't protect me from port-scanning which is the first step script kiddies, and others are taking to attack a PC.
I wonder if anyone knows a free firewall that blocks ports scanners, and IP address pingers.
Besides that, updating your operating system, and your protective applications helps a lot.

The worst thing to do, is to keep using administrator's account while being connected to the internet, and keeping all settings at the default (not changing anything since the installation of the operating system).

The worst kind of malware are, I guess, rootkits - it's hard to detect them and, to get ridd of them because they're operating underneath the operating system.

If you're getting a software, even the operating system, from an unknown source, it's possible that it has malware already in it (e.g. it might be included on the installation CD).

As an interesting information - take a look who owns the software. I'm not sure here, but my friend told me that McAfee and Norton software is owned by the same company.

[toriaj]

Thanks again, this has been very helpful.

...The best piece of advice I can give you is consciously think before you click on anything if you're on a site that you have reservations about. Nothing on the internet is free, especially if it comes from flashing pop-up adds. Don't ever click on these! If you are hanging around dodgey sites then be really careful you don't accidentally click on the wrong thing. Likewise with installing software from web sites.

This is something I want to learn more about. Now I know not to click on flashy pop-ups, banners, links that are actually pictures, etc. Is there a way to know if a free software is legit? For example, Opanda. It's great for seeing the Exif in pictures. It's free. Do I assume it's ok because other people recommend it? Is there a way to get the virus protection software to scan the file before I download it?

I'm now using Firefox, and we have Opera at work so I'll check it out too. Thanks for the tips.

Don't install the Google/Yahoo/anything else toolbars for Internet Explorer/Firefox. Don't install desktop search programs. Does this mean the search bar up in the header of IE/Firefox, right next to the address bar? Where you can type your word, hit enter, and get the Google/Wikipedia/etc search for that word? I hope you don't mean that search bar, because I love it :rolleyes:

And it seems like it would be a good idea to keep my new computer away from ALL porn and music sharing. Anything else like that I should avoid?

[DigitalJ]

Always look at the source from which you are downloading software. Sites like CNet and majorgeeks are generally OK. Also if you are been offered paid software for free or a lower than expected price, run. Beware of sites with lots of adult ads and free smilies and lastly, google is your friend. Just do a search and if a piece of software is well known for being spyware it will be mentioned.

The built in search bars in IE, Firefox and Opera are fine. Just don't ad any yahoo, google and especially any "my web search" and similar toolbars. I also would recommend Opera and Firefox with my preference for Opera.

[Opensourcer]

You should also avoid warez sites, and inputing your personal information online (even your Network Interface Card's physical address is a private information). Double check the website you've just entered is what you think it is (there are fake bank websites too).
You can google something like "hardening windows" or whatever OS you chose for your computer. Example for Windows 2000 and XP users: http://www.5starsupport.com/tutorial/hardening-windows.htm

Back up any important work that you're doing on your computer in case something goes wrong (virus/hard disk drive's failure etc.).

[Rhys]

Nobody has offered the ultimate solution.... Buy a Mac (I did).

I'd love to use Linux on a PC but what stops me there is that the photo processing software for Linux that I have seen is pretty awful. Maybe if they fix Linux so that Mac software can be used then it might be OK.

[Visual Reality]

Nobody has offered the ultimate solution.... Buy a Mac (I did).
Don't even get me started on this. Macs are just as susceptible to virus attacks than any other machine, perhaps moreso because they don't invest the resources into protection. Trust me, OSX is so full of holes it's not even funny - the reason you don't see it is because there is not much incentive to target them. That is changing, slowly.


I'd love to use Linux on a PC but what stops me there is that the photo processing software for Linux that I have seen is pretty awful. Maybe if they fix Linux so that Mac software can be used then it might be OK.
I hear they are working on getting Photoshop working in Linux...

[Beowulff]

I'm using all freeware — why pay someone for what's freely available on the net nowadays?

Anyway.....

Comodo
A-squared
Avast
CCleaner
Adblock Plus
NoScript
FlashBlock
What'sRunning

Cheers :)

[toriaj]

Thanks again. As I was reading up on hardening Windows, I found stuff like this:
"Ensure that if you are using Windows NT and above that your administrative account is secure. Renaming the account to something ordinary is good practice then recreating another account named administrator and giving that account the most restrictive privileges will give any intruder a challenging time if he does manage to gain access to your “bait” administrative account."

Is this to prevent an actual, present person from breaking into your computer and doing stuff? Someone who is there, touching your keyboard? Or is this something that can happen via casual internet browsing? Because I don't worry about hackers here in my house :) I just want to protect against viruses, spyware, stuff I can pick up on the internet.

[jRaskell]

Forget about software to stop pop-up adds, these are as bad as the software themselves. Firefox does everything these do, is fast and free. If you do get something then install AdAware, if that fails then try SpyBot as a last resort. Be careful where you download these from, I've seen them packaged with adware/spyware for the ultimate irony.



admuncher is easily one of the best purchases I have ever made. It's not just a pop-up blocker. It's an ad-blocker. I've been using it for nearly 5 years now, and I highly recommend it to anyone that does any sort of web browsing at all.

It doesn't do any sort of spyware protection, but from my last 5 years experience, I honestly believe it simply blocks the vast majority of the advertising content that has spyware embedded in it. It's got a very small resource footprint.

That and AVG are all I've ever had on my computer for protection. Haven't needed anything more yet.

[JTL]

An interesting little thing happened to me...

I have several computers and different anti-spyware and virus protection on them (long story). The other night, while copying files across my network from one computer to another, Webroot Spy Sweeper on the receiving machine threw up a warning for Mal/ClsDLod-A...a malicious software downloader...and auto-quarantined it. It was obvious that this infection came from the other machine which had Spybot Search & Destroy on it...which didn't catch it. So, I had the opportunity to do a little test with some other machines. MacAfee and Kaspersky didn’t catch it either. Now, we all know that no one package will catch everything, but in this case, Webroot Spy Sweeper proved better than the others that I have.

Now I have to spend all weekend upgrading virus protection! Gee, great! Just how I like to spend my time! :D

[T06]

Thanks again.

Is this to prevent an actual, present person from breaking into your computer and doing stuff? Someone who is there, touching your keyboard? Or is this something that can happen via casual internet browsing?

This is someone sitting in front of their pc a million miles away & hacking into yours truly.:eek:

[toriaj]

Ok, thanks, that's helpful. So when they hack in they MIGHT be after some kind of business information (which I don't have on my home PC) but they might also infect my computer with something, which is what I'm concerned about. So that's why I need to take these precautions. Right?

jRaskell, thanks for the tip on admuncher. It does look good. But I haven't been able to find a price once the 30-day trial is up. (That's a big turnoff. I assume it's not TOO much, probably only $30-50, but still I like to know ahead of time.) How much did you pay for yours?

[Visual Reality]

Please don't pay for admuncher, or any other popup/ad blocker.

Just use Opera, it does it automatically.

As a note though, I still do fall back on Slimbrowser for about 1% of my web browsing due to incompatibilities.

[mugsisme]

Nobody has offered the ultimate solution.... Buy a Mac (I did).

I'd love to use Linux on a PC but what stops me there is that the photo processing software for Linux that I have seen is pretty awful. Maybe if they fix Linux so that Mac software can be used then it might be OK.

What software are you trying to run? DH got some of my embroidery software to run through Wine. I am happy with GIMP, and there are some plug ins for raw also (UF-RAW).

I have a dumb question to ask. If I don't ever go on the internet, do I need any anti-virus stuff on my lap top? I do download, but I surf the net on the desktop, and download to it. (It is running Linux.) I copy my files and then install on the laptop. DH ran a check on it for me the other day, and it was clean of viruses, spy-ware, ads, etc. Just curious.

edited to add:
toriaj, my dh is a hacker in a sense. He sits on his lap top, and asks me, Who is so-and-so? I tell him that is the neighbor down the block. Well, he got into their computer, saw their banking files, a bunch of stuff you don't generally go around sharing. He didn't do anything. I did tell them that their network is not secure, but they never fixed it up. Some hackers do it just for fun and for the challenge of doing it. Others do it to be mean. I once had someone hack into my geo-cities site and put up a bunch of pictures in place of my pictures.

[toriaj]

I am so not the expert on this :) but if you downloaded a file from the internet that was infected, and then copy to the laptop, the infected file would infect your laptop. I bet there's a way you could scan the file before you copy it over (or maybe you're already doing that.)

We're picking up the new computer tomorrow, yipee!! Thanks for your replies to this thread. I have a much better idea of what I want/need now :)

[DigitalJ]

If you want to be secure on the net without getting too technical use "Drop My rights" and or "Sandboxie".