splain me oh wise ones

[Not the Autorx Frank]

I am a windows novice and somewhat of a a mac-unix expert. Why does everyone run so much ____ on their windows boxes? Seems to me a good Hardware FW. Good email and browsing habits and an occasional spyware/virus scan would be sufficient? I hate having unneccesary stuff running in the backround etc. The one windows box I have I use FF and TB a hardware FW and I disable active X in IE when I am forced to use it. I do an occasional scan but never run any software continuously. I like the sys lean and mean? Does this make any sense?

 

[CivicFan]

Paranoia coupled with a vulnerable OS.

 

[sprintman]

Home has XPP SP2 with Panda Platinum Internet Security, SpywareBlaster, a-squared, SAS, AMUST Registry Cleaner, CCleaner.. This work PC has SAS, Counterspy, CCleaner, SpywareBlaster, and IT's useless Trend Micro Officescan. I don't want think about how much time I spend keeping everything up to date

 

[Not the Autorx Frank]

Is there any ram left to check your email????

 

[Mamala Bay]

Botnets

 

[Not the Autorx Frank]

Quote:

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Botnets

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Good read...snip from the article...

Many people fall victim by opening an attachment on an e-mail message containing a virus or by visiting a booby-trapped webpage.

Many hi-tech criminals are now trying to subvert innocent webpages to act as proxies for their malicious programs.

Wouldn't avoiding opening attachments from people you don't know and disabling Active X and even Javascript help w/ this?

Seems to me like a clean install every 6 mo or so would also keep em in check.

I am also willing to bet all the Win 98 machines and pre SP2 machines are mostly to blame.

Scary stuff..

 

[CivicFan]

The funny thing is that when you use XP guest profile, you can't install any programs but a website can.

 

[SrDriver]

Quote:

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Home has XPP SP2 with Panda Platinum Internet Security, SpywareBlaster, a-squared, SAS, AMUST Registry Cleaner, CCleaner.. This work PC has SAS, Counterspy, CCleaner, SpywareBlaster, and IT's useless Trend Micro Officescan. I don't want think about how much time I spend keeping everything up to date

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Over the years I too have tried many products and am currently running the following 3 free programs from Comodo.

1. Comodo Firewall
2. Comodo Anti-Malware (anti-spyware).
3. Comodo Anti-Virus

They work well without intervention.

I have also used Pc Tools free Firewall with good results.

Link To Pc Tools Firewall

Another free firewall is Ashampoo.
Link To Ashampoo Web Site

When you use any 3rd party firewall just make sure that you shut off the built in Windows firewall.

I too have some of the programs you mentioned and periodically scan my system every few weeks but have not had any issues with spyware and scumbware.

I too am careful about attachments to email because even if you get an attachment from a friend, their computer could be infected and they are not aware that it is sending out viruses and scumbware!

As always, keeping a good backup of your system and files is a must!

 

[unDummy]

That is the way many PC's ship. Every ____ program is loaded as a quick start. This hogs a ton of resources.

My W2K PC boots up quickly with with nothing but Zonealarm and AVG. When I need a program, I'll run it. The extra second it takes to launch a program doesn't bother be because the PC has surplus of CPU/RAM to work with.

With common sense surfing/email, all windows updates, and some basic browser/windows security improvements, I've never had a problem.
Problem is, most computer users don't have common sense.

 

[Not the Autorx Frank]

Good resources guys. Kinda confirms what I was already thinking. Good habits take as big of a roll as all the software.

Anyone use NOD32??? Looks like some lean software.

Just think if everyone on the planet did a clean install. All bots would be defunct right???