Fred Jones Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Since it is the slow time of the year, I was just wondering what people use to protect their computer (s) at home or office from bad things. I use a router that assigns IP Address in the private range and hide the router from the Internet by not allowing anyone to ping the device. On my computer I have: 1. Zone Alarm Pro installed and configured. Pro is the paid version, but the basic version is free. 2. ProtoWall to monitor and block incoming IP Addresses at the NIC card level. ProtoWall monitors traffic on a designated NIC card and rejects addresses based on a pre-established list. I download the list using Blocklist Manager and transfer it to ProtoWall. I am still amazed at the traffic this thing blocks. As a side note, if anyone visits bad sites, downloads stuff they shouldn't, or just wants to block the regular stuff when visiting sites this is a nice freeware tool. 3. Norton Antivirus 4. Lavasoft Adaware and Spybots 5. SpywareGuard Live (runs in the background) 6. SpywareBlaster (runs in the background) 7. I utilize Registry Repair to fix any registry related problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skins24 Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 #1 protection = not using Internet Explorer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by Skins24 #1 protection = not using Internet Explorer IE is fine, just stay away from the Porn sites :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Fred, I'm familiar with a couple of those, but most of that stuff is way, way beyond me. Am I in trouble as a result? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by iheartskins Fred, I'm familiar with a couple of those, but most of that stuff is way, way beyond me. Am I in trouble as a result? Depends on your actions on the computer. The best advice if you have high speed interent you should have a firewall, antivirus, and spyware software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpoch Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 I don't understand all these people that have problems with IE. Do you click on everything you see??? I use IE and don’t have any problems at all. For my protection at home I use: My router's firewall - for wireless I just use MAC filtering. Zone alarm Pro Norton anti-virus – scans once a week. Adsgone pop-up blocker. I'll run Microsoft's beta spy removal tool every once in awhile but it never finds anything. I do Desktop support and it seems like our employees get spyware all the time because they just click on everything they see. A lot also comes from free screen savers and junk they download. The only thing you can't protect your computer from is yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by bpoch I don't understand all these people that have problems with IE. Do you click on everything you see??? I use IE and don’t have any problems at all. For my protection at home I use: My router's firewall - for wireless I just use MAC filtering. Zone alarm Pro Norton anti-virus – scans once a week. Adsgone pop-up blocker. I'll run Microsoft's beta spy removal tool every once in awhile but it never finds anything. I do Desktop support and it seems like our employees get spyware all the time because they just click on everything they see. A lot also comes from free screen savers and junk they download. The only thing you can't protect your computer from is yourself. Bingo!!!!! Don't use the beta spy removal, search and destroy and adaware are much better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrapeApe Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Wireless router/firewall with full wireless security (MAC Filtering + Encryption). AVG Antivirus on the windows machine along with Ad-Aware and S&D. Primarily use Firefox but wife uses IE. All email comes from server at work which runs all email through clam-av and spam assassin. Other machine has linux, so not much needed there, yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Om Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 How do you protect your Computer at Home? I've got a 34" Loiusville Slugger leaning against the computer table. Anyone tries to steal my PC, he better hope I'm not home. Or drinking two beers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by Om I've got a 34" Loiusville Slugger leaning against the computer table. Anyone tries to steal my PC, he better hope I'm not home. Or drinking two beers. depends on how good your swing is after 2 beers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Om Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 No, 'boom ... not after two beers, while drinking them. It's a conceptual thing. Sheesh. Loses so much in translation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by Om No, 'boom ... not after two beers, while drinking them. It's a conceptual thing. Sheesh. Loses so much in translation. I was given you the benefit of the doubt that your swing is better while drinking and holding the beers, sheesh man You haven't played beer in hand softball before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Om Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Sorry, but the record is clear. You said "after two beers." Nice duck and move, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted July 11, 2005 Author Share Posted July 11, 2005 I forgot to add that I use Firefox as my web browser and Thunderbird for email. Firefox is better, imho, because IE is big and targeted by many many people. Also, Microsoft has not done a good job at shoring up IE and making it more secure. Concerning what I use, I would recomend everything, but ProtoWall for inexperienced users. Firefox and Thunderbird are pretty easy to use. They are very similar to IE and Outlook Express. ProtoWall requires manual configuration and can be difficult if you don't know what you are doing. I will add that if you just surf the web and visit places like Extremeskins you should be ok with the basic stuff. If you don't download illegal stuff, visit porn sites or download every beta piece of software out there, you should be ok. The best freeware virus tool I have heard of, and it is pretty close to Norton, can be found at: WWW.GRISOFT.COM - AVG Ant-virus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Hypothetically speaking, if someone were to visit porn sites, using Firefox, what kind of exposure are we talking about Fred? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by Fred Jones I forgot to add that I use Firefox as my web browser and Thunderbird for email. Firefox is better, imho, because IE is big and targeted by many many people. Also, Microsoft has not done a good job at shoring up IE and making it more secure. IE has actually become a lot more secure if you know how to use it. Lets be honest it isn't the browser but the users, what matters is what everyone clicks on not what they use to browse pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Om Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 iheart's, it's okay. Everyone does it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by Om iheart's, it's okay. Everyone does it. I admit nothing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted July 11, 2005 Author Share Posted July 11, 2005 I have added stuff over the years that I forgot to include in my above list. I have replaced my HOSTS file with one I download from a site that continuely updates the file to include many bad sites. The site is: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm I recommend replacing your hosts file with this one. I will add that the file includes many porn sites so if you install it you won't be able to visit some sites. However, most of the sites are for advertising so many porn sites should be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted July 11, 2005 Author Share Posted July 11, 2005 iheartskins, Ok, when on occasion I have accidently typed in the wrong URL in Firefox and end up at one of those sites. When I do: 1. Have adblock installed within Firefox, also in IE. 2. Run Adaware and Spybots, when you are finished, everytime you visit those sites. 3. I also have SpywareGuard and SpywareBlaster installed. They are free and just download them and install and forget. Just check for updates every once in a while. Spywareblaster protects both Firefox and IE. 4. Install the hosts file, it will actually make websurfing faster because many of the ads on some of the site you visit will be blocked and your browser won't have to spend time loading them. Visit the site in my above post and read about it. All you do is download the HOSTS file and replace your existing one. Rename your existing one so you have a copy of the original and can easily replace your HOSTS file back to the original if you want too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsNut73 Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by iheartskins Hypothetically speaking, if someone were to visit porn sites, using Firefox, what kind of exposure are we talking about Fred? ...a condom should protect you from that kind of exposure iheart... :laugh: Fred Jones - some very useful info in this thread. Thanks very much!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halter91 Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Originally posted by jbooma IE is fine, just stay away from the Porn sites :laugh: I agree, I have Norton and used Spyware and I have no problems with IE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Various firewalls AVG professional version anti virus Ad-aware and SpyBot Service Pack 2 Ghost Surf I also use ASMW PC Optimizer, and i go to www.pcpitstop regularly. Keeps me running smooth and puuurrrty ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Thanks for the advice Fred, I'll make sure to pass it along to the appropriate parties and will impliment your suggestions should I ever find myself typing in the wrong URL. SN73: :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Here are links to the various tools that Fred mentioned: Spyware Guard: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html Zone Alarm: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?lid=dbtopnav_zass ProtoWall: http://www.download2me.net/boards/viewthread.php?tid=2955&page=1 Spyware Blaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html Adaware: http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button Registry Repair: http://www.download.com/Windows-Registry-Repair-SE/3000-2094_4-10375841.html I couldn't find "Spybots". Also, could you verify that the sites listed above are trustwrothy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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