Anit-Spyware, Anit-Virus, & Firewalls.

[justy]

Anti-virus:  I personally use AVG Free edition http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition it provides a high level of detection & protection.


Anti-Spyware:  ahhhh, where do i begin?  I've used so many anit-spyware products its insane to list them all, but i will list the ones i believe are easy to use & provide great protection for free.

Spybot Search & Destroy: http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html?tag=lst-4-2&cdlPid=10804822
Spyware Doctor 5.5: http://www.download.com/Spyware-Doctor/3000-8022_4-10293212.html?cdlPid=10795134
Uniblue Spyeraser:  I scan with this & manually remove the spyware.  I wouldnt recommend doing this, if you dont know what you're doing when it comes to your registry:  http://www.liutilities.com/products/spyeraser/


Firewalls:  I have used two firewalls & have found only one i like.  It's intrusion detection, is impressive!
ZoneAlarm (Windows 2000/XP) 7.0.362: http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm-Firewall-Windows-2000-XP-/3000-10435_4-10039884.html?tag=lst-4-1&cdlPid=10698360


what do you use??

[Jewels]

Oh damn girl! so much to list here as you know I'm a magnet for the internet nasties! LOL

Like you I use avg for antivirus, but I also run avast as well. I know a lot of peeps say not to run more than one AV but I don't have problem with these two.

For anti-spy I use spybot, adaware, avg anti-spy, a-squared, and super anti-spyware free.

When shit is really messed up - I will run the Dr. Web live cd that is built off linux, so nothing in my windows partition is active during the scan.

For firewall, I use windows built in, plus the fw on my router, and dynamic security agent.

[justy]

i like asquared as well!!  especially the one where i can manually remove the malware....it shows your ports etc.  i love it.

[justy]

oh, yea....so, i had been using AVG anti-spyware for a long time, but of course they discontinued it!  did you know its no longer available on avg website or cnet?  such a shame to take that software away

[Jewels]

oh, yea....so, i had been using AVG anti-spyware for a long time, but of course they discontinued it!  did you know its no longer available on avg website or cnet?  such a shame to take that software away

Well they built it into AVG 8 girl. Once you upgrade avg to 8.0 you no longer need the avg anti-spyware. I haven't done the upgrade yet, but have read good reviews on it.

[justy]

ummm, but i dont want to pay for that.  :p

[Jewels]

ummm, but i dont want to pay for that.  :p

You don't have to girl! It's built into the free version!

AVG Technologies will tomorrow release AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0, the latest version of the company’s popular and widely-used free security software, which now incorporates protection against spyware through a new combined anti-virus and anti-spyware engine.

[justy]

stfu!!   i thought it was a trial version??!!  well, if its completely free, then yea :p

[fraggle]

well, i was a windows user, but its not a long time ago, so i can remember what security
applications i have used. the only application was ad-aware to remove annoying spyware,
and anything other which was security related ( such as an anti virus program ), that was
only a matter of configuration *imo*
so i used an non-administrative account, to protect necessary files from being removed
or manipulated ( because of the rights you've got as a non-administrative user ), and
i could only install as administrator any application ( and so on, there are some options
as non-administrative user not available, such as msconfig, or changing the time/date, ... )
firewall, i used only the internet connection firewall and activated the tcp/ip-filter setting,
to close down open ports.
and you can, as you may know, change some settings in your registry, like for example
disabling default shares ( to stop sharing files with the world... ).
@ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
and add two new DWORD values, with the content AutoShareWks and value 0,
AutoShareServer with value 0.
that was only one example, there are a bunch of useful 'registry hacks' ( in this case,
i can recommend you the o'reillys windows xp hacks book , oreilly books are
generally awesome ).
 

[justy]

holy sheet.  nice post fraggle!  i just did the registry tweak.   we want more from you fraggle!!  you are very informative & talk like we talk     once again, so glad to have you here! 

[fraggle]

thank you very much justy, i am givin my best 

[Jewels]

What a great compliment you are to our boards Fraggle. Thanks so much for all the great info you share!

[seem]

Where should i begin... Use a lot of tools:
AV:
Norton AV, Clam AV and Mc Afee AV -> Every Scanner on another machine
Anti Spyware:
HiJack This, Rootkit Revealer, Ad Aware and Spybot S&D -> All on every machine
Firewall:
Well, lets try to explain it, i´m having as Frontend Firewall a Cisco PIX with Certificate based VPN, as second for Content Filtering i´m using IPCop (at the moment testing it as a VM), and on the machine itself the windows XP/Vista Firewall.

For WLAN i´m also using the IPCop with an Linksys WRT54G Router, which can only connect to the Internet after creating a secure VPN Connection to the server, also secured by WPA2, MAC Filter and a few other things. (Yeds i know, it´s paranoid, but the Cisco Router, VLANs, etc are not described here  )

More isn´t needed, when they are in my net, then they´re welcome and look for what they want. If they will find something useful, send me an Email please.

Regarding fraggles post to stop net sharing: Why you not only stop the service server? Then you can connect out, but no connection to your PC can be established.

Regards,
seem 

[justy]

seem:

i, myself, use hijack this & sometimes get it analyzed at hijackthis.de, if i get a little lost.  great info my friend! 

Firewall:
Well, lets try to explain it, i´m having as Frontend Firewall a Cisco PIX with Certificate based VPN, as second for Content Filtering i´m using IPCop (at the moment testing it as a VM), and on the machine itself the windows XP/Vista Firewall.

For WLAN i´m also using the IPCop with an Linksys WRT54G Router, which can only connect to the Internet after creating a secure VPN Connection to the server, also secured by WPA2, MAC Filter and a few other things. (Yeds i know, it´s paranoid, but the Cisco Router, VLANs, etc are not described here
...NICE!  you are secured to the teeth! 

[seem]

Justy,
one small question, how do detect rootkits? As i know, HijackThis can only find rootkits, which are known and has entries into the registry. For this i use also the other tools.

And if you catch one of the new MBR Rootkits, you really get pain in the ass by removing them. For this i prefer some bootable security live linux versions. One of the best is a cd from a german magazine, which has it every year into it, called c´t. Don´t know if it´s also existing in the US. If needed i can upload an ISO Image of it for testing purposes, included are 3 different AV with an 1 year subscription.

Regards,
seem (away for Telco)