Pc security?..

[Raffaello.S.]

Hi guys,

What software do you preffer-use for pc security?.. ( Firewalls, antivirus..etc )

 

Regards!

[STRAT]

firewalls - in work it's all hardware, at home i use, inconjunction with win sp2 firewall, Sygate personal firewall. like Zonealarm it's free, but i find it easier, smaller, less to mess up, and just as effective.

 

Antivirus - i use Sophos antivirus. again, our work lisence extends to members of staff at home but i'll also use AVG Antivirus. a most excellent freebee.

 

Anti-spyware - Spybot search and destroy, Lavasoft's Ad-aware, MS anti-spyware, Spyblaster, BHODemon, webroot spysweeper, and a few other bits and bobs.

 

web browsers - mozilla FireFox. 1000000 times safer and less targeted than internet explorer. IE is evil i tells ya. get rid of it.

 

most of the above mentioed are free downloads. make sure you update them regulaly, and use them atleast once a week.

 

my security suite on my pc is pretty extensive and a pain in the butt to run once a week, but i've not EVER had any serious security problems with any of my computers. it really is worth the effort.

 

infact, great idea

 

IF ANYONE HAS ANY FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR FREE SECURITY APPLICATIONS PLEASE POST IN HERE

[Raffaello.S.]

Thanks, but i wonder if you have the time for 3d and rendering?..

[Jeff Mottle]

At home I use a Cisco PIX hardware firewall, and the corporate edition of Norton Anti-Virus. When I remember I run Ad-aware too. I used to use software firewall(Zone Alarm) and for a while used the SP2 XP firewall, but I found them to be more often than not just a pain to run and always conflicted with what I wanted to do.

 

Knock on wood, I've never had an issue and I get some 15,000-20,000 emails a year. I should also note that I NEVER open an attachment from anyone I don't personally know, even if it might be CGA related, and my AV is set to delete anything that even looks like a virus. I don't attempt to clean files ever. They are either good, or they are deleted.

 

Becuase I access all of my computers remotely, my password is 12 characters long and contains number, letters, symbols, and ALT characters. At best a password cracker would take months if not years to break it.

[STRAT]

here's another usefull security tip -

 

we all know what phishing is these days right? well to help avoid it, when typing out your passwords or bank/credit card numbers online, when say either loggin into things or ordering goods from the internet, type the letters out in random order. ie, type a password starting in the middle and filling in the letters randomly. Keyloggers are very linear and will obviously get the wrong order if you type in a different order.

[Raffaello.S.]

Hmmm.. ia have a gateway of linksys and it has a firewall on it, but i dont really know how to configure it...

[ihabkal]

one slower computer for e-mails with norton software, the fast computer for work is not connected to the internet. daily backups.....

[Jeff Mottle]

Hmmm.. ia have a gateway of linksys and it has a firewall on it, but i dont really know how to configure it...

 

Then don't get a Cisco FW anytime soon. You need to be a Cisco certified tech just to install the damn thing. Fourtunately my brother-in-law is.

 

I used to have a Linksys, but it was always randomly messing up. I've used both Linksys and Dlink and I found the Linksys FW/Routers the easiest to use. What are you trying to do that you can not figure out?

[abicalho]

You usually do not need to configure anything in your linksys router, unless it's a wireless one. The only thing you should do it change the password.

 

As for installing things in your computer, you need a good antivirus and a spyware cleaner. Setup both of them to auto-update and auto-run once a week overnight, and you should be fine.

 

I'd recommend not using IE and instead using Firefox or other browsers. Last, turn on Auto Update on windows and always update when it tells you to.

 

And yes, this all should take you no time except for the setup, and an eventual look here and there.

[AJLynn]

For home use I have a Linksys wireless router, which is functionally a firewall if you're not doing anything complicate. Even with software firewall I wouldn't expose a PC to the Net without some hardware in between. Mozilla instead of MSIE and Outlook, Gaim instead of AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, Norton Internet Security, Spybot SD and Ad-Aware, with all of that stuff scanning every once in a while. I've never had a virus or a piece of adware or spyware that didn't get removed very quickly.

 

Only problem with the Linksys boxes is, when you follow the instruction in the setup guide you end up with a wireless network with no security at all and your router password set to 'admin'. Try sitting down at any coffee shop in NYC where there are upstairs apartments and running Network Stumbler on your laptop, guaranteed there's at least one network available that's called Linksys and if you really want to you can put http://192.168.0.1 in your browser, use the default password, and configure their network for them. Use the real instruction manual and turn on security and change the password.