Do I have enough computer security on my PC? How about some free security programs?
Steve asked:
I have a laptop using Windows XP2 using regular random networks of a fraternity house in college classes in my home. Needless to say, I am not sure how secure the networks: The operation of these programs in the system starts up: Total Security Center paid for the security of Norton Antivirus: AVG Free Antivirus Firewall: Zone Alarm free from ZoneLabs These programs work with once per week: Defender: Windows Defender beta, LavaSoft AdAware and Search & of Spybot, Destroy Now and then worked for the Limewire P2P. Browse the Internet with FireFox. I get regular updates for windows, firefox and all my safety. I also play regularly online. My question is: does this sound safe? What else can I do? I do not want too many programs that intruders took tons of RAM, but I would be safe, because this new laptop is my only computer. Are there free programs out there for kids in college who are good for protection? Or do I have enough performance to protect the area? Thanks everyone.
I have a laptop using Windows XP2 using regular random networks of a fraternity house in college classes in my home. Needless to say, I am not sure how secure the networks: The operation of these programs in the system starts up: Total Security Center paid for the security of Norton Antivirus: AVG Free Antivirus Firewall: Zone Alarm free from ZoneLabs These programs work with once per week: Defender: Windows Defender beta, LavaSoft AdAware and Search & of Spybot, Destroy Now and then worked for the Limewire P2P. Browse the Internet with FireFox. I get regular updates for windows, firefox and all my safety. I also play regularly online. My question is: does this sound safe? What else can I do? I do not want too many programs that intruders took tons of RAM, but I would be safe, because this new laptop is my only computer. Are there free programs out there for kids in college who are good for protection? Or do I have enough performance to protect the area? Thanks everyone.
Tags: Antivirus Avg, Free Firewall, Zone Alarm
May 28th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
go to the following sites:
pc world
zd new
webmasterfree
kimkommando.com
Hopefully there is a bunch of help there for you!
June 1st, 2009 at 7:07 am
STOP! If your running Norton and AVG your asking for big trouble ! You can ONLY run one anti-virus at a time !As for the rest, your all set. I run basicly the same stuff and have never had a problim. Just make sure to change passwords reguarlly. Good decision to run Firefox ! Actually, if you never use IE you don’t even need anti-spy if your in Firefox all the time .
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Here you are:
Pick and choose at least 2 from the list below. New spywares are created literally hourly, so no single anti-spyware can really detect all malware. Have at least 2 on hand and alternate scanning with each every few days or so. All are free. All can remove as well as detect.
Spybot Search and Destroy:
Ewido:
Adaware SE:
A-Squared:
Windows Defender (Beta 2):
Unfortunately, many “paid for” anti-spyware products are in fact either of limited usefulness or downright scams. When in doubt, look at the list of rogue anti-spyware solutions listed here:
And to protect your computer from ever getting infected with spyware in the first place, you can use these 2 freebies:
SpywareBlaster:
SiteAdvisor:
And free anti-virus programs:
Here is a list of all the major free anti-virus programs:
Avast:
Anti-Vir:
AVG:
BitDefender 8: (on-demand only, no real-time protection)–BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html
Clamwin: (on-demand only, no real-time protection)
All are fairly mediocre compared to some of the top rated (paid) anti-virus programs such as Kaspersky (KAV) or Eset NOD-32. But you can’t beat the price.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
yeah,i think ur security is good but it’s better to use combo softwares like norton of kaspersky internet security that tearts all of the internet attacks.I recommend u to uninstall all of ur softwares but norton security center and dowload kaspersky or norton for free from (it’s illegal but nice to use)
good luck
June 4th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I can suggest a couple of websites which will test the vulnerability of your system online. These sites basically test your firewall, any open ports on your system and visiblity of your system to the the hackers.
The urls are as follows:
June 7th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Now for my question!!!! How do I determine if or what kind of virus & spyware protection I have on my PC at the present time? Do I have firewall? Please reply soon!!
Thanks so much.
Ginny Knarr
June 9th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
If you secure your computer and maintain it, use smart choices in the programs and habits you use, your computer will last longer than the 3 - 4 years it’s designed to last.
Let’s start from the outside in -
Router
This works like a hardware firewall. The router doesn’t respond to most of the “are you there?” tactics hackers use. If some hacker’s scanning for victims and manages to find you despite the security … they’ll see the router not your computer.
If it’s a wireless router - secure it, secure it, secure it! Change the admin password. Put an encrypted password to connect. Look up all the ways to secure your particular router. Write down the settings.
Computer
Firewall
You need one. Yes, you do. And no, Microsoft’s is NOT enough. Get Zonealarm, it’s free.
Browser
This is how most people see the internet. There’s a high chance you’re using the “blue e” aka Internet Explorer. This is not a good habit as IE hasn’t been worked on (beyond fixes to problems people complain loudly about) in YEARS. It’s big, slow, out-of-date, allows all kinds of nasties in, insecure, inflexible, and a major target for hackers.
Get Firefox - it’s also free, sleek, faster, more secure, blocks pop-ups, is very customizable, easy to use, and once you start using tabs… you’ll get frustrated with IE.
There are also very simple ways to NEVER see a banner / iframe / image ad again - it’s an add-on to Firefox called Adblock Plus. I also recommend the automatic filter for Adblock - Filterset.G Updater. All free
Other programs that find stuff on the net (file sharing, instant messengers) are also a security risk. I don’t know what you have / use, so I’d recommend looking up “securing thenameoftheprogram” on google.
Get and install all updates to all your programs - Windows, your browser, your anti-virus, your anti-spyware, your router, you name it.
Ok, now we get to do the clean up part:
Anti-virus
Viruses can look through your computer, send your info to nasty people, fill up your hard drive, fry your computer… the list is endless.
I recommend AVG
Anti-spyware
Spyware / Adware / Malware are under the same category. Spyware watches what you do and sends the info to someone else. Adware shows you pop-ups regardless of your security settings. Malware is all of the above and more.
Ad-aware, Spyware Blaster and Spybot Search & Destroy are my recommendations and the Uninstall programs you don’t use.
Download “CCleaner” to find the files that are just clutter (temporary files, browser histories, browser caches, etc)
Get into the habit of defragging and checking your disk for errors (both are options under “My Computer”, right click on your hard drive, choose “properties”, click on the “tools”) twice a month. You may want look up how to automate this through Scheduled Tasks.
Protect your computer from yourself and others:
Make each user on your computer their own Windows profile - and only give them (and yourself) limited accounts.
The only time you need full (admin) access is to install programs.
Make each person password protect their account.
Get into the habit of changing ALL your passwords once a month. Don’t write down your passwords in a place others can find / use. Make passwords that use both numbers and letters and that are hard for anyone else to guess - I recommend keyboard patterns.
Do yourself a huge favour and get a UPS - uninteruptable power supply. This goes one step beyond a power surge protecter and gives you time to shut down the computer, saves your router, etc from losing their settings or being fried by power fluctuations.
I have a legal and moral obligation to keep my pc 100% clean. And I use an antivirus/spyware program out of Beijing, China. — This program has kept me 100% clean for the past nine years.
Twister Anti-Trojan Virus is absolute state of the art technology that has a real time scanner
that really works. Will scan your memory on start up and continues to run in the background
while you use your pc. Plus this software uses very little CPU resources.
Some examples of how great this program is. If you open a webpage and there is a virus or
spyware embedded in the webpage the scanner will catch the virus in a second and clean.
If you download any type of file including music or a zip file and there is hidden embedded
virus in the file the download will stop and the Twister will clean and stop the download.
I had an experience where the software I download the company used another installer other
then their own. The installer had hidden embedded virus in the installer program. Twister found it and cleaned, plus ended the installation and traced it back to the installer software.
(I wrote the original software company and they now use their own installer).
What is really great is that you only pay a small one time fee for life. You will get frequent
large signature updates,excellent support and they never charge you for any new versions.
There are many other features as auto downloads, and the ability to fix all type of problems with your registry or windows.
The chinese don’t believe in the annual fee or paying of new versions like most of the other software companies want to be paid over and over for the original purchase.
I use Zone Alarm free firewall (http://www.zonealarm.com). As a backup even though I have ADSL. I use ewido antispyware / malware. –Ewido was purchased by AVG. Ewido is free and will protect you from rogue dialers.
Also,you can use:
free
anti spyware blocker
spybot search & destory
spyware blaster
free
Windows Defender
free
anti spyware firewall
June 13th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Malware, Dialers, Popups:…
Online Scanners:?
Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Malware, Dialers, Popups List:
Antivirus:
Antivirus Lists:
Firewall:
Firewall Lists:
IP Blocker:
System Cleaner:
System Cleaning List:
System Info: