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Thread ID: 79863 2007-06-03 21:20:00 How Do We Keep Our Own Systems Clean? SurferJoe46 (51) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
555787 2007-06-03 21:20:00 There seems to be a lot of "discussion" over how and where and what to do about security .

I am NOT asking for flames over switching to "L"-based systems, Macs or Apples, Oranges or C>64s at this point .

What I profess is that we make a concise set of instructions as to what WE Windows users do and would recommend to friends . . and in some cases relatives .

I'll start the diatribe here:


TURN OFF System Restore!!!! This is primary!!!

Windows XP-Pro w/SP-2 and ALL M$ updates, downloaded but installed by ME only .

A physical firewall (Linksys BEFSR41)

A software firewall . Mine is from Windows and it works for outgoing only . . with the Linksys one, I feel I am protected enough .

Firefox . . naturally!

GMail and the whole G-thing with GMail, GTalk, G-anything and stay off Internet Explorer .

AVG-Free . . . what can you say?

Spybot S&D - Advanced version, not the generic, dumb one . Use TeaTimer too!

SpywareBlaster

AdAware, although this is going out of style for me .

HiJackThis

CCleaner

RogueRemover

RootKitBuster

AVG Anti RK



Now . . what NOT to do:

Stay away from: AOL, AIM, Netscape, IE, McAfee, Norton, Symentec, on-line scanners, NO . warez sites . . . be ye very careful with P2P and Torrents too .

The WeatherBug, Free Screenshots, etc, Free Desktop (Daily) the big monkey-thingy, eww! :2cents:

OK . . your turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SurferJoe46 (51)
555788 2007-06-03 21:36:00 Mine is similar but I have this:

Opera (Just gave this a try a couple of nights ago. Not bad at all).

Avg free

Spinach anti spyware

Comodo firewall

Ccleaner

Abexo reg cleaner

Adaware

...and a program I think is called Clean up! or something, it has alot of different programs inside it.

Besides that i too have the system restore turned off and updates are chosen by me.
rob_on_guitar (4196)
555789 2007-06-03 21:41:00 Ok here goes:

- No anti-virus
- No anti-spyware
- No Firewall
- Use Firefox

My fathers computer on the same network which has anti-virus stuff etc gets virus's every other day, but every time I do a network scan of my computer or bother to install an anti-virus/anti-spyware my computer comes up clean.
lagbort (5041)
555790 2007-06-03 21:46:00 TURN OFF System Restore

Windows XP-Pro w/SP-2 and ALL M$ updates, downloaded but installed by ME only .


Turning off System Restore is good but does nothing for security . But I guess you are getting at the possibility of restoring malware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


As for the updates, I never have and never will . Most of them are for IE and the incredibly slow hole patching MS indulges in .

I prefer to do my own .
I have a lot of antimalware programs but the ones that are resident are:

Counterspy
NOD32
RegDefend
Zone Alarm

And I use Mozilla not Firefox .
Its whatever the herd is using that gets targetted .
pctek (84)
555791 2007-06-03 22:08:00 Well since I'm not on BB I dont use a hardware firewall, only software firewall.

Comodo
Avast Pro
Rogueremover
Ad-aware (Altho the others are enough)
Trojan remover
Ccleaner
FF, or Opera.
O&O Defrag 10 for defragging.

I was using Spybot, but it kept hanging when I updated it. So, it went in the bin.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
555792 2007-06-03 22:32:00 I have the built in firewall switched on, that's it.
Couldn't resist :p
Sue (33)
555793 2007-06-03 22:33:00 Why turn off restore?

AVG free
Mailwasher
Windows firewall (removed zonealarm)
Windows updates on auto

I use IE7 Opera (primary browser) firefox
I like all three Firefox has some great developer tools, IE7 is good and Opera has so many options to set up its really good. (I like the new speeddial setup as well )

thats all!

Viruses?
Only a couple in the last 10 years
netchicken (4843)
555794 2007-06-03 22:37:00 My old PC was too full to defrag by the time I got my new iMac, although I did periodically defrag up to that point as well as regularly updating adware, spybot and avg and running the respective scans. I used FF so the adware that got picked up was pretty minimal. I ran a Kerio Firewall as well

I don't browse the web on my current copy of XP Pro in Parallels with Firefox as I soley have it for running my PC apps, I use my Mac version. I do however download and run the relevant updates for AVG and Spybot on XP Pro. I haven't defragged it yet. I run Comodo firewall since Kerio is no longer available.

My iMac gets the OS security updates from Apple when they are available, other than that, OS X doesn't require defragging and I pretty much use it as my primary OS for web browsing since I don't yet have the Mac version of Adobe CS3 for work purposes.
winmacguy (3367)
555795 2007-06-03 22:55:00 Same as pctek- NO Windows updates and SP2. I use System Restore regularly because it has saved screw ups, I have plenty of hd space and scans get rid of any malware.

A physical firewall would be nice but in 10 yrs I have never had any malware that could not be taken care of with antivirus and spyware scans.
Morpheus1 (186)
555796 2007-06-03 23:02:00 T
[INDENT]TURN OFF System Restore!!!! This is primary!!!dosn't achive much at all . sometimes system restore is handy

A software firewall . Mine is from Windows and it works for outgoing only . . with the Linksys one, I feel I am protected enough .
windows firewall is INcoming, it does stuff all for outgoing .

i use . . . . . common sence . that fixes most problems straight away :p

any non IE based browser (opera ruoles but mozilla based is ok ;) ) helps a lot .

AVG free still seems to be doing the job well enough .
big bloated zonealarm is still the firewall without any problems .

spybot and adaware still doing the anti spyware job perfectly fine .

:2cents:
tweak'e (69)
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