Ok question

At home I am using widows 2000
I have added "Ad-aware se personal", "AVG free" and "Zone alarm firewall"
update these regularly. Is this good enough to protect my machine whilst on line.

Sorry Gloria but looking at that post of yours about anti virus for home use just got me totaly confused. I am not very clued up on this modern technology.

Almost, Use Firefox as your web browser. stay away from gambling,porn & gaming sites. These are the sites most likely to have viruses & trojans. Never use file sharing software, I akin it to unlocking your house and telling everyone. And just because it is in your e-mail does not mean read it. Do not open any email you did not expect. Do not open it just to see what it is. If you do not know the sender DELETE it. Do not open it just to check. You may be telling your antivirus software it (the virus laden email) is ok and allow it to come in to your computer.

I would add:
- SpyBot S & D (in conjunction w/Ad Aware) http://tinyurl.com/8tyqo
or goto cnet.com or download.com and search for SpyBot (it's free)

- A "real" firewall
Get a hardware version from Linksys (www.linksys.com)
Why?
Because "Your firewall sucks" ~ http://tooleaky.zensoft.com/

AVG is a good product.

I think last month's Consumer Reports had a whole study devoted to online security.

The tip about using a browser NOT prepackaged is excellant. Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, Opera..etc are far better choices than MSIE.
You can find information on this at cnet.com or at download.com (cnet owns download.com)


[This message has been edited by Celtic (edited 10-01-2006).]

Hi, no worries, I still haven`t found the best firewall for myself, I`m still using an old free version of Norton AV 2005 downloaded from google pack, but without updates (expired).

I used panda, I was glad with that. Once I used a shop-bought Norton AV, that couldn`t find anything on the pc, I ran Panda and that made it.

So I`m totally confused in the topic, best is not to download anything, see my new topic: netvibes, and not visiting unknown sites.

All the best!

Thanks all

Westu.... I do only use firefox as my browser, the young lad who set this up for me installed it and I prefer it to IE. This a family machine so porn is a no go, and as for gambling I dont uderstand it, and I work too hard and long for my money so wish to keep it for as long as poss.

Celtic... Just looking into that Spy bot now thanks. From that site you listed I asume no firewall is perfect. Well I do not understand them and if the one I have is doing me no harm I will leave it as is.

Gloria... Im disapointed I thought from your previous post you were some kind of expert on computers lol Just kidding glad too see I am not alone not understanding anything that works on less than 5 volts

Kenny

I saw a recent article that states that in the last 6 months, more malware has been written for Firefox than for IE.

I am starting to think the safest browser is probably something written for Windoze 3.1
You won't get all those flash player movies and it won't autolaunch MP3 files but it also won't know what to do with most mal ware.
The decrepit old version of AOL I run can't open much on it's own anyway. I can look things over a bit before I launch them with the application I am comfortable with and most of the time it gets deleted before I even pull it out of my mailbox. Unlike Outleak it never downloads anything until you tell it to and I have it set to never launch anything I don't release.

LOL

I know more or less (I mean I tried) some antivirus sw which contains firewalls, anti-spywares and other things, but I`m not 100% satisfied, and always have the feeling, someone`s collecting data from my pc.
Also hate that the booting lasts 10 mins longer if you have an antivirus installed. I guess that`s not necesary, if I see the fact that an antivirus should watch the incoming-outgoing info, not the startup situation...

I have to write an antivirus myself.

As Churchill said, I believe the statistisc which I faked.

I am highly suspicious of "Ad-aware se personal", mostly because it is made by LAVASOFT who used to make spyware. Recently one of our computers was high jacked while running this software, which did NOHTING to stop or spot the problem.

1) Disable the windows scripting agent.
2) Uninstall Java, you don’t really need it.
3) Use Firefox with the No-Script Extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/722/
4) Use some common sense, don’t DL things unless you know exactly what they are and who you are DLing them from.
5) Email is for business, and any attachment should be a file type you recognize. Don’t be afraid to call the person who sent it to ask what it is.
6) Check your task manager and google any process you don’t recognize.
7) Check your start up menu under msconfig and google any process you don’t recognize.

ITO,
Can you PROVE that?.
I've been using Ad Aware for some years now and have never had a problem with it.
Users of the Chat rooms here might tell you different.

One hand up!

Ian A.

I agree I have a few Java apps I run and AOL needs it for the video player, among other things.
My biggest use is the show archiver/streamer on my Replay TV (DVR). It lets me play shows from the RTV in the living room on other PCs around the house, usually the dedicated one that talks to the TV in my shop.