Lack of money is no excuse for not having anti virus and or firewalls and anti-spy software since it's free Here are some links for some free software.
Many ISPs now license various comercial anti virus/spam/spyware tools and make them available to subscribers free or at a small fee. It varies from ISP to ISP.
Earthlink is one example but many are falling in line with it fast. Providing these services to customers can actually save them money by cutting support calls and reducing bandwidth.
Earthlink offers anti spam and spyware free. These are part of Total Access software. (You do not have to run TA full time, but you do have to log into TA to use the popup blocker, and spyware scanner.) They also have email virus scanning. The spyware and virus blocker can be enabled at the server level thru My Account at the earthlink page. You don't need any local software for those two. You do have to turn them on for each mailbox you have configured. (You get up to 8 now on dialup.)
One of the comercial anti viruses is free with a year of updates now... I forget which one. It was in Cnet's News.com and a few other places. There was a thread here about it recently as well.
He has several free tools that make it easy to turn off: DCOM (Dcom Bob) Mesenger Service (Shoot the Messenger) IP Raw Sockets (Socket Lock) and a few other neat things. Also has a port scanner to check your firewall.
Gibson has been in this business for years. Some people may remember when SpinRite was an esential tool for hard drive work. Hard drives back then had to be low level formatted every year or so. SpinRite made that a rather painless process. I trust Gibson's stuff like I trusted Peter Norton's stuff before he sold it to Symantec. Very good stuff.
:One of the comercial anti viruses is free with a year of updates now... I forget which one. It was in Cnet's News.com and a few other places. There was a thread here about it recently as well."
It is the computer associates one listed above in the microsoft which link also includes free firewall.Hope the helps
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08:06 AM
Feb 15th, 2004
webbee Member
Posts: 1149 From: Los Angeles, Ca. USA Registered: Jun 2000
It can be configured to run on start-up. You can configure it to wipe the browser cookies and history at start-up. The pay version has some nice features, too.
I run this with Adware and Spybot to keep the invasion ware off the puter.
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06:30 PM
Feb 18th, 2004
webbee Member
Posts: 1149 From: Los Angeles, Ca. USA Registered: Jun 2000
One other thing... If you are using any version of WinNT/2K/XP...
Stop logging in at the administrator level all the time. XP logs all users in as admin by default. This is a really bad idea for many things. Create a "limited" XP account (user level in NT/2K) and use it. This will write lock many of the places that viruses worms trojans etc try to access. You can always log in as admin if it actually required.
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07:26 PM
Apr 27th, 2004
webbee Member
Posts: 1149 From: Los Angeles, Ca. USA Registered: Jun 2000
Another way to block pop-ups is with a toolbar that has a pop-up blocker built-in. Google, Yahoo, and others have useful toolbars with blockers built-in. I haven't tried all of these so you are on your own here. They are for Internet Explorer 5.5 and later, and may not work with other browsers.
make sure you understand the licensing on stuff like that... many have some sort of tracking or advertising built in. I don't know about all those bars, but it's better to not use one unless you know exactly what they are doing.
If you run XP... you might want to wait for XPsp2 to release. It will include some popup blocking and other stuff that could screw up some of the addon toolbars. At the least be ready to disable or uninstall toolbars, firewall and other software while installing the SP2 update. Don't even think about using Windows Update for a service pack... Always download it first. Even fast connections can do wierd things when trying to install something huge thru Windows Update. Plus you will have a copy of it for any new or reinstalls you need to do.
Please note that there seem to be some problems with some computers after installing SP2. Patching a well used computer sometimes creates more problems than it solves. There has also been a patch posted for SP2 at Windows Update. Since this is a security patch for XP I thought the info should appear here, especially as it's FREE.
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07:01 PM
Sep 28th, 2004
webbee Member
Posts: 1149 From: Los Angeles, Ca. USA Registered: Jun 2000
They point out a program I haven't used before called SpywareBlaster which prevents spyware from being downed using the active-x controls, the download is here:
SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware--it prevents it from ever being installed. SpywareBlaster blocks the installation of spyware ActiveX controls (such as Lop.com and Xupiter) in its database, and can even prevent them from running if they are installed. The built-in Check for Updates feature allows quick and easy database updates, which are released frequently. Information on all spyware covered in the database is also provided. SpywareBlaster does not need to be running in the background--simply select the items you wish to be protected against (or select all items) and press the Protect button to enable protection. SpywareBlaster can also block spyware and tracking cookies. It includes a System Snapshot feature, which lets you take a snapshot of your computer in its clean state and later revert, undoing many changes made by spyware and browser hijackers.
The latest version includes Mozilla 1.7x and Firefox 0.9x support, as well as other important performance enhancements
FieroRumor posted this in another thread. It seems like a pretty good proggie for preventing malicious browser helper objects. From the website:
Browser Helper Object, or BHO, is just a small program that runs automatically every time you start your Internet browser. Usually, a BHO is installed on your system by another software program. For example, Go!Zilla, the downloading utility, installs a BHO created by Radiate (formerly Aureate Media); this BHO tracks which advertisements you see as you surf the Web.
The natural question is, what do BHOs do? The technical answer is "anything", but generally, it will have something to do with helping you browse the Internet. Of course, some BHOs are what is called "ad-ware" or "spyware": they do things like monitor the websites you visit and report this data back to their creators.
Although many people are extremely concerned about them because of the privacy issue, BHOs are not necessarily bad things, and most of them are well-intentioned and beneficial. For example, the P3P ("Platform for Privacy Preferences") program spearheaded by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and major vendors, including Microsoft, AT&T, and IBM, will be delivered as a BHO. Some BHOs, however, are placed secretly on your system, and there is certainly no technical reason why they could not be programmed to send information about your system (or your web surfing habits) over the Internet without your knowledge.
Also, there is no restriction on what a BHO can do your system; it can do anything any other program can do: read or write (or delete) anything on your system. Usually, software is installed on your system explicitly by you; when you do so, you are, in effect, saying that you trust the vendor. BHOs, however, have a history of being installed without the users knowledge (fine print notwithstanding)
Given that (a) BHOs can do absolutely anything to your system, and (b) they are often installed without your knowledge, there is a distinct potential for abuse by vendors. The problem is, until now you had no way of knowing which BHOs are on your machine, who put them there, and what they do. This is what BHODemon does - it lets you easily manage your BHOs, and tells you what each BHO on your system is doing.
What does BHODemon do?
BHODemon scans your Registry for BHOs, and presents any it finds in a list. By highlighting a BHO in this list, and clicking the "Details" button, you can see information about this BHO, and even disable it if you wish. BHOs are disabled by simply renaming the DLL that houses them. By renaming the DLL, instead of deleting it, you have the option of enabling it later if you wish. Why would you want to do that? Because the program that installed the BHO will not run if it can't find the DLL: Go!Zilla, for example, won't run if you remove its BHOs.
Thanks and a tip of the hat to FieroRumor for sharing it:
It's the time of year where Phishing and other scams become even more prolific. Make sure you machines are properly locked down and protected.
Linux is not enherantly more secure than anything else. It is only a matter of time before it becomes a profitable target for the criminals behind a growing amount of viri worms etc. Worse, unless you are very good at linux, odds are you will never get it secure even if you keep up with patches. Linux needs a security console so that less experienced users can easily control all the settings that can leave it wide open.
Open source based web servers are already regular targets of vandals and crooks. Desktops aren't targeted much yet simply because the number of them is so low. That could change very easily as more countries recommend and even mandate use of open source.
This isn't a linux bash. It's a good OS but it's not the miracle software some people make out either.
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12:41 PM
Dec 7th, 2004
webbee Member
Posts: 1149 From: Los Angeles, Ca. USA Registered: Jun 2000
Thanks and a tip of the hat to Uaana for posting the link in another thread. It's a trial but seems to work pretty well at finding stuff that other proggies have missed. Stimpy liked it so well he purchased a copy.
Great thread! Anyone use the program File2File? www.cryptomathic.com/file2file It is an AES app, but I want someone's feedback on it before I try it out.
UBCD is a bootable CD with a lot of hardware testers. If you are having system problems and the spy/virus cleaners don't show anything... run the IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, which will test just about any brand ATA/SCSI drive, and then try a couple of the memory tests. A marginal HD or a bad bit of RAM can drive a machine nuts.
The machine may seem to run perfectly fine until it seemingly randomly runs into a RAM hole. Depending on what falls in the hole, one program may crash or the thing might get BSDed.
A bad HD can obviously loose data but it doesn't always. A weak drive may run at reduced perfomance and can also cause a Windows BSD.
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07:34 PM
webbee Member
Posts: 1149 From: Los Angeles, Ca. USA Registered: Jun 2000
Here's another version of Knoppix Linux with security tools. Knoppix lets you run Linux from a cd without installing it to the box. That's right, try it out on your Windoze box or use it to recover.
Just an FYI for all of you using any Yahoo groups.
Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you're doing and where you are going - similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you visit. Take a look at their updated privacy statement:
About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a link that says web beacons. Click on the phrase web beacons. That will bring you to a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network." In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link that will let you "opt-out" of their new method of snooping.
Once you have clicked that link, you are exempted.
Notice the "Success" message on the top of the next page. Be careful because on that page there is a "Cancel Opt-out" button that, if clicked, will *undo** the opt-out.
Here are some links for some free software.
ICQ# 140841625
