What to install to keep system "clean" from "nasties"

I have purchased a new computer. It has a 3 months ofm free Mcafee, virus and anti hacker software on it. It has also Norton Internet security installed.
My last computer also had Norton on it but the spyware got on my hard drive any way. What should I do to protect my system? Thanks for your help. Jerry Wells

 

Jerry,

Along with Norton's AV, I also run Ad-Aware for spyware. The system that my kids use also has SpyWare Blaster on it. An occasional online scan is also a good bet. I use Housecall and Panda Activescan.

I have always used Norton's AV programs and am happy with them. You can usually pick up the latest version for free, after rebates. I think Staples may have it free at the moment. If you want, you could always get it now and install after your free 3-months is up. Just uninstall McAfee if you go with another brand. Keep anything you use updated and you should be fine.

Mike

 

This is a VERY GOOD thread to read.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=44130

I am a network admin running the corporate managed version of Norton Symantec. After 4 years, we have yet to be hit by a virus...so far. However, from the read, CA (computer associates) is another product I am seriously considering.

We have already begun looking at PestPatrol for company wide spyware support. I should point out that there is acutally two versions of PestPatrol.

PestPatrol 2005 ... for the "home" additions
PestPatrol R5 ... Corporate.

Spend the few extra dollars for the corporate version. I just found out that the home version requires the user to have administrative rights to do cleaning. The program does not completely load if the user has user rights and only allows scanning...not cleaning. A user with administrative rights can only clean. You really don't want users running with administrative priveledges on a day-to-day basis.

Rogue software is able to install itself based on the current logged-in user priveledges.

As for the Corporate product, any user can scan and clean, so I am told by CA.

Side-note, if your computer came installed with either XP Home or Pro, change your user rights to User or Pro User, not Administrator. This will save you some headaches down the road.

 

Hello Jerry,

Aside from the usual suspects - Spybot and ad-aware, MS Anti-Spyware http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en&Hash=5BMW635

I also run AV's on two installations: NAV2005 and NOD32. Of the two, I like NOD32 better.

But my fav is System Safety Monitor. It's more than a anti-malware tool, it simply allows control over one's system like no other tool.

Read thru these threads on it and a tool like it - Process Guard by DiamondCS, authors of TDS-3, probably the best Anti-Trojan around for the time being.

Threads on software to list/intercept processes:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=29075&highlight=SSM
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=39800&highlight=SSM
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=42410&highlight=SSM

Regards - Charles

 

System Safety Monitor can be found here
http://maxcomputing.narod.ru/ssme.html?lang=en (very slow to open)
or
http://freeware4u.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=204
It is in Beta v1.9.6 Beta2

 

Thanks Jim, completely forgot to supply a link.

Russian sites always seem to be s l o o w

http://mc.webm.ru/bb/forum.php is the english forum, easy to to talk to Max

Regards - Charles

 

charlesvar--It is so rare that anyone can add anything meaningful to your posts, but I thought it might help.

 

Nope. Not English. Cyrillic I think.

 

Ouch - I'm going to have to track down again.

Regards - Charles

 

To Jerry and everyone else...

I won't go into all of the reasons why, but I have recently loaded Computer Associates; PestPatrol 2005, Firewall and Anti-virus, onto an employee mobile laptop. This one user has a history of spyware and trojans...Don't know why, but that's a different story.

PestPatrol 2005 (the home user version) did find and remove all spyware not picked up by spybot. The trick was to log in as an administrator account, open PestPatrol, click "advanced" then custom, and select the entire C:\ drive.

I am not sure but I suspect that scanning using the default method, only scans the currently logged in "profile ", not the entire system. I make this statement because I logged in under separate accounts on the system to run a scan. And for each account, the scan found spyware.

...Why would you only want to scan one part of the system as a default ??

After using PestPatrol 2005 and talking to CA, at this point I would recommend PestPatrol R5 (corp edition). The home version, IMHO, has a major fundamental flaw in security...ie. You can only scan and clean while logged in as administrator, meaning that for a user account, that user will see startup warning messages whining about user rights everytime the log in AND they will only be able to scan...not clean. Only and administrator account can clean (with 2005).

I also uninstalled Norton and re-installed CA Antivirus. CA found two trojans which Norton missed. I also found CA to much faster at scanning the entire system versus Norton. I am going to buy a few more copies for additional evaluation

The firewall component is Zone Alarm Pro with a face lift. The fact that a multi-billion dollar company is using little ole Zone Alarm says a lot to me.

Anyway. I just felt like ranting. All-in-all, I am please with CA.

-Don

 

Hi Don,

Always liked ZAP, using it since v2.x

My only nitpick is with the advanced rule making, added with 4x. Zone Labs hasn't learned yet to make that process fairly easy or straightforward like Sygate does for instance.

Regards - Charles

 

Updating the SSM english forum issue, recieved this:

Regards - Charles

 

@ Everyone:

Don't forget SpywareBlaster 3.4...

Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software... and unlike other programs, SpywareBlaster does not have to remain running in the background.

It's FREEWARE for personal and educational use!

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html