Surfing safely ... a few free tools.

[CJ]

Hi all,

Well, it seems we weathered a nasty cold here on the forum. For those of you still in need of some free protection against malware ("MALicious softWARE"), you may want to check out the following trusted sites (be sure to check if your PC meets the system requirements for these programs):

AVG Free Antivirus version 8.0

This is the AV I personally use and I find it does the job very well; it caught two threats emanating from the forum page redirect these past couple of days (JS Download Agent and I Worm Brontok). AVG has since removed these pests from my PC.

Avast! Free Antivirus version 4.0

Avast! is another competent AV program... for those of you who don't wish to be part of the 70 million AVG users.

SpyBot Search & Destroy Free Anti-Spyware

I've been using SpyBot for a number of years now and it does an excellent job of "immunizing" my PC against a variety of threats (drive-by downloads, spyware, adware, etc.). Lately, with its version 8.0, AVG Antivirus has taken up some of those same tasks in a competent manner. I might soon uninstall SpyBot for this reason. A word of warning: SpyBot is not for the newbie; improper settings can damage your PC... use at your own peril.

Windows Defender Free Anti-Spyware

If you're running a Windows PC and would rather stick with genuine Microsoft products, you can activate (or download) Windows Defender. It does a passable job of hunting down and killing the kinds of files that are otherwise expertly tackled by SpyBot. A word of caution: you can download software from Microsoft (such as Windows Defender) only if you're running a genuine non-pirated copy of Windows. Prior to any download from its sites, Microsoft will want to run a validation and authentication tool on your PC... do not do so if you, uh, suspect, that your copy of Windows is not authentic.


Finally, for those "wannabe techheads" out there, I can recommend a most excellent online monthly newsletter out there called Gizmo's Tech Support Alert. I've been receiving it for quite a while now and it's chock full of free programs and security tips and alerts (amongst a veritable bounty of other free goodies). Every month, Gizmo Richards pores through the best of the best that's out there in the way of useful software and sites, tries them out for us, and reports his findings and suggestions. For me, it's an absolute must.


Disclaimer: Neither I nor the forum's Admins are to be held responsible for any damage caused by a forum member (or any guest) to his or her PC through the (mis)use of the programs mentioned in this thread. These are programs I've been using for quite some time and they've worked extremely well for me. And that's the whole point--they've worked for ME. I posted the links above as a mere PC user, and not as a forum Moderator. Please keep this in mind.


A last few pieces of advice:

- scan your PC on a regular basis with an anti-virus program (I run AVG daily)
- make sure that, at the very least, your Windows firewall is turned on at all times
- if you're unsure how a downloaded program will affect your PC upon install, create a Restore Point before installing that program

Surf safely, everyone! And thank you, Caith, for all you do to keep us safe!

Love,
CJ

[Caith]

CJ, I'm glad to see you didn't lose everything when this ugly attack struck the forum.

Thank you for that EXTREMELY helpful and informative post. I can't take any credit for detecting this thing today, that goes to all the helpful forum members who posted to the Ask Us forum about it. When SilverLady(SO) notified me and I saw what was happening, I'm glad we could shut down the forum quickly and find out what it was.

I can tell you that Jay and Greg in our ISP's support department are fantastic people, know their stuff well, and go above and beyond to help out their clients. They do it almost immediately, too!

[DonnaT]

I'll echo what CJ says about Spybot. A work colleage uses it, and it came up with a hit. He deleted the detected file, Hellz Little Spy.

Problem was, it deleted part of the registry. When he rebooted he coudn't get past the Welcome screen, not even in safe mode. Only fix was to do a repair from a repair disk, or reinstall Windows XP.

[SilverLady(SO)]

Thank you, CJ, for providing this very helpful information.

Virginia and I both use AVG free, and we have never had any problems. Even with this latest attack on the Forum, we were virus/worm-free . . . and I'm glad that your system is "clean" again, too.

- SL

[CJ]

Hi all,

Well, my pleasure.

Point of note: AVG is having a little trouble these days. Version 8.0 Free is proving so popular that the Grisoft servers are having a spot of trouble accommodating update download requests so you'll have to be a bit patient and not let yourself be spooked by "failed updates" or "connection to the server failed" messages. Just try again. Maybe even at different hours of the day. (AVG issued a major upgrade to their Antivirus program on July 1st; the file is almost 10Mb so their servers are swamped.)

About SpyBot, this is what it did to my computer the very first time I ran it (about four or five years ago now): it caught a whole bunch of spyware and adware, yes, but it also, for some inexplicable reason, disabled my CD-ROM drive. I had to reinstall the drive's software and then instruct SpyBot to refrain from modifying any Windows registry files without my permission. Then I went hunting for info on why SpyBot behaved the way it did; once I found it, I simply adjusted the settings to suit my needs. Still, despite all this, SpyBot has served me faithfully (and without fail) for a long time now.

By the way, I can also heartily recommend a small PC audit program called Belarc Advisor. I've been using this one for years, too. When you run it, it "audits" your computer, i.e., it creates an inventory list of all your installed hardware and software and displays the (extremely detailed) results in an Internet Explorer window. It sends no information to any website; it simply displays the content of your computer in an Internet Explorer window. Very useful. It'll even tell you what type of RAM you're using and how many memory slots are filled (or available). Using Belarc, I once discovered that I still had programs installed on my PC that I thought I'd uninstalled ages ago. Sweet.

Again, surf safely, y'all! (And, of course, if anyone out there has anything to add to this thread--good software, good surfing practices, etc.--then please, by all means, do so!)

Love,
CJ

[Anita]

Thank you, CJ, for the post. I downloaded Avast, because AVG won't support Windows ME. I had gotten rid of McAffee some time ago, but had not replaced it.

And thank you, Caith, for going into the trenches for us.

[DeeDee]

Hi CJ and all
A site I've used for many years is grc.com. The guy is a totally out there geek but has many free, tools such as "shields up" which will check your firewall for open ports. He also has a great "password generator" if you use wireless. http://www.grc.com/default.htm Worth a look and he has many other tools and comments concerning A/V programs and firewalls. Hope this is some help to some.
Hugs
DeeDee

[Susan]

Ccleaner does what it says on the tin. Short for Carp(anag) Cleaner its cleans up your windows pc so effectively that the first time I ran it on one of my pcs I cleared out over 800Mb of rubbish.

Run this before you run Spybot etc you will never find anything.

Its free and you can get it here

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Be safe out there

[KimberlyS]

We began noticing over the past couple of months that the free basic version of AVG was not doing as well of a job. One needs to upgrade to the premium version for the best protection. But not doing windows and other security updates also catch a lot of people and get them infected. And some of the free music sharing software are not as free as a person thinks after they have their computers reloaded. But a lot also depends on how and where a person goes on the internet.

kim

[Michelle Miller]

If you use Firefox, I highly recommend 'NoScript' & 'AdBlock'. They eliminate 99% of the problems with harmful embedded apps, scripts and whatnot on webpages, and as a bonus, no more excessive ads as well.

[CJ]

Hi all,

The new version of AVG is now available for download. You can find it here: AVG 9

Love,
CJ

[Paulette]

If you are nervous about being discovered here or anywhere on the Web, use an anonymous browser. The best I know if is TOR. It is a modified version of Firefox, and it sends all inquiries through an untraceable network of hosts so that you can never be identified while browsing. While using the TOR browser the sites you visit will not be able to track you or identify you. It was pioneered by the US Navy and enhanced for private use by techies. TOR stands for The Onion Network. See also Wikipedia for background and usage.

To get it, just search (Google or whatever) for "TOR." It's free and it works.


*** Topic started by Paulette has been merged with this existing one on the same subject. - SL ***

[SilverLady(SO)]

If someone is truly paranoid, then they should never be on the internet, not even via email.


While what Paulette said about the TOR browser may be true, members at this forum must have an identifiable browser, a valid 'real' email address, a verifiable internet provider, a verifiable IP address, and your system must accept cookies. The use of disposable email addresses are never permitted.

This forum will never rent, sell, or trade any of our members' information, nor will we ever 'track you down' . . . but we will verify that both your email address and your IP address are legitimate and identify your internet provider. The specifics of you or your location are not revealed to us, nor are they to most web sites.

If any member - or a new registrant - attempts to use a TOR browser and I notice it, they will be immediately suspended and/or permanently banned from the forum . . . and this is not negotiable.


- SilverLady(SO),
Site Administrator

[Rony]

Thank you SL, it is reassuring that you and the other moderators are monitoring this site. It is important that those using hidden email or browsers be restricted as they, I feel might be looking to prey on the young. We've had a couple those some time back but their stay was short lived.

Ronnie

[BobbeH]

Hi all

I skip all the problems that windows has by running Linux. The one I use you can find by searching for puppylinux yes one word and have fun.

Bobbe