BB OK!

[curly]

Hi Rik and every body.

Have shaken off the lurgi whatever it was, and more or less back to normal.

Have been on IDnet BB for three days now and it is wonderful! Checked the speed yesterday morning and it was:-

At about 0650 12Oct by BT Checker

IPprofile 6500kbps
DSL connection rate 448 upstream and 7615 downstream
Actual IP achieved 6100

My distance from exchange is about 0.8 KM straight line and probably a bit less than !.5 Km cable length.

At present I am using a long cable (15 metres) between router and PC. Intend to stay on that for a week or so and then change to wireless. I shall probably need help to do this as it is venturing into the unknown jungle!

All the many moons I was on dial up I used two or three different kinds of Anti  virus (not all at the same time!) and never had a sniff of any nasties. Today after just three days on BB, AVG Free came up with a Trojan   I didn't note the name but it had Dell at the end. Avg seems to have dealt with it OK, another sweep came up clear. I suppose this  is due to having the line open for much longer periods. I'm set to check for updates every morning and then sweep. Should it be more often? or am I being a bit too paranoid or what ever it's called!

Any way I am delighted with the speed and with the set up of the router by ID staff.

Robert

[Noreen]

Robert, I don't think that you can be too paranoid about viruses and other nasties. Make sure that you have anti-spyware protection too.

[Rik]

Hi Robert

Glad you're among us - you'll understand why we sit here and purr most of the time.

BB makes you more exposed to the web's nasties - because content-rich sites are now more accessible, it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll meet more issues. Quite often, trojans are delivered in a drive-by attack by graphics on a site, often banner ads.

As Noreen says, make sure you keep your AV up to date, and keep an eye out for spyware by sweeping once a week or so.

You may want to install something like McAfee Site Advisor, to give you extra warning.

[colirv]

I shall probably need help to do this as it is venturing into the unknown jungle!

That's how I felt before I did it, but it was actually easier than I feared. You'll be fine, I'm sure!

[Gary]

Curly, as has been said here you can never be to paranoid online, at some point it may be worth replacing AVG free with another antivirus like NOD32, the free antivirus are never as thorough as the pay for ones which give much better protection and have a bigger database of nasties and better heuristics

[Malc]

I also recommend to have Spybot and spywareblaster which are both free and easy to find on google.

[Gary]

Spywareblaster is good for hardening IE and cookie blocking in firefox and retricted sites in IE I use myself though rarely browse with IE, but from recent tests on spybot it has really passed its prime along with the free version of Adaware they used to be great programs but now don't have the teeth imo, the people behind spybots  creators cannot keep up with analysing malware as well as the bigger guns these days and Adaware 2007 turned into a nightmare with release after release to sort out bugs that should not have been there in the first place sadly. A lot of people use the free version of superantispyware awful name, but it gets a big thumbs up from users across the net. Really it all depends what AV you use to start with, and then any compatibility issues that may follow.

[Inactive]

I use Avg free,  Spybot,  MS.Defender, SpywareBlaster, Superantispyware and Comodo firewall, oh and  Comodo BO Clean,   never had any problems or compatibility issues..

All are free.

[Gary]

I use Avg free,  Spybot,  MS.Defender, SpywareBlaster, Superantispyware and Comodo firewall, oh and  Comodo BO Clean,   never had any problems or compatibility issues..

All are free.

I meant compatibility with the AV Inactive, a lot don't mix well anymore with multiple spyware solutions 

[Inactive]

I meant compatibility with the AV Inactive, a lot don't mix well anymore with multiple spyware solutions 

Indeed, that is why I mentioned  " AVG Free ", and the progs that I use with it, it was just an example of what works OK with what for me really.

[cavillas]

I use Router firewall, Avast, spywareblaster and windows defender and have had no problems for as long as I can remember.

[Rik]

Go on, admit it Alf, that only takes us back as far as breakfast. 

[Gary]

A lot of the newer AV's put hooks and registry monitoring into windows, well XP as its harder with Vista and not needed so much, so some antispyware apps don't mix well and some became so bloated that they were unusable like spysweeper in its later incarnations (5), its like having two AV's running which is a massive no no, same with spyware applications. You should never really mix active solutions, standalone scanners fair enough. All that happens if you are not careful is you end up wasting cpu cycles and ram when a good AV like nod or Kaspersky which have excellent antispyware abilities and maybe a secondary standalone scanner like superantispyware and spywareblaster which does not actively run anyway could be all you need. But on the freebie front Inactive, your bunch proves the point on free applications 

[Gary]

Go on, admit it Alf, that only takes us back as far as breakfast. 

Damn I forgot to have mine 

[Simon]

Go on, admit it Alf, that only takes us back as far as breakfast. 

I have F-Secure Security Suite 2008 and Spyware Blaster running permanently, and also use SuperAntiSpyware once a month for an on-demand scan.

I have to agree with Gary about AVG Free.  I have heard many instances of infections getting through it.  It has to be less able that the paid for versions, otherwise, why is it free?

[Gary]

I have F-Secure Security Suite 2008 and Spyware Blaster running permanently, and also use SuperAntiSpyware once a month for an on-demand scan.

I have to agree with Gary about AVG Free.  I have heard many instances of infections getting through it.  It has to be less able that the paid for versions, otherwise, why is it free?

I agree with Simon here, I use kaspersky internet security 7 and spywareblaster, having http and script scanning in real time with heuristics backing up signatures is the best way, but not everyone can shell out for suites or expensive standalone AV's and that's an issue that Vistas security seems to be addressing by being harder to attack which is a good thing in the long run.

[Inactive]

I have to agree with Gary about AVG Free.  I have heard many instances of infections getting through it.  It has to be less able that the paid for versions, otherwise, why is it free?

All I can say is, I have never had any problems whilst using it over the years, maybe just lucky, but even the so called best paid for ones, cannot give a 100% guarantee  against infection.

Probably get proven wrong now.. 

[Rik]

Browsing habits and plain common sense also have a lot to do with whether we get infected. How many people here are likely to fall for a phishing scam, or open an unsolicited email when compared to the population at large?

[Inactive]

Browsing habits and plain common sense also have a lot to do with whether we get infected. How many people here are likely to fall for a phishing scam, or open an unsolicited email when compared to the population at large?

Well I have just sent my Western Union payment off to Nigeria, so I know I will be OK.

[Rik]

Right. World tours on you then?

[Gary]

Browsing habits and plain common sense also have a lot to do with whether we get infected. How many people here are likely to fall for a phishing scam, or open an unsolicited email when compared to the population at large?

Agreed rik but with a poisoned jpeg on a legit site its getting easier to get got, and if you never scanned with a different AV you may never know you have anything anyway, a friend has avg free and just windows firewall, I told her she needed more but when she finally did get a paid for AV she had loads of spyware and other malware lurking, sadly she did not browse safely either, unlike the people here, the number of pc users who still click on banners saying "you have a virus" or open an email from names like reginald.hipster@v!@gra.com astounds me

[cavillas]

Well I have just sent my Western Union payment off to Nigeria, so I know I will be OK.

I'll let you know ehen it gets into my bank account, then I can pay for a real antivirus.

[cavillas]

Go on, admit it Alf, that only takes us back as far as breakfast. 

Wow! You can remember that far back?

[Rik]

No, but Sue can.

[Simon]

Agreed rik but with a poisoned jpeg on a legit site its getting easier to get got...

Such as on DigitalSpy recently.   

...and if you never scanned with a different AV you may never know you have anything anyway, a friend has avg free and just windows firewall, I told her she needed more but when she finally did get a paid for AV she had loads of spyware and other malware lurking...

Not having used any of the free versions, I wonder if active HTTP scanning and heuristics are the crucial elements missing from these?  Not to mention spyware protection, of course, which is just as essential as virus protection.

...sadly she did not browse safely either, unlike the people here, the number of pc users who still click on banners saying "you have a virus" or open an email from names like reginald.hipster@v!@gra.com astounds me

Just as some people shouldn't be driving a car, no matter how much people are educated, there will always be a minority who choose to be oblivious to dangers, which in turn, makes them a danger to others.  I think this is where Rik's notion should be taken further, and Windows will simply not allow use of the Internet, without the user having a certificate of... (struggling for the word)... competency.

[Rik]

I agree with you, Simon. If the web is not to collapse under the weight of infected machines, sooner or later it is going to have to be policed for user-competency, possibly by ISPs.

[curly]

Wheee! I seem to have started something here. I notice that there is no mention of the paid versions of AVG.

AVG Internet Security covers Anti virus, spyware, spam, firewall and tech support
Upgrade from AVG free is $52.95 for two years one PC.

AVG Anti Virus upgrade from AVG free is $29.95 one PC, two years.

Seems a little pricey with a one for one exchange rate, but not when compared with the other big ones?  If  I went for Avg Int Sec. I could get rid of Avg free and AdAware. And there would be no compatibility problems?

Kaspersky also do a "catchall" version I believe.

What is the thought on these "do everything" progs?

Robert

[Simon]

As I said, I use the F-Secure Internet Security Suite, and have done for a couple of years.  I find it very good value, and it offers great all round protection.  I have used Kaspersky Internet Security, but find the hundreds of pop ups annoying, and Norton is just hell on your system.  I did trial the AVG Suite, but didn't find it all that special, and the same goes for the Zone Alarm suite.  I also use the SeaMonkey suite, so as can be seen, I am a bit of a suite fan! 

[curly]

I agree with Simon and Rik that something must be done to prevent the net collapsing into a virus riddled heap. The attitude at present seems to be every one for themselves and if someone gets his Pc or data ruined or his identity stolen it's his own fault. And I think that Rik is really proposing that the user/victim  should be punished for the acts of the criminals!

I think far more effort should put into identifiying, prosecuting and handing out severe punishments to the criminals. Don't forget that the net is used by thousands/millions of youngsters, some as young as 4 or 5, for learning purposes.

Robert

[Rik]

I'm not saying the victim should be punished, Robert. Rather, I believe that there needs to be a system which stops most people from becoming victims by requiring them to learn a bit about the process before diving into the surf.

We expect people to learn how to drive before we let them loose on the road, both for their safety and ours. I'm proposing the same principle be applied to an internet connection.

In time, I think it may happen for commercial reasons. ISPs may decide to enforce 'cleanliness' in order to keep their networks running.

[Lance]

Glad you are feeling better, Robert, and that connection is singing along nicely!

As for antivirus, I use NOD32 and use the Windows firewall.

[Rik]

Congratulations on the 2500 posts, Lance - have a karma.

[Lance]

Thanks very much

[Simon]

Glad you are feeling better, Robert, and that connection is singing along nicely!

As for antivirus, I use NOD32 and use the Windows firewall.

Am I right in thinking that the Windows firewall only monitors incoming traffic, Lance?  Or has it improved with Vista? 

[Lance]

In XP, I believe it is incoming only. Vista I think works both ways

[Rik]

Give us your IP address and we'll check for you!! 

[Lance]

its 192.168.1.100

[Rik]

Seems vaguely familiar from somewhere.

[Gary]

As I said, I use the F-Secure Internet Security Suite, and have done for a couple of years.  I find it very good value, and it offers great all round protection.  I have used Kaspersky Internet Security, but find the hundreds of pop ups annoying, and Norton is just hell on your system.  I did trial the AVG Suite, but didn't find it all that special, and the same goes for the Zone Alarm suite.  I also use the SeaMonkey suite, so as can be seen, I am a bit of a suite fan! 

All suites are very different and you have to find what is best for you, kaspersky version 7 is very different to its predecessors, only gives me pop ups when .exe's have been changed and changes have occurred in the registry like programs that try to alter security settings or programs adding themselves to startup or system 32 etc and watches the registry for other changes and like F-secure looks for rootkits as well, it also lets me control the outbound connections with its firewall, I like to know what on my pc is calling home you would be surprised sometimes. As with most modern suites it needs to be trained for your particular setup, Zonealarm has been a nightmare since checkpoint took it over very buggy indeed. Nod32 is a great AV but at the time I wanted less programs eg no separate antispyware and firewalls and hips systems using ram and cpu up and wanted a more unified approach. Norton is ....actually very good at finding nasties 2007 version beats Nod32 and kaspersky and F-secure in detection ratings both in spyware and all types of malware, but its Norton so we don't use it  to difficult to get rid of. F-secure uses two engines in its AV one of which is a kaspersky engine and is a good all round suite, and then you get the likes of Avira which finds everything under the sun and a million false positives along with it, best of all is this great AV called "powering the pc down" and another called "not letting kids touch it"

[Simon]

I think I've tried them all, Gary, and as you say, they all have pros and cons.  Some 'cons' of F-Secure is the relatively slow start-up, which adds a good 30 seconds to boot up time, the amount of running processes, but these are all very small, and have little or no impact on system resources, unlike Norton, and the comparatively slow full scan time, although, it does feel like it's doing things thoroughly.  One 'pro' is the lack of impact on surfing and file navigation.  I am convinced that my line speed increased when I switched from KIS to FSIS, and that's with the HTTP scanner active.

I used to like KIS 6.0, but then they introduced the PDM module, which was a real pain with all the pop ups.  I know it could have been turned off, but I don't like having modules switched off, if they are there.  F-Secure has a very similar function, but it seems to know what's good and what's bad, and only queries unknown applications.  I also found KIS's firewall to be slightly over complicated, with the drop down menu of options.  Again, I know I could have switched off training mode, but then it would have allowed everything, which I didn't want either.  I have to say, I haven't tried KIS 7.0, so it may well have improved, but people over on Wilders were initially complaining about it hogging resources, so I gave it a miss.  I also recently tried the NOD suite, and although it was OK, and scanned quite quickly, it didn't seem any better or worse then FSIS, so as I have FSIS licensed to Aug 2008, there didn't seem much point in switching.

[lozcart]

Curly just buy a Apple Mac 

Us Mac users don't have to bother with viruses, it gives us more time to enjoy our computers and use our idnet broadband connections 

[Den]

What's a Apple Mac? Is that a vegi burger made with apples? 

[Lance]

Wasn't the first ever recognised virus on a Mac...

[Gary]

I think I've tried them all, Gary, and as you say, they all have pros and cons.  Some 'cons' of F-Secure is the relatively slow start-up, which adds a good 30 seconds to boot up time, the amount of running processes, but these are all very small, and have little or no impact on system resources, unlike Norton, and the comparatively slow full scan time, although, it does feel like it's doing things thoroughly.  One 'pro' is the lack of impact on surfing and file navigation.  I am convinced that my line speed increased when I switched from KIS to FSIS, and that's with the HTTP scanner active.

I used to like KIS 6.0, but then they introduced the PDM module, which was a real pain with all the pop ups.  I know it could have been turned off, but I don't like having modules switched off, if they are there.  F-Secure has a very similar function, but it seems to know what's good and what's bad, and only queries unknown applications.  I also found KIS's firewall to be slightly over complicated, with the drop down menu of options.  Again, I know I could have switched off training mode, but then it would have allowed everything, which I didn't want either.  I have to say, I haven't tried KIS 7.0, so it may well have improved, but people over on Wilders were initially complaining about it hogging resources, so I gave it a miss.  I also recently tried the NOD suite, and although it was OK, and scanned quite quickly, it didn't seem any better or worse then FSIS, so as I have FSIS licensed to Aug 2008, there didn't seem much point in switching.

I understand Simon about browsing, but they changed the network driver in Kis 7 its much faster. For me Kaspersky uses with antivirus, pdm (not application integrity control that's for very advanced users) activated, antispam, Registry control, the new heuristics and firewall 44k on my system. To be honest its people with Norton uninstalled with remnants left behind that trip up most other security appications

[Gary]

Wasn't the first ever recognised virus on a Mac...

Think you were right Lance, but even though I want and iMac when leopard comes out on them they are not virus free as people think.
http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39167424,00.htm

[Rik]

IAC, if enough people move to Macs, so will the virus writers. It is incumbent on us to take care, whatever platform we run on.

[Gary]

IAC, if enough people move to Macs, so will the virus writers. It is incumbent on us to take care, whatever platform we run on.

Agreed Rik, if there was a massive migration to the opera browser the same thing would happen, its market dynamics, where the big bucks are the hackers follow and that is still M$ at this time.

[Rik]

We have to remember that viruses and malware are no longer simply about people showing how clever they are, it's also about organised criminals looking for our money. They will attack anything that might turn a profit.

[Gary]

We have to remember that viruses and malware are no longer simply about people showing how clever they are, it's also about organised criminals looking for our money. They will attack anything that might turn a profit.

True the day of the script kids have faded, but with Microsoft still being the mass pc market they will hack that first, but as you said organised crime will go anywhere and if they think there is a nice happy lot of Apple users being complacent then they will go for that. Already this year Apple has had to post a lot of patches for OSX I believe due to critical holes. No platform is safe, look at the security patches for the iPhone and that is a closed os.

[Rik]

Not to mention Symbian OS phones, Gary. We live in a dangerous world, we need to act accordingly.

[Gary]

So true, I have F-secure on my N95, batter safe that sorry  8)

[Rik]

Looking after your chips, eh Gary?

[Gary]

Yes, before they get deep fried 

[Rik]

 

Sorry, couldn't help myself...