Antivirus

[accymel]

DOnt want to preach but does everyone on accyweb have their anti virus programmes up-to-date working & in use, if not u can get some good free anti virus programmes for free - like AVG, u will be surprised how many people use the net without antivirus & firewalls, for the safety of your own pc/laptop & that of other users on the net to limit the spread of viruses that can do damage.

Whilst on here only, i encountered a windows shutdown & anti virus going nuts - whatever it was is sorted & cos of my anti virus no damage done, but i think its good that especially for newbies & niave the net, to be aware

Free anti virus:

http://www.grisoft.com

Look for free avg

Also protecting your pc with a firewall

http://www.zonelabs.com
look for free zonealarm

[entwisi]

mel, http://free.grisoft.com gets you straight there

[panther]

of course mine is up to date, get new updates near enough everyday

[entwisi]

best way tbh, outof date AV is just as bed as none at all.

[jambutty]

Computer security is much more than just about good quality anti-virus and firewall. You need some anti-spyware as well. And much, much more.

AdAware free for home use from http://www.lavasoft.com/ with almost daily updates will stop someone spying on where you have been etc.

Have you got a keylogger on your computer? Have you got an URL hijacker? Do you get loads of SPAM? What passwords do you use?

Did you know that there are some web sites that can read your computer clipboard? And you won’t know a thing about it. Don’t believe me? Then copy any old text to your clipboard and then access this web site - http://www.sourcecodesworld.com/special/clipboard.asp

If you are using IE and its like the web page will show what you have in your clipboard. If you are using Firefox it won’t. I don’t know about the Mac browser. However fear not there is a defence against clipboard readers for IE users.
Open Internet Explorer
Go to Menu Tools>Internet Options>Security>Select a security zone (Internet)>Custom Level>Scripting>Allow paste operations via script – set this to prompt.
If something tries to read your clipboard it will be blocked and you will receive a prompt asking you whether to allow it or not.

Once you have done that copy something to your clipboard and access http://www.sourcecodesworld.com/special/clipboard.asp again.

There are anti keylogger softwares around but you don’t need any. Just don’t use your keyboard to log in your logging in details. Copy and paste instead. Some sites supply a virtual keyboard to use but I don’t trust them. You might be prepared to. Better still get hold of the free version of http://www.roboform.com/ It will hold up to 10 logging in details and the Pro version for about $30 will have an unlimited capacity. 16 million people can’t be wrong. RoboForm also has a random character password generator for passwords up to 256 characters in length and a form filler.

There is only one URL hijacker that I know of and it hijacks the URL of E-Gold in your Favourites list. You do get taken to the bona fide E-Gold page but when you do your Sentinel settings have been disabled but you won’t know. Because instead of being taken to the page that shows your Sentinel settings in the normal manner you go straight to your account balance page. With your Sentinel settings disabled it leaves your account vulnerable to being compromised.

Have a look in your C: partition > WINDOWS > System32 for gdiwxp.dll and gdiw2k.sys. If they are there your E-Gold URL has been hijacked. I have no idea which file now on your computer does the hijacking though or where it is. There are two ways to counter that threat. Read each file with Notepad and delete all the rubbish that is in it and replace it with a couple of words and save. Then set the attributes to READ ONLY. Right click on the file and select Properties. Near the bottom of the window are the attributes to be set. Select Read-only and hit OK. If the URL hijacker tries to do its stuff again it will not be able to overwrite those two files. If messing around in C: fills you with dread there is a simpler solution. Delete the E-Gold URL from your favourites list and type in http://www.e-gold.com by hand instead every time that you want to go into E-Gold. Bit of a pain I know, but better that than an empty E-Gold account. This works on the principle that if there is no E-Gold URL in your Favourites list it cannot be hijacked.

However your computer security starts with your email address. Whether your email address is supplied by your ISP or you get one from a webmail site like Yahoo you are obliged to select your user name. Most people will select a real name or at least a real word as a user name. So all some spammer has to do, apart from buying a CD with over one million email addresses on it, is to send an email to [email protected] or mary or felicity etc and if there happens to be such a user name at that email domain they get the spam. Half a dozen random characters as a user name will stop that until that email address becomes common knowledge and ends up on a CD.

Passwords. Once again most people use a real word as a password and real words are guessable. Passwords should be at least 8 random characters in length and longer for the more important sites like banks, E-Gold, PayPal, E-bay etc. Random characters means both the upper and lower case alphabet letters and all the numerals and in some cases a selection of symbols. Unbelievably some people still use the SAME PASSWORD for several sites.

Many sites will also require you to give the answer to a specified ‘secret’ question. The answer can be in random characters. You can even use random characters if you have to make up your own secret question. Just separate them into groups to simulate words.

Of course with all these random character passwords, user names etc. you cannot possibly remember them all. That’s where RoboForm comes in or you can make a document in a word processor or Notepad or Wordpad that lists the name of the site, your user name for it and the password plus any other details like secret questions and answers. Then copy and paste from it. You would need to keep a backup of your list off the computer just in case or print it out. However if you print it out avoid using l and 1 and q and g for your passwords. They can look similar in hard copy.

Finally emails. Interrogate your emails at your mailbox at the ISP or webmail site BEFORE downloading them to your computer. Mailwasher free from http://www.mailwasher.net/ will enable you to do that and you can tag for deletion unwanted emails so that the next time the same one turns up it will be tagged automatically. You can also tag those emails that you want to receive and they too will be tagged as wanted next time that you get one. The Pro version for $37 has extra features. So you use Mailwasher to sort out the emails that you want to download and trash those that you don’t.

If you get an email that you were not expecting with an attachment, trash it right away. Especially if you get one of those greetings cards. Don’t get curious. You will probably regret it.

If you ever get an email that claims to come from E-Gold, PayPal your Bank etc and it contains a link to click on to go to the site – DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK. The email may look genuine and I don’t care how real it may seem it isn’t. E-Gold etc do not send such emails. Always access PayPal, your bank etc using the way that you have done in the past and NEVER, EVER FROM AN EMAIL. You can also get another clue about spoof or phishing emails. They will invariably be sent to the email address that gets all the spam and not to the one that you used to register on E-Gold etc with. So use a different email address to register with important sites like E-Gold etc to your general purpose one.

I have five different email addresses, one for E-Gold etc, one for general purposes like for forums, one for HYIP’s and the like and one for friends and relatives. The other one is a ready use spare for when my general purposes address becomes too well known and is attracting too much spam. So far after several years I have not needed to use my spare email address and I do a lot of surfing around.

Does you computer send out emails unknown to you? Well you wouldn’t know if it does or it doesn’t. If your computer gets infected with a virus, as well as creating problems on your computer it replicates itself by sending an email to every person listed in your address book and you won’t know a thing about it until someone complains that you are sending them a virus. But if the only address in your address book were your own you would be the only person to get such an email. If that happens you will KNOW that something nasty is lurking on your computer.

“But I can’t remember all my friends’ email address” is the objection. You don’t need to. Open whatever text processor you have, type in the name of the person at the top and their email address underneath and under that you can compose your message. Save the document under the person name and you have one document for each person. If you do it in Word the email address is active and when you click on it, it will launch your email client’s “New Message” window with the send to email address already in place. Otherwise you will have to copy and paste.

Sorry this has been so long but there was no short way to say what was required.

[entwisi]

yes there was Jambutty, Mac or Linux, job done!

now down to details

you seem obsessed with E-gold, I must say i know of no one else that uses it. Sorry, but you shouldn't consider one site or anyother, you should say 'any financial site'

secondly, you don't need spyware/malware scanners if you don't install any crappy software, I have a basic windows install with 'trusted'(as in I know it has no issues) software installed. Thats all that gets on there and I have Zero issues with spyware/malware.

Passwords, you can have massively secure passwords, but they are quite simply not memorable, so you need a tool to do it for you. JUST HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW HOW SECURE ROBOFORM ARE??? millions of users does not mean its secure, look at windows users as an example of this.

you start trying to scare people about mail daemons, yet I doubt you know much about them at all. I have one email address, I have no problems whatsoever, its not an issue to have 1, its about social engineering and not falling foul to it


Your 'alternatives' are quite simply a pain in the bum and as such people won't use them, THATS WHY WE AS IT PRO's DO UAT(User acceptance testing) to see just what users will put up with or not.

I really don't want to sound pompous but you really don't know what you are talking about here, your 'info' just adds confusion and noise to an important discusion, please don't make it any harder for people fo who a computer is a strange and wonderful device.

I'm happy for anyone to email/pm me directly if they want advice about making PCs more secure.(and may I point out that this would actually cost a lot of money if it was done as a business)

[jambutty]

yes there was Jambutty, Mac or Linux, job done!

You’ve lost me! What are you referring to?

I am led to believe that the Mac is a superior computer to what people call a PC, meaning a computer that runs one of the Windows OS but there are only something like 10% of computers world wide in the domestic situation that are Macs and even fewer with Linux.

We peasants have to put up with what we can afford and get easily.

If using E-Gold every day means I’m obsessed with it then yes I am. I also use PayPal and Moneybookers as on-line payment processors and so do millions of other Internet users. However just because you don’t know anyone else who uses E-Gold it doesn’t automatically follow that no one does. If E-Gold account numbers are any sort of a judge in how many people use E-Gold then the newest ones are in 7 digits. My E-Gold account is 725677. The most recent one that I know of is 4102190 and is the account number of www.fantasticalprofits.biz You can check it out by typing 4102190-usd.01.e-gold.com in your browser address bar. Don’t worry you won’t commit yourself to anything or catch anything. In fact replace the number with any number of your choice and if there is an account with that number you can send it 1 cent if you want to except you can’t unless you have an E-Gold account with at least 1 cent in it. Millions more use PayPal although Moneybookers isn’t anywhere near as popular. And they are just the tip of the on-line payment processor iceberg.

Sadly entwisi it isn’t just crappy software that contains spyware. Not that I have any on my computer. So do hundreds of thousands if not millions of web sites. But even legitimate professional software spies on your computer. All the programmes on my machine are bought and paid for from a legitimate source and all without exception seek Internet access when they start up. Zone Alarm Pro stops them getting what they want.

I have used RoboForm for several years now and my logging in details have never been compromised. Who knows, maybe some clever kid will find a way to read the logging in data tomorrow. In the meantime I trust it and so do millions of others. If you don’t trust it then that’s your problem.

If scaring someone gets them to look at their computer security then I am comfortable with that.

I am the first to admit that my knowledge of computer workings and programming is very, very and even a few more very’s limited. I have just basic rudimentary knowledge of HTML but it is enough for me to produce my own web site. I know my limitations and do not step beyond them. But I have assembled my own computer tower. But hey it isn’t all that difficult to read instructions. I also have a good working knowledge of the various programmes on my machine. Word, Excel, PageStream (DTP), PaintShopPro and its associated animation shop, Sound Forge, Audio Cleaning Lab, Cute FTP, Roxio Media Creator to name just the main ones. I don’t know them inside out but I know enough to use them to my limits.

What I do have is many years experience on the Internet, know the pitfalls for the unwary and also know how to counter them today. Tomorrow something new may come up and it will catch me out. Who knows?

Your 'alternatives' are quite simply a pain in the bum and as such people won't use them,

It is comforting to know that you can categorically state that people will not use any of my suggestions on their home computer security.

Aha! Methinks that I have stepped on some professional toes and they are a bit miffed.

I believe in giving people information on how to secure their home computer. What they do with that information is up to them and is no concern of mine.

[andrewb]

[quote=jambutty;386108]You’ve lost me! What are you referring to?

I am led to believe that the Mac is a superior computer to what people call a PC, meaning a computer that runs one of the Windows OS but there are only something like 10% of computers world wide in the domestic situation that are Macs and even fewer with Linux.

We peasants have to put up with what we can afford and get easily.

[/quote]

Linux is completely free (I recommend ubuntu: http://ubuntu.com) There are literally thousands of FREE applications available at the click of a button. These range from FREE Openoffice which is just as good as Microsoft Office, but costs about £400 less, you don't need to install or configure an antivirus, firewall or spyware scanner, the default install is very secure for a desktop user.

It really is the best decision I have made switching to Linux. Even more so now that Windows Vista is out, it costs a fortune and all its features have been available on Linux for months or years.

I'd recommend you trying a live-cd which means you can run Linux from the cd just to try it out, it dosn't remove your windows or even install itself, just runs from the disk.

[accymel]

I dont get it about linux [actually surprised it wasn't on me laptop already hehehehehehehhe]

So basically its an OS from cd then than from hard drive See that is the problem for us non techys & why windows is still a main OS. Many people are wary of playing with things they dont understand , mind u was told theres linux capability on home hub now Have to say XP home or pro has been the best windows os that they've done & not convinced about vista.

[entwisi]

Mel, no its not an OS from CD, its an OS that CAN RUN from CD but in normal use is installed just like Windows is to a hard disk. The Live CDs are a handy way for peopel to have a quick play without altering their PC in any way shape or form or just to recover a borked Windows install

TBH if I put you in front of my Linux box and said, there you go have a go on accyweb, write an email, do a spreadsheet, play an installed Game etc you and 99% of users would have no problem whatsoever. You have a 'start' button and a menu just like Windows, you have applications which you may even recognise (Firefox, Opera, Open Office and more) If I renamed apps to their winodws equivilant you would find them and use then just the same (Evolution = Outlook, GIMP= photoshop, aMSN=MSN Messenger)

the beauty of linux is that there is so much choice available and the fact that it is more secure even straight out of the box than 99% of Windows PCs. When you do want a new program you will normally find that they are Free to download and use and with teh package managers as good as they now are you don't even need to muck about with discs, it will just go and download the latest version( either stable or beta depending on how you have told it to behave, stable for end users, beta for techies who like playing)

The linux you mention on your hub means purely that your hub is actually a mini computer that is running a 'special' version of Linux that has been configured and installed to just do the stuff that routers need to do. That doesn't mean it can't do other things or even do the same stuff a different(Better) way. Likewise Linux is finding its way into lots of other areas, mobile phones are now mini computers there are some linux based ones on their way to market. Some PVRs (personal Video recorders) are Linux based, even microwaves are getting the linux treatment!

[accymel]

Microwaves ????????? eh? why do they need linux

[lancsdave]

Basically Linux is an OS for those who don't want to conform

[entwisi]

Mel, so that they can read teh RFID chips on your ready meals, keep a stock list and automatically reorder over teh net when your running low on micro plastic meals

Dave, I conform to the freedom to choose

[jambutty]

Much obliged for your Linux CD information Cyfr. I assume that I can get this CD from ubuntu.

I’m going to have give it a whirl. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

In my ignorance and in light of all the nasty things whizzing around the Internet I’ve often wondered why someone hasn’t come up with a bootable CD or now DVD that holds the OS. I mean you cannot overwrite files nor add files to a closed CD/DVD so nothing nasty could infect it.

Getting OS updates would be a bit of pain but as Linux is free I can put up with a bit of pain.

Years ago when me and my A1200 Amiga were crawling around the Internet courtesy of a 30 something K modem I put the Amiga Workbench 2.0 installed on my hard drive onto a CD and booted from that. It worked OK up to a point – I couldn’t store my emails.

I still think that you would need a good firewall though because too many programmes like to ‘chat’ to their ‘head office’ when you launch them and then there is all the rubbish that you can pick up whilst surfing around.

I’ve got a million questions but I’ll leave them for another time, once I’ve got the CD and had a pay around.

Thanks again Cyfr.

[andrewb]

No problem. Yes you can download the Live CD (Which will run Linux from the cd, but also you have an option of installing it to the hard disk from that cd, if you so wish to).

If you wanted you can even order an official ubuntu cd from the website, although it takes about 4 weeks to arrive (its free though!) so I would recommend downloading it if you have a cd writer.

edit: Ps. There isn't much rubbish to find when browsing in Linux as they tend to have more secure browsers. Firefox is default on many and due to the way Linux security and file systems work, firefox+linux means you don't get anything unwanted installing itself like spyware.