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Interent security software?

Smike

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Jan 22, 2004
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I will shortly be off to Uni and will be connecting my home PC to the internet.

What software will I need in the way of firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus products.

For firewalls, I was going to use ZoneAlarm, but I don't know about the other two.

Is it possible to defend my PC for free, or will I need to pay? If paying is required which of the many packages should I get?

Thanks.
 
Can I ask why you would need to do this?

You mean you are leaving the PC at home and want to access it remotely?

You will use VPN?
 
:D

To clarify, I normally access the internet through my college or through my dad's work PC.

When I go to Uni, I will be taking my own PC, which I mostly use for games, with me, and connecting to the internet there.

In case anyone's interested, I'm running XP.
 
I'm currently running three home PCs, each with WinXP Pro + SP2 (automatic updates and Windows firewall turned off)

All three use the following free applications:

ZoneAlarm firewall
AVG Anti-virus (Avast and Anti-Vir are also free)
Firefox for browsing
Gmail for email purposes (web-based, but obtained by invitation only)

If I didn't have Gmail, I'd be using Thunderbird.

I'd recommend having your own router too, so you can assign your own IP address.

RayG
 
RayG said:
Gmail for email purposes (web-based, but obtained by invitation only)
Click to expand...

Gmail is no longer strictly invitation only, you can sign up from a US mobile phone with text messaging. OK, it isn't throwing the doors open, but still.

https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsMailSignup1

And the fact that he's calling it "Uni" makes me doubt he has a US phone and needs an invite.

I'm sitting on about a 100 invites if anyone wants one.

Great use of GMail, in addition to regular e-mail, is to dump backup data to it. I frequently send (encrypted) backups of important files to my gmail account.

Here's instructions on setting up GPG (free encryption program) on Windows:

http://wolfram.org/writing/howto/gpg.html

Other than that, I agree with all the recommendations. Also make sure you have Service Pack 2 for Windows installed.
 
Smike said:
Is it possible to defend my PC for free, or will I need to pay?
Click to expand...
Universities sometimes have purchasing agreements with major software producers. You might be able to get a bargain/freebie through your school.
 
Universities are hotbeds of illicit software swapping.

The tips already given are good ones- I'd just remind you that the likeliest source of damage, intentional or not, may not be the internet, but your roommate or girlfriend who needs to borrow your PC for an hour to finish an essay and sticks a USB dongle in the slot.

In XP PRO you can of course encrypt files, but if you do so in an administrator account and then let someone else use that account , you just wasted your time, because he has access to the lot. (Think girlfriend. Think *.jpg of other girlfriend).

A security program like Steganos Safe can be very useful.

Have an admin account in XP with protected access that only you know the password for. If the girlfriend has to use the PC to check her email, log her on to a guest account.
No guests to save files on your PC. That's what USB keys are for. If it's on YOUR hard drive, guess who is responsible when the Secret Service come calling?

A very useful tool can be an uninstaller like that in VCOM's Systemsuite. More effective than the XP uninstall command.
And remember the holy litany- Backup your registry, Keep restore points before loading new software. Backup your data and know where the latest backup is.

And enjoy uni.
 
RayG said:

I'd recommend having your own router too, so you can assign your own IP address.

RayG
Click to expand...

Not posible since the uni will run everything through their centeral connection onto the janet network. Your ip will be what they want it to be.
 
Depends if he's in uni-owned student rooms, or rented accommodation . I was assuming private , which is common here, where universities are often non-campus.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Depends if he's in uni-owned student rooms, or rented accommodation . I was assuming private , which is common here, where universities are often non-campus.
Click to expand...

First year at least I will be in Uni-owned rooms, with them providing the connection.
 
Do what RayG posted...

Get AVG Anti-virus...probably the best 'FREE' anti-virus prog out there...

The download Zonealarm firewall...thats FREE as well...

The get 'SpywareBlaster' thats also FREE ( make sure it is 'SpywareBlaster' and not 'SpywareBlast' which contains spyware...

Then get 'SpywareGuard'...

These are all FREE progs...and all are totally reliable and work very, very well...

Use PCPitstop occassionally...it tells whats up and offers 'Auto-Fixes'

Anyways...try those...

Any probs...come back here and ask...

DB
 
Personally, for the bog-standard PC user, I'd recommend
AVG Anti Virus (good), Sygate Personal Firewall (way better than Zone Alarm on a number of points), Microsoft AntiSpyware (best of the bunch at the moment) and to use Firefox and Thunderbird for web and email respectively.

Point of note for earlier comments: getting a router is something you can do regardless of your connection. It's completely pointless though, and just because you can use it to assign a private IP address doesn't affect the fact that your IP address on the other side is given to you by the upstream network. You could use it as a simple hardware firewall or port blocker, I suppose. Not much point.

Just use common sense with what other stuff you install :)
 
Plenty of good advice so far, Smike, SpywareBlaster is a must have, just remember to enable all protection before you connect your machine to the net.

I'd also recommend Lavasoft's Adaware free at www.lavasoftusa.com and Spybot Search and destroy at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

AVG antivirus is the best freebie I've tried and now comes with a free firewall which I haven't tried. Steve Gibson has a useful security check (Shields Up) and a few other handy freebies at www.grc.com.

Good luck at Uni. :)
 
Moopet, I'm a long time ZoneAlarm user but was interested that you think Sygate firewall is better. Since I've never used Sygate (but am willing to change), what are the things that are better? Thanks.
 
Diabolos said:
Moopet, I'm a long time ZoneAlarm user but was interested that you think Sygate firewall is better. Since I've never used Sygate (but am willing to change), what are the things that are better? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Ok, Sygate personal firewall is completely working, zone alarm personal is mostly a crippled version of the Pro edition. Say you have ZA running on a desktop which has a dial-up or broadband modem connection, and want to run Internet Connection Sharing so that other machines on your network can browse the web. You can't. At all. This is actually prevented by ZA Free, so you have to upgrade to Pro.

In contrast, everything any normal user could want to do, they can do in Sygate Personal edition, the pay-for Pro edition just gives more in the way of intrusion detection, enhanced stats and logging, etc.

Interestingly, neither of the free versions handle VPNs - or they didn't used to :)

I've also seen a couple of machines bluescreen after upgrading ZA from free to pro, requiring safe-mode uninstalls to fix it.

I think I'm blithering now.
 
I have no idea what or where "Uni" is, but FYI I have heard that you should not run ZoneAlarm if you have SP2 installed on XP. Something about a possible conflict or SNAFUs it could create. Again just something I've heard, cannot confirm/deny. Although I will say after using XP with SP2 and no ZA, it would appear to be overkill at best; SP2 actually seems to be doing a better job of blocking spyware/etc, although not infalliable (as Spybot has proven several times already).

Agree AVG is a worthwhile free virus protector also.

Of course, a hardware firewall is really the most secure way to go if you really want to do it up right.
 
bigred said:
I have no idea what or where "Uni" is, but FYI I have heard that you should not run ZoneAlarm if you have SP2 installed on XP. Something about a possible conflict or SNAFUs it could create. Again just something I've heard, cannot confirm/deny. Although I will say after using XP with SP2 and no ZA, it would appear to be overkill at best; SP2 actually seems to be doing a better job of blocking spyware/etc, although not infalliable (as Spybot has proven several times already).

Agree AVG is a worthwhile free virus protector also.

Of course, a hardware firewall is really the most secure way to go if you really want to do it up right.
Click to expand...


I'm running XPSP2 with ZA no problem.
 
I've recently checked out a trial version of Norton's internet security suite, which is supposed to be the best product available. It's an expensive, intrusive nuisance.

Zonealarm free edition has had known conflicts with some ISP's software, but recently, I've found that it works fine with service pack 2 and my provider.

The Sygate personal firewall is effective, but a little confusing for a novice like myself.
 
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