Do I Need More Protection?

[Bookworm 1]

Hi everyone,

As my computer is very important to me and has all of my important files and such on it (not to mention SC4 and TS2!), I was wondering if I should get more anti-spyware apps and such. I currently have Norton Internet Security 2006 installed, and as far as I can tell it's done a very good job protecting me (really annoying to update and itstall though). This is however, the only anti-spyware/firewall/antivirus/etc utility I have installed right now. I'd also like to know what apps I should get, and if there would be any problems interacting with Norton, or any quirks I should be aware of. I've done a little bit of reaserch, but so far I'm really not sure what I want to use. Thanks for all your suggestions!

[defcon pilot 0]

Personally, I don't bother. They slow down my system. At least, for my Windows computers. I don't need any protection for my Mac...

[vidioman 21]

Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware are free and a must have. Goggle them, and scan your computer at least once a week, and after every time you look at.. you know.

If you can, buy a proper anti-virus software. McAfee and Norton are pretty good.

[Bookworm 1]

Well, like I said, I have Norton. I will "Goggle" those other ones though!

300th POST!

[hym 358]

Go ahead and load up on all the anti-spyware programs you trust.  However, only use one anti virus utility as they need low-level OS access and you can really gum things up if you have more than one anti virus program running.

Also, I've heard that hackers are beginning to find holes in the Norton software and a lot of the new malware floating around can hide itself from Norton security programs or disable the program outright.  (I don't think they've figured out how to hijack it for malicious purposes, though.)

[defcon pilot 0]

Goggle them, and scan your computer at least once a week, and after every time you look at... you know.quote>

"Goggle"? Don't you mean "Google"?

And personally, I think that the idea of "verbing" words ought to be outlawed. If you're too lazy to say the entire phrase, don't say anything.

But that's just my opinion.

Anyway, I stand by my previous statement. However, if your computer can handle it without problems, go ahead.

[Bookworm 1]

Well, I just installed both SpyBot Search and Detroy and Ad-Aware, and they are preforming very well, as in the last 5-10 min, they caught 2 spyware programs that Norton seems to have missed...

Anyway, I want to get something like ZoneAlarm, but I'm not sure if it will conflict with Norton's firewall. Any suggestions?

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

I stick with what works; all things from one giant corporation isn't all bad.

Since my OS is Microsoft, I protect it with Microsofts Anti-spyware Beta(MSAS for short).

I have never ever paid for anti-virus or spyware.

I use my 6 month free trials, when I get a new computer and have found Nortons and McAffee to both be, not only annoying and system slowing, but also useless beyond belief.

I put emphasis on the belief part, because many of you will not believe me, but anti-virus software is a very large scam,...IMO anyways.

I haven't gotten a virus since windows 95 was new. Seriously! and I have no anti-virus utility.

This can easily be verified with free on-line utilities and always shows my PC as secure.

Since ISP's themselves claim to be a customer convenience; it IS solely up to your internet provider to provide protection within your connection package. You already pay for this protection in your monthly internet access fees!!!

If you are paying for it; you are being ethically and logically robbed!

Bookworm: those are free and I have tested/used them. I now use MSAS because it is easier to understand its' terms and functions. It also works better and updates more securely.

You do not need Nortons or McAffee. Yahoo mail gives us free use of Nortons anyways, within my mail box.

One other point Bookworm; The reason they find a couple buggers right away is because they install those with their first installation. This makes you believe it found something right away, correct? Trust me on this; the first install of Spybot S&D aleways installs a couple harmless examples to find for you. It is all part of their scam, to make you think it works great right out the gate!

[Bookworm 1]

You are a lucky person.... that's all I'm going to say on the "Never gotten a virus" thing.

I don't believe AntiVirus software is a scam. You are right about Norton being a pain sometimes, but it has helped me, and I'm not going to get rid of it (though I probably won't continue upgrading every year). And just because an OS is made by Microsoft dosen't mean that Microsoft makes the best protection product for it. Think of all the bugs in Windows, IE, and many other Microsoft programs. And no, I don't think I should be paying for it in my internet-acess fees, because they don't choose what I view and download (and my provider dosen't protect me from anything). All the ISPs do are connect you.

Yes, Yahoo does give you free use of Norton. But it's an older version, and all it scans are your e-mail, which is not the only place you can get viruses from. I've gotton more viruses from Simtropolis then I have from my e-mail.

Also, I'd like to see these online utilities you talk about. How do you know they're reliable, if, as you say, the antivirus companies are just trying to scam us anyway?

As far as the stuff being installed with the installation, I have to say I don't believe you. Nither of the things it found were anywhere near any of the files related to the program, and I have checked the date on which they were first put on my system, which was a while ago (I don't remember the exact date). I don't think the company would go that far just for one little marketing ploy (not to mention that that didn't happen when I installed Norton, and it cost $70.00)

No offense ment, but I think you're a little paranoid about the whole issue. If people really just wanted to scam you, would they really make they're apps free?

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

No worries Bookworm. You could be absolutely correct. I did insert a IMO in that reply someplace. The whole jargon is just my experience with a testing crew at USA Today and simply my opinion on the matter.

Be careful though, we most certainly did find several freetrial offers that install dummy spies at the first install of the utility. Spybot even got it's upload server hacked once and we at USAT actually installed an update from a mirror site that obliterated Spybots usefullness. That was back when Spybot was newly available. I have never used it since.

Paranoid is not the right word though. Am not paranoid, but actually the opposite; too laid back and uninterested in using these utilities is more like it.

By the way; MSAS has prevented me from getting any of those virus' at Simtrop. I got an alert window right off, stating that content at this website was blocked. Blocked mind you! I didn't get asked if I knew what it was and wished to block it, instead MSAS recognized the virus and did all the work for me. Hasn't made any mistakes yet either and updates itself along with my OS at one time.

Maybe Ad-aware and Spybot have these features now. I wouldn't know for sure, because I was scared away from them early on, when they failed to do their job for our team at the newspaper.

Anti-virus developers, I have sent e-mails to, also the team did this, were answered by many of the distributors of said, and they agreed with us.

One e-mail to me said; ..." yes, you are absolutely correct. You shouldn't have to pay for it."

My service provider however, will not agree, as that would hold them admittedly accountable.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, if you know what file the virus/spyware/whatever is, you could try just deleteing it. Often, however, it will be made so you can't do that. Another option is to rename the file or change its extension. Sometimes, however, this will just result in a new file of the proper name and extension showing up later. You also could try opening the file in a hex editor, and just wrecking the code. Some files will prevent hex editors from opening them, though.

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

Yes Duke87; that all worked very well at first. The more we played with these files though and found a workaround, the more they would mutate or modify their next attack.

IT eventually got to the point where the two Dells we were testing, just couldn't function anymore. They were buried in 100's of spies and malwares.

I did however keep one going for quite awhile by re-naming and editing dll's, etc. Eventually the poor Dell gave out. I was a company hero that month. hehee . And hey, I have no clue what I was doing right or doing wrong. It just seemed to work.

EDIT: you can varify my adventures with anti-softwares at Cnet. they wrote a feature article about me called; "Funkid7, The Daredevil of the Internet" and sent it to millions of members.

I am funkid7 at many other sites. I also challenged some writers to try and attack me, publicly! no one got me either. for one simple reason. I didn't invite them into my data.

I am basically saying in a sum; if you need anti-virus then it is because you are reading or doing something that invites the attack. 

Opening attachments, surfing the wrong websites or giving out too much information.

MSAS is what I recommend, because it is headache free and I have at one point or another played with all the anti-watzitz available.

My HDD is set up so if I need to I can reformat and lose nothing important. All artwork and manuscripts are saved to CD and my computer is a bevy of false and misleading information(decoys).

From all of this, one thing rang true though; Kazaa and Limewire members are instantly attackable and hackable. 100% garanteed to be in trouble.

Look under my Trixie medal; I wasn't voted Most Thorough Experimenter for nothing, eh?

[Bookworm 1]

Well, what you're saying now makes much more sense to me. The versions of SpyBot and Ad-Aware weren't free trials, they were freeware programs. And as far as the virus thing at Simtropolis, that's pretty much what happened with me. I got a Notron popup saying that a Trojan had been found on the site, that it was hight risk, and that it had been stopped. I have downloaded Microsoft Defender as well, and am using it on top of my other programs.

I suppose you are correct in saying that you shoulden't have to pay for stuff like AntiVirus, but in this day and age, if you want to be sure that you're getting protected, paying for it is probably the way to go, as far a anti-virus is concerned. Anti-Spyware is different though.

I'd love to see a link to that article. It sounds like you've done some very cool, very extensive stuff!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You don't mention it, but I assume you have also got a reliable backup system that takes your personal stuff off-line regularly.  I use a couple of DVD-RW's and arcive using WINRAR.

O/S based backups are usually not carried over from generation to generation of the O/S, so you are better to use a recognized and stable application program than an O/S Utility.

[Bookworm 1]

Unfortunatly, no. I don't have any back-up systems in place becuase I don't want to spend more money on my PC's protection

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

I have a copy of the e-mailed headline, but cannot re-display that. If you go to Cnet's website and do an archive search; keywords, funkid7 and daredevil, I will pop up. I believe they were trying to make fun of me though, for being so careless.

N_O_Body: I get your meaning, but all I do is save my content to cd using XP format, or MAC OS X(rarely).

My PC at home is very vulnerable, but I have nothing important on it. I could lose it all and be right back up in 24 hours.

My view on this is; what better way to start with a fresh clean slate? or Hard drive so to speak.

I DL'ed WinRar once and still have it, but never really used it at all.

You are right; OS back-ups are not carried over with each new generation of the OS. THis will surely get me in a bind later down the road.

The only things that I have, that are considered valuable though, are my art prints and manuscripts. I can lose my saved games and BATs, Gmax. I can just re-install and start again. I guess it is how I look at that stuff and weigh it's value.

[DeLoreanz1 0]

I have always had problems with Norton not catching things, so personally I think Norton sucks.

I have Spybot and I also use XoftSpy. XoftSpy catches EVERYTHING! Unfortunately it is not free. There is a free version, but it only finds the problems, and does not eliminate them. If you go remove them yourself, then it's not a problem, but if there's registry entries on the list, you had BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING before you go off deleting registry keys. Please forgive the all caps, but it is extremely important to know what you're doing before you delete anything. You could totally screw your computer if you delete something important.

[Mantis747 1]

On my laptop i have got norton, but on my main PC i have ZoneAlarm and AVG.

I didn't know you could have TS2 and SC4 on the same computer.

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

Deloreanz1: fortunately for me; I have "Dave" the tech manager to edit my registry. He is the real brains at the newspaper.

It is always good to know what is in your registry when you install things. I have played in the registry a bit, using tutorials and step by step instruction. But am no expert.

also another co-worker and friend who helps me in other things, like graphic software etc.

I am still learning and maybe too bold for a novice, but that is why a point out; I want convenience and I'll shop around for it and always settle for the easiest solution. I chose MSAS and decided that anti-virus was alot of headaches that didn't really protect what was really important. So thus, I have no anti-virus protection.

 If you go to Cnets Security forums, you will find an extensive list of threads offering free on-line scans, but honestly, I haven't done a scan in a while so....

If you have a checking account, creditcard or own property, I would say your most important information is already in a database somewhere and very vulnerable, even if you have never owned a computer yourself.

If you have an insurance policy? your personal information is accessible on-line by you, so the right people or the wrong people may find access to it. Who protects me from identity theft? that is the real virus on-line.

[Bookworm 1]

Mantis: Why woulden't you be able to have The Sims 2 and Simcity 4 on the same computer? That sounds odd...

DeLoreanz1&frndofyaweh: What both of you said is completly true, I think.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Mantis747

I didn't know you could have TS2 and SC4 on the same computer.quote>

You can have any number of applications on a computer as long as you have disk space for them.  The only restriction is that you might not be able to run them concurrently if they sieze common resources.

@Bookworm:  When I was still teaching, the IT department of the collge I was at did a huge study on protection software.  The result was that they selected McAfee to protect their net of over 1200 machines.  So, I use McAfee as well.  Only one bum steer from them, quickly fixed, in over five years.

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

there you have it. If I were you or me; I would trust N_O_Body on this, because I know very little. I do not advise others to run naked on the internet such as myself and I have been out of the loop for a year now.