Do I really need all this?

[Jim Scott]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

 

[Heinrich Himmelschrei]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

Get a decent firewall though. Perhaps you could add WinPatrol to your
list: http://www.winpatrol.com/winpatrol.html

Heinrich Himmelschrei

 

[*ProteanThread*]

I think what the OP is saying, he shouldn't have to use all of this,
but in today's society i guess we gotta.

on the other hand, if microsoft did things right the first time, we
wouldn't need ANY of this.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?R=F4g=EAr?=]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

Several variables at work. I know people who run all that protection
plus more and still have a zillion viruses because of their online
habits. Bearshare this, Bittorrent that, download every hacked/cracked
piece of software there is. On the other hand if you mainly check your
mail and poke around in eBay, you'd most likely be safe with
firewall/antivirus and an active antispyware monitoring program such as
MS Antispyware.

 

[Lyn]

Several variables at work. I know people who run all that protection
plus more and still have a zillion viruses because of their online
habits. Bearshare this, Bittorrent that, download every hacked/cracked
piece of software there is. On the other hand if you mainly check your
mail and poke around in eBay, you'd most likely be safe with
firewall/antivirus and an active antispyware monitoring program such
as
MS Antispyware.

Excellent point about online habits. I think that is the single most thing
that should determine one's anti-this and that programs and, of course, OS
and browser.

One thing I do daily is run 'find new files' to see what's been happening in
my machine I might not be aware of and I know it doesn't catch everything
but I've sure caught enough to make it worth the effort.

 

[PanHandler]

One thing I do daily is run 'find new files' to see what's been happening
in
my machine I might not be aware of and I know it doesn't catch everything
but I've sure caught enough to make it worth the effort.

Is "find new files" a special utility? If so, where do I find it? I've
googled for it to no avail.
TIA Joe Arnold

 

[Ron Martell]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

You need all that, and possibly more. The scumware wars are getting
nastier and nastier.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Max Wachtel]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

Avast doesn't play well with ZA. A firewall such as Outpost will alert
you to any outgoing(a good thing). I have written some pages to help you
be safe. http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/keepingclean.html
-max

 

[Jim Scott]

Avast doesn't play well with ZA. A firewall such as Outpost will alert
you to any outgoing(a good thing). I have written some pages to help you
be safe. http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/keepingclean.html
-max

Thanks. Avast is a must, I also forgot to mention that I use MSAntispyware.
I used to use Outpost before I went to XP. I may use these three for a
while and check now and then with SBot and AaW. The auto updaters already
run for Avast and Windows.

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

Several variables at work. I know people who run all that
protection plus more and still have a zillion viruses because of
their online habits. Bearshare this, Bittorrent that, download
every hacked/cracked piece of software there is. On the other
hand if you mainly check your mail and poke around in eBay, you'd
most likely be safe with firewall/antivirus and an active
antispyware monitoring program such as
MS Antispyware.

Excellent point about online habits. I think that is the single
most thing that should determine one's anti-this and that programs
and, of course, OS and browser.[/QUOTE]

Couldn't agree more -- it's very much down to on-line habits and the
user(s) profiles and procedures.

I have a one-person PC, on which I run a firewall (ZA) along with a
number of crud-cleaning programs (including a desktop short-cut to a
batch file that deletes my cookie, internet cache, and Windows/Temp
folder). I've never (honest) used IE except when absolutely necessary
-- which I'd guess is less than 1% of sites -- and I've never used a MS
e-mail client.

What I *don't* do -- gasp! -- is to run the AV in the background, in
real-time; given my habits, I've found that to be overkill.

Whenever I've done my regular maintenance -- about once a month -- I
update all the definitions and run AdAware, SpyBot and AVG, but I've
not caught a single dodgy file that way for -- literally -- years. (I
can date the last virus I had, as my brother was visiting from Canada
at the time: June, 1999 -- a macro in a .doc file which I knew was
being sent from a trusted source.)

The "you *must* run this regardless of your set-up or habits" brigade
mean well, but blanket comments never cover the details of every case.

 

[derek / nul]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

Yes, Outpost would be good as it is an application based firewall.

 

[7]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

You can try liveCDs like knoppix, mepis, DSL, kanotix
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
You don't have to install. They boot from CD, and
auto configure hardware and you are ready to surf
the internet if you have ethernet card and router
connecting you to internet.
Very little chance of any virus like things getting
into your machines with one them.
You can get hold of 2nd hand PCs for $50 with
CD ROM and 128Mb RAM and have a separate
machine running it to save you the hassle of
constantly having to boot off the CD.
Alternatively, you can learn a bit more
about LiveCD by googling and install to HD.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Brian_H=B9=A9?=]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

Er... assuming you have cleaned out all spyware and trojans known to
your software at this point in time.

 

[Jim Scott]

Excellent point about online habits. I think that is the single
most thing that should determine one's anti-this and that programs
and, of course, OS and browser.

Couldn't agree more -- it's very much down to on-line habits and the
user(s) profiles and procedures.

I have a one-person PC, on which I run a firewall (ZA) along with a
number of crud-cleaning programs (including a desktop short-cut to a
batch file that deletes my cookie, internet cache, and Windows/Temp
folder). I've never (honest) used IE except when absolutely necessary
-- which I'd guess is less than 1% of sites -- and I've never used a MS
e-mail client.

What I *don't* do -- gasp! -- is to run the AV in the background, in
real-time; given my habits, I've found that to be overkill.

Whenever I've done my regular maintenance -- about once a month -- I
update all the definitions and run AdAware, SpyBot and AVG, but I've
not caught a single dodgy file that way for -- literally -- years. (I
can date the last virus I had, as my brother was visiting from Canada
at the time: June, 1999 -- a macro in a .doc file which I knew was
being sent from a trusted source.)

The "you *must* run this regardless of your set-up or habits" brigade
mean well, but blanket comments never cover the details of every case.[/QUOTE]

I know, I know, but I got carried along with the flow.
I must put a day a month aside to run Adaware & Spybot. I'm reassured with
MSantspy and Avast running and updating from time to time.
I also forgot to say I use Ffox and Tbird.

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 11 Jul 2005, Jim Scott wrote

-snip-

I also forgot to say I use Ffox and Tbird.

(nerdmode)

I've been all 'round the houses with browsers. I was a late starter on
the Internet (late 1990s), but began with Netscape; used Opera for a
couple of years; used a bunch of tabbed-browser shells for IE --
including both paid-for and some freeware (BroadPage, MyIE; iRider);
went over to Firefox when it was Phoenix; but for the last seven or
eight months have been using K-Meleon (like Firefox, a gecko-based
browser) as my default.

I no longer feel any need to experiment; K-Meleon does everything I
need, except on those (extremely rare) sites that are IE-specific.
Even my banking sites - personal and business - are happy with the
Mozilla-based browsers.

As for e-mail: Thunderbird looks good, but I've used Poco (paid-for
software) for so long that I don't feel any need to change. It has its
own html rendering engine, so it's not vulnerable to some of the more
obvious OE/IE exploits.

Usenet for me is via XNews. As you can probably tell, I like
application-specific clients rather than all-in-one suites...

(/nerdmode)

 

[DC]

I use SpyBot, Adaware and Spyware blaster (as well as Avast ant-virus and
XP-SP2 firewall)
I feel that I am becoming paranoid.
I am on ISDN, but only connect when I need to.
I am aware that XP-SP2 only blocks incoming.

Assuming I have cleaned out all the Spyware and Trojans, would it not be
sufficient to now use a 2-way firewall like Outpost or ZA with the
anti-virus?

Yes, you need it all. Depressing, isn't it?

 

[Frank Bohan]

Is "find new files" a special utility? If so, where do I find it? I've
googled for it to no avail.
TIA Joe Arnold

I use "Show Info Panel" in TrackerV3 to find all files modified or created
in the last xx days. You can add filters to include/exclude filetypes,
attributes etc. It's best to run CCleaner first to remove the crap files.
http://www.trackerv3.com

===

Frank Bohan
¶ Stock Exchange Paper was stationary.

 

[JoeA]

Short answer...Yes

 

[Jim Scott]

On 11 Jul 2005, Jim Scott wrote

(nerdmode)

I've been all 'round the houses with browsers. I was a late starter on
the Internet (late 1990s), but began with Netscape; used Opera for a
couple of years; used a bunch of tabbed-browser shells for IE --
including both paid-for and some freeware (BroadPage, MyIE; iRider);
went over to Firefox when it was Phoenix; but for the last seven or
eight months have been using K-Meleon (like Firefox, a gecko-based
browser) as my default.

I no longer feel any need to experiment; K-Meleon does everything I
need, except on those (extremely rare) sites that are IE-specific.
Even my banking sites - personal and business - are happy with the
Mozilla-based browsers.

As for e-mail: Thunderbird looks good, but I've used Poco (paid-for
software) for so long that I don't feel any need to change. It has its
own html rendering engine, so it's not vulnerable to some of the more
obvious OE/IE exploits.

Usenet for me is via XNews. As you can probably tell, I like
application-specific clients rather than all-in-one suites...

(/nerdmode)

Why K-Meleon in preference to Ffox? Go on win me over )

40tude Dialog for news. You can make it do anything you wish. Xnews is good
tho'.

 

[Jim Scott]

Er... assuming you have cleaned out all spyware and trojans known to
your software at this point in time.

Ah!
Fraid there's nowt I can do about that.