If you don't wish to follow all of the advice immediately, just want
to
get rid of your current dilemma, then you are welcome to scroll down
to
the section titled "SPYWARE/ADWARE/POPUPS", where your problem as
stated should be resolved by the applications and suggestions found in
that section. If this helps solve your problem then I again HIGHLY
suggest you follow the rest of the advice below (matter of fact, I
suggest it either way.)
Suggestions on what you can do to secure/clean your PC. I'm going to
try and be general, I will assume a "Windows" operating system is
what is
being secured here.
SPYWARE/ADWARE/POPUPS
---------------------
There are annoyances out there you can get without
trying. Your normal web surfing, maybe a wrong click on a web page,
maybe just a momentary lack of judgment by installing some software
packages without doing the research.. And all of a sudden your
screen starts filling up with advertisements or your Internet seems
much slower or your home page won't stay what you set it and goes
someplace unfamiliar to you. This is spyware. There are a whole
SLEW of software packages out there to get rid of this crud and help
prevent reinfection. Some of the products already mentioned might
even have branched out into this arena. However, there are a few
applications that seem to be the best at what they do, which is
eradicating and immunizing your system from this crap. Strangely,
the best products I have found in this category ARE generally free.
That is a trend I like. I make donations to some of them, they
deserve it!
Two side-notes: Never think one of these can do the whole job.
Try the first 5 before coming back and saying "That did not work!"
Also, you can always visit:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
For more updated information.
Spybot Search and Destroy (Free!)
http://www.safer-networking.net/
Lavasoft AdAware (Free and up)
http://www.lavasoft.de
CWSShredder (Free!)
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
Hijack This! (Free)
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/
( Tutorial:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html )
SpywareBlaster (Free!)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/
IE-SPYAD (Free!)
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/resource.htm
ToolbarCop (Free!)
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm
Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (Free!)
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html
Browser Security Tests
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/
The Cleaner (49.95 and up)
http://www.moosoft.com/
That will clean up your machine of the spyware, given that you
download and install several of them, update them regularly and scan
with them when you update. Some (like SpywareBlaster and SpyBot
Search and Destroy) have immunization features that will help you
prevent your PC from being infected. Use these features!
Unfortunately, although that will lessen your popups on the
Internet/while you are online, it won't eliminate them. I have
looked at a lot of options, seen a lot of them used in production
with people who seem to attract popups like a plague, and I only have
one suggestion that end up serving double duty (search engine and
popup stopper in one):
The Google Toolbar (Free!)
http://toolbar.google.com/
Yeah - it adds a bar to your Internet Explorer - but its a useful
one. You can search from there anytime with one of the best search
engines on the planet (IMO.) And the fact it stops most popups - wow
- BONUS! If you don't like that suggestion, then I am just going to
say you go to
www.google.com and search for other options.
One more suggestion, although I will suggest this in a way later, is
to disable your Windows Messenger service. This service is not used
frequently (if at all) by the normal home user and in cooperation
with a good firewall, is generally unnecessary. Microsoft has
instructions on how to do this for Windows XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp
UPDATES and PATCHES
-------------------
This one is the most obvious. There is no perfect product and any
company worth their salt will try to meet/exceed the needs of their
customers and fix any problems they find along the way. I am not
going to say Microsoft is the best company in the world about this
but they do have an option available for you to use to keep your
machine updated and patched from
the problems and vulnerabilities (as well as product improvements in
some cases) - and it's free to you.
Windows Update
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Go there and scan your machine for updates. Always get the critical
ones as you see them. Write down the KB###### or Q###### you see
when selecting the updates and if you have trouble over the next few
days, go into your control panel (Add/Remove Programs), match up the
latest numbers you downloaded recently (since you started noticing an
issue) and uninstall them. If there was more than one (usually is),
install them back one by one - with a few hours of use in between, to
see if the problem returns. Yes - the process is not perfect
(updating) and can cause trouble like I mentioned - but as you can
see, the solution isn't that bad - and is MUCH better than the
alternatives. (SASSER/BLASTER were SO preventable with just this
step!)
Windows is not the only product you likely have on your PC. The
manufacturers of the other products usually have updates as well. New
versions of almost everything come out all the time - some are free,
some are pay - some you can only download if you are registered - but
it is best to check. Just go to their web pages and look under their
support and download sections.
You also have hardware on your machine that requires drivers to
interface with the operating system. You have a video card that
allows you to see on your screen, a sound card that allows you to
hear your PCs sound output and so on. Visit those manufacturer web
sites for the latest downloadable drivers for your hardware/operating
system. Always (IMO) get the manufacturers hardware driver over any
Microsoft offers. On the Windows Update site I mentioned earlier, I
suggest NOT getting their hardware drivers - no matter how tempting.
Have I mentioned that Microsoft has some stuff to help secure your
computer available to the end-user for free? This seems as good of a
time as any. They have a CD you can order (it's free) that contain
all of the Windows patches through October 2003 and some trial
products as well that they released in February 2004. Yeah - it's a
little behind now, but it's better than nothing (and used in
coordination with the information in this post, well worth the
purchase price..)
Order the Windows Security Update CD
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp
They also have a bunch of suggestions, some similar to these, on how
to better protect your Windows system:
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
FIREWALL
--------
Let's say you are up-to-date on the OS (operating system) and you have
Windows XP.. You should at least turn on the built in firewall.
That will do a lot to "hide" you from the random bad things flying
around the Internet. Things like Sasser/Blaster enjoy just sitting
out there in Cyberspace looking for an unprotected Windows Operating
System and jumping on it, doing great damage in the process and then
using that Unprotected OS to continue its dirty work of infecting
others. If you have the Windows XP ICF turned on - default
configuration - then they cannot see you! Think of it as Internet
Stealth Mode at this point. It has other advantages, like actually
locking the doors you didn't even (likely) know you had. Doing this
is simple, the instructions you need to use your built in Windows XP
firewall can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320855
If you read through that and look through the pages that are linked
from it at the bottom of that page - I think you should have a firm
grasp on the basics of the Windows XP Firewall as it is today. One
thing to note RIGHT NOW - if you have AOL, you cannot use this nice
firewall that came with your system. Thank AOL, not Microsoft. You
HAVE to configure another one.. So we continue with our session on
Firewalls...
But let's say you DON'T have Windows XP - you have some other OS like
Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000. Well, you don't have the nifty
built in firewall. My suggestion - upgrade. My next suggestion -
look through your options. There are lots of free and pay firewalls
out there for home users. Yes - you will have to decide on your own
which to get. Yes, you will have to learn (oh no!) to use these
firewalls and configure them so they don't interfere with what you
want to do while continuing to provide the security you desire. It's
just like anything else you want to protect - you have to do
something to protect it. Here are some suggested applications. A
lot of people tout "ZoneAlarm" as being the best alternative to just
using the Windows XP ICF, but truthfully - any of these alternatives
are much better than the Windows XP ICF at what they do - because
that is ALL they do.
ZoneAlarm (Free and up)
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) (Free and up)
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html
Outpost Firewall from Agnitum (Free and up)
http://www.agnitum.com/download/
Sygate Personal Firewall (Free and up)
http://smb.sygate.com/buy/download_buy.htm
Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall (~$25 and up)
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf/
BlackICE PC Protection ($39.95 and up)
http://blackice.iss.net/
Tiny Personal Firewall (~$49.00 and up)
http://www.tinysoftware.com/
That list is not complete, but they are good firewall options, every
one of them. Visit the web pages, read up, ask around if you like -
make a decision and go with some firewall, any firewall. Also,
maintain it. Sometimes new holes are discovered in even the best of
these products and patches are released from the company to remedy
this problem. However, if you don't get the patches (check the
manufacturer web page on occasion), then you may never know you have
the problem and/or are being used through this weakness. Also, don't
stack these things. Running more than one firewall will not make you
safer - it would likely (in fact) negate some protection you gleamed
from one or the other firewalls you ran together.
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE
------------------
That's not all. That's one facet of a secure PC, but firewalls don't
do everything. I saw one person posting on a newsgroup that "they had
never had a virus and they never run any anti-virus software." Yep -
I used to believe that way too - viruses were something everyone else
seemed to get, were they just stupid? And for the average joe-user
who is careful, uses their one-three family computers carefully,
never opening unknown attachments, always visiting the same family
safe web sites, never installing anything that did not come with
their computer - maybe, just maybe they will never witness a virus.
I, however, am a Network Systems Administrator. I see that AntiVirus
software is an absolute necessity given how most people see their
computer as a toy/tool and not something
they should have to maintain and upkeep. After all, they were
invented to make life easier, right - not add another task to your
day. You
can be as careful as you want - will the next person be as careful?
Will someone send you unknowingly the email that erases all the
pictures of your child/childhood? Possibly - why take the chance?
ALWAYS RUN ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE and KEEP IT UP TO DATE! Antivirus
software comes in so many flavors, it's like walking into a Jelly
Belly store - which one tastes like what?! Well, here are a few
choices for you. Some of these are free (isn't that nice?) and some
are not. Is one better than the other - MAYBE.
Symantec (Norton) AntiVirus (~$11 and up)
http://www.symantec.com/
Kaspersky Anti-Virus (~$49.95 and up)
http://www.kaspersky.com/products.html
Panda Antivirus Titanium (~$39.95 and up)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/
(Free Online Scanner:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/)
AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System (Free and up)
http://www.grisoft.com/
McAfee VirusScan (~$11 and up)
http://www.mcafee.com/
AntiVir (Free and up)
http://www.free-av.com/
avast! 4 (Free and up)
http://www.avast.com/
Trend Micro (~$49.95 and up)
http://www.trendmicro.com/
(Free Online Scanner:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp)
Did I mention you have to not only install this software, but also
keep it updated? You do. Some of them (most) have automatic
services to help you do this - I mean, it's not your job to keep up
with the half-dozen or more new threats that come out daily, is it?
Be sure to keep whichever one you choose up to date!
SPAM EMAIL/JUNK MAIL
--------------------
This one can get annoying, just like the rest. You get 50 emails in
one sitting and 2 of them you wanted. NICE! (Not.) What can you do?
Well, although there are services out there to help you, some email
servers/services that actually do lower your spam with features built
into their servers - I still like the methods that let you be the
end-decision maker on what is spam and what isn't. If these things
worked perfectly, we wouldn't need people and then there would be no
spam anyway - vicious circle, eh? Anyway - I have two products to
suggest to you, look at them and see if either of them suite your
needs. Again, if they don't, Google is free and available for your
perusal.
SpamBayes (Free!)
http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/
Spamihilator (Free!)
http://www.spamihilator.com/
As I said, those are not your only options, but are reliable ones I
have seen function for hundreds+ people.
DISABLE (Set to Manual) UNUSED SERVICE/STARTUP APPS
---------------------------------------------------
I might get arguments on putting this one here, but it's my spill.
There are lots of services on your PC that are probably turned on by
default you don't use. Why have them on? Check out these web pages
to see what all of the services you might find on your computer are
and set them according to your personal needs. Be CAREFUL what you
set to manual, and take heed and write down as you change things!
Also, don't expect a large performance increase or anything -
especially on todays 2+ GHz machines, however - I look at each
service you set to manual as one less service you have to worry about
someone exploiting. A year ago, I would have thought the Windows
Messenger service to be pretty safe, now I recommend (with addition
of a firewall) that most home users disable it! Yeah - this is
another one you have to work for, but your computer may speed up
and/or be more secure because you took the time. And if you document
what you do as you do it, next time, it goes MUCH faster! (or if you
have to go back and re-enable things..)
Task List Programs
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
Black Viper's Service List and Opinions (XP)
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
Processes in Windows NT/2000/XP
http://www.reger24.de/prozesse/
There are also applications that AREN'T services that startup when
you start up the computer/logon. One of the better description on
how to handle these I have found here:
Startups
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
That's it. A small booklet on how to keep your computer secure,
clean of scum and more user friendly. I am SURE I missed something,
almost as I am sure you won't read all of it (anyone for that
matter.) However, I also know that someone who followed all of the
advice above would also have less problems with their PC, less
problems with viruses, less problems with spam, less problems with
spyware and better performance than someone who didn't.
Hope it helps.
