rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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Rysz's Retro Safe Surfing Guide.Hi there, I have seen a few techy advice type questions that have appeared on the forum over the last few months so I have decided to put together this guide to help those who need it! **Mods, feel free to delete if considered unsuitable** Please note that this is solely based on my opinion and experience and I am utterly not liable for anything else that happens... First thing to tackle is the browser, I would imagine that a great number of you use Internet Explorer. If you are using Windows 2000 or earlier, then the version will be IE 6 or earlier. I would imagine that most people are using XP or Vista these days that will mean that you will be using IE7 (If you are not in XP, then make sure that you do asap - IE6 is a crime against everything). Now, if you are not limited by work as to what browser that you can use, I would STRONGLY recommend Firefox (Get it here: www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox/). It is far more secure, and can be customised to suit your browsing needs. With relation to the customisation, there are a few add-ons that I use regularly and I find that they make life a lot easier for me, so here they are: Ad-Block Plus ( addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) This is the daddy of all add ons, it gets rid of 99% of all annoying popups and ads that litter the internet! Cannot recommend this one enough! UK dictionary ( addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3) gets rid of all those embarassing spelling mistakes whilst typing on forums etc. Download Status Bar ( addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26) this stops the annoying FF (Firefox) download window appearing while you are browsing and right click > save picture sessions during Sundays read of Cars and Coffee! Also very useful to monitor the progress of larger downloads. You can go crazy with these extensions, but I feel that these three are the most useful that I have found - please feel free to offer your own! Anti-virus software. There are a few choices here, if you want free AV software, then AVG is well known and reasonably effective ( free.grisoft.com/ww.download) but the later versions are getting rather bloaty and use more and more resources. I prefer ClamWin ( www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/) as it is slimmer and gosh darned effective at what it does! Now, if you have a little bit of money, then get the daddy of AV software, NOD32 ( www.eset.com/products/nod32.php) I have been using this for a couple of years and it is awesome, it does not slow your PC down and it consistently annihilates all comers in tests. It really is worth the money. If you are looking for or are advised Norton or McAfee, then in my experience (Years of Helldesk support) don't. Save your money and get a product that works correctly at all times and does what you want it to and not what you don't. For firewall software, Comodo is very good ( www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html) and can be configured in many different ways. However, of you have a router, then use the built in firewall as it WILL be more effective. Spyware killing software, in my opinion, there is only one (John McCloud of Family McCloud) and this is Spybot Search and Destroy ( www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html) It is free and VERY effective. It only remains to be said that if you want to avoid crapware / viruses / spyware / adware and all that other dross, then the only proper protection is Common Sense! Do not click on links promising you dates with hot girls in your area or for that laptop as you are coincidently the 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000th visitor and have won it, you have not. So in short, don't surf for pr0n on your home machine unless you know what you are doing! If you have any questions or want any advise, then please feel free to PM me and I will do my best to help! Rysz (Helldesk Geek).
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Excellent. Just picked up the ad-blocker for Firefox and giving the Spybot a go too.
Note that it doesn't say that Spybot is compatible with Vista but if you engage in google-fu, it seems that it is. If it all screws up, I'll report back!
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1986 Citroen 2CV Dolly Other things. Check out my Blog for the latest! www.hubnut.org
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Safe Surfing Guide.BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Note that it doesn't say that Spybot is compatible with Vista Is anything compatible with Vista?! ;D Good stuff Rysz. Might try that Download status bar! Didn't know routers had a built-in Firewall... how does that work?
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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Is anything compatible with Vista?! ;D Good stuff Rysz. Might try that Download status bar! Didn't know routers had a built-in Firewall... how does that work? Just log into your router by opening up a browser and type in the IP, normally written on the router e.g. 192.168.1.1 etc and there should be a setting in there to enable / disable it! Got that PC for your sister built and ready as well! Rysz.
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Safe Surfing Guide.BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Is anything compatible with Vista?! ;D Good stuff Rysz. Might try that Download status bar! Didn't know routers had a built-in Firewall... how does that work? Just log into your router by opening up a browser and type in the IP, normally written on the router e.g. 192.168.1.1 etc and there should be a setting in there to enable / disable it! Got that PC for your sister built and ready as well! Rysz. Oh nice one Rysz! If we could arrange a good time for me to pay for it and pick it up that would be cool. Also am I still OK to drop off my relic of a laptop to you? I can bring the welder if you still need your gate welding up too.
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May 21, 2008 21:42:50 GMT
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Opinion is divided. Firefox has exploits and bugs too. Micorosft have more people employed releasing patches and fixes. Also also if you look in the security press there have been less security exploits with Microsoft stuff in the last 12 months than their competitors - including Apple... Of course as IE is the worlds' most installed browser the law of averages says most attacks are based on the expectation of IE coding, exploits etc. but in the last year or so most of the serious nasty shtt out there has been writen to operate at either base OS level (stack overflow buffers for mouse pointer etc) or runs in the virtual machine which is the same which ever browser you use. I agree about AVG but in a recent test by an independant security agency IIRC AVG came in 3rd in detection performance behind Sophos and another one of the expensive corporate products, I forget which. So its still the best free or cheap option IMO. Although I'm looking at another one which has a free home user version, an ex-employee works for them and put me onto it but I've not had a chance to look yet. Loadsa infections come from following crappy links to "see latest such-and-such video!!!!" which is either celeb sex, some comedy, George Bush assasination, whatever. You click, it fires up your media player and then says it needs to download a codec, which you click OK to do but thats no codec its downloading... I forget the number but something like 95% of infections and mal-installs on corporate networks are because the user clicked OK to install it. feel free to instert your own statistic in there, all I remember was it was a big number. Some good info there tho rysz.
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Last Edit: May 21, 2008 21:45:22 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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Opinion is divided. Firefox has exploits and bugs too. Micorosft have more people employed releasing patches and fixes. Also also if you look in the security press there have been less security exploits with Microsoft stuff in the last 12 months than their competitors - including Apple... Of course as IE is the worlds' most installed browser the law of averages says most attacks are based on the expectation of IE coding, exploits etc. but in the last year or so most of the serious nasty shtt out there has been writen to operate at either base OS level (stack overflow buffers for mouse pointer etc) or runs in the virtual machine which is the same which ever browser you use. I agree about AVG but in a recent test by an independant security agency IIRC AVG came in 3rd in detection performance behind Sophos and another one of the expensive corporate products, I forget which. So its still the best free or cheap option IMO. Although I'm looking at another one which has a free home user version, an ex-employee works for them and put me onto it but I've not had a chance to look yet. Agreed about the IE, however, I started using FF in the bad ol' days of IE6 so I am a little biased... There are huge issues with Safari, the only good thing about it is that there are not too many viruses (virii?) for Apples at the moment, but more will be coming as macs become more prevalent. My main issue with AVG is that it has become rather bloated and takes up too many of my precious resources on my machine, where as NOD is reasonably priced and has a teeny footprint. I still install AVG for people who need an AV package as it really is very good for a free package. I am using Clamwin at the moment as I am running Server 2008 as a workstation at home and needed an enterprise AV solution and it is free...
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May 22, 2008 10:11:32 GMT
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Very timely this post as I'm having grief with pop ups, I maybe in touch if that's ok.
Paul
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205 GTi Mi16
205 XS - Now in filmidget's signature
Clio dci 80
I've found in life if someone is an idiot, they generally stay and idiot.
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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May 22, 2008 10:13:18 GMT
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No problem mate - PM Me.
Rysz.
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May 27, 2008 12:00:07 GMT
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I agree on the resource thing for sure, my old P4 1.6 GHz PC at home dies for anything up to 2 minutes after boot hwile AVG loads, checks for updates, downloads them and installs them. Its most infuriating. But its a free product. I used to use (and recommend) Zonelabs but it gets overzealous and won't let you see content from photobucket or Flikr and some other legit sites due to the way it prevents your browser from interacting directly with the site. Meh. It used to delete the "reply to" data from my emails as well periodically "for my privacy". Yup, I'm really private if nobody can reply to me....
FFS.
I just have IE7 and "block popups" ticked - both at work and at home - have no issues with popups at all. Except ones I want to see (like on insurance quote websites etc. where the calculated price is in a new window...)
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Last Edit: May 27, 2008 12:01:52 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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May 27, 2008 12:19:35 GMT
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I agree on the resource thing for sure, my old P4 1.6 GHz PC at home dies for anything up to 2 minutes after boot hwile AVG loads, checks for updates, downloads them and installs them. Its most infuriating. I am seeing this more and more with products, more RAM will only help! I *think* that it may be possible to schedule the updates as these can be a right pain until the system has been on for 10 mins or so, but this may only be on the corporate edition that we use here at work... In any respects, if it is really becoming a problem, then get the free NOD32 trial from www.eset.com and try it. It really is worth the money, especially on older systems as it is so lightweight! Rysz.
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May 27, 2008 14:57:24 GMT
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I need a new system. I can't get any more RAM in as the MB doesn't support it. It struggles as it is. With the price of a new system box being what it is no point in upgrading. DELL offering me new servers at £120 +VAT with Intel 1.8 GHz 1 Gb RAM 160GB system drive....
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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May 27, 2008 15:31:54 GMT
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I need a new system. I can't get any more RAM in as the MB doesn't support it. It struggles as it is. With the price of a new system box being what it is no point in upgrading. DELL offering me new servers at £120 +VAT with Intel 1.8 GHz 1 Gb RAM 160GB system drive.... We spent 2 days of work resurrecting 3 old PC's for support to use. Would have cost the company over £1000 in time and we could have got 3 new machines for less than £900! Smacking head against wall... Rysz. O/T, I don't suppose that you need a good support / project man? 2nd or 3rd line? ;D
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,558
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Oct 24, 2009 18:42:06 GMT
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I will add, anyone who hasn't upgraded IE7 to IE8 should do. The "inPrivate" browsing mode is good stuff. Bunch of other enhancements. Takes a while to DL but worth doing IMO. Stuff like in IE8 unlike in IE7 if you have multiple tabs open and one crashes only that tab will crash leaving the rest of your browser windows up and running. Some good stuff around antiphishing too. other browsers may well have their own versions of these and other features. Interestingly independant research from the US shows IE8 to be more secure as a browser environment than Firefox, Opera or Chrome.
I use Chrome at home now for about 75% of my stuff as its fast. I also like the linkage between it and google searches, gmail and igoogle.
Stuff I need to be secure, and some stuff where compatibility is important (eg accessing OWA from home) I use IE8.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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The main guide at the top is a little out of date now. If you are using the internet for any sort of P2P, internet banking etc you really shouldn't be using a free antivirus package. Cheapskates will argue this until their blue in the face, but I've seen the havoc caused. The only free one that is half decent is Avira, other than that I use and resell AVG. The latest AVG isn't bloaty and uses very little resources, so much so that my old laptop running Windows 7 doesn't slow down at all. Anyone want a good price for AVG... PM me
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Only just spotted this thread and would just like to say Yes!!..... You can mess with all this for the next few months till the next 'virus' comes along OR..... you can ditch windows and just install Linux!! ;D
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Last Edit: Jan 26, 2010 9:48:50 GMT by arrocuda
'71 Arrocuda.... '71 Sunbeam Rapier Turbo (The Grim Rapier).... '63 Hymek D7076..... Audi GT5S
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Jan 26, 2010 13:32:29 GMT
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and dick about with that for months trying to get it do to half the things windows does out of the box....
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Jan 26, 2010 13:36:42 GMT
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P2P and other "unsafe surfing" is best accomodated by running a virtual machine run isolated from direct access to the hardware layer. Once you have finished and wiped up you can just delete the VM off your machine. Create another from a VHD file you keep unused (just copy, copy again) and you have no issues with malware, persitant cookies, etc.
I don't P2P off my main PC, I have an old "sacrificial build" tower which does that sort of thing for me.
Quarantine the files before copying them across onto the main system.
TBH I CBA with P2P anyway, 75% of the stuff I got off it was curse word, mislabeled, incomplete, etc.
Easier to go get the CD or DVD you want from the local library and listen/watch/copy as you like from there. untrackable and no malware.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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