Security Wizard Recommendations

Overview

Based on your answers you have been rated as a reasonably experienced user of Windows 2000/XP who engages in high risk computer activities.

This is not a good combination as the powerful security products you really need to protect you from your high risk activities are really only suitable for advanced technical users.

We have recommended products that will provide the best protection for your skill level but frankly, we strongly suggest you consider reducing your overall risk level by following the safe computing practices outlined at the end of this page. 

The Wizard recommends:
  • That before you do anything check now to make sure that your PC is not currently infected with a virus or other malware infection. Click here to find out how.
     
  • That you make sure that your computer is up-to-date with all the latest Windows, Office and other software updates and patches. Click here to find out how.
     
  • You set up Windows Update to automatically download and install any future patches from Microsoft. Click here to find out how.
     
Security Product Suggestions

Anti-virus Scanner

For your anti-virus protection we recommend Avira AntiVir, a free, feature reduced version of the powerful commercial anti-virus scanner AntiVir Premium. And it's more than an anti-virus scanner; it offers anti- spyware capabilities as well. Also missing from the free version are web and email scanning capabilities but otherwise it offers the same outstanding protection against virus, worms and other threats.

The lack of email scanning is not a critical loss as AntiVir will still detect email borne viruses should they become active.

These reservations aside, Avira AntiVir offers class leading malware protection for free.

For alternatives to AntiVir, see here.  For installation tips click here.


Anti-spyware Scanner

We recommend the free version of Malware Byte's Anti-Malware.  It offers fast scanning, superb detection rates and first  class infection cleaning.  The free version lacks the real-time protection, automatic updates and automatic scheduling of the paid version but the scanner is identical.   

To use Malware Byte's Anti-Malware you need to start a scan manually ( called an "on-demand" scan) but that's simple to do.  Before you do a scan we suggest you manually initiate an update of the malware signature  file to ensure best detection.  We suggest you scan your PC at least once a week.

For alternatives to Malware Byte's Anti-Malware see here. For a video covering installation and usage click here.


Intrusion Protection

ThreatFire free from PCTools works with your AV scanner to provide a potent second layer of defense. Rather than detect malware by its signature, ThreatFire detects malware by its behavior. 

It does this by constantly examining what the programs running on your PC are actually doing. If it finds a program behaves suspiciously, it will stop it in its tracks.

The great advantage of this approach is that it can detect new malware products that have yet to be entered into your AV scanner's signature database.

The disadvantage is that behavior-based detectors are prone to identify perfectly legitimate programs as malware when in fact they are not. These instances are called false positives.

Thankfully the number of false positives generated by ThreatFire is quite low for this class of program. However it is not zero so you must expect that you will occasionally have to intervene to tell ThreatFire that a particular program is OK. If false positives become a problem on your system there is a user adjustable "sensitivity" setting which allows you to trade off the false positive rate against the malware detection rate.

ThreatFire is available in a free and commercial version. The free version is only free for private use and differs from the commercial version in that it is offered without support and without a few non-critical features that are available in its commercial cousin. The free version is more than adequate for most users.

A video on configuring and installing ThreatFire can be found here. 

Windows 2000 users please note that you need V4.1 of Threatfire.  See footnote 3 and other useful information including the download link on this page.


Firewall

For you we recommend the Outpost Firewall Free. In its default installation configuration this firewall offers a good balance between protection and placing heavy unwanted demands on you.

Unlike the Windows firewall it does offer a degree of outbound protection. The cost of this protection is that you will occasionally be required to make decisions whether you should allow certain outbound connection requests.

Outpost Firewall Free comes with reduced monitoring in its default settings. You can check this setting with a right click on the tray tool, click "Settings..." > "Host Protection" > the slider should be set "Optimal". This leads the section and is the best reduced monitoring configuration. It isn't quite a "firewall only" configuration, but it's much more user friendly than its maximum configurations.

If you find Outpost too demanding you can always uninstall it and drop back to the Windows firewall.

If you are a Windows 2000 user you cannot use the Outpost firewall or Windows firewall but there is an attractive alternative in the form of the GhostWall firewall. It provides excellent inbound protection and is easy to install and configure. Like Outpost, the default configuration is not too demanding and you can ramp up the outbound protection by changing configurations settings. Such changes will however necessarily demand more involvement from you.

For alternatives to the these firewalls see here. For installation and usage tips check out the following guides:

Windows 2000: Ghostwall

Windows XP:   Outpost Free Firewall   Windows Firewall 


 
The Most Important Security Advice of all

The task of protecting your PC from infection is similar to crossing a busy road unharmed.

There are two, very different ways of crossing that road:

The first way is to be very careful about where you cross and to be watchful and aware of the dangers. In other words, make sure you don't get hit.

The other approach is to protect yourself with something like an army tank and cross anywhere, anytime. If you get hit, you rely on the tank to protect you.

Now no sensible person would adopt the latter approach to crossing a road, yet when it comes to computer security that's exactly what many folks do.

If you want real computer security, you need to adopt safe computing practices rather than rely totally on security products to protect you. No security product or combination of products can or ever will, provide perfect PC security just like no car can provide you with perfect road safety.  With both cars and PCs you need to be careful  in your own behavior.

Like the rules of road safety we teach our kids, the rules for safe computing are simple and well known:

1. Be very careful where you surf. To help you stay away from bad sites install a website rating browser plug-in like WOT and make sure you only visit websites rated "Green" by the plug-in.

2. Never click on email attachments from unknown sources however tempting and attractive such attachments may seem.

3. Only download files from trusted sources. These include:

  • Files hosted on reputable download sites such as download.com, snapfilescom, softpedia.com, majorgeeks.com and other similar sites.
  • Files mentioned in the editorial sections of major computer websites and publications such as PC World, CNet, Lifehacker and of course, Gizmo's Freeware.
  • Open source software hosted on sourceforge.net, Mozilla.org and similar large open source sites.
  • Files available for download from Microsoft, Google, HP, Dell and other reputable vendors.

4. Never install programs obtained from P2P networks including BitTorrent, eMule, LimeWire and others as many of these files are infected with malicious programs. Some of these malicious programs are so powerful they are capable of overwhelming all your security defenses.

5. Never install programs that friends give you on removable media unless you have verified that they are clean by submitting them to free web based file scanning services such as Jotti or Virus Total.

6. Never accept free toolbars, media players or other unsolicited software offered to you by a website.

7. We recommend using an alternate browser to Internet Explorer such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome.  With Windows XP/2000 all these are more secure browsers than Internet Explorer and are arguably superior browsers as well.

8. You should seriously consider creating a fresh installation of Windows and then back up your PC using a drive imaging program. Then if in the future your PC ever becomes infected you can use the drive image to restore it to a pristine, infection free condition. You can find a number of free drive imaging programs here.

By following these simple rules the chances of your PC becoming infected will be dramatically reduced. Combine these practices with the security software suggested above and you are well on the way to safe, secure, infection-free computing.

 

 This page is copyright © 2011, Gizmo's Freeware and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.

 

Comments

by Anonymous on 1. April 2011 - 12:21  (69288)

I already use your recommmended software with one exception I prefer AVG over AVIRA since I had major problems caused by AVIRA software updates and would never go there again.
OUTPOST is excellent ! Throughly first class service by the way GIZMOS !

Keep it up.I often use your site and reccomendations
by Anonymous on 15. March 2011 - 20:06  (67964)

Thank You
by Anonymous on 15. March 2011 - 20:05  (67963)

I appreciate your help and will consider all items.
by muhammad on 27. February 2010 - 16:34  (44653)

SIR
I READ YOUR SECURITY RULES . THESE ARE BEST AND I USES THESE THINGS AND I KNOW THESE RULES. PLEASE GIVE ME TECHNICAL SUPPPORT AND I WANT TO LEARN THE COMPUTER PROFESSIONALY.
by HeWhoRocks on 27. February 2010 - 16:44  (44654)

Hi muhammad and welcome to Gizmo's. Just to let you know, people think you're shouting at them if you type all in UPPER CASE. :)
by Anonymous on 4. November 2009 - 7:31  (35773)

I second the motion on Zone Alarm. I already have the paid version of ZASS, which seems to work fine and has options for tuning its performance to suit the user's needs, but is it as good as (or better than?) Outpost and other free firewalls?
by Anonymous on 12. October 2009 - 15:06  (34422)

Are Avira that much better than Avast? I used Avast and am very happy with it, after trying Avira, AVG, ext. On AV-test I saw that there are not much to chose between these 2.

Are Zone-Alarm outdated? Don't know Outpost, but will look into it.

Thanks for this test. I am very much aware of virusse, spam, worms, ext. and try to block everything.

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