Home Computer Security 101

[Bird]

Thanks, Hank, and I'm using AT&T Broadband now. I figured everything was all right, but I notice that firewall log is a file labelled "pfirewall.log" and I read something about when it gets to 4 meg, it starts a new log labelled "pfirewall.log1". Since it's already past 3.9 meg, I thought maybe if I could clear out some of the old ones, I wouldn't need a second file and use up hard disk space; however, I guess it ain't really too important since I'm only using about a third of my hard disk space anyway.

 

[Molerj]

ok, I'm just as lost or 'loster' than some of you others. I had posted in the other thread
about my problems. I have a Gateway with windows 98SE, Norton Anit-Virus. I get a ton
of spam & have experienced some of the stalls, freeze ups etc. This is a home PC &
yes I do order online by credit card etc. Without confusing me too much, would the
Zone Alarm be something that I should download. One other question that I will post here
instead of a new thread since there is quite a bit of knowledgeble people reading this.
When I press Ctrl/Alt/Del, I have about 21 things that are there. Someone said I should
only have 2 things, I think I.E. exp & sys tray. When I highlight the others & hit end task
they disappear but just return when I start up the computer again. I'm told that that is
another reason that things tend to run slow. How do I remove those things from running
in the background?

 

[looch]

21 things running in the background is ok - in fact, that's pretty good. The machines I work on average between 24 and 28 background processes.

The more applications you install, the more processes you are likely to have running. Be picky about what you install on your computer. Don't think that because you uninstall something that your machine is restored to the exact state it was in before the installation.

One of the processes that I've been seeing more of these days is GMT.EXE. It's part of Gator advertising's spyware. You get it when you agree to try a calendar or something.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I found that AdAware is a really nice freebie product to remove spyware... available at Download.cnet.com

John

 

[Bird]

Ron, as others have said, it isn't unusual to have a bunch of stuff running like that. One problem you may find is that if you run scandisk or defrag, it will constantly be stopping and starting over because of programs running in the background (takes forever to get through). A friend told me, a week ago Saturday, his computer simply would not run defrag and he hadn't done that in 3 years. So I told him what I had learned to do (from reading about it on Microsoft's web site) and that is to use the CTRL/ATL/DELETE and "End Task" to close everything except Explorer and Systray (as you said) then run scandisk then defrag and then reboot. All those programs will be right back like they were, but it sometimes speeds things up for you if you do that periodically.

 

[hazmat]

Thanks everybody for all the advice!

Today the ole computer got the equivalent of a day at the spa.

Running Zone Alarm now, stopped 6 intrusions so far. 3 of which were high risk.

Ran Pest Patrol. Found 79 Pests to delete

Downloaded NAV latest version (15 day trial) full scan 0 viruses /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Did Window update. I can't recall rebooting my machine so many times in one day! If I never see that drum & with the sticks again, I'll be a happy man.

I figure I should order the new version of Norton Utlities (including NAV). For $40.

Can't decide if I should go for Zone Alarm Pro, Zone Alarm Free, or Norton Firewall. Any advice? I'm demoing the ZoneAlarm Pro right now. Nice how it blocks the pop up ads. However, Under it's privacy tools it will block cookies, If I set medium or high, TBN doesn't show me new threads. Any ideas? I have to turn the cookie protection off.

I've attached a screen shot of the cookie options (defaults for medium shown)

 

[em14]

Hazmat,
Zone Alarm (Freebie) is a very good product that you will be very pleased with ...The PC should be defraged at least monthly in my opinion. The operating system just does not do a very good job of managing disk space and becuse of this, it takes more time to retrieve an item that will increase the more things get messed up. They begin to get messed up from the moment you finished the defrag and the longer you go before defraging the more messed up things get … also the performance of your PC gets worse and worse …

Based on my experiences with 98 SE, here are some items for you to check/try. The more things that you have running in the background the more your performance is hurt … But, in the case of Bird’s friend’s problem, it is more than likely an anti virus package that is causing the problem … just shut the AV down and then run defrag again … you may have a badly fragmented disk and the defrag may need to run for hours or over night … also, go to “Start” .. “Run” … and type in msconfig ….hit enter and now a window opens … in this window go to the Start up tab and see what all you have running in the lower right hand of the screen (items with checks in the boxes) … most all of these can be unchecked … for example: I have only Zone Alarm and PestPatrol running in the little section of the Main Display in the lower right hand area where you see the time … all of these are applications there are running and you need hardly any of them … if something does not work after you uncheck it and you what it back … then just go back and check it again … it will return … for the fun of it check your systems performance by right clicking on the My Computer ICON and then on Properties and then on the Performance Tab .. if you have a scanner they like a lot of free resources to perform well … and if you keep that as high as you can (mine is running at about 90% but I have to watch it as it will start to drop as more and more spy ware etc., slip in …
I have found Pest Patrol to find more spyware than AdWare … Sorry for such a long one but I hope this helps .. I am by no means a PC Guru as you can tell, but, you end up having to learn more than you should about these things … and I need to learn a lot …
Leo