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Ok, before you download anything, make sure you back up your registry onto cd, usb stick etc...

To do this go to start>run>type "regedit" (without the speech marks)>(a box will open)>File>export>save as (make sure "all" is selected underneath, and also make sure you save it on your desktop, then you can transfer it to cd by right clicking the icon and send to cd.)

With all the downloads, make sure you read all the requirements, at that your PC can tolerate the programme. to find out some details about your P.C, go to start>run>type "winver" (without the speech marks). Also, go to start>all programmes (optional)>accessories>system infomation.

If you need another download page, a mirror site, (quite reliable) is found here: Major Geeks

B) Anti Viruses

Anti-Viruses in one of the most important things your computer will ever have. Most remove viruses, worms, and a few trojan horses. A few can remove "bits a pieces" of spyware, but you should not rely on an anti-virus software to remove spyware. There are 3 main free anti-viruses. Remember you should only use one anti-virus.

AVAST.

I use this anti-virus. The userface is very nice, and it is very simple to use.

Official Homepage- Avast
Official Download- Download Avast
Official Requirements- Avast Requirements List

AVG

This anti-virus is made by grisoft. I have never used this, but a vast amount of people recommend it.

Official Homepage- AVG
Official Download- Download AVG
Official Requirements- AVG Requirements List

*note, that the requirements list for AVG is a pdf file. You will need Adobe reader to view it, or a simlar programme.

A-SQUARED

This is a relatively unknown anti-virus, but has some decent reports to its name.

Official Homepage- A Squared
Official Download- Download A-Squared
Official Requirements- List unknown. Please check download page, and possibly download english help files.

The payable one which I'd go for are Kaspersky. I honestly believe you should not go for norton or mcafee. These pieces of software are seriously bloated, and make your PC run much slower.

ANTI-VIRUS REMOVAL TOOLS.

Here is a list of some common anti-viruses with their remval tools.

W32.sober and variants. here
W32.sasser and variants. here
W32.Beagle.J@mm and variants here
These are just a few. Lots of virus removal tools can be found here: Symantec

You can also just type the virus name (case sensitive) into google.

B) Firewalls

Firewalls tell you who is trying to get into your pc. When you first download the firewall, lots of pop ups will come up telling you certain things are trying to communicate with your PC. Some things are genuine, others not. If you are unsure, type the process in google. ie "Win Generic Host32.exe" etc. There are only really 4 free firewalls out there. Remember you should one use one firewall.

SYGATE

Sygate was recently accquired by Symantec whom own norton. Due to this, people are saying Sygate will become bloated, but as of yet, it is still one of the best firewalls out there.

Official Homepage- Sygate
Official Download- Download Sygate
Official Requirements- Sygate Requirements List

ZONE ALARM

This firewall is probably the most well known firewall, however, I feel it lacks ability in wireless networks, it is much more simple to understand then sygate. This firewall has known conflicting issues with avast anti-virus.

Official Homepage- Zone Alarm
Official Download- Download Zone Alarm
Official Requirements- Zone Alarm requirements list

KERIO

This firewall is relatively unknown, but from many computer forums, including neowin, and have heard good reports.

Official Homepage- Kerio
Official Download- Download Kerio
Official Requirements- Kerio Requirements List

OUTPOST

This is a highly unknown firewall, but I have heard a few rumors that its starting to surface amoung the big three and a major contender.

*note that the free firewall service may be discontinued. You may still find the download links on google, but I believe the firewall is no longer free anymore. If I see any more news it will be posted. 9/9/2005*

*I have added a link to download outpost from an unofficial download site.23/09/05*

Official Homepage- Outpost
Unofficial Dowload - Download Outpost



B) Anti-Malware

Malware consists of; spyware, pop-ups, trojan horses and keyloggers. There are only really 3 big free ones, one of which is in the beta phase, meaning it is still buggy. The main thing to remember with this products, is that it is ok to use more than one. They will not interfere with each other like firewalls and anti-viruses. They are also products which prevent malware getting to your PC. This products may interfere, but I will explain in more detail later on.

AD-AWARE SE

This is probably the best free product you will ever come accross. This software is a must, and is probably the best at stopping keyloggers, and it removes tracking cookies very well. Some cookies contain keyloggers and handle personal infomation, howeverif you block cookies, you may hamper your browsing experiance.

Official Homepage- Ad-Aware se
Official Download- Download Ad-Aware Se
Official Requirements- Ad-aware SE requirements list*top paragraph*

SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY

This is highly recommended and works fabulously well with ad-aware. If ad-aware misses anything, this will be sure to find it. Previous versions had a bug with "DSO exploit" but this big has now been fixed in version 1.4

Official Homepage- Spybot Search and Destroy
Official Download- Download Spybot Search and Destroy
Official Requirements- Spybot Search and Destroy Requirements List*scroll down to view*

MICROSOFT ANTI-SPYWARE (BETA 1)

This is very good, in that it has a built in feature which also prevents spyware. This software used to be owned by GIANT, but as the company went bust, microsoft brought the company and "stole" the rights of thier products and put thier name. Due to this being a beta, they may be still a few bugs. One noticable bug, is that in "task manager" the process is still called Giant. One major downside to this product, is that its only available to win 2000 up, and went it officially comes out of beta, it will only be for win xp sp-2 and above.

Official Homepage- Microsoft Homepage
Official Download- Download Microsoft Anti-Spyware
Official Requirements- Microsoft Anti-Spyware requirements list

PREVENTING SPYWARE

Javacool, provide two products, which do not interfere with eachother, or any products mentioned above, and they stop spyware. Highly recommened. I just use Spyware Blaster, but you can use both..

Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard

Official Homepage- JavaCool
Official Download- Download list
Official Requirements- unknown. Should be compatible with win 2000 and above. win 98 may be compatible, and win 95 users must check.

B) Cleaners

Cleaners will clean out your cache, ie, your temporary files which you have downloaded of the internet. These includes cookies and images. Quite useful, may make your browser go slightly faster, but the first scan with them will increase your hard drive space.

CWSHREDDER

This product sweeps your computer clean for the most annoying spyware ever created "Cool Web Search" and variants. It is highly useful, but not very neccessary if you don't have much malware. Ideally, you only need to scan with this product once a month. The product was owned and created by merijn, but has since been brought by another company; intermute and then trend micro, but thankfully it has been kept free of charge.

Official Homepage- Trend Micro
Official Download- Download CWShredder.
Official Requirements- CWShredder Requirements List

CCLEANER

CCleaner, a.k.a crap cleaner, is probably the best at doing this. It will also find invalid registry keys. I have never ever had any problems deleting registry keys it finds. I highly recommened this product.

Official Homepage- CCleaner
Official Download- Download CCleaner
Official Requirements- Requirements list uknown. I can't find a list of reqs anywhere. An alternative list of requirements, which is unofficial is found here

Unfortunately, I have never come across a product which evens comes close to this one. A lot of cleaners, which are specified to clean registry keys, are highly dangerous. From personal experiance, DONT GO DOWN THIS ROAD.

B) USEFUL LINKS.


Merijn: A great source of infomation and fixes and provides links to many useful downloads. This is the creator of hijack-this, a product which is used in computer forums to solve extreme spyware. Hijack-this scans your PC for processes and provides a list. Do not use this programme. It is for advanced users only.

Process Library: Processes keep viruses and spyware running. To see a list of your processes, press crtl>alt>delete at the same time. This will bring your task manager up quickly and will show your current processes. Write them in this site to find out what they are and if they should be stopped. Remember that all processes are case sensitive.

Sophos- This site provides an extended list of viruses, worms and trojans horses. It wont tell you how to remove them, other then buy their products, but will give you lots of infomation on what you are dealing with. You can then type the virus in google to get more infomation on it.

There are also other alternative browsers which you could use. Firefox and Netscape. Firefox uses a totally different engine from internet explorer to load webpages. Thus the pages may look different. However, pages load much faster in firefox, and in firefox, there is tabbed browsing. Netscape stole firefoxs' engine, and their latest browser is stunning. They have a cool feature of using Internet Explorer's enginer, and Mozilla's (who make firefox) engine. They have a small icon on the bottom left, so you can easily switch between the two. The downside with netscape, is that you may have to download other junk with it, and the download is much bigger then firefox.

I hope this guide was useful to you. It took nearly 3 hours to make :P and find all the links. Use it wisely. This guide has been written by DJpailo, and was not copied. The infomation was gathered after good experiance with security over the internet.

*note, that previous versions are found on my website, and dvclan forums*

DJpailo

This post has been edited by djpailo on Nov 4 2005, 02:28 PM

You know what? I'll move to the Bulletin Board, where X Drummer X has a nice topic too...You might want to take layout example out of him :P

Wow.
Usually I can find faults with a lot of these Computer Security guides and what-not.
But this one seems spot on to me.

Great Job. 10/10

yea this is really good. i have to admit this is one of the best security guides ever. (apart from the manual guide wen u get yer computer :P)

thanks. I was going to add trial version software like webroot and spyware doctor, but after reading another person's post, the trial version stuff seemed to confuse him, so I thought best not to.

this is actually pretty good, great job man 10/10

not 2 bad avg owns at free anti virus i use it and ad-aware

I made a small tweak..added download site to outpost firewall. This free firewall is not supported and the download link is unofficial, though a trustworthy site. Only use Outpost as a last alternative, unless you really want to.

nice job! one this if you decide to get an antivirus program (paying for it) don't do norton, their products tend to mess up other programs that involve sercurity on your comp. try Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal, its what i use right now and its works better. :D

Cool guide, do you know if the SBC DSL firewall works? it also has a spy software finder and destroyer(cleaner) I also have zone alarm. Do they work?

mice job u got some useful info there :lol:

ok

just testing my siggy, delete this post

Double posting not allowed, one word posting not allowed. Please read the rules. <_<