ZenPirate's Official Guide to Safer Browsing v0.6

[TossMonkey]

They only lack games support in my eyes. I'm clammoring for a reason to get rid of Windows and this is the only one, c'mon developers! The less money I spend on OS's and other stuff the more money I spend on games! This is a plea!

ZP, what else does Linux possibly need?

 

[ZenPirate]

Hardware drivers. A common system of software installation, including everyone putting the files in the same damn directories.

 

[TossMonkey]

That did cross my mind, but I thought Linux had very much cleaned up its act in this regard. It can't be that bad though, I have a knoppix live cd that detects everything in my PC so drivers can't be too hard to find. Can they?

 

[Kaligraphic]

TossMonkey, just download White Box Linux and be happy. Or Debian if you like to tinker.

 

[TossMonkey]

Like I said, I go Linux when games are fully supported. I want to be able to pick a game off a shelf and it have a little penguin on the back.

 

[Kaligraphic]

Then let's make a point of talking about Linux as a real OS, and Windows as a toy OS. Market Linux for the desktop, and we'll see more Linux games. (Remember when you could go to a computer store and the Mac game section was almost as big as the IBM game section? It's desktop percentages and perception that do it - game companies just want to make a buck, so convince them that it would be profitable. And see if you can get Iridium to rewrite DirectX/Direct3D for use under X Windows. )

 

[SinShiva]

only thing useful i can add is surf through proxys.

http://www.samair.ru/proxy/

pick a country NEXT TO YOURS to optimize speed.

ie Canada for Americans, USA for Canadians

that keeps u safe from ppl who probe their visitors and i just think its smarter to not advertise ur IP everywhere u go.

 

[Justin286]

only thing useful i can add is surf through proxys.

http://www.samair.ru/proxy/

pick a country NEXT TO YOURS to optimize speed.

ie Canada for Americans, USA for Canadians

that keeps u safe from ppl who probe their visitors and i just think its smarter to not advertise ur IP everywhere u go.

Might be silly to ask, but why pick a country next to yours instead of the one you're in?

 

[SinShiva]

security from government

prolly best to pick a country that urs doesnt like now that i think about it more.

does cuba have internet access?

 

[Underscore]

that keeps u safe from ppl who probe their visitors and i just think its smarter to not advertise ur IP everywhere u go.

Instead you advertise the proxy's IP, implying you probably have something to hide .

Edit: I'm not quite sure why you'd want to use a proxy though, since the millions of other interweb users apart from you give you a fairly good level of anonymity anyway. Although I'm probably wrong, since I've never needed to use a proxy thingy .

 

[SinShiva]

well this is my best example:

somebody writes an installer with Netbus in it. He knows what IP downloaded it instead of having to scan for it. the scanner in it is slow as hell for the ip range we all use. helll, just going from 60.1.1.1 - 61.255.255.255 takes forever. My friend told me that.

 

[GRAF1K]

/me running netscape, no virus scanner, no firewall, but I have a router, and I never have any probs

buteauh, its reccomended if you have internet directly from the modem, I got it 2, withouth viruscanner and firewall, and in 3 days my PC was full of spyware and I got 3 messages that my PC wasnt safe

Specifically where did you get these messages that your computer "wasn't safe"? Don't tell me that it was a pop-up...

 

[GRAF1K]

Like I said, I go Linux when games are fully supported. I want to be able to pick a game off a shelf and it have a little penguin on the back.

If Linux was that widely supported and used, malicious software would be just as widely designed for Linux as it is for Windows now. It's a Catch-22.

----

Like has been said, common sense is the best protection against malicious software. Usually when I come across someone that has a virus-laden rig, I've already anticipated it due to downright DUMBASS behaviour. "Download[ing] and Install[ing]" junk from Gator via IE everywhere they turn, chain letter forwarding, and every manner of unsafe internet habits like that. Don't be a dumbass. If you don't know what something is or why you need it, don't even consider messing with it. If you do need it, think twice about every click. Best antivirus measure out there.

That said, I still use hardware and software firewalls, Mozilla Firefox configured well, Trillian, Winamp, etc.

 

[ReLiK]

My Internet Software

Firewall: Outpost
Anti-Virus: Avast Pro, Nod32
Spyware checker: Spy Sweeper, Ad-aware, Spybot S & D

Browser: Firefox (Opera and K-Meleon decent too). IE shell alternative (when no other choice myIE2)
Mail Client: The Bat!

Chat: mIRC with NNScript, Trillian, Miranda
FTP: FTP Rush, Flash FXP
P2P: Shareaza (hardly used though)

Key: Items in italics are my current favoured programs in each category
Items in normal script are things I have installed and use as either a backup or alternative depending on mood, need, orientation of the planets etc...

 

[ZenPirate]

Updated to Version 0.3, changing Ad-Aware 6.0 to the new and improved Ad-Aware SE Personal:

What’s new in Ad-Aware SE Personal edition?

Hardened against third party uninstall with encrypted preference files

Scanning engine improvements

Extended protection against DLL-injection, SE can unload process modules on the fly
Extended Memory scanning
Now scans all modules loaded by a process
Uses our all new CSI (Code Sequence Identification) technology to identify new and unknown variants of known targets


Extended Registry scanning

Now scans registry branches of multiple user accounts
Performs additional smart checks to detect dynamically created references
Scanning speed noticeably faster
Extended Scanning for known and unknown/possible Browser-Hijackers


Extended Disk scanning

Now scans and lists alternate Data-streams on NTFS volumes
Now Ad-Aware supports scanning of Cabinet files, (including spanned archives)
Scanning speed increased
Improved Hosts-file scan
Now Ad-Aware and Ad-Watch use much smaller reference files


Several User Interface improvements

Improved Graphical UI
Ad-Aware now supports custom graphical Skins
More user friendly Plug-in/Extension GUI (Plug-ins and Extensions now shown on separate screens)
New Scan Result view, includes a scan summary and detailed view
Ad-Aware now linked to the online TAC database


Multiple New Tweak options

Unloading of process modules during a scan
Obtaining command line of scanned processes
Ignoring spanned cab files
Permanent archive caching
Always try to unload modules before deletion
Disable manual quarantine if auto quarantine is selected
Write protect system files after repair
Use gridlines in item lists
Logfile detail section condensed


Several logfile improvements

Includes support for separate removal logfiles
Allows adding a Reference summary/index to logfiles
Logfile contains overall more detailed information
Ad-Aware SE is compatible with Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003.

 

[tool]

I have firefox plug-ins and book marks on another hard drive, and I want to move them over to my firefox install on my second hard drive, how do I do that?

 

[ZenPirate]

I'd imagine you could just copy the info from one profile folder to another, but it would be easier just to re-download the extensions/plugins and export/import the bookmarks, IMHO.

 

[Predcaliber]

Don't tell me that it was a pop-up...

Not a browser, but it was an pop-up like a program or something, it was really annoying, some stupid hacker did it cause now ive got a router and I dont get the prob anymore

 

[tool]

I want to use thunderbird to check my gmail account, does anyone know the pop infomation for gmail? I need the incoming and outgoing server address.

 

[[UM]theswarm]

I could use that one too.

Current config.

OS: Windows 2000 Pro
Firewall/AV Scanner: PC-Cillin 2002
Anti-Spyware: Spy Sweeper, Spybot S&D, SpywareGuard, SpywareBlaster
Browser: Mozilla (full, not Firefox)
Media Player: Winamp
Chat: Trillian

Spyware caught on system: 0
Viruses caught on system: 0
Problems found by Shields UP!: 2 ports open

Not too shabby.

[EDIT]Just gave the new Ad-Aware SE a try. After waiting for it's slow paranoia scan, it came up with 6 cookies and 1 possible change to the .scr file extension.

Oh and 2 possible browser hijack attempts because evidently my IE start page (about:blank) is blacklisted.