Internet Security (Continued from previous post)

Monsieur Beep writes that we should all be our own experts, perhaps because it's our ass and our data at risk - and he's absolutely right. The problem is that many if not most of us really don't know where to start or who to believe. So start with the obvious - Google for 'the ten best Internet security programs' or 'top ten security programs compared' or 'why do you say you love me when I know you've been a liar all your life?' - or something like that.... In other words, use what you've got to find what you need.

I started into the wild, wild web and computering with an old used Dell that had only 128 Mb of RAM, and was programmed with Windows 98SE, and had Symantec's 'Dr. Norton' for security. Now, there's a real learning experience for you! Dell makes fairly decent computers, but they use parts like memory components and hard-drives from a wide variety of suppliers, so that finding matching replacement parts years later is virtually impossible, as I discovered. And the Windows 98SE was OK as a 'learner' I guess, but it crashed quite regularly, because I was trying to do things with it that it was never designed for. And Symantec's 'Dr. Norton' installed literally hundreds of files onto my system, and slowed it down to a crawl, and created more problems than it solved. I didn 't even know enough about the system at the time to even realize most of that, until my friend who owns this ISP I'm on got chatting with me one night and asked me "What security program are you running on there?" When I told him, he sent back this advice: "Dump that 'Dr. Norton' because it causes more problems than it solves. Get something better, like Grisoft's AVG." That was several years ago now, and as we've also discovered, Internet security programs are like Hollywood Starlets - popularity of them is like the flavour of the month. What's hot and what's not can keep you busy figuring it all out.

Grisoft's AVG, during its version 7+ series was just about the best game in town. They caught the bad stuff, and those sweet young things in Prague who answered your tearful cries for help were some of the most polite and helpful service representatives you'd ever want to deal with. Then something happened. They merged with another company, Ewido, and got creative with their world-class program. Suddenly, it was not the same at all, and many of us were shocked, amazed, and disgusted. I had been using it for years by then, and I walked away from a subscription that still had most of its term unused, because I didn't like the way it was hogging resources and slowing down my system - much like the problems I'd had back when with the old Dell and the Symantec's 'Dr. Norton' - but more complicated now.

For a while Panda was all the rage, claiming to be the best, and costing around a hundred bucks a year for a subscription. That's about twice the going rates, by the way. And what was wrong with that? For starters, their program installs a hidden DLL which you don't know is there, and it denies you access if you try to dump that whole program - you can't get rid of all of it, because that hidden part refuses to leave, and if you keep it there, then it will mess up the next security program you try to use. So how do you solve that one? Where there's a will, there's a way - and there's also a great little program called MoveOnBoot made by EMCO in Iceland. It's freeware, and it's a life-saver for problems like this.

It works by letting you select the offending file or folder before you do a regular Reboot, and then when you do the Reboot, it will remove that offending file or folder during the time between when your machine shuts down and then reloads its running programs on starting up. In other words, it weeds out the unwanted stuff before it can be reloaded into active memory again during the starting cycle. - So 'goodbye, Panda's hidden DLL'.

These are just some of the problems you can get into with security programs. Some are better than others, and some probably cause more problems than they solve. Try their free version first, and if you like that, and need whatever else they offer in the purchased version, then go for it. Otherwise, stick with the freebie. Or two or three of them. There's safety in numbers, contrary to whatever they want you to believe. I've had programs that found stuff that others missed, because each is better at one thing than another, and they don't tell you which is which. You just have to experiment for yourself. One program I like right now is one called Threatfire and I like it because it claims it can stop 'zero day threats' without needing to have their definitions on file beforehand, unlike regular security programs. How do they do that? By having a scanner which looks at the behavior of the offending threat, rather than by analysing it and comparing that to a definition in reference files. So if it acts like malware, it gets treated as malware, period. I like that concept, and I hope they expand on it. So far, it seems to be working very well. And another plus is that it is compatible with most other security products, and it works on most operating systems, including the new Windows 7.

You just have to get over your fear of trying and learn to fly while you still have wings.
Enjoy your day, Everyone!