I went to my in-law’s house yesterday and won the fight against the collection of trojans and viruses that had infested their computer.
On the way to doing it, I have found a pretty solid set of software that you really need to have installed to reduce the risks of visiting web pages. The list goes something like this;
- Install eTrust ezArmour - a combination of Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus, and eTrust ezFirewall (in reality a licensed copy of ZoneAlarm Pro). It’s the best price/performance home antivirus software available. 2. Install PC Tools Spyware Doctor - it watches for trojans all the time, and catches stuff the virus killer isn’t designed to catch. 3. Install PC Tools Registry Mechanic - it cleans all the crap out of your registry - resulting in a computer that actually runs quickly. 4. Install Windows XP Service Pack 2. 5. Install the Google Toolbar into Internet Explorer in case you ever do need to use IE (it stops pop-up windows). 6. The no-brainer… Use Mozilla FireFox instead of Internet Explorer.
Of course the real result of doing all of the above is that your computer needs an absolute minimum of 256Mb of RAM to be useable. Luckily my desktop machine here has 760Mb of RAM
If you’re wondering just how unsafe Internet Explorer is, after installing Spyware Doctor, visiting just about any site in IE makes the monitoring tool light up like a christmas tree… IE pumps out all kinds of information about you all the time… you have been warned.
It’s pretty bloody annoying isn’t it - that you need to run all this crap because of two reasons…
Firstly, 90% of the home-user XP owners have no clue that their computer is probably infested with trojans, spyware and viruses, and that they are unwittingly helping in “denial of service” attacks… also, all their passwords have probably been hived off by the unsavourable people who broke into their computer. On top of that, their computer is actively trying to infest all the computers on the same subnet as themselves.
Secondly, I have not heard of a single internet service provider that monitors data coming through the ports at their end to cut users off who are (knowingly or unknowingly) spreading viruses.
Yes, I am annoyed.