Curse

UTwizard · Nov 16, 2006, 05:47 PM // 17:47

I keep reading topics about people who have their account hacked, deleted, looted or whatever. I myself am studying for IT security and management and I just thought I would give some pointers on how to keep your machine clean. In the last year and a half, I have not recieved one single message about ANY form of spyware or virus on my PC. I've run multiple port scans on my modem / PC, all said that it was all locked down tight. I use a few methods to do this:

1) Get a decent Virusscanner! I can't stress this enough, I've seen PC's without ANY form of Antivirus or Antispyware program at all. If you have one, keep your definitions updated. Good virus protection doesn't need to be expensive, take a look at AVG (link: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1). For spywareprotection, I recommend Spybot (link: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) and Ad-Aware (link:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/). To get all-in-one protection you could try Hitman Pro (Dutch users only I believe, not sure if there is an English version) (link: http://www.hitmanpro.nl/hitmanpro/in...id =9&lang=en). Microsoft has an application as well of which I'm pretty positive, Windows Defender (link: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx).

2) Get a Firewall, I myself use PeerGuardian (link: http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/), it lets you load lists from the Internet which contain numerous IP numbers that are known to be 'bad', you can add lists whenever that is needed or you can manually add IP numbers. Some of the lists might kill the connection your PC tries to make with the Guild Wars servers, try allowing that IP range in Peerguardian or disable the list that causes the disconnect. Some other Firewalls are ZoneAlarm (link: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten...r /> pi30ai20) or of course the Windows Firewall

3) Know what you install, only install programs you trust, if you ever have a program you do not trust or know, try installing it in VMware or VirtualPC. To be extra safe, disable networking options on those VM's.

4) Know what your PC is running, I have about 55 processes running on my main system and from EVERY single process or application (*.exe in the Task Manager) I know what it is, what it does and sometimes even to what company the process belongs.

5) Get Firefox (link: http://www.firefox.com).

6) Do NOT use any cracking tools, visit cracking / hacking sites, porn or whatever, these websites (or programs) are full with spyware.

7) Windows Update, configure it, enable it and let all the updates run, Microsoft doesn't publish them without a reason.

8) Look at any open ports in your Router / Modem and close them if they're not needed, every open port is one more invite for hackers. Configuring Routers and Ports is too detailed and I will not post that in here, I doubt anyone would have a use for that information.

I didn't make this post to tell people what they should and should not do, I made this post to show what I do to keep my PC clean and secure. If there is any demand for some other posts (I could make one to improve performance if there is not one already?) I hope some people can put the points I put in here to good use.

manveruppd · Nov 24, 2006, 01:19 AM // 01:19

Got a question for you about Peerguardian: NCSoft seem to be using a huge range of IP addresses, and there's no way for me to allow them all so I just disable PG whenever I want to play. Have you found out a way to permanently allow all NCSoft addresses without having to do them one by one?

African War Lord · Nov 24, 2006, 01:43 AM // 01:43

thx man I've been using this 3 month trial of mcaffee forever. I had to reinstall it every 3 months...AVG looks like it'll do the job.

awesome sauce · Nov 24, 2006, 05:15 PM // 17:15

Actually, automatic updates are what can cause that lag sometimes when it connects to the internet. If you are responsible, you can free up resources by disabling it and going to the windows update website frequently.

Cyan The Archer · Nov 24, 2006, 05:47 PM // 17:47

UTWizard, do you also never get any cookie spywares? I have Spybot S&D and SUPERAntiSpyware, and i dont rememeber ever installing a virusscanner.. But only thing i get when scanning is cookies(Which shouldnt do anything to bad to your pc, right?)

TreeDude · Nov 26, 2006, 06:13 AM // 06:13

Peerguardian is NOT a firewall, it blocks IP's. A firewall opens and closes ports, then allows exemptions for certain programs to use blocked ports. There is a huge difference. Peerguardian is to be used when your doing P2P file sharing, it blocks IPs known for distributing malicious code or looking at your personnel information. A "Hacker" would never be on that list. Peerguardian should be used when using a P2P program only, not when playing GW.

If you take a look at the FAQ for PG you'll see they specifically tell you it is NOT a firewall.