Re: Which Home Guardsman ?
Originally Posted by
Alan Cooke
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My computer protector, AVG, runs out in a couple of weeks. I'm not very thrilled with it as I had a bad piece of malware a few months ago so I'm looking for better protection at a reasonable price. Any suggestions ?
I see the usual AV suggestions being touted in this thread.
What people need to realise is that Antivirus and Antimalware is just a "Protection Racket". These viruses, Trojans, worms etc are created for the very purpose of making people subscribe and pay for antivirus software. It is a very crooked business. People who think that 90% of viruses are created by spotty teenagers sitting in their pyjamas in their bedrooms need their heads seeing to.
The "proof" or main indicator of this whole situation is that we end up in a situation where certain SPECIFIC viruses seem to get through some software but yet are trapped by maybe one SPECIFIC antivirus program. That's odd don't you think? How would one or perhaps two specific antivirus programmes manages to trap a specific virus when all the others don't? The answer should be very obvious.
These companies are creating the viruses to perpetuate their own businesses. They have competition all around them and people routinely jump from one AV solution to another just like they switch insurance companies. How then can any single AV suite gain an advantage ? What is the single biggest thing they can do to promote their own AV software? The answer is to create a virus that the competition can not detect and fix (in the immediate term) but which your own AV programme will "magically" pick up.
So this Sh*t has been going on for years. Each AV company generating "silver bullet" viruses that only its own software can detect in the first instance. Obviously over time all the other AV companies adapt their software to that "silver bullet" virus so your ability to stay ahead of the game only lasts a short time span. But this cr*p just perpetually rumbles on.
As a result the general Sheeple out there all have wildly differing opinions of which AV programme is the best. Those opinions tend to be formed on the latest experience of a "Silver bullet" virus, e.g. "I think XXX is the best AV programme because I had virus YYY and it went straight past my existing AV programme so I installed a different programme and that picked it up instantly"
Anyone who is IT literate and been home computing for years should instinctively recognise the truth (though many don't).
In short then it really doesn't matter that much which AV programme you use provided it has the basic/core facilities you would expect of any such programme. For example, you need a firewall that lets you block specific IP addresses. You want an AV that runs any unrecognised programme in "Sandbox" mode and so on.
I will tell you now, that I have been in IT for over 30 years and NEVER, not once, have I ever paid for or subscribed to any antivirus program for my home PC's/laptops. I run free AV programmes and have often switched one for another when the speed/performance drops (which tends to happen to them all). There are plenty to have a go at inc AVAST, COMODO, AVG etc.
I run the FREE copy of Malwarebytes from time to time and whenever I suspect I may have had a malware attack but thus far I have never had any serious malware.
I should point out however that much of my success is totally down to my discipline when using the internet. It is my opinion that a HUGE % of staying safe is down to what the user does rather than any AV programme. With that in mind here are my main tips, use/ignore at your leisure.
1. ALWAYS ALWAYS surf the internet with JAVASCRIPT DISABLED.
This is a contentious issue for some but each to their own. Every website when you first visit, runs lots of scripts which you can not see, but the delay in the page loading tells you it is happening. Scripts are just programmes written in JavaScript language. Many of these scripts are tracking you, capturing your email address to spam it later and so on.
Disable JavaScript and you disable the ability of a lot of hackers armaments. It has no effect on the viruses themselves, but stops the way hackers often try to DELIVER those viruses. With JavaScript disabled you will not get those irritating pop up windows everywhere. Esp the ones that look innocent.
The only downside is you lose some website functionality with JavaScript disabled. If that becomes a serious problem, e.g. when you need to do online banking, then just enable javascript whilst you do that and then disable it again afterward. I just makes sense to disable it and cut off one of the spammers and hackers primary weapons.
2. NEVER EVER click on a pop up window or banner
Not even those that routinely say:
"Use of this site means you consent to allowing us to place a cookie on your PC"
You CAN NOT EVER determine if a pop up window or banner is genuine or malware. So never click on them.
A common example is the kind that says:
e.g. "Would you mind taking a short survey to help us improve our service"
What do you do when such a pop up arrives? Naturally you don't click the button to take the survey, you are suspicious and/or not interested in taking a survey. But . . . what DO you actually do with that pop up in the middle of the screen?
I am willing to bet that 99% of people use the little X button at the top right of the pop up to close it down.
And BANG they have got you. They got you to CLICK on a pop up window that you have no idea about, that you can not verify as being genuine or fake.
The pop up might look like just an ordinary windows pop up but it may not be. It can often be the case that clicking anywhere on that pop up will run a script and introduce malware.
What you should of course do with any such pop up is leave it there on the screen, bring up task manager and kill off the app and or process that way. Never ever click on any pop up.
Of course, if you sensibly surf the internet with JavaScript disabled, that pop up would not have appeared in the first place. You won't get any of the "cookie request" banners or survey pop ups or for that manner any pop up adverts or advert banners. The websites you visit will all run infinitely faster to boot !
3. I never use MS Outlook for emails. Everyone I know who has used it has had email virus problems as well as horrendous issues trying to sync emails with their phones.
4. NEVER click on a hotlink in someone's forum post.
Those links often look innocent but they can often take you to malware sites.
This forum in particular is riddled with posts in which people include links to newspaper articles and the like. Don't click on them. Just cut and paste the URL into your browser instead (assuming that URL looks genuine and is spelt correctly etc).
Those are my primary ways of staying virus free. In 30+ years I have never suffered a major virus nor malware (other than low level Trojans that aren't really bad malware, just tracking stuff).
Free AV programmes and Malwarebytes is imo enough PROVIDED you run with JavaScript disabled for 99% of the time.
Good luck whatever you decide.