Pfipps

Thanks for the information. It makes more sense, especially since I am on a college network. I just get paranoid sometimes after reading articles about rootkits, virut, etc, even though the odds are very low of getting infected with safe computing practices, emotions can win.

Anybody have any insight into the reason why Windows Media extender service wanted me to setup an XBox 360 when I didn't have one? Keep in mind, it occurred while I had PC tools firewall installed - never happened before.

It's Safe'n'sec Pro for Home users. I am thinking it might be conflicting with NOD32. Any other users run this HIPS with not problems?

I installed Safe'n'Sec on my Vista pc and it wouldn't boot after restart. I had to boot into safe mode and uninstall it. Anybody have an idea of the problem?

I have a 3 year old HP all in one and Vista installs it automatically, so I don't have any of the bloatware that cam with the original disc. However, I have another newer all in one and it installs all sorts of stuff I never use.

Can the gpedit.msc be found in Vista Home Premium?

There is no "zero sector" on a HD. No offense to the poster...I just get a little upset..even I was taken in just a little by the letter.

A great link is www.av-comparatives.org for comparing antiviruses. McAfee has solid performance all the time, although Norton tends to do better in the tests. That link also points to other testing sites, but av comparatives is the most detailed and accessible. For example, av-test.org doesn't release detailed reports. Bottom line, even av-comparatives states that an AV with ICSA labs ratings 1 and 2, and a virus bulletin approval will perform fine even if it gets the STANDARD rating on av comparatives.

I am on a high end HP pavilion laptop (7200 rpm HD, Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHZ), 2g ram etc.) It is true that on-access performance in Kaspersky is pretty good, even when I scan all files, but the web component really slows things down compared to IMON in NOD32. NOD32 is so fast that anything else feels slow. However, I know that AVIRA is on par (some tests say even better) with NOD32 in terms of speed and effective detection, heuristics is another story.

I looked at NOD32 and compared it with Kaspersky. It seems that Kaspersky has slightly better real time protection. However, sites like AV-comparatives use the maximum settings. People running Kaspersky usually run the recommended settings. Maxing out NOD32 on a pc really doesn't have that much of a performance hit at all. So is Kaspersky really as effective as it is tested using the recommended settings versus the max settings on NOD32? I read a lot posts either saying that NOD32 is over rated or just plain bashing of the program. It would be nice if the testing organizations will have "default" and "max" results.

I switched to Vista's firewall (since I never had odd things happen like that before I had PC tools Firewall) and run a HIPS. However, I don't know the number exactly, but I do know the firewall never took more than 12 megs, if my memory serves me correctly.

jv16 is also very good at removing a crap load of entries safely (in my case anyway), but I don't know if it is worth 30 bucks. Cleaning, compacting, and defragging a registry will shave off seconds on boot time; and I think that the defragging and compacting does more than anything else. Is it snake oil? Does it really do anything besides cut a little time?

After tightening the settings in the firewall (stealth mode isn't checked by default for some reason), about two days later I got a message from Windows Media Extender about setting up an XBox 360. I don't have an xbox, so it means that someone else on my network had one, or it was an odd glitch. I thought I might have been hacked, but all signs say otherwise. The pc tools forum didn't respond to my questions about the default advanced setting in the firewall, which is why I posted here.

Is it possible to buy a Mac mini and use a laptop computer monitor by "connecting through" it?

Zonealarm seems to be the problem since I uninstalled it and the delay doesn't occur anymore. PCtools firewall for vista seems to be a better fit with NOD32...but I bet a good HIPS will be needed to cover what the firewall doesn't.

Ever since I downloaded Zone Alarm Anti-virus, Firefox has a 7 second delay compared to the almost instant startup before that. Anyone else have this problem? IE and Opera don't have this problem.

The best defragmenters are the ones that can run before Windows services are loaded so more files can be moved - which my be the reason why it never looks completely defragmented. Scandefrag seems to be a good program for that purpose.

After looking at the anti-spyware recommendations on the website, I went a tried out a trial of the AVG software. I downloaded yesterday, and now AVG says that the trial has expired. What is going on? I checked my computer date and time and there have been no changes.

Don't read too much into the actual percentages. However, their Standard, Advanced, and Adanced+ are very useful for determining what software is better. To be safe, I always use AVs with the Advanced or Advanced+, but the Standard rating means that, in a layered security environment, there shouldn't be any problems (IMHO).

Is there a way (or software) that can determine the life of a USB flash drive? or does it just fail with no warning?

When you go in the sketchy parts of the internet, you need bigger guns - not only a good firewall and AV, you need extra malware protection like a HIPS or behavior blocker with a sandbox, sometimes even two (since there is no clear definition of behavior blockers like antiviruses). However, you almost need nothing short of Turning on Windows' firewall if you follow safe computing practices (ie updating windows etc.)

In Vista, CCleaner 2 is definitely better than the previous version...the Registry Issues cleaner no longer breaks certain programs and it now cleans the "recent files" in Vista...for two examples.

I should've mentioned that I am in Vista Home Premium Edition - but I don't know if that will still make any difference.

I turned on the activity animation icon in windows and it flashes all the time even though the internet status icon show not packets being transferred (byte count stays the same). Is this a problem?

I ran the addons update and it downloaded a "compatibility update" for Noscript. Anybody know what this is? After reading about the possibility of downloading malware addons (Andrew K's Optimixe XP website), I am a little paranoid.