Grrrr!

Feb. 1st, 2005 01:09 pm
whotheheckami: (Crow)
[personal profile] whotheheckami
Could do with a bit of IT help.

Our home network is currently running with McAfee Firewall, Norton Anti-virus on each PC and 3 Anti-Spyware software products that we run regularly. However, we still seem to be inundated with spyware. Finally, over the weekend Ivan's AOL email account was highjacked and used to send out spam.

What are we doing wrong?
Is there a single product (One Ring to Rule Them All) that could help us out?
Not too bothered about the cost as Mendi says that the company can pay!
All suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks

Date: 2005-02-01 01:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com
Not entirely meant seriously:
Don't use AOL or even better, don't use Windows?

Slightly more seriously:
Use Firefox for browsing or at least a good popup blocker. Don't click on anything that says "You have won a price! Click here" and similar things.
Make sure you always have the most up to date databases/libraries for your spyware apps (Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware seem to work well in conjunction) and make sure they're active all the time (monitor your ports).

Spyware is often very clever and regularly improved. The checkers need to know what to look for first, of course, so you'll always end up with some.

In case of Ivan's AOL account hijack, get in touch with AOL because that's a breach on their end and you have a right to complain.

Date: 2005-02-01 01:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
AOL got to us first - they had received note of the breach from a third party and had changed all our passwords.

I'm not using AdAware - I will sort that out when I get some time at the home PC

Thanks

Date: 2005-02-01 01:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com
From a third party? Very odd...

Ditto.

Date: 2005-02-01 01:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dotty.livejournal.com
AOl = big mistake - if you use them as broadband provider, you should be able to substitute (after 1 year contract?) to Yahoo BT Broadband, way better. Never, in the name of God, never use NTL, they have been proven to be v. unreliable with 100% friends who subscribed to it.

OUTLOOK = spam-sending tool for hackers or worse, worm infection.

Norton = v. good
Firefox = v. good (for blocking popups as well)
SpyBot = v. good

Re: Ditto.

Date: 2005-02-01 01:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com
That's what I forgot, true.

Use Mozilla Thunderbird as your email client, easy to set up and customize. Doesn't have calendar and other gubbins but is very good.

Re: Ditto.

Date: 2005-02-01 02:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Have never tried Thunderbird - I'm quite happy using Gmail that I've never bothered using an all-in-one mail client.

Re: Ditto.

Date: 2005-02-01 02:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com
Fair enough.
Sometimes it's good to have your mails in more than one place, though.

Re: Ditto.

Date: 2005-02-01 01:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
AOL - we've been wiith them for over 10 years and, on ballance are satisfied with them. We've thought about moving on a number of times, but have stuck with them.

OUTLOOK = never been opened on any PC I've used at home

Norton = using it
Firefox = using it
SpyBot = will track it down and evaluate it

Thanks sweetie

Re: Ditto.

Date: 2005-02-03 04:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pickledginger.livejournal.com
I like SpyBot, too. When I was doing a clean-out of my mother's much-infected computer, it found a fair number of beasties that other 'ware didn't.

AOL

Date: 2005-02-03 04:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pickledginger.livejournal.com
AOL - we've been with them for over 10 years and, on balance, are satisfied with them.

Er, this and that would appear to be evidence to the contrary.

Luck.

Re: AOL

Date: 2005-02-03 08:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Will you stop bringing logic to a perfectly servicable rant! ;@)

Date: 2005-02-03 11:52 pm (UTC)

Date: 2005-02-01 01:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
My NTL mail gets spammed to all hell; I only use it for things I know will spam me.
Connection isn't too bad mind.

Date: 2005-02-01 01:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com
I recently found that emails sent from my ntl accounts don't arrive at their destinations...
I'm only using them for lists now, my yahoo account for everyday things and gmail for important stuff.

Date: 2005-02-01 01:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nina321.livejournal.com
It's time for you to consider buying some macs.
Only semi-joking

Date: 2005-02-01 02:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
But they get taken out by footballs!

Date: 2005-02-01 02:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] countb.livejournal.com
Is there a single product (One Ring to Rule Them All) that could help us out?


A Mac?

*runs away*

Seriously, if the company is paying get Sophos AV. Also stop using Outlook Express and IE as they are good virus magnets. Eudora and Firefox are your friends.

Date: 2005-02-01 06:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sarah-mum.livejournal.com
As soon as I read that, I know you'ld be in Mac-pimping.

Date: 2005-02-01 06:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] countb.livejournal.com
But have you ever heard me moan I had a virus/spyware/malware? And how is your PC running? :D

Date: 2005-02-01 07:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sarah-mum.livejournal.com
Only on the personal lung-gunking kind. My PC is not so much running as sitting in a corner gathering dust. House-geek might just get the interweb connected to it some time before Christmas if I keep poking him.

Date: 2005-02-01 09:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Now that really is pimping!

Date: 2005-02-01 09:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] countb.livejournal.com
Sadly I'm not on a commission!

Date: 2005-02-03 11:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pickledginger.livejournal.com
Oh, but isn't it cute?

Echos....

Date: 2005-02-01 03:13 pm (UTC)
ext_5856: (Default)
From: [identity profile] flickgc.livejournal.com
Is there a single product (One Ring to Rule Them All) that could help us out?

No.

Spybot, Adaware, 'fox.

Train the kids to never install anything and never click on anything on a pop up. Better yet, change the settings on their accounts so that they can't.

Buy more Macs.

Re: Echos....

Date: 2005-02-01 03:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
But they are susceptible to footballs!

Re: Echos....

Date: 2005-02-01 05:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Ivan's got totalled by a football that some idiots were kicking about during lunchtime in class. A teacher was present and was allegedly supervising everyone. Mendi was most amused when the school suggested that we claim on our insurance. Needless to say, the school is now paying for all damages!

Date: 2005-02-01 06:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alexmc.livejournal.com
> over the weekend Ivan's AOL email account was highjacked and
> used to send out spam

This is a bit ambiguous. Presumably you mean a spammer used Ivan's email address as the "From" address in his spamming run. Report it to AOL as abuse, but tough luck. Nothing of yours was highjacked.

Where is your dedicated firewall?

When was the last time you reinstalled windows from scratch?

The one product? MacOSX. (It is unix you know).

When you say "spyware" what do you mean? trojans? If your Norton, and MacAffee NAV Stinger, and AVG can't remove them easily then wipe the hard disk and start again.

Date: 2005-02-01 07:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] azekeil.livejournal.com
I would agree with everyone here.

If you can't cleanse (ie. reboot, rescan and it's clean) your computers with AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy, it may make sense to back up, reformat and reinstall each one in turn. At the same time, switch to a different ISP - really. It might involve a bit of pain and hate to begin with, but you'll realise just how much AOL censors and controls your PC and content.

Firefox for your web browsing, Thunderbird for your email. A couple of things to note with email addresses. Never post them on a public forum. Treat it with the same level of trust as your direct phone number. If you have to use an email address for something, get a free HoTMaiL one or similar and use that.

I receive NO spam at all as a result of sticking to this advice (plus I have my own dyndns domain as well).

Set up accounts for people on your computers as 'Administrator' and if you can't trust them not to download or install nasties like pop-ups or spyware then set their accounts to 'Limited'.

Keep your computer up to date with Windows Update. Use the Firewall with Service Pack 2 - it's pretty good. Install Grisoft AVG for anti-virus - it's free.

Date: 2005-02-02 11:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mazzarc.livejournal.com
1. Get off AOHell
2. Get a hardware firewall
3. Ditch norton and mcafee, in my experience (8years) they're both crap.
4. Get zone alarm and Grisoft AVG antivirus (both Free)
5. run Spybot and AdAware regularly.
6. Use Firefox, not IE

This is the method I use and so far have not had any problems in 8 years computing.
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