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Message Icon Topic: Important Links-FAQ’s(Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply Post New Topic
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ZSTRAY
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bullet Topic: Important Links-FAQ’s
    Posted: February 05 2005 at 3:13pm
Here are links to resources you can use to clean your PC of unwanted spyware/adware/malware/viris/trojans/dialers and keep it protected from intruders.

First I recommend everyone with broadband get a firewall router. I use the DI-604 from D-Link.

Second is anti-virus protection. There are many available but I recommend PC Cillian from trendmicro, Pandasoft, or AVG. Alternatively, Norton, and McAfee are available.

Third, anti-spyware. Recommended are Spy Sweeper from webroot, the Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta, Ad-Aware from Lavasoft, or Spybot.

Fourth, check for programs starting at boot time. (Windows 98/ME/XP) To do this click Start > Run > In the run box type "msconfig" (without the quotations). In the dialog that appears go to the last tab labeled "Startup", uncheck programs that you know do not need to load when Windows does. If you are unsure of what something is look it up.

For Windows NT/2000/Server 2003 click Start > Run > type "regedit" (without quotations) browse by clicking the + to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer sion\Run
From there remove entries in the right pane that do not need to load at startup. If you are unsure of any entry, look it up.
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ZSTRAY
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bullet Posted: February 07 2005 at 11:58am
Lets seperate the two and make it easier to understand. Without going into full detail a router can split your connection to the internet and share it among multiple computers. Your Internet Service Provider uses large versions of these which are called Nodes. That is how they split thier internet connection with all of thier customers.

A firewall, I'm sure most of you know, is a guard between your computer and the internet. When Windows XP first shipped (and until service pack 2) it had a running service called "Messenger". No one could harm your PC using this service but they can send annoying popups (grey with an OK button at bottom) telling you that your PC is infested with spyware and that you need to get thier product. But if you had a firewall this port would not appear open to internet.

Your computer has 65535 ports which different services use. Some examples, this web page came into your PC on port 80. FTP uses 21 (and 20 for data), SOF2 usually uses 20100. Since I run multiple services from my home PC I open the appropriate ports on my router and have them forward requests to the PC I desire. Currently I have 4 ports open, 80 for my main web page, 21 for my FTP server, 22 for my SSH (Secure Shell for Linux), and 82 for our temporary LAN party forum. To access most routers you go to the address (typically) http://192.168.0.1 and log in. This can be done remotely too but must first be done locally before turning remote administration on.

So combine the splitting of your connection, and the protection of a built in firewall and you have a firewall router The 2 biggest advantages are that it frees up your PC of running either the Windows firewall or other software firewalls, and firewall/routers are much harder to crack.
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