craig's advice below is right on the money - BUT, you would still be better off using a dual boot linux for all internet access.  high school kids are great sources of free computer help!

r.

QuoteOriginally posted by mmisciag:
Rob,

While I agree with your suggestion; most users of this site are probably not in to computers enough to make a dual booted machine. I work for an Internet Security Company technically helping companies purchase Firewalls, application gateways and Endpoint security. What folks here have to do is follow common sense.

1. Firewall at the internet with URL filtering
2. Anti Virus and Anti Malware software on the desktop
3. Do not open any attachment unless you know who it is from.
4. Do not blindly follow links in emails
5. Make sure your family follows the rules
6. Back up everything!!!
7. If you are using Windows7, create accounts for all users. Administrator is only for installing software or working on the system.

This will keep the honest people honest and eliminate 80% of issues. I use the 80/20 rule but it works out better then that.

Martin

For the record, I am writing this on RedHat linux Fedora box. Fred Bear would have wanted it this way.    

Craig;

Your advice is great, except that 90% of the people here have no idea what you just said!  Also, 90% of the infections I see these days have nothing to do with a virus.  The malware now in the wild produces overlays on web page elements.  You click on those elements, you are hosed.  I haven't found an Antispyware/antimalware product yet that will block them because the computer saw you click on the element and assumes you know what you are doing.  The Antivirus2009 variants are notorius for this.

Dual booting isn't a technical issue anymore.  Stick the disk in, accept the default configuration, reboot and select either Windows or Linux at the boot screen.  The new distros aren't quite as efficient as the "purer" linux variants out there, but they sure are a lot easier for folks to install and use.

QuoteOriginally posted by mmisciag:
While I agree with your suggestion; most users of this site are probably not in to computers enough to make a dual booted machine.

That would be me.  I thought boots always came in pairs, anyway. Windows 1.0 happened after I was long out of college and unable to grasp any new learning.  Come to think of it, I didn't grasp much IN college, either.  

I fell out of touch with PCs when we stopped making menu .BAT files for your home screen template, screens were green CRTs, 30 meg was respectable memory for a home machine, and "WYSIWYG" was the great catch-phrase.      :rolleyes:      

I'm a "Traditional Home Computerist".

Working for an antivirus and malware company as malware technician, i would follow the Craig´s advices.

Best options are the dual boot or use Linux. Mac is safer than Windows.

Big thanks to Terry and Rob!

long live tradgang!!  

I think the only two concepts that I've read out of all the posts in this thread that I totally understand are "$100 dollars" and "long live tradgang!!"

I hope that I am the only person that feels that way.

If this is like almost anything else in life, it can be illustrated by the "Bell curve" and that line has to start somewhere and I'd represent the far left side at the point of it's beginning...lol

If it weren't for Jeff and a few others at the 1st MoBoJam, there is a very good chance that a computer would not have ever been considered  as something I would have ever purchased.

In fact I believe it was Jeff's words that prompted me to at least give this thing a try when he said "Mudd you have got to come out of your cave and join the rest of the world!"..

Thanks Jeff!.... even if it has turned out to be a mixed blessing...lol

God bless,Mudd

Jeff,

Your point is well taken. What I have found through friends and family is that they use Windows because it is easy, Kids are a good way of messing up the computer, they don't understand that most Linux is free and most have limited space on the hard drive because the kids filled the hard drive with music that they illegally downloaded from sites that they should not have gone to!

URL filtering is used in conjunction with the AV/AM software on the desktop. There are known bad sites. URL filtering can help kids not go to those sites.

I sell and test software for the Fortune 500 companies in my area. This is exactly how they are protecting themselves from the bad guys in the world. Its not all the ways but a major portion. The "Least Privilege" concept is most useful as well. If you have interest, look it up. Its common sense.

There is so much more to talk about regarding this subject. Many folks think it is above them and their understanding. Its really not.

Martin

Oh, I agree with everything you said, please don't misunderstand.  

It's just that buisnesses are generally stuck with Windows because application developers write for that platform...home users have other options that most aren't even aware of.

My dinky little network is about 275 PC's and 35 servers.  We average two calls a week to clean up machines that users have managed to do something dumb on.  AV/AM software just doesn't catch everything.  We had two infected in the last month from banner ads on a major newspaper.  We were able to build a virtual test PC, go to the site and regenerate the infection as soon as the ads rolled.

It's a pain.  On the other hand, it's a pretty good living, too!

As Jeff says, the AV software is not perfect and no one computer is safe. Malware developers work each day to increase their benefits searching security holes and they find them in all the operatives systems. Only need to read something about the Stuxnet worm in order to know that malware and virus are not a joke.

Sorry for my english

What he say???