Computer optimization and security help

bozotheclown138 · Post by **bozotheclown138** » 13 Jul 2009, 23:39

EN's Overview for computers (Every product mentioned in this is free except some of the antiviruses) email me at Bozoandclown@gmail.com for questions or comments (this was edited July 29, 2009)

Everything here can be safely downloaded from www.download.com

Firewalls
comodo firewall- i like this firewall with proactive defense. The pros to this are that it is rather easy to understand, but still has options for more advanced users.
It allows you to define trusted applications and it warns you when an application trys to access the internet also if you are installing new software you can turn it to installation
mode which remove the warnings for the amount of time you are installing the new object. There are also many tools where you can work with different ports and how they respond.
The proactive Defense option will give an annoying amount of warnings but is worth it if you have the patience for it to define your trusted applications. You can block files, protect files,
and protect certain registry keys.

Zonealarm-I use this firewall on most of my computers, it only alerts you of programs the first time they ask for access unlike comodo and it is a very simple user
interface with easy to understand options but many less options than comodo. Security settings are based on high medium and off with easy to understand explanations with each.
It has a few extra options such as locking your hosts file and hiding your ip address as often as it can.

Spyware Removers (not antivirus just removers)
For solely removing viruses and such my favorite tool is malwarebytes antimalware, the pros to this tool is that is updated regularly
and it has in my opinion one of the best detection rates. The cons to this is that the full system scan is rather slow and it hogs system resources and very few scan options.

One other tool I enjoy that usually gets a bad rep is spybot search and destroy, its scanner is shit i wont lie but if you dont know much about computers then
this is an excellent tool for you it detects the majority of "scareware" and other fake programs that tell you false info about your computer so you buy
unnecessary programs you dont need. For more advanced users however it probably wont detect anything the immunization feature of this is rather nice
and you can add the programs list of bad websites to your host file and you can lock your host file as read only (you can do that on your own, but its a nice
shortcut) Now what I like is the advanced user mode it allows you to modify startups, processes, BHO's, activeX, and some other things too.
Well the startup manager has a more indepth scan than other products i've seen such as iobits products and not too mention it tells you
if that starup is safe, unnecessary, or dangerous. Same thing goes for the BHO's and ActiceX. You can also see you startup pages to see if any have been
hijacked and you can then reconfigure that.

HiJackThis- A great tool just displays a lot of areas where malware can hide, but its basically the same thing as spybots feature, i personally prefer spybot
just because it organizes them much more nicely. HiJackThis shows some more information but once again if you dont know what something is you would want to
use spybot.

Run analyzer-Another good product from spybot search and destroy it is just a program that will load up a bunch of different tabs and shows you areas of the registry that
are commonly infected and allows you to edit them. Only use this if you have a good idea of seperating the good from the bad because the majority of these registry keys
are supposed to be here and you should not delete them.

Asquaredfree-one of the best virus scanners, it has an incredible detection rate and not many FP's, normal amount of resources, rather long time, good scan options,
however this is rather annoying but most the times you update it it will require a restart

Optimizing and cleaning/Gaming

For optimizing i love iobits utilities the most personally they offer most things for free and they are high quality products so ill give a rundown of
the majority of their products some point in this overview. and there will be some basic things you can do yourself.

OK so firstly smart defrag is considered the best dragment tool out there and that is self explanatory.

Next my all time favorite tool advanced system care, godly it is and ill go over its features. It has spyware removal which is a quick scanner for some
of the most common infections out there. Registry Fix is a good indepth scanner that fixes registry errors which will improve pc performance. Privacy sweep and junk files
clean are just to remove useless files and get rid of your internet history. system optimization-self explanatory. security defense just provides your system with extra protection.
disk defragment dont bother you have smart defrag for that. security analyzer checks for hijacked settings and allows you to kill processes and remove other things that may be causing this.
Ok internet booster if you use firefox use expert mode and jsut choose your bandwidth and optimize them both with recommended settings. Now open up smart ram and just click settings
and make sure they are all checked this will just free up extra memory and improve performance. and shortcut fixer I think is just there to make it feel like your
fixing something important but it doesnt matter all the other tools are selfexplanatory.

Game Booster-Not only for games it frees up a lot of ram if you are running a slow system and its just plain amazing saves me up to 200mb of ram and raised my fps for my games by 10
end of iobit utilities

Game gain- just use the free edition and itll help your gaming experience not a huge difference but it raised my fps by an additional 8. no reason not to get a free program Wink

Ccleaner- Just a simple and quick utility to remove unecessary files and fix registry errors.

Orbit Downloader-Just a nice utility that increases download speed by an enormous amount and gives you many nice features you can use online such as downloading videos and music
directly from the website.

Glary Utilities-Pretty much a ripoff of advancedsystemcare but offers slightly different utilities.

Alright now for some things you can do just go to your control panel select performance and maintaince then system then advanced then performance thne visual effects disable whatever you dont need
im too lazy to write them all then go to advanced and under virtual memory click change and make the number double to the amount of ram you have. In the start menu click run then type msconfig
now click the tab that says services and just google which ones you can disable or just have game booster do it for you but it helps if you disable them yourself.
Your background image takes up a considerable amount of memory and just change it to a plain color such as blue to make a slight difference. Ok now this one wont work for all computers but go start run
gpedit.msc if it doesnt work then your machine cant do this but if it does under computer configuration click administrative templates then network then QoS packet scheduler then right click limit reservable
bandwidth and set it from 20 to 0. Now what you just did was made it so there was no limit on how much bandwidth the internet could use therefore allowing to use more making your internet faster.
One last thing if your hard drive is in FAT32 then go ahead and change that to NTSF it is slightly quicker. start/run/cmd. then type in this command "convert C: /fs:ntfs" you can also do that command with drive D

Browsers
Ok google chrome is what id consider the fastest and safest due to it is fairly new so there are not many flaws found yet but that will change however there are not many addons for it.
Safari=shit thats all you need to know about safari.
Internet Explorer is nothing special although it probably has the most security features for it from other products.
Firefox is where its at the safest, one of the fastest and it has the most addons just use it trust me.

Just quickly my two favorite bittorrrent applications are utorrent and then bitcomet.

Alright Everyone last and probably longest list of reviews by me Antiviruses

Ok this is the only area where I will mention some things that are not free but i will mention all the major free ones too.

ADAWARE ANNIVERSARY EDITION (free)- Alright maybe wrong area but it has has hog of an active scanner and it has a good virus definition file but once again a resource hog and overall i hate the damn tool
and it has a slow scanner
AVG (free)-Never was a fan of the "top rated" antivirus i hate it but if your not too swell with computers and you dont want to worry/take care of your computer then this is for you it is
very "self operating" and itll be fine for most users but you will need some of the spyware removers i mentioned before if you choose this.
AVIRA (free)-Light on resources it is one the best out there usually has the newest detections before most others, not enough can be said about this it is overall excellent, good detection rate fairly good scanner
that doesnt slow down the computer compared to some of the others and fairly easy to use and customize.
AVAST (free)- Another good choice uses a decent amount of resources although has quite exceptionally "defense Systems" I guess you may say. Updates itself. The downfalls to this though are
it has too many false positives and a very slow scanner. great prevention though.
BITDEFENDER FREE-Overall average i like the scanner fairly quick not too much of a hog and the program is rather light on resources too. ok detection but nothing special.
Counterspy (paid)-I would call this shit terrible removal and poor prevention. enough said.
ESET NOD32 (paid)-No personal experience with this before but I hear it is another that is ranked among the best and from what ive heard i would recommend it.
KASPERSKY (paid)-No personal experience again but also ive heard it is one of the best and i would recommend it.
MCAFEE (paid)-God awful one of the worst there is. Hogs your resources like no other and has quite a few false positives and a bad detection rate. DO NOT GET THIS.
NORTON (paid)-Alright its not too heavy on resources and it has good prevention with regualr updates. I like this antivirus overall but it does not have the capabilities of scanning for unknown threats at least not good capabilities haha.
Also its scanner doesnt pick up on everything and it has a rather bad removal and is kinda slow.
PANDA CLOUD (free)-Well its still in beta but i like it you install and forget its virus database is kept online and its only 20mb and it keeps itself maintained completely
only downside is that there is no restore option and no exclude option other than that it is very good. It uses new technology (cloud method) to use barely any resources and is probably the lightest out there.
RISING ANTIVIRUS FREE-terrible bad scanner, bad detection, and a little heavy on resources not recommended.
SECURITY 360-Another product from Iobit i have the beta 2 right now and it is not a full antivirus but it is compatible with every antivirus and provides extra protection while consuming almost no resources.
Many great prevention tools pc security analysis automatically does a quick check for problems and allows you to fix them. It has regular updates. Scanner is slow and not the best detection but hey its still a beta program
and it has the ability to detect unknown threats. Very easy to enable and disable protection. Powerful delete if you cant delete a certain file this will do it for you. Hijack scan to check for hijacked settings
and you can manually fix them shows ActiveX, BHO's, processes, startups, and more and of course you can edit them. It finds security holes and will then fix them for you. And finally passsive defense which all these
following options in that catagory will pretty much just make your surfing experience much safer.
SPYWARE DOCTOR-Terrible install experience and a huge resource hog. Only reason to get it is for its scanner which has a good amount of false positives, but detects some adware that most other scanners dont get.
Spyware Terminator-very fast scan but bad detection rate and not the best prevention. (no need to put in the quick overview)

QUICK OVERVIEW
ADAWARE-resource=high, scanner=decent detection, lot of resources, few false positives, not the best removal, rather long
AVG-resource=small to medium, scanner=good detection, little resources, few FP's, good removal, normal amount of time. prevention=good, easy to use, updated regularly
AVIRA-resource=very little, Scanner=Very god detection, the most options of any, small to medium resources, few FP's, Normal amount of time, Very detailed results. easy to use, automated updates. only con is that there is only one component to stop and start
Avast-resources=normal, scanner=very slow, medium to high resources, high FP's, very few details on infections. easy to use automated updates, very good prevention and 6 or 7 components to choose from.
BitDefender-resources-small/medium scanner=normal resources, slightly longer time, detection good, few FP's. easy to use, only one component to start and stop but not the best choice
CounterSPY-resources=normal scanner=terrible removal, not the best detection rate. overall highly not recommended
ESET NOD32-I hear great things all around about this product only thing is that it probably consumes more resources than other products
KASPERSKY-Once again I hear great things but probably higher on resource consumption
MCAFEE-resource=high scanner=high FP's, Not the best detection rate, bad removal. I pray that you don't have this.
Norton-resource=high scanner=low detection rate, normal time, bad removal. more difficult interface but many good options, great prevention
PANDA CLOUD-still in beta, resource=lowest of any, scanner=pretty quick, not enough options, no restore function, no exception function, easiest to use, it keeps track of itself, bad news is it crashes a lot
RISING ANTIVIRUS-resources=normal scanner=low detection rate, normal time, high resource consumption, overall not recommended
SECURITY 360-still in beta has a few but not many bugs, resources=very low, scanner=normal time, few resources, average detection rate, good removal, good options, easy to use, not automated updates, the most and my favorite amount of extra tools
SPYWARE DOCTOR-terrible install, huge resource hog, very buggy, scanner=high on resources, finds adware most others dont, average time, not automated updates, overall not recommended

OK if you have 1g or more of ram I recommend ESET NOD32 or KASPERSKY
If you have 512mb or less I recommend AVG or AVIRA
If your gamer and prefer best performance I'd use AVIRA or PANDA CLOUD with SECURITY 360
IF you want the best security I'd recommend ESET NOD32 or KASPERSKY with security 360

All other major antiviruses I can not give an opinion on because I have had no experience with them and For overall recommendation for beginners use AVG. For people who take care and can update their antivirus and want top
security I recommend AVIRA, ESET NOD32, or KASPERSKY. And for least amount of resources consumed I recommend AvIRA, or to use a combination of PANDA CLOUD and SECURITY 360 (both are still beta programs at this time however)
And remember use spyware removers with any of these products becuase no antivirus can get everything. I hope you Enjoyed! =D

Post by **DNR** » 14 Jul 2009, 09:01

Nice read, welcome to suck-o.

I wished you mentioned Process Explorer - you are better off replacing Task Man with it. I have process explorer in the start up folder. You can easily "Baseline" your computer and detect anomalies quicker with this valuable tool.
Lastly, you need some sort of analyzer to check packets that are being RX/TX - I can't trust an application to tell me exactly what is going on (either you get a default answer or a dumbed down one) so I do my own investigation.
Windows also comes with a basic wifi/network comm tools too - so I have used Netstumbler and wificommview (doesn't work on Vista - checking) to give me better analysis of my traffic too. The windows basic comm tools also can't give details like a good sniffer - wireshark.

Plenty of these tools in the Suck-o Download Section.

DNR

Post by **floodhound2** » 14 Jul 2009, 10:01

As I mentioned many times in the past there is the option to run nothing. I find that my computer runs much faster.

As soon as people realize that anti virus makers are not really protecting computers the better. Till then people download till your heart is content.

The idea that a program can protect against other programs is illogical to me. JMO - welcome to suck-o

Post by **DNR** » 14 Jul 2009, 10:11

right floodie - and Win Vista with its DEP and not using "Run as Admin" could very well replace the need for a AVP. Consider most people - most people would access a protected mail server like Gmail - they already scan and remove malware. More and more AVP is looking like server-side rather than desktop. If the OS can protect its files and prevent priviledge escallation, then whats a virus or trojan to do?

I still use a firewall though - it'll block the unsolicted stuff and notify you if a authorized process deviates and tries to open another port.

It really comes down to knowing your systems, its Base line.

DNR

Post by **floodhound2** » 14 Jul 2009, 10:38

Exactly DNR that is the type of scenario / setup I am trying to describe to people.

bozotheclown138 · Post by **bozotheclown138** » 14 Jul 2009, 12:50

thank you for the welcome and advice and yes i probably should have added those but you gave a good enough run down on them so no need anymore

Post by **DNR** » 14 Jul 2009, 14:33

bozo,
you can update your post and then make it a PDF - its worth reading for members. We like to think that threads are open to share - members can post suggestions and updates to the original post - the author can then re-create the initial post with the updates and make it a _tutorial_. We allow authors to maintain their rights, but suggest you include the suck-o logo and link to credit the support the forum gave you.

DNR

Post by **ph0bYx** » 14 Jul 2009, 15:46

Very nice.
Although I have one question, you here mentioned:

Orbit Downloader-Just a nice utility that increases download times by an enormous amount and gives you many nice features you can use online such as downloading videos and music
directly from the page.

that it increases download times, so does that mean that it would take more time to download the it usually does? That wouldn't be so nice if you ask me...

bozotheclown138 · Post by **bozotheclown138** » 14 Jul 2009, 19:17

ph0bYx wrote:Very nice.
Although I have one question, you here mentioned:
Orbit Downloader-Just a nice utility that increases download times by an enormous amount and gives you many nice features you can use online such as downloading videos and music
directly from the page.
that it increases download times, so does that mean that it would take more time to download the it usually does? That wouldn't be so nice if you ask me...

haha yeah sorry i meant reduces download times by an enormous amount at least for wireless networks, its not as effective for direct connections but thank you for pointing out that mistake

Lyecdevf · Post by **Lyecdevf** » 16 Jul 2009, 04:01

The best thing to do is to reinstall your windows OS. Create a user account and surf the net with that. That way you do not have to worry about viruses and other spyware. With out administrator privelages nothing can get installed on your computer. You can get your self a fancy firewall like BlackIce instead of the typical windows firewall. The only hitch is that you need to log out of your user account and into the administrator account in order to install the software you want. It is not that difficult but most people put tons of anti-something on there computers in order to keep them safe but what they are doing is just slowing there computers down. As a powerPC user I would not tolerate any thing slowing the computer down.

bozotheclown138 · Post by **bozotheclown138** » 16 Jul 2009, 14:53

Well of course there are some people smart enough to be able use no antivirus and they probably view it as a resource hog and unnecesary, but for anyone that uses limewire and doesnt want to pay for music it is essential. (yes i know there are other safer programs for free music because there is always an alternative, but how many people download those? not many) and always there are many people out there who do not know what they are doing, such as those who actually download rogue security systems, if you have ever fallen for one of those then you need this too. Bitttorrent sites also cause a need for antiviruses you can usually go off the reviews for the torrent but sometimes there are none that makes it much easier for it to be a dangerous program.

I mean no offense to those who do not believe in having an antivirus, im just pointing out there are many other reasons that may not be useful to you, but however could help other people.

Post by **computathug** » 16 Jul 2009, 18:21

I agree Bozo, any person who is the average user these days, meaning they really have no clue and not interested as long as they can switch on, access the web then they dont care as long as they feel safe. I install a AV on every personal computer i repair and also some of the programs mentioned above in your initial post. So pointing to a noob user then all these are good examples of programs to keep the user safe.

I also agree with the rest of the replies on here that if you have any pc savy about you then you dont need to install a AV but a firewall is alway of the most importance. Great info for new people visiting the site and a good informational post. Welcome to suck-o and i hope you gain as much as others can learn from you in the future.

In the general discussion part of the forum you will find the introduce yourself thread. Please tell us a little about yourself there and enjoy the site, hope to see you around the boards

C-thug

Post by **floodhound2** » 17 Jul 2009, 06:53

bozotheclown138 wrote: I mean no offense to those who do not believe in having an antivirus, im just pointing out there are many other reasons that may not be useful to you, but however could help other people.

No offense taken. You are so right about limewire and bittorrents. I don't use them and can get music and data from other means that are far more secure. Again you are correct and the average Joe will need AV and other bull shit.

Nice write up.

Post by **Lundis** » 17 Jul 2009, 12:48

Exactly how does an MP3-file infect one's computer? I can't see how that's gonna happen unless it's named "file.mp3.exe" and the user is a complete noob with default folder view settings in windows

Is there any other way for it to happen?

Post by **floodhound2** » 17 Jul 2009, 13:48

We were referring as Its not that an mp3 file is going to infect a computer its the place where the mp3's are downloaded.

However a seemingly mp3 could contain some other file that you would never know was in it thus resulting in some type of infection. Like a binder. Anything is possible