Computer Security Question for Gregg

Part 2 of 2

...continued from previous post

Unzip it into the "Install" folder so that the original zip file, and all its contents, are all in the "Install" folder together.

Move the original zip file down into the "Done" folder ('cause in a minute or so, its installation will be done).

Left-double-click on the Setup.exe file (or the install.exe, or whatever is its name, file) to begin installation, and let the installer do its thing.

• HELPFUL HINT-O-THE-DAY REGARDING INSTALLATION: Never change any suggested/default paths or folder names during an installation. While the software maker may let you change where its software is installed on your hard drive, or may let you change the folder name into which it's installed, in subsequent of its updates said maker may assume that you installed to the default/suggested folders; and, if it can't find the original software there, said update will fail. (No one ever said software makers were smart.)

When the installation is done, just delete all the previsouly-unzipped installation files from the "Install" folder. (NOTE: If the downloaded file had been an ".exe" file instead of a ".zip" file, simply move it into the "Install" folder and left-double-click on it to begin the installation; then, when said installation is done, move the downloaded file into the "Done" folder for long-term storage. Never delete the originally-downloaded file for a given piece of software just in case you ever have to re-install it.)

Reboot (it can be a soft reboot, wherein you simply "restart the computer" rather than powering it all the way off and then turning it back on again). Even if the software doesn't require you to reboot, always do it anyway after each time you install something. Trust me on this... anally-retentive as it may seem. Always reboot after each thing you install or de-install.

When the machine comes back, move the next thing you want to install from the "Download" folder into the "Install" folder; and repeat the above steps, including moving the installation file into the "Done" folder when you're done. Then reboot again. Then do it again for the next one... until all the software you intend to use is installed... then reboot again after that last one.

When the machine comes back, make sure your firewall is running and that it's in the mode wherein it will pop-up a notification every time anyting tries to connect from outside or from within.

Then connect to the Internet. If you use dialup, you may get an alert from the firewall that your dialer is trying to talk to the Internet. Allow it... specifying that said allowance should be permanent. If you're using DSL or a cable modem, your firewall may alert you that the TCP/IP stack is trying to access the Internet. Allow it... specifying that said allowance should be permanent.

If Spyware Guard isn't already sitting in your system tray (as evidenced by the little, red "SG"), then launch it (or, if it already is, then left-double-click on the little, red "SG" to open it) and configure it to do everything for you that it's capable of doing by putting a little checkmark next to pretty much everything under "Options", "General"; then putting a dot next to "Alert and prompt for action" under "Download protection". Leave the password thing alone. Then click on "Live Update" to update it. Your firewall should prompt you that Spyware Guard is trying to access the Internet. Train it to always allow same, and then continue. After the update, minimize Spyware Guard back to the system tray.

Then load Spyware Blaster and let it load its protection database. When the "Quick Tasks" appear, click on "Enable all protection" and then click on "Download Latest Protection Updates." Your firewall should prompt you that Spyware Blaster is trying to access the Internet. Train it to always allow same, and then continue. After the update, click on "Enable All Protection" again. Then close Spyware Blaster. Your browser will now be "innoculated" against whatever exploits are in Spyware Blaster's database that you just downloaded/updated. Repeat the downloading/updating, and then protecting against all exploits, at least monthly... preferably semi-monthly.

Then load Spybot Search & Destroy. Click on the "Update" button, on the left. Click on the "Search for Updates" button. Your firewall should prompt you that Spybot Search & Destroy is trying to access the Internet. Train it to always allow same, and then continue. When it finds update, put checkmarks next to everything and then click on "Download Updates." If the firewall alerts anymore, allow everything permanently. When the updates are downloaded, click on the "Search & Destroy" button on the left; then click on the "Check for Problems" button... and let Spybot scan your entire hard drive for whatever spyware and other similar exploits it finds which are in the database you just updated. When it's done (and it could take a while), tell it to remove everything it finds, no matter what it is. Then close Spybot Search & Destroy..

Then load AVG anti-virus. Its default configuration should be to protect you against everything. If not, make it so. Then tell it to update itself. Your firewall should prompt you that AVG is trying to access the Internet. Train it to always allow same, and then continue. Once it's updated (and there may be multiple updates that you must select and okay before it's all done), then tell AVG to scan your entire hard drive for viruses. It could take a while. When it's done, tell it to heal or delete whatever it finds, regardless. Then close AVG.

Then reboot, yet again.

When your machine comes back, it will, quite likely, be as clean as it's ever been -- or may ever be. If ever there was a time to turn the rollback/restore feature back on (if, in fact, that's your intention), now would be the time. If you do, reboot, yet again.

When your machine comes back (that is, if you rebooted after turning the rollback/restore thingy back on), you're ready to rock and roll on the Internet again.

Just remember that your firewall will still be "in training" at first. It will alert you when first you launch and use Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express, and any of your software that accesses the Internet. To train the firewall, go through your whole menu system and open, then use, then close all of your normal software that happens to access the Internet, specifying each time that the firewall alerts you that said access is okay... and that it's always okay. Read all the firewall alerts carefully. If any incoming alerts seem to be from unknown IP addresses or URLs; and if they don't seem to be connected with any of the software that you're launching, using and then closing, do not allow them! Once the firewall has been trained to allow all of your Internet-connectable software to operate, then you can fairly safely reconfigure your firewall to stop prompting you every time anything tries to connect inbound or outbound. Otherwise, the firewall will pester you to death. From that point forward, if you download and install a new Internet-connectable application, you'll need to go tell the firewall that it's okay to allow it to communicate through your Internet connection.

Hmmm... lemmee think... have I left anything out? If so, just ask.

 

Alright... so maybe I can't be brief...

Yeah, yeah... I know.

 

Re: Alright... so maybe I can't be brief...

Ever done a best man speech?...

 

WOW!!

I printed all of it so I can just follow the map. Great information, and something I doubt the Geek could do with all his Geekers assisting. Hope the others keep a copy, for future reference, cause I certainly cannot bother Gregg again. Just got about $500 worth of information. I owe you.
Dank u

 

Email checkers

I'm not sure what you mean by "mail checkers" or by "my server".

But, that said, I'll tell you the very best way to handle email using an email software client (such as Outlook Express, or Eudora, etc.) on your local machine...

First, remember (or realize, if you don't already know), how email works. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives you an account on his POP3 (incoming) email server. Whenever you receive an emaill from someone, it sits in your inbox on the ISP's POP3 server until you use an email client (or an email checker) on your local machine to go out and interrogate your account on your ISP's POP3 server and see if any messages are sitting there waiting for you.

If you use a web-based email interface provided by your ISP, then it is substituting for an email client that's on your local machine. If so, then all your various folders (other than your inbox) within said interface are actually located within your account on your ISP's POP3 server. And, if so, then your email messages just stay there and are never really ever downloaded onto the hard drive of your local machine like they are if you use an email client like Outlook Express or Eudora (just to name two).

Assuming, however, that you would rather use the typically much better email client on your local machine (and not your web-based email client unless, for example, you're traveling or something), then it is, typically, said email client that interrogates your account on your ISP's POP3 server and, if it finds anything there, downloads it to your local hard drive, and then deletes whatever was downloaded from the POP3 server.

Then, when you send a message from your email client, it is your ISP's SMTP (outbound) server that receives it from your locak machine, and then routes it, immediately, out to wherever it's headed (whereupon, it sits in your intended recipient's email account on his ISP's POP3 server, waiting to either be downloaded to his local machine using his email client; or waits for him to find it when next he logs-in to his web-based email interface... whichever is the case).

An email checker, sitting on your local computer (usually in the system tray at the right, lowermost corner of the Windows desktop) sits there and checks your email account on your ISP's POP3 server every however-many-minutes-you-tell-it; and if it finds anything, it either tells you about it somehow, or it triggers your email software to go download it, or something... depending on hos it's configured.

Some people don't use email checkers. They just load, and then let their email client sit there and check the POP3 server every few minutes and, if anything is found, automatically download it to your local hard drive, and then delete it from said POP3 server. This is actually not good. It allows just any ol' email down onto your local hard drive... email that could be virus-infected; and it downloads junk and spam that, if you could have seen it sitting there on your POP3 server before it got downloaded to your local hard drive, you would have deleted if you could have.

Granted, if your anti-virus software is up and running -- and is up-to-date -- then it's quite likely to catch anything bad that your email client may try to download from your POP3 server account; but it's much better to spot potentially bad things before they're even downloaded to your local machine... while they're still up in your account on your ISP's POP3 server. Plus, it's always nice to catch/spot-and-delete spam from your account on your ISP's POP3 server before your email client tries to download messages therefrom. If your ISP has a good anti-spam routine running, then, hopefully, pretty much all the spam that your local email client might have tried to download to your hard drive has either been intercepted/deleted altogether; or it may have been moved into a "bulk mail" folder that's alongside or beneath your "inbox" on your ISP's POP3 server. If so, said "bulk mail" folder can probably only be accessed on your ISP's POP3 server via the web-based email interface (if any) that your ISP provides to you (that is, if he does at all).

You can program your email client on your local machine to filter-out spam using "message rules," but the problem with that is that said spam still gets downloaded -- even if it then gets immediately filtered into the email client's "Deleted Items" folder -- and that uses-up bandwidth and makes your email downloads longer. Plus, it's just that much more that your anti-virus software has to scan as it's being downloaded... which slows things further.

So, in my far-from-humble opinion, the best srategy is to, first, configure your email client (remember, that would be Outlook Express or Eudora, just to name two... there are many others, on your local machine) so that it never automatically goes out and checks your account on your ISP's POP3 server at all; and that when it does go check your POP3 server to see if anything's sitting there, it's strictly a manual operation which you initiate by clicking on a "check email" button, or a "send/receive" button, or a "refresh" (my personal choice) button, etc., in your email client.

Then, second, you use a simple email checker (which can be configured to go out and check several email accounts on several POP3 servers, if need be) that sits in your system tray and is configured to check all POP3 accounts every however many minutes you tell it to do so (usually every 5, 10 or 15 minutes, depending on your preference). When the email checker spots something sitting there in one of our POP3 accounts, waiting to be downloaded by your email client, the checker beeps you, or pops-up a dialog box, or changes the color of the icon in the system tray... or whatever it is you configure it to do. Then -- and this is the cool part -- you use the email checker, and not your email client, to go take a look at (preview) whatever's waiting for you out there in your account on your ISP's POP3 server; and you decide if you'd like to just go ahead and delete any of it from said POP3 server, right then and there, before you go and instruct your email client to download it all to your local hard drive.

Yes, it means manually reviewing all your email and cherrypicking from the list of what's sitting there that which you'd like not to even download (spam and whatnot); but, when it comes right down to it, what's a better spam filter than the human brain? After a while, you'll get good at spotting suspected virus/worm/trojan/spyware emails, too.

But it doesn't have to be manual. If you want, and if the email checker's sufficiently full-featured, you can configure said email checker in your system tray to auto-delete known spam, and known virus/trojan/worm/spyware emails for you, in the background, while you're doin' other stuff... so that when you do use the email checker to go take a look at things just prior to downloading it all using your email client, you won't have so many spams and exploit-tainted emails to wade through. A good email checker has a spam filtering capability -- or even a whitelist/blacklist capability -- to handle as much crap for you as it can so you don't have to do it manually. A good email checker can even replace any user-configurable spam filters that your ISP may provide you in your email account on his POP3 server!

A good email checker can even alert you, with sounds from your computer's speakers, and pop-ups on its screen -- sometimes even by sending email messages to your pager or cell phone -- whenever emergency messages, or special messages from certain known senders, arrive. For example, I have my 800-numbers set up so that if I don't have them configured to ring to the phone on the desk where I'm sitting; and if, therefore, someone leaves a voicemail message, then it sends an email message to my regular email inbox, and also to my pager (and sometimes to my cell phone, if that's how I decide to configure it). When a voicemail notification arrives in my regular email inbox, I have my email checker programmed to pop-up a dialog, and make a special sound, to tell me that I've received the notification message from my 800 number service.

I'm tellin' ya'... if one gets the right email checker, and then configures and uses it properly, it's the only way to go!

And, in my opinion, the "right" email checker is PopTray... which is completely free, and is, I opine, best-of-breed.

If you decide to abandon all other email checkers that you may already have on your machine, then you should first de-insall them all, and try to eleimate any trace of them on your machine. Then reboot. Then download and install PopTray. Configure it wilh all your POP3 account info, and then tell it to check your POP3 accounts every 10 minutes or so.

Then go configure your email client (Outlook Express, or Eudora, or whatever you're using) so that it does not automatically check your POP3 account(s) for new emails when it's first loaded; and so that it doesn't automatically check every however-many minutes, either.

Then preview with PopTray, delete whatever you don't want your email client to download, and then only download with your email client what you really want to make it down onto your hard drive.

Once you get that down, then learn about how to use the whitelist/blacklist feature... and all the rest of PopTray's features.

You'll love it, I promise!

 

Yes, this is terribly important, in my opinion. AVG does not allow the FBI, et al, to plant spyware on your computer. Norton, McAfee, et al, won't really say, for sure, whether they will or not. I believe it's safe to assume that they will.

Not that I expect to ever be spied-on by the FBI, of course... but... you know... I'm just sayin'... er... rather... Steve's just sayin'.

Yeah... that's it. It's Steve, FBI... not me! He's the one! Spy on him!

 

I'll fry my copier.

This is stuff I've never heard of before. I read constantly, and quite a bit about computers. All the info is about what the machine can do, not how to set-up systems to make things work without a degree from MIT. I may learn to like this box, and lose the Geek's number.
U de Man

 

Re: WOW!!

Or more.

But don't let that stop you from asking further questions. Hell, we've started down this road... might as well go for it.

Plus, all the adulation's making me kinda' tingly. (kidding... er... well... you know... sort of)

 

Re: Re: Alright... so maybe I can't be brief...

Yes.

But are people supposed to yell, "Wrap it up!" from the back of the room?

 

Can I rest both brain cells?

I have a slew of questions, but want to attempt phrasing them properly. I tend to get off topic easily and focus on trivia. Ya know, that Geeks would be happy to pay you every time your information is used, even if it is available after digging through stacks of crap. Just simplifying the subject is worth a hell of a lot to folks like me. And would definitely expand their/our knowledge base.

I'm not complaining, or asking for a bill, keep it coming. I'll work on some new stupid questions, and maybe some others can jump in.
Uitstekender Leraar