Clair,

any recommendations for Email Software other than Outlook or Outlook Express? I use Outlook mainly because I know what it can do, like the way it intergrates with all the other Office software I use because of work and because I can set it up to run the way I want to.

I have to admit to setting it up with security as a major concern so no downloading of pictures unless I say so, no reading pane or preview and of course full antivirus scanning of all incoming and outgoing email. As I use Yahoo for my email I have a second level of AV through them, which also limits the amount of junk coming in.

However I am open to suggestions of other systems, especially if it makes my system safer.

A lot of us have serious concerns about computer security/privacy. There are a lot of software applications out there promising either or both. What a lot of people don't know is that some of the best programs are free to download and use, although some ask for voluntary donations. There are 4 that I recommend to my friends:

1. NORTON ANTIVIRUS (NAV) (by Symantec)Is considered by many to be the best antivirus program available for home systems. It is not free. It is however very effective against the majority of attacks and it has an automatic update that will do the work for you once a week (although I like to do it manually as well and subscribe to
http://esecurityplanet.com/ to get daily warnings on new threats that might require an immediate, simple manual update) It is worth the money and nobody should be without a good antivirus program if their computer is hooked up to the internet. I prefer it to McAfee.

2. ZONE ALARM - (ZA) (by Zone Labs) a free and highly effective firewall. Considered by many to be better than all the home firewalls that you pay for. It has a pay-for version that has extra bells and whistles, but the free version is all you need. It also has an autoupdate feature, relieving you of remembering to do it yourself. Nobody should be online without a firewall. Attacks can now come randomly against your computer just by being online. You no longer have to open an email attachment or even an email to get "clocked and locked" by roving bands of internet scum, who will then party in your computer and rob you and trash the place while you are "out".

www.zonelabs.com

3. SPYBOT-SEARCH AND DESTROY is a free malware detector you download and install on your computer. "...searches your hard disk and registry for existing spying/advertisement robots..." and can remove them. It can be set to autocheck your computer, if you like, to see if any nasty programs have snuck in through your sentries or if you inadvertently let it in. ZA and NAV usually stop this, but it also finds stuff installed on your computers in situ (at your keyboard) by nosey wives, girlfriends, children, milkmen.

www.spybot.info

4. ADAWARE also free and finds sneaky cookies and stuff that can be used to track you online and spy on your computer. Can also be set to check automatically. "Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level."

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/


Many users have the last two on their computers to help keep privacy intact.

There are other software types available, including those that clear the remnants of your internet travels from the secret places that they are left in after you think you cleared them in your browser. It's really scary kids. I'm doing some research on that now and will get back with more applications later.

I highly recommend having all 4 of the above on your computer, and since 3 are free....

Wendy

Thanks Wendy - great selection. I might add though that there is an antivirus program called AVG produced by Grisoft. There is a free version which is updated as often as the pay for version. As with Zone Alarm the paid for version has more bells and whistles but the free version is ok - Whereas it is not as effective as Norton it is good. I have been using the program for over 6 years and have had little if any problems with viruses. Granted i use the paid version but the rest of our home computers - linked on a network use the free version. One small problem it does need some ability to read and follow instructions to remove persistent Trojan Horses.

Website http://www.grisoft.com

Thanks Tina, I didn't have a freeware antivirus program to recommend.

I must warn everyone about SpyKiller. They offer you a free scan of your computer to see if you have any spyware, adware or malware onboard.

Although I didn't have any specific problems, I thought I'd give it a try and foolishly downloaded it from their site at http://www.spykiller.com.

I was amazed when the first scan I did uncovered nearly 500 suspect items. When I clicked the button to delete the dodgy stuff I was told I'd have to pay about $40.

On that occasion I decided against it but from that moment on, my computer was inundated with popup ads - so many that I could hardly use the computer at all.

It was fairly obvious that Spykiller had placed all that garbage on my computer in order to force me to pay $40 to remove it.

I wrote to them and accused them of doing exactly that. They virtually admitted responsibility in their reply by suggesting I remove Spykiller to stop the popups.

Having done as they said, the popups continued, although there were fewer of them. I finally got rid of them by using Ad Aware by Lavasoft, which is a superb piece of software and the 'SE Personal' version is totally free.

I would urge you not to go near SpyKiller even though they have a snazzy looking web site and their software sounds good initially.

I think they are a bunch of con artists who you will deal with at your peril!

Hugs,

Katie x

Hi Girls
I have used Zone alarm the free version as my fire wall for the last three years.and upgraded to the pro version as I wanted the extra features.Anti Vir is a fine free anti virus software as is Adaware for getting rid of all sorts of tracking cookies and spybot for trojans I have used all four pieces of software continusly and have absolutly no pop ups or suffer from DNS wich can be inserted into browsers especially windows Explorer.I highly recommend all the above software A they are free and B they are very effective.

Wendy,

I agree anyone who has their PC attached to the Internet should take responsibility for the security of that computer. It annoys me that someone will pay £1500 for the latest all singing and dancing PC and then not pay £25 for Norton Internet Security. Personally I think these people should be banned from having an Internet Connection.

I use Norton Internet Security which is fantastic. Touch wood I have never been compromised. The auto update facility is great , just sits in the corner and does exactly what it says on the tin. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of getting 'pay for' software as it is definitely worth the money.

I also use SpyBot and Ad-aware which have ripped a huge amount of rubbish off both my PC's. You just have to be aware that there is a slight overlap issue with these two programs but it's nothing major.

So those of you out there with only Windows Firewall or less get yourselves so decent protection and help everyone by keeping the Internet safe for all.

I just thought I'd point out that any computer connected to the internet without a firewall is likely to be compromised within 10 minutes. not even enough time to download the firewall in some cases.

I use Norton AV, Zone Alarm and Spybot. I have't used Adaware.

Katie, I've a question about zone alarm, earlier today I had problems logging in to TW, I went to the help page and cleared my cache etc. but still no joy. I opened up Zone Alarm fully to TW, but was only able to log in after a reboot.

My question is do you have a list of optimal Zone Alarm settings for trannyweb?
Session and persistent cookies are enabled by default.
I think mobile code is probably required for some parts of TW.
Do 3rd party cookies, web bugs and private headers need to be allowed?

Even before I ran my own server I must say I ran veritually no AV protection, and suffered next to no problems.. mostly because I've had windows set up correctly. By which I mean not the defaults...

1. Firstly and most importantly.. DON'T USE OUTLOOK or any other 'html email' package, stick with something that is to stupid to understand scripts in emails, that way the little nasties that come that way can do you no harm.

2. Delete any attachment you are not expecting...

3. Lock down explorer completly, as in turn almost everything off for the internet zone. Now add sites into 'trusted sites' based on experience or personal recommendations.

4. set windows to show file extensions for known file types, this can be a pain at the time but if you ever see something like 'file.doc.exe' you know its not a document but a program.

the only thing i've suffered from in the last year was the first sasser worm, but thats a problem within windows itself.

My current setup uses a second hand machine as a hardware firewall. Running Linux its immune to most virus related problems, I also use it for email killing two birds with one stone. As an aside it also stores a backup image of my windows machines hard drive 'just in case'

Cost? a machine capable of being a fire wall can be obtained second hand for little more than a tenner these days. my networking gear cost me 60 quid, but it does 'a bit more' you can hook two machines up with a pair of cheap cards and a lenght of cat-5 cable. hook the firewall up to the net, for preference via broadband over ethener but a modem works just as well and away you go. the second hand monitor to set it up may cost you more than the rest. Oh yes software? Linux can be downloaded for free, go for something like smoothwall because its small and is designed as a firewall.

I agree totally with Alex though.. if you spend a grand ona PC then spend sweet f.a. on protecting it you want shooting.

As does anyone still sending html emails...

Clair,
Just wondering do you have any opinions on Thunderbird on windows for email?
I've downloaded it, but haven't gotten round to installing it and importing my mail from outlook express.

used to use the email package as part of netscape many moons ago, not run email under windows for ages..

If you can find it and don't mind running something in a text window 'pine' is one of the best programs there is for this sort of thing.

I tend to use 'kmail' but thats not running under windows, reckon netscpaes the best bet, just stear clear of the browser.. cus its a tad slow. Mind you it may well be more secure than MIE as well..

Integration with other parts of the system is a big headache with email, cus basically only outlook can integrate to the degree required, but you get used to working round that.

As a Mac user I find I don't have any problems with viruses or other garbage. The browser I use (Safari) has a very effective pop-up ad blocker.

On our family PC, I've installed NAV, Spybot and Adaware. They do a good job between them. We tend not to use Internet Explorer any more. Firefox is a much better browser and doesn't have Explorer's security problems.

For the email program, I use Mail on the Mac and Eudora on the PC. Eudora is safe and effective. I'm told that Thunderbird is also very good but haven't tried it.

Catherine

I'm in the minority camp.

I use McAfee Internet Security sweep--very nice, free updates for a year once you've bought it, and it's pretty easy to use.

Love AdAware SE and Spybot, too. Good stuff.

If you have broadband and no firewall, don't blame me when you end up missing all your stuff--or worse, when your 'puter crashes and won't come back.

Luv 'n hugs to all,

Mina Sakura
"Almost-Angel, T-Girl Genius, and Ultra-Flirt"

Here's another thoght on the computer security issue, how many of us regulary back up our work? I try to but as the Backup facility on XP seems to create a monster file that won't fit on a CD I tend to drag and drop just the relevant files on to a CD-RW. Not the best solution but I at least have a copy in case it all goes bang.

Does anyone have a good back up system that will let you make you back up directly onto CD? I suppose it would need a compression system to fit a system backup onto a CD.

And whilst I think about it does anyone know of a CD Writing system that works. XP is OK but I used to have a system that allowed you to use a CD-RW like a floppy disk, trouble is can't remember the name of it.

Alex
xxx

Roxio CD writing program seems to work fairly well, though my use of it is limited and it is not all that intuitive. Figuring how to add stuff later has been a problem for me, but I suspect that is my lack of understanding of how the software works since I don't do well without a written manual in front of me.

We had McAfee, with a year's free updates, but stuff was getting through. After the second crash my roommate finally got NAV and we have had no problems since...other than the reinstall of XP was done poorly and I don't have broadband so I can't dl the updates if I reinstall...M$ pain in the ass "copy protection system" that won't let me dl and burn the updates to CD. Still, McAfee is not bad, I just found NAV to work better for us and easier for the computer illiterates around me to not totally screw things up while I'm out at lunch.

backups?

try this.. its not briliant but it does work..

you need a few things. the command line version of the archive package 'tar' and the command line version of a compression program, 'gzip' or 'bzip2' are fine.

Create a script/batch file to add files to an archive with the 'update' flag, thus only files that have changed are added reducing processing overhead.

Write the script to include files in directories you want to back up, and any extra files. then run this script/batch file at predetermined intervals. If the file is too big for your physical backup medium I think some of the archive programs can split a single archive into multiple smaller bits. If this is a big problem and with CD-RW it may well be, consider a DVD burner its worth it to save the time.

It is also worth creating several backups, one relating specifically to windows (don't back up the swap file), this does NOT include any files of yours, just windows and its setup files. Another holds your programs, along with anything they save in their own directories. This may only need updating rarely. Finally a thrid archive holds your own documents, this should be backed up as often as you think is required. Weekly is good for most people.

These are then backed up onto CD/DVD (use re-writable) you retain the last few backups, after that reuse the discs unless you have a requirement to keep them.

Also it is worth keeping all your driver file copied onto one disc, if you have to reinstall windows it saves time.

Also if your system does go down to a virus, it may be worth using it as an excuse to start windows from stratch and just copying your files back onto it. and reinstall the applications directly.

This takes a bit of time to set up, but you generally only have to do it once.

Myself.. I run a seperate file server with a decent journaled file system, and don't backup anything like as often as I should. But then my own machine has relativly little of actual value on it. Even so I do backup bits of it using the above routine..

If you are seriously into backing up stacks of data, get a tape drive and use the software that comes with it. the ability to stick 20GB onto one tape is worth it.

Oh yes one final point.. keep your backup media safe..