AV compatibility and Performance

I'm running Sophos, a corporate edition from my school. I don't know how long I'll have, but it still says that it's been updating. Although, the program gets a lot of stupid red X's through it all the time.

Also, I installed Malware Bytes. I'm also using Comodo Firewall. Should I be using all three programs? My computer can handle the resource consumption I think.

Maybe someone here can help me optimize my computers performance too.:drool

 

Hello rkd1990...

What are the specs of your PC? Do you feel like you can get more from your PC or that it's not performing up to your expectations?

Even though it's a big thing to change firewalls, I recommend a look at PrivateFirewall. I think Comodo is around 200 MB, while PF is like 8 MB. I've used both, and I found PF to be very competent and complete and lighter on resources. Matousec tests rate the two programs close together in performance.

When it comes to comparing the two, Comodo seems to have tried to make CIS/CF more hands off operation, while the actual mechanisms for controlling things are hard to find. PF is more hands on/user based control and more interaction, but the settings are easier to find. PF does have all the settings you would look for for sure, though. I like PF much better myself.

 

- Windows 7 Home Premium
- Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
- Toshiba
- Satellite P855
- x64-based Pc
- Intel Core: i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30 GHZ, 2301 Mhz, 4 cores, 8 logical processors
- BIOS: Toshiba 6.80
- SMBIOS Version: 2.7
- RAM: 8GB
- Physical Memory 7.89GB
- Available Physical Memory 4.63GB
- Virtual Memory 15.8GB
- Available Virtual Memory 10.9GB
-Page File Space 7.89GB

K, that covers everything. It's late so I'm not going to do any changing tonight.

I do play Elder Scrolls Online like once or twice a month because I'm busy starting a business.

I want to be able to completely test websites on my computer and develop mobile apps. I'm just learning programming.:cool

Also, I want to clean up my programs and optimize my startup. Loading times have been increasing to my dismay even after getting rid of a lot of junk over the summer.

I also want to decrease loading times for programs while actively using the computer.

The load times aren't excessive, but they were lighting fast when I first bought the computer. I do recognize that I'm probably taxing my computer too much with ESO (Elder Scrolls). It overheated like 20 times before I got the hint to buy some fans for my PC. It's a gaming laptop, but the computer doesn't overheat and die any more.

It's a janky setup when playing. I use a USB air extractor along with a base fan under the laptop because I have bottom intake fans that push heat out the sides.

I read that heat can build up at the bottom of my laptop from the heat sink or something. Of course, those guys were right. My laptop overheated a bunch.

I did do a hard drive scan with sentinal something. Everything seemed to check out, not sure tho. It's not my area of expertise.

 

rkd1990...

New programmer...how cool. Wish I was a programmer. Actually, I have a prototype for a programming job that I have looking for a programmer for for months. That's the biggest reason I wish I could program right now. I keep saying I will pick it up, but I don't seem to get a chance to ever.

I think I have some pretty solid theories on why boot times slow so much. It's part of the work I have been doing. After looking at it all pretty thoroughly, it now seems kind of normal that it happens...I mean based on the breakdowns of Windows I have been able to come up with.

Your equipment looks like it should be OK, although you don't mention a graphics card. If you have standard graphics, that's probably what's causing the heat. Don't own a laptop, so one of the laptop guys around here can probably help you better with heat. If you absolutely have to play Elder Scrolls on the laptop, I guess that would be pretty important for its long term health.

 

From Dx Diag:

-Direct X11
-Intel(R) Graphics 4000
-1696MB Memory
-1366 x 768 (32bit)(60Hz)
-Generic PnP Monitor

Oh, I did miss that. I just pulled everything from system information. I should have just went to dxdiag from the start.

Definitely hoping someone will get back to me on what to do about ESO. I don't want to buy a gaming computer.

I heard I can get 10 - 20% more out of my crappy integrated graphics card. My processor for the game should be strong enough though.

I wasn't clear when I was talking about programming. I'm working on Web and mobile development just for the purpose of building a business. I don't plan to make it a life long venture if it's unnecessary.

I want to hire people to code for me if possible down the line.

Also, I think you're looking for people that can do coding on machines. That's stuff like Assembly, C++, etc. My work would be more server side, business language, and user side development. PHP, MySQL, Postgre, HTML, CSS, AJAX, etc.

It would be badass for you make something that would increase the speed of windows.

There are less machine programmers than web developers because everyone is trying to strike gold in web development right now, but you should be able find some people for your work.

If you have a working prototype or even a mockup of the product then just declare your business: pay the small fee to file the business and name with the state, declare your business to the state, setup your website, and then try to get into an accelerator program or network at entrepreneurial events to get funding.

Then you can hire to build the final product and sell it. The hardest part isn't getting the product built. It's actually selling the product, having a market for it that knows and about it and cares about it.

I can help you with all of that stuff above but not with the actual building.

Aside from the ESO issue, I also want to clean up my computer too. I want to get rid of any unnecessary programs and get my startup programs lean. Are you able to help with that?

My computer was also actually slow loading programs today.

I was loading Google Chrome. Maybe it has something to do with my firewall?

 

rkd1990...

You're 100% right on the money on where I am with this project I have. I've been working on a programmer and almost had one a couple of times. I wasn't sure about how to register the project (start the business), so I appreciate the information about how to do so. I need to do that as soon as possible. I've been looking down the road with the project, and I have been sort of anticipating what you say, that selling will be more difficult than actual product creation. Definitely, too, C+ is what I am looking for. Thanks for the advice.

On cleaning up the PC, I use CCleaner to get rid of temporary internet files and then every once in awhile use it to remove other temporary files. One great thing about CCleaner is that it has a feature for turning off startups. It seems to do a better job at reporting what is set to run on startup than Windows, so I use it instead of the standard Windows interface. It's easy to use which helps. If you go with CCleaner, I would make sure the registry portion of the cleaner has all the check boxes unchecked. Cleaning the registry is not really a science at this point. Better to get a good uninstaller like Revo and clean up thoroughly after uninstalls. That should catch most unnecessary registry entries. With CCleaner, you can set the cleaner to run in various ways for whatever matches best with your usage. On a notebook, I guess on boot is a good way to use the cleaner, but that will slow down boots. There are some browsers that clean out temporary internet files when the browser closes. That might work for you. I think Firefox and Chrome can be set for this.

About PC slowing...I think it's normal with Windows that PCs slow over time, but of course it's maddening. I had some troubles with Comodo Firewall/CSI. It's mostly that it's such a gigantic program. It could be contributing to your problem for sure. If you must have a firewall, Private Firewall is a good program, and I would recommend using PF. It's kind of fun to use, once you get the hang of everything. Best part is it's only 8 MB to install. Hard to believe it's all there, but it's all there.

It's a big change, but, if you try PF, let me know, and I will help you get started.

If you can post a list of your startups, I am sure you'll get some solid advice on things you can try for better performance. If you don't have CCleaner to see what startups are on, click on Start->type msconfig in the search box and open the msconfig dialog->select startups and then post what's set to run in the list there. It would help too to see the name of the .exe for the program, which is listed in the Command column.

Oh yeah, looking at msconfig reminded me. If you click on the boot tab, you will see a timeout setting on the right side. I think the default is 30 seconds, but you can safely lower that to 10 or even 5 seconds. That will get you into Windows faster during boots. Don't think it speeds boots overall much.

Hope some of this helps, but I am sure there is plenty of good advice that will come along here at MGs...about running ESO too...

 

Switched to PrivateFirewall from Comodo. After I accidentally selected the wrong action on Comodo and couldn't figure out how to change it I made the switch.

I have too many programs that access web services to deal with Comodo's massive amount of unnecessary action boxes. To their credit, they offer live support to setup up Comodo, but that isn't good for a product.

If you need live support for setting up the product in this age rather than support for experience issues like bugs or things going wrong it sends a bad message to the less experienced customer. The moment you do something like that it isn't a product anymore. It's a product and a service that ties you to that company until product/service change to another company. If they set it up wrong then they're going to lose customers with speed and efficiency.

- Need help setting up PrivateFirewall AtlBo:

1. It must work with Aptana Studio 3 and XAMPP that runs on my localserver.
2. It must allow me to connect seamlessly with games
3. It must successfully provide support for my poker clients. Those programs make continuous connections also.
4. It has to protect ports 9000, 80, 443, and keep me protected on Skype. At the same time, those ports can't be blacklisted because I use them for projects and initiate and repeat multiple connections and disconnections (?) on those ports (I just know that info gets exchange multiple times in what the firewall might consider each instance a different session from my experience with Comodo).
5. It cannot interfere with my automatic updates through Secunia PSI or bother me with updates for Windows. I have left automatic updates on because I frequently update a lot of programs and don't want to follow them all.

Just updated Java. I followed some suggestions on the forum a while back related to Java in the malware forum. It's not running properly. I tried testing it in my browser. It said something about needing my permission to run but nothing prompted. It should be the newest Java update too if that helps.

Here is my CCleaner log for startup programs:

-CCleaner
-F.lux (a program for managing computer brightness to work on the computer for long periods of time).
-Facebook Update (don't know what that's for or how it got on here).
-Google Update (maybe it came from chrome).
-GoogleChromeAutoLaunch
-GoogleDriveSync
-DelayTSS
-FDispPos
-HotKeysCmds
-HWSetup
-IgfxTray
-KeNotify
-MCTDUtil
-Persistence
-Privatefirewall
-RtHDVCpl
-Sophos AutoUpdate Monitor
-SRS Premium Sound 3D
-SunJavaUpdate Sched
-SVPWUTIL
-SynTPEnh
-TCrdMain
-Teco
-ThpSrv
-TosNC
-TosReelTimeMonitor
-ToSENotify
-TosVolRegulator
-TosWaitSrv
-TPwrMain
-TSleepSrv
-USB3MON
-XboxStat
-Privatefirewall 7.0
-Secunia PSI Tray.lnk

*If you think any of these things are unnecessary will you let me know what they do because some of them look like a virus's title or something. LOL Malware forums said my computer is good though.

 

rkd1990...

On PF:
You're probably going to get alot of prompts when you install programs. Also, sometimes you will be notified if a program or script is attempting to access the internet or make changes to the system. That's normal stuff usually. Mostly it's programs pinging to check updates and all of that.

On the level at which to run PF...I stuck with the middle of the road home network security settings (default on install). This means that you will be prompted about everything. When prompted, pay close attention to the paths of the process that is attempting something and then you can decide whether to allow or block or terminate the process. Only if you are sure about the process will you select the "Remember this setting" check box.

On internet connections...I think you'll get notifications at first about Firefox and other browsers when you go to access the internet. That's, of course, normal.

The interface kind of hides one cool feature of PF. If you right click on an empty space in the Applications tab, you will see something about Advanced Application settings. Click on that to see what exactly has rights to connect to the internet. Click on one, and you will see how connections can be managed. You probably won't need to change one, but nice that you can very easily shut down a process' access to the internet. As far as connections are concerned, if the path is safe to the process file, allow the connection once or if you are sure select to remember it. PF will place it in this Advanced Application settings if you tell it to remember your choice about a connection.

The Process Monitor is all about system access for running processes. These can be processes that you have allowed a connection for, so you may see some of those in this tab, also. Click on a process there to see what it is allowed to do. When you are prompted about a process behavior and choose for PF to remember your choice, that choice will go into the process dialog as "Allow" or "Deny", whichever you choose. You can, from the dialog of the process go back in and undo the change if you like, so it helps to know about this. One other thing about this. For me, the ones I like to disallow are the ones are Read keyboard state (keylogging), Monitor clipboard content (potentially grab personal info from clipboard), and Copy screen content (unauthorized screen capture).

I went down the list of processes and turned off all of these features for every process. It took awhile, but I think it was a good practice. The Read keyboard state setting might clash with some hotkeys programs or features of programs, so you will want to make sure they are allowed to read the keyboard if necessary.

I really like the log, too. You can see what's being denied access and then Google to see who is spamming your IP. It's kind of interesting to me. Most of it is harmless. Also, there is the Port tracking tab which is nice. If you really want to get into this at some point, there is a program that gives you the WhoIs info on who is behind the connection. It's from MS here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx

Nice to know who is behind the connections sometimes or if something seems unusual or whatever. Anyway, most of it is Anti-virus or programs checking for updates.

Let me know if you need any help. Hope it runs lighter on your system. I really have appreciated all that was put into such a small firewall. It's nice.

I'll take a look at your startups tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep...:-D

 

rkd1990...

Almost forgot. The settings for PF are located under the "File" header in the menu bar at the top of the GUI (program main dialog). If you have any questions about settings, I can help here, too...

 

rkd1990...

Info on those startups:

-CCleaner-Don't need to run on boot. Could set up a schedule to run CCleaner during an inactive time after boot.
-F.lux (a program for managing computer brightness to work on the computer for long periods of time).
-Facebook Update (updater for some Facebook features like Video calling (maybe it came with your PC)).
-Google Update (Yes from Chrome...harmless for updating the browser).
-GoogleChromeAutoLaunch (Not exactly sure but it's tied to the previous)
-GoogleDriveSync (If you use Google Drive then you need this...if not can be turned off)
-DelayTSS (http://www.shouldiremoveit.com/TOSHIBA-Service-Station-5383-program.aspx)
-FDispPos (something to do with a USB video card driver. Was on the PC when you bought it? Magic Control technology)
-HotKeysCmds (If you don't use hotkeys this can be disabled)
-HWSetup (http://support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?contentId=4002222) If you don't use this, most of it is probably in Windows someplace
-IgfxTray (Intel graphics and necessary)
-KeNotify (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120114192548AA4qNiq) Looks like this could be shut down unless you use it
-MCTDUtil (More to do with the USB video card driver...Magic Control technology again)
-Persistence (Intel graphics)
-Privatefirewall
-RtHDVCpl (Realtek sound driver...I don't use on desktop. If you don't use this, it can be turned off)
-Sophos AutoUpdate Monitor (Keeps Sophos service updated)
-SRS Premium Sound 3D (for a laptop I don't see why you need this. Windows handles sound well enough I have found)
-SunJavaUpdate Sched (If Java is necessary for anything you do on your PC, you should leave this on...usually you will be notified if you need Java)
-SVPWUTIL (comments bottom here...http://www.file.net/process/svpwutil.exe.html)
-SynTPEnh (Synaptics Touchpad functionality so I guess necessary)
-TCrdMain (more Toshiba...webcam...comments bottom here: http://www.file.net/process/tcrdmain.exe.html)
-Teco (Power settings control...for a laptop I might keep this on...from Toshiba again)
-ThpSrv (Hardware protection feature...comments bottom here...http://www.file.net/process/thpsrv.exe.html)
-TosNC (Toshiba message center...comments bottom here...https://www.slimwareutilities.com/community/info.php?id=1457&type=startup)
-TosReelTimeMonitor (Toshiba again...if you use this leave it on...http://www.shouldiremoveit.com/TOSHIBA-ReelTime-5312-program.aspx)
-ToSENotify (Toshiba...uses Smart data to let you know if hard drive is failing...http://searchtasks.answersthatwork.com/tasklist.php?File=TosSENotify)
-TosVolRegulator (Toshiba volume regulator...https://www.slimwareutilities.com/community/info.php?id=11375&type=startup)
-TosWaitSrv (Toshiba...part of hardware protection...detects when laptop is jostled and disengages rocker arm)
-TPwrMain (Toshiba...required?)
-TSleepSrv (Toshiba...charge via usb while laptop is in sleep mode...https://www.slimwareutilities.com/community/info.php?id=11377&type=startup)
-USB3MON (https://www.slimwareutilities.com/community/info.php?id=344223&type=startup)
-XboxStat (required for using Xbox controller)
-Privatefirewall 7.0
-Secunia PSI Tray.lnk (your security)

I like where Toshiba is going with these ideas for a laptop, but they have added a ton of software. I guess with this stuff, it just comes down to a question of whether the software is worth the resource expense. PC will run fine without much of it.

Not sure why Java isn't working for you. That's a mystery to me. I think you should have a Java console in Control Panel. Maybe you could check to see if it is turned off there.

Not sure about all of your requirements for PF, but I think you are fine with all of them. Here is the forum for PrivateFirewall on Wilders:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forums/other-firewalls.31/

Privacyware, the creators of PF, recommend this forum for help. You should be able to make sure PF is up to your requirements at Wilders.