General question about protection.

Hi

Depends what you have installed?

But he is right in my mind as too much security and more so in the resident/live scanning applications CAN bog your PC down, its best to have a few apps, in AV, Firewall ( and the Windows built in one is not that good as it does not block outgoing data streams, so if your infected, the malware can connect to the net, so software firewalls help* ), antispyware app and say if XP spywareblaster to block harmful activeX or bad websites from even loading.

But best security of all is safe surfing and knowning were your downloading from and what your downloading as a major source of many being infected is P2P.

So for me as a guide to how I keep malware free is:

Avast
Windows Vista Firewall + Routers SPI and NAT firewalls ( Vista's firewall is better that XPs )
Spywarebaster
Windows Defender ( which again is better version than that of XP )

as backup scanning app for malware as this is not resident/live scanning is A-Squared Free but your Ad-Aware is fine, although I do not like that app as it makes too much fuss of harmless cookies to increase its detection rates!!




*caveat is that if a malware app wants access to the net your software firewall will popup this as a new application wanting access to the net, and at this point you can block it and more so know your infected if its an unknown app, so you can take steps to remove it.

 

Hi

I see not issues in what your running ( unless your version of ZoneAlarm is the one with Antivirus and Antispyware built in, as in this case you will have duplicate security apps and this will slow your PC down ), I would disable Spybots TeaTimer is running! can casue issues at times, plus may also cause slowdowns if your using XP or Vista with Windows Defender.

The routers firewall is bulit in and will be working already, look up the models specs to see what hardware firewalls it has built in, but many new ones have at NAT and SPI.

info on NAT firewall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation

info on SPI firewall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateful_firewall

You can in Firewall rules in the router ( depending on type ) add blocks to certain applications so they never connect to the internet as router firewalls again only block incomming data not outgoing unless using rules.

So a software firewall, although in some cases "may" slow your internet connection down, will highlight and block any outgoing applications if you set them to allow/block.

 

Hi

On the question of Admin account, what is your Windows version? if XP or Vista ( limited admin account ) then you by default are using the admin account, so what your tech guy is saying, just use this account for installing applications and adjucting major options, and create user accounts which are limited in what they can do, you can still do all daily tasks but major changes to the OS will need to be done via the admin account.

And as you will know the logon name and password for this admin account you can change options from a limited user account, I use this option for the laptop my neices use when they stay, if they have issues with a site that may need an updated Flash Player for instance I just enter my user name & password and it will install, safer than they installing it or instaling by accident malware.

A section on user accounts for XP ( guessed at XP as its the most common OS but if different in you having Vista do tel me and I will post on that )
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/accounts.mspx their setup and usage http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-350.html

Using user accounts all that use the PC can setup their desktop the way they like it, have different internet favorites, email etc etc

 

Hi

It maybe wise to start a new thread in software forum on the firefox question, while I use firefox, but only as a test and I'm using Minefield aka Firefox 3, I will be honest and say I not a Mozilla Firefox guru.

So question maybe better replied to in Software forum as Malware forum is limited to who can respond.


Yes on Accounts, Family seems a great idea, this can be used by all the family and if an application needs installing you can use the admin account.