One click too many?

[Viking2]

You obviously have very strong feelings about this, however, I would strongly recommend that you install Adaware from lavasoft , for free, and run this to ensure that you do not have any call loggers or key stroke loggers on your system. This program does not get its hooks into anything and only runs when requested by the user. You can get these by visiting even the most reliable of web pages. I hope you don't use Internet Banking, as your PC is at great risk of being hacked and information stolen.

I don't dispute what you say about AV software, some such as Norton, do get its hooks into just about everything, this is why I changed to Kaspersky Internet Security which just runs quietly in the background, but does an excellent job.

 

[stevesey]

I don't dispute what you say about AV software, some such as Norton, do get its hooks into just about everything, this is why I changed to Kaspersky Internet Security which just runs quietly in the background, but does an excellent job.

I've found Kaspersky to be a resource hog (not as bad as norton of course) on some PC's.

On the original subject - most of the spoof pages you are re-directed to are hosted on hacked servers so if you can read the full URL out of the message, going to the sites main page can be interesting. If there's an e-mail address there you can then drop the site owner a note telling them their site has been hacked (from a annonymous web based e-mail account of course).

Also don't forget to report the message to the abuse section at the appropriate bank - they have teams that will investigate and get the site closed down very quickly. Where I work (internet bank development) they claim to be able to take a site down within 12 hours.

 

[BTB 500]

I've used Norton for years on my home PC (currently running the 2006 version), with no problems or complaints. Is it a 'resource hog'? I neither know nor care, response on all the things I want to do (surfing, email, WP, Spreadsheet, image editing) is fine. Quicker than my work PC, which doesn't have Norton on it. So I'm happy.

 

[Colin_b]

There is no solution that works - it would sell like hot cakes if there was one - you can have all the updates and AV software you like but your PC by definition is still vulnerable if it has any interaction with the outside world.

Autoupdates doesn't necessarily do you any good at all unless you review what the update is .Some of the pre XP pro SP2 updates ended up making the OS unstable.

I don't use AV software, it gets its hooks into too much and detects perfectly safe software installations as being infected (NAV) .

Taking care what you open and view is the most pro-active thing you can do . As I said I don't run AV software and as soon as I have any PC the way I want it then I ghost the hard drive and can restore the PC very quickly - I find that solution works pretty well for me, but I cannot afford to be without the PC for any length of time so dealing with data backups are second nature.[/quote

I use avira antivirus (www.free-av.com). It is just antivirus, no bloatware so very light on resource use.

Like you, I keep good backups (Acronis 9.0) - cheap, no bloatware and excellent performance, and it works.

Seems to work, I've not had any problems.

 

[esox]

as soon as I have any PC the way I want it then I ghost the hard drive and can restore the PC very quickly .

Right,changing tack now,an on to backup procedures:the `Ghost your hard drive` seems like a good idea in case of hard drive failure,but if your HD goes bang,how do you then get stuff off it if it is kaputt?
Where does the backup ghost to - another part of the same HD?

I have no data on this laptop which would cause outright misery if i lost it,i`m just interested in backing up the whole HD to make re-installation on a new lappy easy if/when it fails...
I copied all my pics to a DVD,but it would be good to get a new lappy going as a clone of this one as easy as possible without the chore of installing all the software again.
Is that possible?

 

[stevesey]

Ghost is software that makes a complete image of your drive to another drive/partition on the same PC or to another drive over a network (a partition being a logical drive, of which you may have more than one on a physical disc).

For most people this can be problematical as they only have one massive drive/partition, so even allowing for compression on the backup image you need a big drive to put the image on. Also ghost is best seen as an all or nothing backup/restore (not easy to browse a ghost backup and pull individual files off). The better solution is to have one drive/partition for the operating system and programmes and another for "My Documents" - then both can be backed-up/ghosted separately.

Personally I have a 15Gb partition for windows/office and applications, a 50GB one for data and another 50GB one for music. After installing new applications I (try to remember to) ghost a copy of the 15Gb partition to another machine so I can quickly restore windows and applications should windows decide to die on me. The other 2 partitions are backed up to my server using sync-toy (a microsoft utility that will compare two directory structures and only copy changed files) which I try to remember to run weekly. Unless you are playing games that install many Gb's of stuff into the program files directory 15Gb is plenty for windows (XP) and a large number of applications.

In it's full version Ghost is an enterprise level product so is quite expensive for home use if you want a pukka licensed copy. There are other free/shareware utils that do the same job (e.g. DrvImagerXP 2.2).

One thing to mention on any backup strategy is to test the restore process - it's no good creating a ghost image and hoping everything will be OK the day you want to use it. Do a test restore (especially if you've never done it before), which probably means you need a spare drive to try it out on (and are happy physically swapping drives, changing jumpers etc) as you don't want to do a test restore over your currently working drive just in case things go wrong!!

You mentioned getting a new lappy going as a clone of the old one - this can be done using ghost. But unless the hardware is the same, windows will need to re-install the drivers when first re-starting the new one. Depending on the motherboard chipsets used on the two machines this can be problematical - there's always a way around it, but it takes time and unless you have large numbers of appliciations to re-install the re-install route may be quicker and result in a "cleaner" machine.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Colin_b]

Right,changing tack now,an on to backup procedures:the `Ghost your hard drive` seems like a good idea in case of hard drive failure,but if your HD goes bang,how do you then get stuff off it if it is kaputt?
Where does the backup ghost to - another part of the same HD?

I have no data on this laptop which would cause outright misery if i lost it,i`m just interested in backing up the whole HD to make re-installation on a new lappy easy if/when it fails...
I copied all my pics to a DVD,but it would be good to get a new lappy going as a clone of this one as easy as possible without the chore of installing all the software again.
Is that possible?

Acronis. You make a CD boot disk, back up your entire hard disk (or just selected partitions.) to a USB attached disk..

If you hard disk subsequently fails, replace it with a similar sized - or bigger one, boot off the recovery CD - while the usb disk is plugged in. Then restore the system.

Software costs about 9£, and works.