Registry Keys

[excathedra]

i hope you guys's ;)--> brilliance brings you a lotta money

i scanned for updates, no critical ones, and i don't know if i feel like looking through the noncritical.

[excathedra]

i'm so excited wolfie. the housecall service just found and deleted malware TROJ something or other. yippee. it's still running.... i'm on another computer....

the HOPE.... a virus free world :)-->

[excathedra]

you know what i don't get ? how you can have a firewall plus run all the stuff the housecleaner thing etc. and STILL have stuff come up when you run ad aware and spypot

[WordWolf]

As near as I can explain it and understand it...

A firewall controls what programs can enter and leave.

Malware and so on "piggyback" on a program that was allowed in.

Picture an angry midget hiding in someone's backpack who was just let

in by the bouncer.

Also, some things disguise themselves as acceptable stuff.

E-mail viruses are like that. If you think someone sent you something,

or, in some cases, just go to read their e-mail, a virus will hide in

it and try to get out.

I opened an e-mail attachment the other month and immediately got a

notice that my anti-virus caught that "klez" thing trying to sneak past

the rope.

Do you have an antivirus program installed? That's the next one

we can address. Let me know when you're all caught up.

[excathedra]

i have norton which is always running. i just renewed it for another year

--

now i have to figure out how my kid can listen to music or watch a little video clip from a website with the firewall up. he's mad. aye yaye yaye sp?

maybe twi is onto something.... all these little devils running around on the internet ;)-->

[WordWolf]

That one's easy.

Have him walk you through the steps and download one video clip.

The firewall will ask you if you want this file to have access or

something.

Click yes, AFTER you check "always remember this answer".

Then it'll download everything from that site, or whatever.

[herbiejuan]

Hey I have a similar problem, it seems I have a mshelper.dll which points me to porn sites

Of all things, the nerve of those people...

I think I got it when I clicked on a pop-up instead of using control alt delete to get rid of it.

If I open in safe mode and then run Norton 2003 will that remove it or do I need to go in and manually remove it from the registry itself? I can *tell* it's watching my surfing activity and those redirects drive me nutz!

[excathedra]

i don't know herbie. you might have to wait for WordWolf to get home from work :)-->

[Steve!]

Herbie - that should do it.

If it doesn't, then try editing the registry. But I don't think I'd reccommend it for the squeamish.

mshelper.dll is spyware. Spybot Search & Destroy should take care of it, or CWS Shredder.

[herbiejuan]

Steve

I forgot I had Spybot already installed, I ran an updated Adaware as well as WinCleaner '02 first. The Udated Adaware caught most of the lil buggies and Spybot cleaned up the rest.

I'll leave things as they are for now and see if this solves the problemo, if not I'd run norton in safe mode n see what giggies.

Thanks,

Mikey

[WordWolf]

Once a day,

I run AdAware, Spybot, an anti-virus, and anything else I can find.

Usually, I do that once my internet connection is shut down.

AdAware's got 2 commands-"Engage Internet lock" and

"Stop all Internet activity" that instantly stop things, or you can

just shut your connection.

If you're paranoid, you can run all those immediately once you think

you've caught a virus or spyware.

Once a month, I run an external antivirus, just in case everything

somehow missed it.

Clean bill of health so far with my current security, but, I feel secure

knowing that.

I update the heck out of my security, also.

I've never had to crack open my registry.

[excathedra]

ok after a about week using firewall, i've had:

total intrusions blocked - 0

high risk intrusions - 0

cookies blocked - 174

pop-up ads blocked - 70

tracking URLs blocked - 95

cache cleared - 408 MB

[WordWolf]

quote:

---

Originally posted by excathedra:

ok after a about week using firewall, i've had:

total intrusions blocked - 0

high risk intrusions - 0

cookies blocked - 174

pop-up ads blocked - 70

tracking URLs blocked - 95

cache cleared - 408 MB

---

================================

Get out!

ZERO intrusions?

NOBODY even tried to probe-scan you in passing?

(I get a LOT of those. They can't confirm there's a computer on my end,

and they go away.)

Ok, we can get to "other security measures" soon...

[excathedra]

i swear to god. that's the report from ZoneAlarm. no drive-by's. do you live in a bad neighborhood WW ?

"other security measures" holy crap don't tell me i'm going to have to do bless patrol around my computer all night !!!!!

[WordWolf]

No.

Right now, the biggest precautions you should take is to keep updating the

programs you have (critical Windows updates, AdAware, antivirus, Spybot,

firewall).

There's some vulnerabilities you can close pretty easily.

http://grc.com/freepopular.htm

"Shoot the messenger" has nothing to do with "instant messengers" like AIM

or ICQ. It shuts off the internal messenger that Microsoft sends you almost

no info on, and is usually hijacked to send you ads.

"Unplug n' Pray" has nothing to do with "Plug and Play", the nifty thing that

helps you use stuff after a simple download. It shuts off that utility you will

never use-the theoretical thing that can potentially connect your computer to

your tv, dvd-player, cd-player, videogame system, microwave oven, and

venetian blinds. It's another security vulnerability.

If you work on a network, you may use DCOM. If you have a home pc, it's

useless. DCOMbobulator shuts off that security flaw.

SocketLock lowers the vulnerability of your pc to hackers. If they get in, they

can do a LOT less damage, because they can take over less. You won't even

miss it.

All of these are tiny, tiny programs, each of which makes your pc more secure.

I also downloaded "NoShare" since I don't want networks to have access to my

machine. Again, haven't noticed a problem resulting from it.

When you're all done,

go back to http://www.grc.com

and "shields up".

You can then test all your new security to see what the average hacker might

succeed or fail at.

Hm. "Baseline Security Analyzer". That sounds useful...

Also, next time you open your Spybot,

click on the corner of bricks thing on the left menu.

It will set up a permanent immunity to some of the worst programs.

See? Painless, and adds to security.

[WordWolf]

There's another virus making the rounds.

Since you downloaded all the critical Windows updates,

and updated your anitivirus, you should be perfectly safe from it.

(If you didn't, I'd get moving.)

[excathedra]

i'm cool but still have to do some of your stuff on post before last (((((ww))))))

[Tom Strange]

so... I'm running XP Home, on a Centrino laptop, Linksys Cable Modem, Linksys WT54G Wireless Router (MAC addresses restricted)... my Windows updates are "up to date" ...when I check it only gives me recommended updates that have to do with things I don't really do (so I don't install them like music and media stuff)... AdAware is clean, Spybot is clean, McAffe is clean...

do I need any other "firewall" protection other than that which comes with the router?

[WordWolf]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tom Strange:

so... I'm running XP Home, on a Centrino laptop, Linksys Cable Modem, Linksys WT54G Wireless Router (MAC addresses restricted)... my Windows updates are "up to date" ...when I check it only gives me recommended updates that have to do with things I don't really do (so I don't install them like music and media stuff)... AdAware is clean, Spybot is clean, McAffe is clean...

do I need any other "firewall" protection other than that which comes with the router?

---

Only this one thing:

give all your goods to the poor, and you will have treasure...no, wait, wrong list.

You've got a really sweet-sounding setup.

I would add a software firewall as well-AdAware is good. (See the link on this

thread.)

Your hardware router does a dandy job on INCOMING traffic. Can't beat a router

for that, AFAIK.

However, on the off-chance a program slips thru your defenses, it won't stop the

program from dialing out to another pc.

A software firewall will add a layer of protection there against that.

When the thing tries to send out data, your firewall will ask if you want it to

do that FIRST, which will be your last warning before it does. Without one,

you won't have that last line of defense. Not the most necessary step, nor the

most elementary, but I'd do it. Protect your OUTGOING traffic.

[Tom Strange]

Thanks WW.

Just want to make sure... you would suggest the AdAware firewall vs the one McAffe offers? (just wondering since I'm already running their AV software)...

thanks again (actually, we have two centrino laptops, Sony Ziva's and a HP P4 desktop, all wireless)... another question, the kid's PS2 is connected as well (via cat 5)... does it pose a problem to anything other than itself?

[krys]

Thanks for starting this thread....and for the open and honest communication.

I'm tad behind...but I'm catching up and soon hope to live inside a "secure" pc!

Thanks guys!

[WordWolf]

McAfee's firewall is probably better then ZoneAlarm.

However, since ZoneAlarm is free, I thought you'd want to stick with one of the

free firewalls. It sounded like you weren't TOO worried you'd need one.

McAfee's stuff is probably designed to work together, so, yes, if you're up to it,

by all means use them.

===================

You connected a PS2 to a cat? Sounds painful.

Honestly, no idea.

I am not a computer expert-I am a paranoid.

(A cheap paranoid at that.)

So, I know some stuff about security programs, but that's it.

Someone else will have to answer you, Tom.

*waits for someone who knows computers to chime in*

[Tom Strange]

Thanks WW...

[Zixar]

The PS2 is no danger to your network. They have no hard drives and no web browsers. An Xbox is slightly less safe because it's Microsoft and it has a hard drive, but it's still nothing to worry about.

[Zixar]

Okay, so you can now buy a hard drive for your PS2, but since it uses a totally different CPU than a PC, your PC can't catch a virus from your PS2 even if there were a PS2 virus.

It's a good thing those aliens in Independence Day just happened to run their whole fleet on a Macintosh, otherwise Jeff Goldblum's virus would never have worked... ;)-->