-pops- Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 I reserve Friday afternoons for doing the housekeeping on my computers.I clean all the junk out.Next I make sure all my anti-malware programs are up-to-date and then run them.After that I do a backup of everything on the machine. Not necessarily a full backup, usually an incremental one to tag on to the last full version.This doesn't take all that long (1 hour - hour and a half) and at the end you have the confidence that you are set up with a clean machine which is substantially safe in the event of disaster.I've done two machines, just about to begin the third.Why don't you start a similar routine? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 I do the same - except it being a Saturday morning job.I have a back-up programme which takes duplicate incremental back-ups every time the computer shuts down onto a second hard disc in the computer and weekly onto a USB2 external hard drive which I store away from the house.I also take a full back up onto DVD RAM each month using Acronis True Image.Although I am diligent in updating and running malware programs every week - I hardly ever catch any infections - I can only presume my firewire and MS Anti Spyware programs are doing the business in the background. I still use AdAware but it seems to be a waste of time - it hasn't found anything for many months now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Alan, I've given up with Ad-Aware. Like you, it's not found anything for months now but other detectors continue to find a few, usually minor, objectionable items.Quite impressed with Spy Defense and Ewido. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Alan, I've given up with Ad-Aware. Like you, it's not found anything for months now but other detectors continue to find a few, usually minor, objectionable items.Quite impressed with Spy Defense and Ewido.I like Spy Defence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Besty Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Wel he he i havent cleaned my computer in weeks so i have my shoe out waiting for a bug to jump out at me =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Yeah, me too. I seem to do all the PC housekeeping on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 I always do mine on a sunday morning.As far as Ad-Aware is concerned, I have never had a problem with it and still use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie2 Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 I'm at work on a Friday afternoon :( I tend to do my housekeeping on a Saturday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Spy Defense runs automatically every day. I run all the other scans at leat once a week, if not more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 As far as Ad-Aware is concerned, I have never had a problem with it and still use it.Not had a problem per se but it seems inert and doesn't do very much now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 As far as Ad-Aware is concerned, I have never had a problem with it and still use it.Not had a problem per se but it seems inert and doesn't do very much now.Yeah, I agree with that. I've been running Ad-aware every week for many months now. It finds nothing. I've just run Spy Defense for the first time. It found six critical nasties. I zapped 'em pretty quick. pops I think your word: inert, is highly appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thos Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 As far as Ad-Aware is concerned, I have never had a problem with it and still use it.Not had a problem per se but it seems inert and doesn't do very much now.Yeah, I agree with that. I've been running Ad-aware every week for many months now. It finds nothing. I've just run Spy Defense for the first time. It found six critical nasties. I zapped 'em pretty quick. pops I think your word: inert, is highly appropriate.I, too, agree. I must try Spy Defense sometime.Thos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Possibly Lavasoft (Ad-Aware) have been too busy with their acquisition of Agnitum - see Chris' post http://forums.neoplanet.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=21602&hl= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belatucadrus Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 That's the one gripe I have with Lavasoft, when they get engrossed in developing mode, they tend to just drop maintenance of the old version. Probably not an issue if you're using the freebie, but if you've paid for a pro licence extremely agravating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 I reserve Friday afternoons for doing the housekeeping on my computers.I clean all the junk out.Next I make sure all my anti-malware programs are up-to-date and then run them.After that I do a backup of everything on the machine.Meanwhile, back to pops original idea. Tell me, having run something such as Ccleaner, plus yer Ad-aware/Spybot/SpyDefense thingies, and then before you backup - and I guess you are talking Acronis or Ghost - do you bother to do such things as a running a virus check, running Chkdsk, JV16 (the old free version), Norton Utils, or even Defragging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 I use Acronis for backing up. Regarding the items you list. I have a daily scheduled anti-virus run at 13-00. Anything Norton is not allowed near any equipment of mine for reasons I've expounded several times. I have a scheduled defrag (Diskeeper) which runs periodically throughout the day. I run chkdsk about once a month but not particularly connected with the weekly housekeeping. I'm not familiar with JV16. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thos Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 This has turned out to be an interesting discussion for me, at any rate. I have Kerio firewall and:I run: AVG automatically every afternoon. Spybot Search & Destroy after every session on the computer. A-squared every three or four days. Similarly Microsoft Antispyware (or should I now call it Windows Defender?) AdAware every week or so. CrapCleaner about every 10 days. Set a System restore point before downloading anything. And after defragging, do an incremental back-up with Acronis True Image every month.Am I paranoid about security? I sometimes think so.Thos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 No, I don't think you're paranoid about security thos. I think you've got it about right.There is an ever increasing number of warped minds that want to get into your computer and a sensible approach - like I feel we've both got - is the way to prevent that happening. Some things will get through and we must always be conscious of that possibility.The paranoia in this comes when you are security checking at the expense of doing anything else on your computer. As I said at the start, all my security precautions take a few minutes of my actual time to set up. The rest of my time on my computers is spent doing something productive (or not) but never worrying about who or what is trying to attack me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurlyWhirly Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 The paranoia in this comes when you are security checking at the expense of doing anything else on your computer. As I said at the start, all my security precautions take a few minutes of my actual time to set up. The rest of my time on my computers is spent doing something productive (or not) but never worrying about who or what is trying to attack meYou have the same thoughts as me.I rate PC security very highly but I don't spend ages running scans at the expense of using my PC for other tasks.I probably spend around 10 minutes a day (on average) on security 'tasks' which is very worthwhile and I actually like doing it!When I first had a PC I wasn't security conscious at all and I had to reinstall my operating system as the PC was unusable :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwp Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 i've not heard of spy defence could someone give me a link please.tried a google but didn't come up for me.it's ok just seen mark 2s post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lester1 Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 http://www.everestlabs.com/Hope it works :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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