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Welcome to my security advisory page. On this page I will maintain uptodate information about the latest
security tools and updates. The best thing about these recommendations is that all these softwares are free of cost
for personal use. The internet is ever becoming more and more intricate part or our life and daily we do online
businesses with lot of firms. It is now ever more important to preserve our online identity and personal
information. These tools will help you achieve those without costing your pocket a single dime.
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This site is still under construction. If you want to navigate to my old site you can follow this link
http://plaza.ufl.edu/piyush82/old. This old link will be
maintained till I finish updating the new site.
My personal security tools recommendation.
| This is the world's most popular adware and spyware remover. This is
Lavasoft's flagship product and it delivers best among
all the adware and spyware removal tools. They have just released their second edition in first week of August. It also
uses Code Sequence Identification technology, which means that it will protect you from not only the known variants of the
spywares but also unknown variants. I strongly recommend this software.
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This is Yahoo Toolbar with Yahoo Antispy feature inbuilt into it. If you use Microsofts IE browser to
surf the web and is fed up with those millions of popups this is the cool software to use. You can get if from
http://companion.yahoo.com. This toolbar also features custom search
option as weel as 1 click access to Launch, yahoo flagship online music portal which I think is the coolest one. The other
popup blocker includes the Google Toolbar which can be downloaded from
http://toolbar.google.com. Another cool IE toolbar is offerd by MSN. For only popup blocking ability, this is the most effective
tool out there. Get if from http://toolbar.msn.com.
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This is my other favorite. This is Spybot Search and Destroy. This tool not only scans for adwares and spywares but
also for keyloggers and trojans. This software was rated best in PCWORLD WORLD CLASS 2004 survey. This software can also
clean usage tracks, an interesting feature if you share your computer with others and dont want them to see what you
worked on. This is available in 45 different languages. This tool can be downloaded at
http://www.safer-networking.org.
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Zone Alarm Personal Firewall is probably the best firewall out there. It not only protects you from inbound traffic
but also from outbound unauthorized traffic too, a feature lacking in the Microsoft's much hyped service pack 2 firewall.
You can downlaod Zone Alarm Personal Firewall at
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp. Make sure that you click on Free Download link.
Another very good PF is offered by Sygate Inc. Download it at
http://soho.sygate.com. Follow the link to free download from the page that opens up.
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Grisoft's AVG Antivirus Product created a buzz worldwide when they made their product free for single home and non
commercial users. Theirs has been the best free anti virus product available to home users. In terms of detection rate
this product can take down Symantec Antivirus on any day hands down. Get it free of cost at http://www.grisoft.com. You will be required to fill in a small registration form. Make sure that you
give a valid e-mail id s the download link as well as the serial number will come via e-mail. Two other free anti-virus
products are AVAST and CA antivirus tools. Get them at CA EZ-TRUST
ANTIVIRUS. This product is free for 1 year for Microsoft XP users only. Download AVAST anti-virus from this link
FREE AVAST! 4 Home Edition.
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This is IP DNS Lookup LE. This tool has been developed by me. The purpose of this software is to help you get
necessary information associated with a particular domain name such as the owner's name and contact info, the server
on which the site is hosted. The email as well as telephone number of appropriate authority. This can be very handy tool
if you want to track a particular malicious website and report it to the web hosting agency so that they can take
appropriate legal actions. This is taking action at the grass-root level. Download it at
IP DNS Lookup LE v 0.4. Be
aware that you should have JRE 1.4 preinstalled on your system for this tool to work. To download J2SE JRE, please visit
java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html and
then click on 'Download J2SE JRE' link.
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Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 1.2 is an excellent tool to find out your computer's current security status. The report
generated by this tool includes the critical security updates status and other common vunrability test status. This tool also
tells you what was scanned and how to fix the problem found. There is one issue though, to be able to scan a computer you
have to be online because this tool first downloads the recent critical updates inventory from the microsoft website. You can
download this from
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx. You can also scan multiple computers over a network
through this tool.
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Other useful links and resources:
Let me tell you other useful tips and links to resources that I have not mentioned till now. In the event of your computer
getting infected even after you took the above precuations you should follow these steps suggested below.
- Update your current antivirus with the latest virus database then move on to step 2.
- Next start by doing a complete scan of your computer using your current antivirus.
- Check if the infection listed from the previous step is in the latest threats list on your right.
- If yes, clicking on that link will take you to the removal tool page for that infection.
- You can use this removal tool even if you do not subscribe to Symantec products.
You should also visit the Microsoft's Security Page tofind out the step to turn on the in built firewall of XP. Navigate to
this link
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security. Over the next few days Microsoft is going to release the next service pack
free of cost for home users. Be sure to turn on your automatic update feature. Also make it a habit to regularly visit the
antivirus vendoe webpage for latest updates and virus info. I am listing below a few of them.
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A very good idea is to use netstat command on windows from time to time
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| Type in c:\>netstat in your command prompt to display all the recently opened ports by your programs. Here you can check for any suspicious activities. A sample logfile has been provided.
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BEWARE! The steps provided by SYMANTEC should be follwed only if you are comfortable with REGISTRY KEYS and ADVANCED ADMINISTRATIVE
CONTROL OPTIONS provided by the OS. If you are not sure then please make a backup of your documents before proceeding.
In some cases if you dont take precautions you may loose all your data and may need to reformat the hard disk.
DISCLAIMER: all the steps that i have suggested above are true to my knowledge as of today. Any of the links may not work in the near future as these companies keep on updating
their webpages. In case you come across any broken link you are expected to let me know about it so that I can fix it. Also I dont subscribe
to any of these firms and it is totally your discreetion to follow these steps or not. I will not be held responsible for any
lack of knowledge on your part to deal with these complex procedures.
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