Life Is Just Around The Corner

If you want something to read, something that gives you a little inspiration, or maybe you would like a light-hearted and sometimes serious look at life, then have a look at Life Is Just Around The Corner

It’s a very well put together blog and there is something for everyone.

So what are you waiting for?

Life Is Just Around The Corner

Securing Windows XP

With its default configurations, Windows XP is not very
secure. However, by making some simple changes,
you can secure your system and data from attackers and
viruses.

Automatic Updates
Keeping your system up-to-date is crucial to maintaining
security. Microsoft releases security updates and makes them
available for download on the Windows Update web site.
Using the Automatic Updates feature, Windows XP can be
configured to download and install updates for you
automatically at a time that suits you.

Scheduling this task is very simple. In Windows XP,  use
the following steps to enable this feature:

1. Right click My Computer and select Properties.
2. Click the Automatic Updates tab from the System
   Properties box.
3. Select the option to Automatically download the
   updates, and install them on the schedule that I specify.   
4. Select the day and the time when you want the updates
   installed.
5. Click Ok.

Windows Firewall
Windows XP includes the Internet Connection Firewall
service.  In Windows XP Service Pack 2, the ICF
is renamed to Windows Firewall and it is enabled by
default. It is designed to protect your computer from
intruders while it is connected to the Internet.

Note: if you are setting up a home network, do not enable
Windows Firewall on your LAN (Local Area Network)
connection.
Only enable it on the Internet connection. If you enable
it on your LAN connection, it will block File and Printer
Sharing.

Important Note
If you are using Zone Alarm Free Firewall DO NOT enable
the Windows Firewall.

User Accounts
Windows XP includes various built-in user accounts. There
are certain steps that you should take to ensure they are
not compromised.

Disable the Guest Account. The guest account has always
been a huge hacker hole and should remain disabled if it is
not required.

Require passwords for all user accounts.
Obviously, blank passwords are a bad idea if you care
about security.
Make sure you assign passwords to all accounts, especially
the Administrator account and any accounts with
Administrator privileges.
All passwords should be a minimum of eight characters in
length.

In Windows XP Home Edition all user accounts have
administrative privileges and no password by default.
Make sure you close this hole as soon as possible.

Rename the Administrator account. By renaming the
administrator account hackers will have to guess
the password and the name assigned to the account.

Don’t make it easy for hackers, renaming the Administrator
account will stop some hackers in their tracks, and will
deter the more determined ones. They won’t know what the
group permissions are for an account, so they’ll try to hack
any account they find and then try to hack other accounts to
improve their access.
If you rename the Administrator account, try not to use the
word Admin in its name. Pick something that won’t make it
easy for others to guess. 
 
Remote Desktop
Windows XP Professional’s Remote Desktop allows users to
connect remotely to your computer.
Although it can be useful for obtaining remote assist with
troubleshooting problems, it is also an open door for
intruders.
Remote Desktop should always be disabled and only enabled
when it is needed.
To disable Remote Desktop right click on My Computer,
select properties then click on the Remote tab and untick
the check box beside Allow Remote Assistance invitations to
be sent from this computer
 
Anti-virus Software
Anti-virus software is a program designed specifically to
detect and remove viruses, making it an essential
application to install. Once you install anti-virus software,
it will scan your computer and clean any viruses it finds.

Some of the more popular antivirus software programs are
listed below, though I refuse to pay for these as mentioned
below you can get the same protection for free.

1. Trend Micro
2. McAfee
3. F-secure
4. Symantec
5. Computer Associates
6. Panda Software
Most anti-virus software must be purchased or it may be
included with the purchase of a new computer for a limited
time.

I highly recommend the use of AVG-AntiVirus available from
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5  

I have covered this with a tutorial at
http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/avg-anti-virus-installation-guide/

Important note: DO NOT use more than ONE anti-virus program
on your pc as this will cause conflicts.

I prefer to use AVG which scans daily and also runs in the
background continuously.  On a monthly basis I use Trend
Micro housecall online.
 

Screensavers
Ok, so you are sitting at your desk, or left it for a
while and suddenly, a nice image appears on your screen.
Ok it’s your screensaver. However, screensavers can serve a
much more important purpose other than providing us some cool
images, and preventing screen burn.  Enabling a screensaver
can increase the security on your computer.

Use a password protected screensaver, this stops others from
accessing your computer.

You can configure a screensaver to start when your
computer has been idle for a specific amount of time (eg: 5
minutes). By password protecting the screensaver, the
computer is locked when the screensaver starts. This is a simple
idea for additional security.  You will need to enter the correct
password to resume using your pc.

So once a password protected screensaver has been enabled,
you can walk away from your computer knowing that
everything is secure. In Windows XP, you can use the steps
outlined below to enable a password protected screensaver.

1. Right click a blank area on your your desktop and click
   Properties.
2. From the Display Properties dialog box, select the
   Screensaver tab.
3. Use the drop down arrow to select your screensaver of
   choice.
4. Change the Wait value to specify how long the computer
   can remain idle before the screensaver is started.
5. Select the On resume, password protect option. If you
   do not select this option any activity will cause the
   desktop to appear.

Give your pc a quick tune-up at http://pcpitstop.com 
Run the Full Tests from the menu on the left of the page
after creating a user account and password.

Go to http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your
installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes,
anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks,
and displays the results in your Web browser.
All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC
and is not sent to any web server.
I would recommend that you print off the results page as it
contains details of your Drivers and Software License Keys, useful
if you have to perform a format.

Scan for any viruses at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ 

Check to see if your ports are Open, Closed or in Stealth mode at
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Check your internet connection speed at
http://www.abeltronica.com/velocimetro/pt/?idioma=uk&newlang=uk
Click the green arrow beside the flag on the top right of the
header and select your language.  Scroll down to Speedometer and
click on Test Now.

Remember to always back-up your system or create a restore point
before making any changes.

Safe surfing everyone

cotojo

Using Spybot S and D - Tutorial included

Spybot - Search and Destroy is an Adware and Spyware detection and removal tool.

It includes removal of certain advertising components, which may gather statistics as well as detecting various keylogging and other spy utilities.

It securely removes PC and Internet usage tracks, including your browser history, temporary pages, cookies (giving you the option to keep selected cookies) and more. The program interface is easy to use and multi-lingual.

SpyBot-S&D allows you to exclude selected cookies, programs or extensions from being reported, allowing you to prevent false positive messages for items that you don’t want to be alerted of every time.

It can even scan your download directory for files that have been downloaded, but not yet installed, allowing you to detect unwanted programs before you even install them.

SpyBot produces a detailed and easy to understand report before it deletes any files and allows you to deselect any item that you do not want to be processed.

It also incorporates a recovery feature allows you to restore your settings if you need to which can be very useful.

Please Note: There will be many entries added to your Registry, this is normal and simply flags known malware sites as blocked.

This program has to be updated and run manually.

The site is multi-lingual and I recommend that you look at the tutorial: Click Here

Click Here to download Spybot S&D

Simply select your language and download from one of the sites provided.

Windows Media Player Tutorial Click here

Click to join FreePCSecurity

© Free PC Security 2007

Using Lavasoft Ad-Aware

I would use this program alongside Spybot S&D as
their detections vary slightly, but they will find the
majority, if not all, of the nasties that are hiding on
your hard drive.  I will cover Spybot in my next tutorial.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE
Ad-Aware Personal remains the most popular anti-spyware
product for computer users around the world, with over 200
million users  The free anti-spyware version provides you
with advanced protection against spyware that secretly
attaches itself and takes control of your computer,
resulting in pop-ups, slower connections, even identity
theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit
card account numbers.

You have complete control, deciding on what you want to
keep on your computer. Some other programs automatically
delete programs that you may actually want to keep (web
toolbars, etc.).

You can the web safely, knowing your private information
will remain private. Unprotected computers are an easy
target for identity thieves and hackers.

Its easy-to-use installation and functions make securing
your  PC against spyware very simple.

The extensive Lavasoft Detection Database offers you high-
level and up-to-date protection against the latest malware
‘nasties’. It’s as easy as clicking on the “Check for
updates now” icon in your software.

With its ability to comprehensively scan your memory,
registry, hard drives, removable drives and optical drives
for known Spyware, adware, and tracking components,
Ad-aware will provide you with the confidence to surf the
Internet knowing that your privacy will remain intact.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware can be downloaded from 
http://www.lavasoft.de/ms/index.htm

Windows Media Player version available here:
http://tinyurl.com/yshepd
which allows you to view full screen

Browser Cache Size and Using CCleaner

Browsers cache settings  give your pc the ability to store
frequently visited web pages and also checks for newer web
pages when you navigate to those sites.

Most computers cache setting is left at the default
setting, which can be anything from 250MB to over 1024MB,
which generally speaking is far too high.  You can safely
reduce this to as little as 10 - 20MB.  You may find that
you frequently download large files, for example a file of
50MB, so you would need to adjust you cache size to 60MB so
that if the download is interrupted it will pick up from
where it left off using the cache memory rather than
starting over again.

To adjust the IE cache size:
Start Internet Explorer
Select Tools | Internet Options | General tab
Under Temporary Internet Files click the Settings button.
In the box for the amount of disk space to use, enter a
value between 25 and 50 megabytes.
Click OK to accept the changes.

To adjust the Netscape Navigator cache size:
Start Netscape Navigator
Select Edit | Preferences | Advanced | Cache.
In the box for Disk Cache, enter a value between 5120 and
51200 kilobytes.
Click OK to accept the changes.

By making this simple adjustment, you will save lots of
hard drive space for better uses and it will improve the
overall performance of Internet Explorer.

If you want to have a large cache size, then I recommend
that you clean your cache out regularly.  I do a lot of
browsing and clean mine several times a day, but rather
than go through Internet Properties and start clicking on
various buttons I use ccleaner available for free from
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy
tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing
Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk
space by automatically cleaning the cache when run. It also
cleans traces of your online activities such as your
Internet history. It also only takes a few seconds to run
and remove these unwanted files from your pc.

There have been over 55 million downloads of this program

Internet Explorer
Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form
history, index.dat.

Firefox
Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.

Opera
Temporary files, URL history, cookies.

Windows
Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log
files.

Registry cleaner
Advanced features to remove unused and old entries,
including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs,
ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files,
Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more…
also comes with a comprehensive backup feature

Third-party applications
Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many
apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar,
Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce,
WinZip and many more…

This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or
Viruses.

I set mine up as follows:
Click on the Cleaner Tab on the left and under Windows I
tick all boxes in Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and
System.  Under Advanced tick only the first 2 boxes.  Then
click on the Applications tab and tick all.

Issues tab:
Unless you are competent at dealing with the registry then
leave this one alone and DO NOT run it.

If you wish to run the Issues to clean the Registry, carry
out the following first:

Backup your Registry. Go to Start, Run and type in regedit
click on OK and the Registry Editor will then open. Go to
the top Tabs and click on File, scroll down until you see
Export, left click it and this will open Export Registry
File window. Save this file to your desktop and in the File
Name box enter Registry Backup File. Click on Save and it
should now be on your desktop. Verify the file is a good
copy, in the Registry Editor window click on File, select
Import, in new panel where it says ‘Look in’ select desktop
and then click on your saved file then click ‘Open’. Once
it says it has been read in successfully, you have a good
backup.

Now if you find that some programs are no longer running
in the way that they should, restore your Registry as
detailed above. CCleaner will also create backup copies of
your Registry and I suggest that if you do choose to run
the Registry Issues untick all of the boxes and tick one
box at a time and run each one separately.

Tools tab: 
Here you will find a list of Uninstall options to remove
programs from your pc, use with caution.  I prefer to use
the Add/Remove function or the programs own uninstaller.

Startup:
Lists all programs that are set to run when you boot up,
if you are unsure about deleting any of these then leave it
as it is.

Options tab:
Settings - Choose your language, untick Run CCleaner when
the computer starts, tick the next 3 boxes, then look at
the Secure Deletion, tick the radio button ‘Secure file
deletion (Slower) and set it to NSA (7 passes)

Cookies - entirely up to the individual, but I don’t save
any cookies.

Custom - You can drag and drop files or folders into the
window or browse for them and on the next run they will be
securely deleted.

Advanced - Untick boxes 1-3 tick all others.

Finally click on the Cleaner tab on the left and you have
the option to Analyze or Run Cleaner. When you are
comfortable using this program you won’t use Analyze, but
initially do use it to see what can be deleted and the
approximate size of files to be deleted.

Important
This will remove any saved passwords and usernames that
you have, so make sure that you have a copy of them all
before proceeding to clean.

Open a text document, enter the URL, username and
password, save this to floppy, external drive or print it
off.  Do NOT save this text file to your hard drive.

There is an excellent program for saving your passwords
etc available from http://www.roboform.com/
I will cover this in more detail another time.

As always, back-up your system or create a restore point
before making any changes.

To your safety and security online
cotojo