Question for a friend with XP

[kayofcircles]

My friend owns a relatively new (six months or so) laptop running XP. She asked me this morning about "Internet Washer"..which I have never heard of and she thinks is supposed to make it impossible for sites to know where she has been. I can direct her to stuff to make sure she has the native firewall in XP running, but what about freeware for security? (I am afraid to click on the After Hours freeware discussion because it has gotten very long..and my system tends to lock up on big stuff.) Does Spider work with XP? What about freeware cookie type software?

In short, any suggestions to make her feel more "secure"?

[YODA74]

Kay just my opinion but all this freeware hype is exactly what it implies.Most of the time it is not a full verion and it is usually a sales gimmick.I've tried all that washer stuff and Evidence Eliminator and to tell you the truth all you eventually do is end up with a system crash.This is one reason I no longer use W/ME It just can't handle any down loaded crap.and moved on to XP Pro.Tell her to get ZA and surf in Stealth mode and block all third party cookies and popup ads.She can try Evidence eliminator for 30 days for free just type in the words on google it will take her there.
Window Washer (http://www.webroot.com/washer.htm)

Evidence Eliminator (http://www.evidence-eliminate.co.uk/)


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YODA74@windows-sucks.com
CCMR (http://www.dreamwater.net/tech/yoda74/index.html)

PUSH TO TEST. RELEASE TO DETONATE.
[Closed captioned for the thinking impaired.]

[pentachris]

Some interesting reading here (http://www.searchlore.org/noanon.htm).

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Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

[kayofcircles]

Yoda : That's why I was asking about what actually works with XP. My friend is not very puter savvy, and I don't want to tell her to do or try something that might screw her puter up. When you say to block "third party cookies"..what are you using with XP to do that? And I remember reading that some here have had problems with XP and ZA..so went to ZA Pro..are you using that version?

PS: Went to the Evidence Eliminator site and read, and read, and never found the part that says how much they want after the 30 days. Did you buy it?

[This message has been edited by kayofcircles (edited 06-01-2002).]

[Pianorak]

Kay Windows XP Home Edition: Tell your friend to go to Internet Properties, click on Privacy tab, choose Advanced. Under First-party Cookies click: Accept. Under Third-party Cookies click: Block. Also: tick Always allow session cookies.
This provides a fair degree of security.
I chose that route since AOL v. 7, Windows XP HE and Zone Alarm will not live in harmony.


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Windows 98 SE - IE 5 5.50.4522.1800 - PIII, 600MHz - 384MB SDRAM 100MHz
nVidia TNT M64 32MB 2X AGP - AOL v.6

[YODA74]

hey kay, Yes use (ZA PRO)the New one. as far as Ev.Elim. They want $175.00 but if she sends them an E-mail and complain about the price she can get it for $75.00 does that tell you something (no I no longer use anything that claims to wipe your system) You can write 0000's to the drive your self If your trying to hide something. SEA can tell you more about ZA and XP He loves to play with that stuff.Seems XP is relativelly new to me I'm not running a fire wall at the moment other than the stock firwall that comes w/xp But have her do what pianorak suggests for the moment. sorry I'm not much help

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YODA74@windows-sucks.com
CCMR (http://www.dreamwater.net/tech/yoda74/index.html)

PUSH TO TEST. RELEASE TO DETONATE.
[Closed captioned for the thinking impaired.]



[This message has been edited by YODA74 (edited 06-01-2002).]

[kayofcircles]

Thanks..am copying/pasting for her. (whispering..I didn't want to send her link to this post cuz I had said she's not very good with puters..) Since she is only emailing and doing some light surfing, I don't think she "needs" even $75 worth of "protection". Geeezzz..thought there must be a reason why they wouldn't say how much.

I agree..some of this new "security" stuff reminds me of building bomb shelters in the 60's. Not bad to have a bomb shelter, I guess, but not real necessary so far either. I guess I will just have to "duck and cover"...lol. Saw that somewhere recently and just blows my mind that anyone thought THAT would work against nuclear.

[Whyzman]

Kay,

Surfing and emailing are pretty much how the majority of viri are passed around these days.

We didn't talk Anti Virus yet...did we? Haven't heard of any problems with AVG and XP?

You might want to just give her some basics of dumping Temp Internet Files etc., or, I'm sure XP has the function to "flush" on boot!

I keep Control Panel in my Quick Launch for easy access to Internet Properties etc.

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[iisbob]

kay that cookie program i introduced you too works great in all versions of windows, it's simply to use and she should be able to grasp it's concept.

Whyz if you are running XP, no need to put your Contral panel in the Q-launch, simply enable the expanding menu option under taskbar properties/advanced ( this is native to ME/2k/XP ) and it's simple to enable it in '98/'95 also.



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iisbob

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.-Mark Twain

[Whyzman]

iisbob, thanks for the tip! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif Took me a second though to find the results of applying your suggestion...kept looking to find it right in my StartUp menu...then found it under Setting....pretty handy!

However, I do like the "little icons" in my QuickLaunch...I've got WinExplorer there and my Sweetie's Fax Program....and, it's colorful too...mIrc is there....hehe!

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[kayofcircles]

I sent her a tutorial on activating the XP firewall and it had a link to Gibson for the test. She says there are two ports still reading "open". The FTP and the Web server ones. She checked, and the firewall is showing activated. Anyone using the XP firewall?..and if so, are those normal "holes" for it?

Whyzman: She does have some kind of AV..says it runs every day when she turns puter on. Am slightly afraid to ask which AV..lol. And, as I said above, don't want to mess her up. Yesterday, she tried to get rid of something called Twister..haven't gone to look and see what that is..and it screwed up her icons, so she did a Restore. sigh Gonna go see in a bit if can find her some simple XP stuff..like at Windows Help net or similar.

iisbob: Thanks..had forgotten that you had said that cookie manager would work with all the OS's you have worked with. And was about to ask you again about a problem I had with it..namely that although it said it was deleting cookies, they were still "in" my Windows Cookie folder..but guess what? Just went to confirm that they were indeed still there..and they aren't. Baffled, but happy that program now doing its thing. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Whyzman]

Kay or iisbob,

Can either of you give me a link to the Cookie Manager...would like to have a look-see! Thanks in advance! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[kayofcircles]

Sure... Cookie Manager 1.1 (http://home.nordnet.fr/~pmdevigne/)...at top of page, click "English version." I did have some problems with it leaving the cookies in the Cookie folder, but even with the cookies showing in the folder, I ran AdAware and it showed "no" spyware cookies...so even though they were previously still showing, somehow they were "not" really there. Confused, as I said, but I like the whole idea of this particular prog because you don't have to suck resources with it...can run it after surfing. Tiny little thing..like 60K. And makes a cute little "cookie with a hat" icon in QLaunch.

[This message has been edited by kayofcircles (edited 06-02-2002).]

[Whyzman]

Thanks Kay!

Maybe it's part of being a Mini Doughnut crazy. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif I'm just entranced by those Mini Icons in my QLaunch! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[kayofcircles]

The icons are cool...I agree. And I have quickly become fond of the whole QLaunch concept..except for the Folder part. I had shortcuts to folders all over my desktop and having a certain amount of difficulty getting them all transferred down to toolbar, even after doubling width.

Yoda : You said you were using the XP firewall above. Could you check, please, and see if yours is "testing" open for those two ports? Or anyone else who is using the XP firewall. She said she can't find any way to "close" those, and we're not sure if it is a concern or not.

Gibson's ShieldsUP test (http://grc.com/default.htm)

[sea69]

go to Gibsons and get Socket Lock, Socket to me, and UNplug and Pry.

also, go get XP-A nti Spy (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.pcwelt.de/news/software/20294/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dxp%2Bspy%2Btool%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26i e%3DUTF8%26oe%3DUTF8)- this will autimatically take care of many potential "leaks"- even to M$!


edit: Kay- here's what I suggest on your folders.

create one folder on your desktop. Name it "xyz", then drag and drop it to your quicklaunch bar (be sure to open it once to make sure the path is set before you delete the icon from your desktop).

In your new "xyz" folder place all of your sub folders and this will create an easy to use directory where you will know everytime where everything is.

*{{hint}}- you can also add this folder to your "send to" right click context menu*


http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/index.html)

[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 06-03-2002).]

[kayofcircles]

Thank you, Sea ..really appreciate it. She asked her ISP about it because she didn't want to mess anything up...and they told her that she should turn her firewall off, that firewalls were unnecessary and "just" caused problems. I told her that was bunk.

I did put many of my folders into same folder, but didn't think of the right click menu..so appreciate that tip too. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[YODA74]

Hey kay, no none of ports are open I'm running complete stealth comeing in who knows whats going out though. But this version is not an ET so no phone home.Basically have her do as sea suggests, God he's good at this isn't he http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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YODA74@windows-sucks.com
CCMR (http://www.dreamwater.net/tech/yoda74/index.html)

PUSH TO TEST. RELEASE TO DETONATE.
[Closed captioned for the thinking impaired.]

[kayofcircles]

Sea : Well, sorry to be dense, but have a couple of questions. First, had a hard time finding the Socket Lock stuff, but it says this: "Please note that SocketLock is NOT meant to be used with the final release of Windows XP." and goes on talking about trying to get M$ to acknowledge and fix the problem..and then also on another page says "SocketLock can be used by users of Windows 2000 or pre-release testers of Windows XP."
Socket Lock (http://grc.com/dos/sockettome1.htm) And, truthfully, after reading through the article am feeling just as ignorant about puters as my friend! Eerr?

Yoda : Did you "actively" close any ports on your XP firewall? Do you think that yours are showing Stealth because you have XP Pro rather than the XP Home? My friend only has the one puter..and a "new" boyfriend to email(!)..so she basically said if she couldn't get the XP stuff to work, she wasn't gonna take chances of screwing things up trying to install software..especially since she tried removing that Twister stuff the other day and all her fonts went funky. Spent an hour or so "undoing".

[sea69]

well - sorry Kay but I didn't see that and installed it anyway- it worked.

But if you're worried don't recommend that part- be sure to get Unplug & Pray and winXP Spy though!

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/index.html)