How to protect the home pc

Ok, there are bad guys out there, makeing viruses, adware etc. that can give us home users probelms.

So what to do?

Now I have a software firewall to protect the pc from attacks from the net. It should block viruses like the DCOM RPC Virus ?

Then I update all winupdate critical patches, to get rid of all programming errors billy boy made. I keep visiting winupdate daily, they will find more errors wount they ?

Also installed a AV (antivirus) and keep it up to date frequently.

From "Local Area Network Properties" I removed QoS and Microsoft client&server services, in case someone discovers a security hole in those. Now I only have the TCP/IP protocol listed there.

I looked through the services list, and put all services I think I do not need on manual.
Still there are 28 services on automatic and 32 services running at boot up.

I run msconfig and unchecked all exept AV from the startup tab.

Finaly im setting IE security to HIGH, and add needed sites into trusted sites, that I set to MEDIUM.

I run AdAware now and then also.

Question is, what else can I do?
Is there other nice progs other than AV and FW to run?

Plese tell me what you have done to protect your pc from the bad guys.

Thanks

I would be careful when editing your startup list, something you think may not be useful actually may be needed to run your computer. As for IE, do not put any sites on your trusted list, if you need to install something have it prompt you. Sometimes sites arent actually the ones you think they are.

Your AV is good, just make sure you dont have AVG...Its horrible and doesnt catch most viruses. Careful with your services too. Read up on them to make sure they arent needed.

Your firewall should block most traffic, and it will stop the DCOM virus if you have it set right. Make sure you can see all alerts, and everything is logged. I would find a good packet sniffer, make a file and reg monitor incase you feel like making sure your safe one day. All this is a bit paranoid but you should be safe. Good job

Sounds like your pretty secure. If your on broadband, and wanted one more layer of security, you could get a firewall router. I use Linksys BEFSX41. Along with software firewall inside my LAN.

Yea, Good Suggestion cheyenne, I think hardware firewalls are more secure than software ones. And by the way...I love your sig...

Simple...

The firewall and AV is a good start, but I do a lot more than that.

My box is in a clean room requiring an iris scan, keycard, password, and voiceprint identification to get in.
I have removed all communication devices from my computer. No NIC card, no modem. I burnt the circuit paths to the ASUS WiFi connector. The CPU pins are tapped and all information passing through them is recorded on tape backup in real time.

The computer is then locked in a fireproof, bulletproof, floodproof, EM field proof and idiot proof safe to which only I have the key.

The keyboard is unplugged and locked in a seperate safe in the attic.

The hard drive is loopback encrypted. The only way to access its contents are to use a smart card which I keep locked in a safety deposit box at the bank. The smart card reader is also locked in a seperate safe in the attic. The attic is also protected with a 6 inch titanium door requiring the usual iris scan, keycard, password, and voiceprint identification to gain access.

The computer is baselined and running IDS software. Every time a program starts, a red alert klaxon sounds, emergency management documents drop from the ceiling, the lights dim, and a big red light flashes to alert me in case I go deaf before then.

The entrance to the door is on closed circuit camera, which is on a direct live feed to my palmpilot. I never take my eyes off that camera if I ever leave the house. I have hired three armed guards from the mob to guard the entrance to the door. They have attack dogs with them that will kill anything that moves except them and me.

There are infrared lasers scattered throughout the room which will automatically sound the red alert if they are interrupted. From the celing are hanging laser targeted, fully automatic machineguns which kill anything that enters the room without authorization.

The computer is filled with C4 and will explode if the wrong password is entered, killing the bad guy at the keyboard (it has a radio transmitter which will remotely detonate the C4 in the attic, too).

Nobody will get into MY computer without permission.

Such as ad-ware and stuff i would recommend Ad-Aware 6. It will remove 99.9 % of all ad-ware from you computer. You can also set it up so that it protects your startup in your registry which in return will help stop Virii from starting up in your PC. In your registry you can remove everything in thre. There is no risk of your computer needing it. Or atleast i was able to do so with windows XP. I would also recommend "PC Cillin" as an antivirus. Its one of the best out there. I've herd its better the Norton. As for preformance you might want tot look into Norton system works 2003. Its comes with a crap load of tool used for making your pc run better.

Here are some other posts that might interest you....
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hlight=Startup
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hlight=Startup

Holy ****...At first I thought you were serious...Wouldnt be a bad idea though if you had a few million you didnt need and the cure for cancer on your computer.

This may be overkill, but I'm trying to help the company I work for develop a policy and setup for all our field offices. 80% of our users quite literally cannot figure out how to find the update windows button and install updates.

So, I have been using my home computer for a guinea pig. For starters, I did a clean install of the operating system, got my internet access, av, etc. I ghosted it over to another partition, encrypted it, made everything read only, then hid the partition. (I know hiding it is not at all foolproof, but if someone wants to go poking around there, they can have fun). Being as how I have a second hard drive, I ghosted the operating system over to that, and unplugged it. Good luck getting into that Mr. H4xor. That part was done just to give me a guaranteed clean backup with internet access in case of total system meltdown.

I can access my encrypted backup with a bootdisk if I need to.

In addition, I use the standard av, firewall, spybots, and (thanks nihil), Registryprot.

As far as web-surfing, everything is set to high. I set cookies to prompt, and I only allow the ones I want. I use ghost-surf, and have been tinkering with personal proxies. That little banner that people have been using in their sigs (the one that shows ip, etc) has provided the motivation to make that info invisible. I'm getting closer.... :)

I turn off all history, autofill, etc., and I edited the registry keys to prevent them "accidentally" being turned back on.

As far as the computer being secured with passwords, etc. , I haven't worried about it too much, because it is my home computer. If Mr. H4xor makes it in my front door, he will be imediately more concerned with my 12 guage. (Pheasant season starts soon)

I've been tinkering with snort, but for the life of me I can't get it to work. I use a gui interface (cause I'm a lamer :) ), and it says it doesn't exist on my computer at all..

Anyway...everything I have done has been with freeware as kind of a proof of concept to my employer. If it sounds like overkill, blame nihil, he got me started on this path awhile back... ;)