Avoiding Malicious Software

Each PC needs three layers of protective software. Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, and a Firewall.

Anti-Virus software works to detect, block and remove most forms of malicious software, including viruses, worms, trojans, and more.

Anti-Spyware, while sometimes covered by anti-virus software, is often more comprehensive in a seperate package. It helps to detect, block and remove software that is installed to compromise your private information, track your internet use, collect marketing data about you, and slow your computer down.

A firewall helps to make sure only the programs and people that should be able to send information in and out of your computer are able to do so. It blocks others, and even makes your computers ports invisible to outsiders. This software can range from complicated with intrusive questioning of the user, to practically invisible to the user.

Without these, malicious software can allow outside access to your computer, share your private information with others, use your address book and e-mail software to spam your contacts and spread the infection, and actually damage or destroy your computer.

My recommendation for Anti-Virus is NOD32 from ESET. It ranges from $60 to $180 depending on subscription length and the number of computers you are protecting. It has been rated as the best and least troublesome Anti-Virus software by reputable revievers. Just Google it to see. It is even said to be the Anti-Virus of choice for hackers. I recommend the Anti-Virus only and not their Security Suite. I find that Security Suites are less useful than individual products and not worth the cost. NOD32 can be found at: http://www.eset.com/ If you can afford it, I highly recommend this program. If not, at least do some research before choosing.

For Anti-Spyware, I like the free version of Ad-Aware from LavaSoft. It's free, and it works great. What more can I say, except run it often. http://www.lavasoft.com/

There are a few good firewalls. The built in firewall in Windows XP and Vista is actually pretty good and very unobtrusive. The next step up would be the free version of Zone Alarm, but definetely not the paid version of ZoneAlarm. http://www.zonelabs.com/ My personal firewall is Online Armor. It's the best. It is a little more intrusive with questions for the user, but if you feel confident in making a few decisions, it's more powerful. It ranges from $40 to $100 depending on options. http://www.tallemu.com/

The fourth layer of protection, is backup. This is probably the most important, and least used. Nobody wants to spend money or time on backing up data they don't seem to have any problems with. At least, not until they lose their photos, videos, music, e-mail, address book, bookmarks and favorites, passwords, all their program settings, and have to spend hours to weeks reconstructing their computer the way they like it, perhaps never recoving cherished memories. Backup can range from simple to complex. I have yet to discover the perfect, simple, easy-to-use and comprehensive and affordable backup software and hardware. However, I do have a few recommendations worth considering.

USB or eSata hard drives have become very affordable and make a great backup medium. They hold a lot of data, are relatively fast, and fairly affordable and portable. USB Keys are great for small amounts of data, but not large enough for comprehensive backups. CD's and DVD's are slow, and will go bad with time, but are decent for small backups of data, especially for making multiple inexpensive backups of cherished photos. Tape drives are great for business use, but too slow and expensive for consumer use.

Speaking of portable, I recommend keeping a backup of your data at another site than your main computer is located at. Leave one at work or in a safety deposit box, or with a friend you trust (a lot).

Backup software sucks, in general. None is perfect. Some is comprehensive but difficult to use. Some is easy to use, but limited in function. Maybe someday, some genius programmer will get it right.

In the meantime, here are my recommendations from what is available.

Online Backups, requiring an always-on high-speed internet connection, will back-up your data to an offsite server with backups of it's own. It's slow to back-up, slow to restore, not always reliable, not always comprehensive, and sometimes expensive. However, it's useful enough that I do use one. I use Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), and have to override it to back-up a few things that it doesn't back-up by default. I tried Mozy (www.mozy.com), but never got it to working right. Others are pricier but offer more for the money. Google online backup for more choices.

Backup Software, ranges from comprehensive disk-backup to souped up file-copying software.

One option is True Image by Acronis http://www.acronis.com/. It does a full disk, or system backup to other disks, external drives, DVDs or CDs. Again, I'd recommend a USB 2.0 external Hard Disk Drive. This software is mildly complicated, but can be set for scheduled backups and updates. It costs $50 per machine using it.

A couple of file copying style backup utilties I like are Beyond Compare 3 by Scooter Software at www.scootersoftware.com for $50, and GoodSync by Siber Systems at www.goodsync.com for $30.

Specific Data backup can be useful for passwords and other small pieces of very private information, and for helping to fill out forms on the internet. For passwords and more I like eWallet at http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/ew/ewallet.php for $30. For internet passwords and automatic form filling, there's no substitute for RoboForm at http://www.roboform.com/ for $30.

A last layer of defense is power protection. This includes protection from power surges, brownouts, and outages. Surge suppressors are used for surges, and can include power, cable, phone, and ethernet protection. More info is in a previous blog on this topic.

UPS or uninteruptable power supplies are great for short term power outages and brownouts, giving you time to shut down your system without damage or loss of data.

Whole house generators are good in storm prone areas that are susceptable to long-term power outages, but are expensive to buy and to use. Some models will work with computer UPS's and some wont. Some are noisy and some are quiet. Ask a lot of questions before buying.

The last layer of protection is a full home inventory and review of your insurance policy. Insurance requires a list of possessions in detail to pay for losses. Insurance limits losses in certain categories like electronics, jewelry and collectables. Special riders are available to increase coverage in these categories. Consider national flood insurance. If you have special items like hearing aids that are expensive to replace, see if they are covered. Talk to your insurance salesman. While you don't want to pay for what you don't need, they often don't tell you about all you may need until you ask about it. The best inventory software for collectables is at www.collectorz.com. The best (free) software for a full home inventory is at http://www.knowyourstuff.org/. Take frequent photos of your home. A photo or video of an item is proof of ownership. Photograph the tags with serial numbers too.

Whatever you do, take the basic steps of installing anti-virus software and making sure the firewall is active, and backup your personal data, especially photos and letters that can't be replaced.

Oh, one other layer of personal protection. In addition to smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers, consider puting up a photo of family members and pets near the entrance to your home for emergency personel to use to make sure everyone is safe in the event of an emergency. Include contacts of physicians and vets and important medical data like allergies. For pets, consider mentioning likely hiding places.

Lightning Crashes

It's a dark and stormy afternoon, and it reminded me of a storm a couple of months back that produced some frightening lightning. The lightning that day hit an oak tree next to my home. It split the bark on the tree, exploded my telephone box, split the sprinkler system pipes and damaged the sprinkler pump, took out the ethernet jack on my iMac, destroyed one network switch, one wireless router, and a network hard drive. Some of these were plugged into light surge protected strips, and even a couple of old APC UPS's. Up and down the street, it took out several TV's, telephones, and computers.

Lightning is a frequent phenomenon here in Florida. High ground makes a home more vulnerable, as do trees growing close to the house. I chose this home partly due to the higher elevation after Hurricane Ivan washed away my last home on a low elevation lot. Nature will get us in the end. In addition to lightning, the power company and other power users are always introducing spikes and brownouts. Power is never a pure and controlled as we would like. Electronics are fragile. Insurance often limits payments on a category such as electronics, and comes with a high deductable. In addition, using homeowners insurance can cause a rate hike, or even a cancellation. Guarantees such as those accompanying the power companies surge protector, or on a brand name surge protector are difficult to collect on. It's far cheaper and much more convenient in the long run to protect your electronics with quality surge protection products.

What struck me personally about my lightning strike is what wasn't harmed. My two large TV's, VCRs, DVDs, DVR, Media PC, Xbox, Shelf Stereo, and more were not harmed. These items were plugged into some Tripp Lite Isobar Home/Business Theatre Surge Suppressor 10-Outlet Power Strips (Model #: HTPOWERBAR10). This power strip has an eight-foot power cord, ten three-prong power outlets spaced for a few large power blocks, two coax cable connectors, and a telephone line connector. The only thing missing is an ethernet connector.

This is the one Tripp Lite product I like and would recommend wholeheartedly. I have had bad luck with other products of theirs. I prefer APC UPS's over Tripp Lites. However, no UPS has an adequate joule rating by itself, and should be combined with dedicated or power strip surge protectors.

So, what made the difference. I believe it was the joule rating. This is how much of a power surge the "suppressor" can handle. While nothing is lightning-proof, the higher the joule rating, the more likely the product is to stop a surge.

The Tripp Lite HTPOWERBAR10 has a joule rating of 5700. This is exceptional.

The iMac was plugged into a Tripp Lite SmartPro Digital UPS (Model #SMART1000LCD) with a joule rating of 480.

The other products that were hit, with the exception of the sprinkler system, were connected through an APC Smart-UPS 700 (model #SU700NET) AND a Tripp-Lite outlet strip (model #TLP810SAT). These has joule ratings of 480 and 3570 respectively.

There was no surge supressor connected to any ethernet lines. The wireless router was connected to a cable modem. The cable modem box was right next to the telephone box near the lightning strike. So this is likely the source of the main surge.

However, I still credit the strong power line surge supressor with protecting many of my electronic items. There is no doubt, that I needed a surge supressor for the ethernet lines, and for my outside TV antenna which I use in addition to the Cable TV connection.

The CAT6 10/100/1000 Base-T Weatherproof PoE Compatible Lightning Protector is an industrial grade surge protector for a single ethernet connection. There is no joule rating available, but the design is impressive. This is available at: http://www.hyperlinktech.com/item.aspx?id=949 This company offers many quality surge supressors including quality gas discharge tube surge protectors for coaxial TV cables.

For my outside TV antenna and my Cable TV input, I use a surge protector bought on eBay from seller drop-amps. The TII Whole House Broadband Coaxial Surge Suppressor is simple and high quality, as are this sellers other products.

I recommend using a Google Shopping search of the model numbers for the best prices. Provantage is a little higher priced than some but has warehouses all over for fast delivery.