|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
IN THIS ISSUE:
0. EDITORIALThis editorial is the third part in a series looking at the effectiveness of free security software. In the last part I showed that you could achieve a high degree of protection using a three layered defense system based on free products. By combining the free AVG anti-virus scanner, the free version of Ewido anti-Trojan scanner and the free Microsoft Antispyware scanner, I managed to achieve a 95% detection rate against a particularly nasty set of 104 assorted malware products that I had downloaded from P2P networks. The figure of 95% using layered protection compares to a modest 84% achieved by each of the best performing individual commercial products, NOD32 and Norton AV 2005, used alone. It is, however, unfair to compare a three layered security system to a single layer. Rather it should be compared to the best three layered combination of commercial products. Over the last month I've looked at 45 different combinations of commercial products in a three layered system comprising of an anti-virus scanner, an anti-Trojan scanner and an anti-spyware scanner. It's a complex business finding the right combination. All products overlap to some extent yet at the same time have different strength and weaknesses. The trick is to get the best overall protection with the least overlap. Overlap is not in itself necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could be considered a virtue; the more protection the better. The problem is that overlapping products end up catching the same problems and throwing up the same warnings to users. This is a real pain. Matching product strengths and weaknesses is a little easier. Norton AV for example is not all that strong in detecting polymorphic Trojans so it makes sense to team it up with a powerful anti-Trojan. NOD32 on the other hand, is relatively strong in its Trojan protection but not as good as Norton in picking up spyware. And so it goes on. At the end of the day I found three product combinations that gave excellent results. Here they are:
There are of course many other effective combinations. In fact, 11 of the 45 combinations I tested had detection rates of 95% or better. Conclusion The best combination of commercial security products I tried yielded a 99% detection rate compared to 95% for the best combination of free products. That's not a big difference but it's not insignificant. However, the cost difference is not insignificant either. To buy the full set of commercial products you will have to outlay $88.90 initially plus a further $67.20 annually. Some folks will consider this a worthwhile investment in order to get the slightly higher level of protection. Others will baulk at the idea. Personally, I think it all boils down to whether you are a high risk user. A high risk user is one who frequents P2P networks, tries lots of different programs, surfs to the nether regions of the web or otherwise engages in risky on-line behavior. If that's you, I suspect any money outlaid on the best security protection may prove to be a wise investment. For those whose main internet usage is email and surfing to well known web sites, the situation is different; I suspect you could safely rely on free security products to give you all the protection you need. See you next month. Gizmo editor@techsupportalert.com PS This month I'm giving away 10 free copies of the outstanding security product ProcessGuard. For details, read below. Support Alert relies on voluntary donations to survive. If you feel that you've benefited from reading this newsletter perhaps you would like to consider donating by subscribing to the premium "Supporters' Edition" of this newsletter. The Premium SE Edition contains almost twice the number of great tech sites, free utilities, tips and other content as the standard edition. It's also ad-free. This month I'm giving away 10 copies of Diamond Computer Systems' ProcessGuard. This is the most copies I've ever given away of anything. That's because these copies were kindly donated by Diamond. I normally knock back offers from vendors for free copies but ProcessGuard is such an outstanding security product that I've made an exception. The fact is, I use ProcessGuard on every computer I own, which tells you what I think of the product. Whatever, you guys are the beneficiaries so if you've thinking of subscribing to the SE Edition now is the time. You have a great chance of winning a terrific product. The ten free copies I'm giving away will be allocated at random but your chances of scoring one are actually pretty good. Even if you don't win anything you'll still get my special report "Gizmo's Desert Island Utilities" which outlines the software I consider most useful, including many free products. You'll also get immediate access to the archive of all past issues of the Premium Supporters' edition of the newsletter where you can catch up on the hundreds of great utilities you missed in the standard edition. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIUM SE EDITION 12 months subscription to the Supporters' Edition costs $10 which can be made by check or credit card using either ClickBank or PayPal or simply send cash. Use
the link below to subscribe now: 1. TOP TECH SITES1.1 HTML Version of this NewsletterAn
HTML edition of Support Alert is coming soon. It won't
replace the current all-text version rather it will be an
option. When it's all set up I'll make an announcement in the
newsletter. Meantime, I've put up a prototype html version of
this month's issue on the website so you can check it out. In
case my web server overloads I've given an alternate location
below. Any suggestions for improving the layout of the html
version of the newsletter are most welcome. 1.2 New Freebie List Just for Support Alert SubscribersAs
I indicated a couple issues back, I've decided to make my
well known "46 Best-ever Freeware" list public rather than keep
it just for Support Alert subscribers. I've now cut the list
back to exactly 46 utilities and put the remaining 18 or so in a
new extended list that IS just for subscribers - so bookmark it
but please don't circulate it. Both lists have been recently
updated. Here are the links: 1.3 Help For Outlook Express UsersHere
you'll find an excellent collection of usage tips, how-to
guides and solutions to common problems. Check out the FAQ, it's
excellent. 1.4 Free File HostingIn
the past I have mentioned sites like DropLoad.com and
YouSendIt.com that allow you to send very large files to
individual recipients. This site handles the related problem of
sending one file to many users. It's a free hosting service that
allows you to upload a file up to 30MB which can then be
downloaded by many folks without limit. In other words, free
bandwidth. There are some constraints on speed and the number of
concurrent users and, if that's a problem, you can upgrade to a
premium level of service at modest cost. If you want some
serious free bandwidth, check out the second link. 1.5 How to Make a USB Flash Drive BootableThis
detailed guide not only shows you how, it also shows you
some clever things you can do with your bootable USB. 1.6 Site Offers Free Malware Test for Suspicious FilesRegular
contributor Richard Thomas writes, "This [1] is a useful
site Gizmo. You can upload a suspicious file and have it checked
by several virus scanners and then have a report emailed to
you." Thanks Richard, nice find - though I wish they documented
exactly what AV scanners they use. That's one of the reasons I
like the service offered by jotti.org [2] which uses 13 top of
the line AV products to scan the suspect files you submit.
1.7 A New Twist on Disposable Email AddressesThis
is a neat idea. Create a valid email address by simply
making-up the first part of the address and then adding the
suffix "@mailinator.com." You can then go this site and collect
any mail. It's free and you don't need to open an account as
it's created when mail arrives to the inbox of your made-up
email address. ** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition ** 1.8 Top Security Site; get help for your spyware problems1.9 Major Publicly Listed Companies Involved in Spyware1.10 How to Identify DNS Problems1.11 An Email Service That Allows You to Change Sent emailGot
some top sites to suggest? Send them to 2. UTILITIES2.1 Free PDF Reader Loads Lightning FastSick
to death of Adobe's slow, bloated PDF Reader? If so then
check out the Foxit Reader. It's small, loads in flash, supports
bookmarks, has search capability, offers many views and runs on
any version of Windows. On top of that it can print PDFs as
well. It runs without installation too, so it's ideal for your
toolkit CD or USB flash drive. Thanks to subscriber Mark
Donaldson for the suggestion. Freeware, all Windows versions,
915KB. 2.2 MS Toolbar Brings Tabbed Browsing to Internet ExplorerThis
is a surprise. The latest version of the Microsoft Search
ToolBar offers Internet Explorer V6 users tabbed browsing. Don't
get too excited. First it's not a complete tabs implementation
but a rather minimal effort with a tacked on feel. Second you'll
also end up installing MS Desktop Search as part of the package.
Finally who really wants MS web search when Google search is so
superior? 2.3 Free Utility Offers Alternative to HotkeysI'm
not a great fan of hotkey programs for a couple of reasons.
First, I keep forgetting the key assignments, second, I find I
run out of free key combinations very quickly. SlickRun solves
these problems by using "magic words" rather than hotkeys. It
places a tiny text box on your screen and when you type
specially assigned words into the box, they will launch a
program, go to a web site or whatever. For example if you type
"mail" it can launch your mail reader. Type in "46" and it can
take you to the web page of the "46 Best-ever Freeware
Utilities." Of course, it's up to you to define these magic
words and you can have as many as you want. It all works very
neatly with some really nice touches like auto-complete for your
magic words which means you only have to type in two or three
letters and SlickRun will complete the rest. Nice too, is an
eyedropper tool that allows you to identify a program you want
to "hotkey" just by clicking in its application window. There's
also a built-in note jotter and a calendar date display. All
this in a tiny 168KB. Highly recommended. Freeware, Win 98 and
later, 168KB. 2.4 The Best Free Dictionary/Thesaurus UtilityI've
been using WordWeb for a couple of weeks now following a
tip from subscriber Paul Castelli. I've seen enough to say this
will be one of the rare utilities I review that ends up staying
on my PC. So what does it do? Well, it's not a spellchecker so
let's get that out of the way. If that's what you want, check
the next item below. Rather, WordWeb is an enhanced dictionary
and thesaurus. I say "enhanced" because it does some tricky
extra things like showing only the relevant synonyms and related
words according to whether they are noun, verb, adjective or
adverb. It can also find words by pattern match or dictionary
adjacency. Usage is simple: just select a word in any document
and click the WordWeb tray icon. Immediately you'll get a popup
with the word's meaning and synonyms. Overall, it works
efficiently and elegantly to help you find the just right word
to use in your written reports. It makes the dictionary and
thesaurus in Word look like a useless half-baked pile of junk.
This is an essential tool for anyone who writes. It's free for
non commercial use. A Pro version with an enhanced dictionary
costs a mere $19 and is well worth buying. Windows 95 and later,
6.96MB. 2.5 Free Spell-Checkers for FireFox and Internet ExplorerI
use an excellent free extension for FireFox and the Mozilla
Suite called SpellBound [1] that will check the spelling in any
web form. Make sure you follow the installation instructions
carefully. Internet Explorer users can use the new Google
Toolbar [2] which includes a quite usable spell-checker or,
better still, install the free plug-in IESpell [3], a long time
fave of mine before I moved to Firefox. 2.6 Best Free Rootkit Scanner/RemoverRootkits
are a special kind of software tool used to hide
Trojans, viruses and other malware from your anti-virus scanner
and other security products. Unfortunately, they are extremely
effective which means that some of you reading this now will be
infected even though you believe your PC to be totally clean.
Thankfully, there is a new class of security products now
available called rootkit detectors that use specialized
techniques to detect these dangerous intruders. Most of these
detectors require quite a bit of technical skill to interpret
the results but one of the simplest to use and most effective is
also free. It's called BlackLight and is currently available as
a free beta from F-Secure until the 1st of July 2005. I suggest
everyone download this product and scan their PC. The chances of
you being infected are small but for five minutes work it's not
worth taking the risk. Free, 911KB. 2.7 Google Web Accelerator Still AvailableIn
issue 121 I gave a glowing account of Google's free web
accelerator software but noted that Google was not currently
offering downloads as they had enough beta users for the moment.
Subscriber Deepankar Dheer has written in to say that you can
still download the software from another site [1] and that it
works fine. Before you do, I suggest you re-read my comments
[2] from last month. Freeware, Windows 2000 SP3 or later, 1.4MB ** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition ** 2.8 Best Free Image Viewer (and it's not Irfan)2.9 Best Free Audio Editing Software2.10 Free Utility Prints Graph Paper and More2.11 The Best Free Bulk Rename UtilityGot
some top utilities to suggest? Send them to 3. SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES3.1 Microsoft Security NewsOn
Tuesday the 14th of June, MS released a batch of 10 security
updates including three rated as critical. The critical updates
include an Internet Explorer cumulative update, a problem in
Windows Help for Win2k and later Windows versions and a serious
flaw in SMB for Win2k and later. Full details can be found at
the link below. Users with the Windows Update service set to
automatic will receive the updates over the next couple of days.
All other users should visit the Windows Update site immediately
and update manually. 3.2 Old Mozilla Flaw Re-surface in Latest FirefoxSecunia
[1] is carrying details of an old and long-fixed Mozilla
flaw mysteriously re-appearing in the latest version of Firefox
and Mozilla. It's a frame injection flaw that could allow an
attacker from a hostile site to insert information over the top
of a screen belonging to a legitimate site. This, to the user,
would appear to be coming from the legitimate site. It's easy to
see how this could be used to collect passwords and other
sensitive information. No fix is yet available but Firefox users
can overcome the problem by installing the free TabBrowser
Preferences extension [2] and set the "Open links in" option to
"New Tab." 3.3 NetCraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar Now Available for FirefoxNetCraft
has been offering their free anti-phishing tool bar for
Internet Explorer for some time and it's now available for
FireFox as well. The toolbar provides users with a "trust
rating" for sites they visit based on information collected by
NetCraft and held on their central servers. It all works well
enough but I really am not keen on this kind of product. To me,
they provide a potentially false sense of security. What happens
if you visit a new bogus site that's not yet in the database?
No, folks, there is a much better way; simply adopt the practice
that when you receive an email from a financial institution
requesting some action on your part, confirm it by phone with
that institution. Don't use the phone number in the email,
either; use directory assistance. Follow this simple practice
and you can never be defrauded by phishing scams. 3.4 Two Critical Java Flaws Patched - Users Should Update NowIn
separate advisories Sun Microsystems has announced fixes for
two potentially disastrous flaws in it's widely used JRE (Java
Runtime Environment). The flaws could allow an attacker to read
and write files or execute applications on a victim's computer
by using a suitably crafted web-based java program. The
vulnerability affects J2SE releases 5.0 and 5.0 Update 1 for
Windows, Solaris and Linux, and J2SE 1.4.2_07 and prior 1.4.2
releases for Windows, Solaris and Linux. ALL JRE users (and that
means almost everybody) should update to J2SE 5.0 Update 2 or
1.4.2_08 using the third link below. Hint: Don't download the
SDK version. The
Best Windows Backup Software The
Best SpyWare Detector The
Best Remote Access Software The
Best Anti-trojan Scanner -------------
end of sponsored links -------------------------- 4. OTHER USEFUL STUFF4.1 USB Flash Drive Built Into Swiss Army KnifeOh,
this is so lustworthy. Imagine a genuine Swiss Army knife
combined with a genuine USB 2.0 flash drive up to 1GB in
capacity, all bundled in a pocket knife-sized shell. The flash
drive data transfer rate is excellent and it's got some nice
bundled software as well, including password protection and a
syncing application for your My Documents folder. Tools include
scissors, a file, screw driver, LED mini-flashlight and even a
pen. Available in ruby red or stainless steel finishes, the 1GB
version of the SwissMemory USB Victorinox has a street price of
around $129. 4.2 New Google EnhancementsGoogle
labs is offering a new feature that allows users to
customize the Google home page with content of their choice.
Options include news from the NYT, BBC, SlashDot, weather,
stocks and more. Also new is the just-released version 3 of the
Google Toolbar that offers several new features including the
ability to spell-check any text you enter into web forms. Other
enhancements include a translator and Autolink, a controversial
feature that turns street addresses into maps. Unfortunately,
these features are only available (at the moment) for the
Internet Explorer version of the Toolbar. 4.3 Yahoo! Fights Back With Photo Sharing, MindSearchGoogle
may be taking over the world but not without a fight from
Yahoo!. Their latest offering is MindSearch, a web search
enhancement that separates commercial search results from pure
informational sources. I found it quite useful for researching
topics such as "web servers" where there is a lot of commercial
clutter. New, too, is PhotoShare, an add-in for Yahoo! Mail that
provides a clever solution to sharing photos by email. In
essence it allows you to easily insert thumbnails of photos in
your email. If the recipient clicks any thumbnail, a larger
photo stored at Yahoo! Photos is displayed. Recipients can use
any email client including web mail. As Yahoo! Photos offers
free unlimited storage for your photos, it's quite an attractive
solution for the perennial problem of emailing snaps. 4.4 Find Anyone QuicklySubscriber
Erik Wattnem had this to say: "Gizmo, This has to be
the most powerful free people finder out there. It even finds
unpublished phone numbers. Scary." Thanks Erik and, yes, it is
scary. It reveals age, phone number and street address. Pay up
and you can also get a full background check. 4.5 Sniglet ListingSniglets are tech terms that aren't in the dictionary but should be. An example is "analog retentives - those people who obstinately cling to outmoded technology." Many more here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci506044,00.html 4.6 Complete Waste of Time DepartmentThanks
to Mike Wolf for the first link. The second link will
make you smile. The third is so silly it's almost fun. ** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition ** 4.7 Email Headers Explained; how to easily decode their meaning4.8 Remove Content From Google Searches4.9 How to Protect Your Internet Privacy4.10 Open Source Palm Software5. TIP OF THE MONTH5.1 Moving the "My Documents" Folder to Another DriveMost folks use the My Documents folder to keep all their personal data. Unfortunately, this folder is by default located on the C: drive, the same drive that contains the Windows operating system. Storing these two things together on the same drive is not a great idea for several reasons. Here are just two: First, your personal data is very likely to be growing in size while Windows is not. In this era of multi megapixel digital photos you are in real danger of filling up your C: drive. This progessively degrades Windows performance. Sooner or later you'll fill up the disk and have to make more space by deleting some of your personal files or get into the complex and problem- fraught exercise of increasing the size of your primary disk partition. Second, it complicates backup. Your personal data is changing all the time while the Windows operating system changes much less frequently. That means your personal data needs to be backed up more frequently than Windows. With both on the same drive you'll end up making very large drive images and having to create them more frequently as well. Similar comments apply to disk defragmentation. Mixing your personal data with Windows increases the need for defragging and results in a slower defrag. Nope, leaving your My Documents folder on the C: drive is like storing your washing powder with your vegetables. Quite possible, but not a great idea. Now, many folks have only a single partition of their hard drive; that is, their only hard drive is their C: drive. These folks can't move their My Documents folder. They could of course re-partition their drive but that's a complex issue I'm not going to address here. If you do have two or more partitions on your hard drive, or if you have more than one hard drive, it's quite easy to move your My Documents folder to another drive or partition. You will, however, need enough free space on the second drive/partition to accommodate all your documents. To find out, go to My Computer and click on View/Details and make a note of the free space available on each partition or drive. Make sure you don't get confused by your CD drive. You can't move your My Documents folder there! While still in My Computer, right-click on My Documents and select Properties. After a few seconds you should see the folder size shown. If two figures are shown with one in brackets, note the larger figure. That's the amount of disk space you will need. Now make a decision which drive you'd like to move the My Documents folder to. Make sure there is enough disk space. Let's say you selected the D: drive. Click on the Start button and then right-click on My Documents and select Properties. If there's no My Documents in your start menu then right click on the My Documents icon on your desktop instead. When you've clicked on properties, select "Move" and then navigate to your D: drive. Select the drive letter and then click "Make New Folder." Enter "My Documents" as the folder name and hit Enter and then OK. Windows will then ask you whether you want to move your documents; click Yes. Moving your documents make take some time. Once moved, though, you can access them normally from the "My Documents" icon on the desktop or elsewhere. In the process you'll free up a lot of room on your C: drive. Defrag the drive so it can be utilized by Windows in the most effective manner. For more information you can consult this Microsoft document. http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147 The
ideal time to relocate the My Document folder and other
system folders is when you have just bought a new PC and have
yet to load your data or applications. It's something to bear in
mind when you get your next PC. 6. FREEBIE OF THE MONTH6.1 Best Free Web Form Filler/Password ManagerProducts in this class are among the most useful of all PC utilities because they allow you to complete the common task of filling in web forms and logins by simply clicking a button. They work by saving user IDs, passwords and other information needed for individual sites in encrypted form for later retrieval. To login to a site you only have to type in a single master password to allow retrieval of the specific password information for that site. This information is then used by the program to automatically login. This greatly improves security by allowing different passwords to be assigned to individual sites without the need to be remembered while at the same time making logging in easier and quicker. There's no doubt that RoboForm [1] is the stand-out product in the category; it's full featured, easy to use, seamlessly integrated into both Internet Explorer and FireFox browsers and is constantly being enhanced by the developer. It also allows your saved passwords to be moved between PCs which is very convenient when using multiple machines or upgrading. I do have a major reservation though: The free version allows only 10 forms or passwords to be stored. This used to be 30 in earlier versions which was adequate but 10 is way too few for most users and they will be eventually forced to shell out $29.99 to buy the full product. This reservation aside, it is a fabulous product that saves me time every day. Try it. You'll be amazed how much time it will save you, too. Note: If you use Internet Explorer, there's some good news: the last free version of RoboForm (V4.6.8) that allowed 30 passwords is still floating around the web [2] and works perfectly well. FireFox
users are out of luck as you can't use this version with
the current FireFox. Don't despair, though. Check out the open
source program Freepass [3]. It's not nearly as well integrated
into your browser as RoboForm but it's a very good product that
works without any limitations at all. ** Bonus Freebie for Premium SE Edition Subscribers ** 6.2 Best Free File Un-delete UtilityI'm recommending two utilities here, each covering a different situation: I've found a wonderful program for recovering already deleted files. It works with FAT and NTFS file structures and runs on any version of Windows from 95 onwards. As a bonus, it requires no installation which means you can run it from a USB drive, CD or floppy. In fact, that's exactly where you should run it from as installing it on your hard drive will reduce your chance of successfully recovering your deleted files. If you want to protect your computer from future accidental deletions, check out this second utility. It overcomes the annoying limitation in the Windows Recycle Bin that only allows you to recover files deleted from within Windows Explorer. It also allows you to recover just about all deleted files including files deleted in applications. Use both these utilities and you'll never lose a valuable file again. Highly recommended. ... full details in the Premium SE Edition of this newsletter. GET THE PREMIUM "SE" EDITION NOW Stop missing out on all this extra information! Subscribe now to the premium "SE" Edition of this newsletter and immediately receive the current issue containing nearly double the information contained in this free edition. Get twice as many great web sites, get twice as many top utilities and great freebies. Get it now! Use
this link to subscribe online now: This month I'm giving away 10 free copies of the outstanding security product ProcessGuard. For details, read below. Support Alert relies on voluntary donations to survive. If you feel that you've benefited from reading this newsletter perhaps you would like to consider donating by subscribing to the premium "Supporters' Edition" of this newsletter. The Premium SE Edition contains almost twice the number of great tech sites, free utilities, tips and other content as the standard edition. It's also ad-free. This month I'm giving away 10 copies of Diamond Computer Systems' ProcessGuard. This is the most copies I've ever given away of anything. That's because these copies were kindly donated by Diamond. I normally knock back offers from vendors for free copies but ProcessGuard is such an outstanding security product that I've made an exception. The fact is I use ProcessGuard on every computer I own, which tells you what I think of the product. Whatever, you guys are the beneficiaries so if you've thinking of subscribing to the SE Edition now is the time. You have a great chance of winning a terrific product. The ten free copies I'm giving away will be allocated at random but your chances of scoring one are actually pretty good. Even if you don't win you'll still get my special report "Gizmo's Desert Island Utilities" which outlines the software I consider most useful, including many free products. You'll also get immediate access to the archive of all past issues of the Premium Supporters' edition of the newsletter where you can catch up on the hundreds of great utilities you missed in the standard edition. 12 months subscription to the Supporters' Edition costs $10 which can be made by check or credit card using either ClickBank or PayPal or simply send cash. Use
the link below to subscribe now: Support
Alert is a free newsletter. If you liked this issue why
not email it to a friend. Anyone can subscribe by signing up
online at http://www.techsupportalert.com/al_subscribe.htm. Back
Issues If
you no longer wish to receive this newsletter just go to
http://www.webelists.com/cgi/lyris.pl?enter=support.alert. Enter To
change your delivery email address go to For
lots more free IT newsletters see Thanks to subscriber A. Belile for proofreading this issue. You
can contact this newsletter by snail mail at: Content
of this newsletter is (c) Copyright See you next issue Gizmo Ian Richards editor@techsupportalert.com |
