hmmmmm......I was hoping to see more discussion

My complete security setup:

Ad-aware
BitDefender
E-Mail - All read on-line to protect against viruses
Norton Anti-Virus
Proxomitron
RegProtect
Script that deletes Cookies/Histories/Logs/Temp Files
Spider
Spybot
Zonealarm

I'm not paranoid........really

kinda like gave me a big list when I installed deleted the shotrtcut keys for real player... and I guarantee they wont be back... deleted things for programs that I uninstalled and arent there anymore... kinda cool

periodically I run ad aware to get rid of nosey cookies.

Oil2003, that is the very reason I did not even try it.

new=net

sounds like part of a great protection plan

One thing you do want to do from time to time, maybe once a month at minimum is back up your registry to floppy, the reason is * if you have to restore from an emergency restore disk, you need the newest registry backup or you end up missing all keys associated for files and programs installed after the back was created" which can be fix, but it is extreamly time consuming and also not always sucsessful for everything on your drive(s).

DiskImage and DiskCopy respectivly are also good parts of a recovery plan, Ghost can be clunky but if you have the storage for a full image it works very well also.

recovery is the second part of a total sercure system/network...

sad to say the net as fantastic as it is, can also be a cesspool.

i would like to have a Registry monitor program, but i want one that logs reg change transactions instead of popping up messages.
i'm betting that d1 wears a belt with his suspenders. just kidding, i'm a bit paranoid meself when it comes to my PC.

I wouldn't say it's worthless. However there have been a few times it didn't help and I had to use the install cd to do a repair install.

I wouldn't use System Restore
It is useless !!!



depending on which network I am on the hardware changes.
But the system setup is the same pretty nucm:

Either a:
10/100 mbit multiport NetGear RT314 NAT gateway/Router
or
FireBOX II firewall with content, email, internet, intranet and security filters

SOftware....

NIS Pro 2003, includes NAV 2003 and productivity controls for the nusiness enviornment

SpyWatch

Spamkiller 4.0

Email-tracker-pro for trace-routes on emails sent to me or on my network from any desktop that recieves it

NeoTrace Pro for anything IP related, runs inside browsers on the tool bar or stand alone.

LANguard Network Security Scanner

Startup Orginizer

Taskinfo 2003 to monitor anything and everything loaded into memory

Bootvis is ran perodicaly to ensure opt bootup and shut down speeds, it is on MS website and is a excelant utility that is not mentioned publicly for the most part, they use it when testing MS for tweaking.

uPnP disabled without question on all systems and not enabled for any reason.

various registry and services tweaks from this list of links.

Windows XP A to Z
www.windowsxpatoz.com http://www.windowsxpatoz.com
Database, searchable, tips and fixes for XP

Windows AP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/default/asp http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/default/asp
Microsoft knows it better than anyone and users input is great in the news groups

TweakXP, pretty much says it all in the name
www.tweakxp.xom http://www.tweakxp.xom

Tech-Republic
www.techrepublic.com http://www.techrepublic.com
everyone should check this place out from the professional to the hobbyist..
Mailing lists are very well put together and filled with real information you can make use
of at home, on the road or at the office with your servers, desktops and laptops, heck even pocket pc's

there are a lot more, but...

mmm, more but whats the point...

Too many security programs will slow your system down and cause conflicts. Almost as bad as getting a virus. Isn't irony ironic?

I use Ad-Aware and NAV 2003. That's it. I took Zone Alarm off a while ago and am none the worse.

I keep Spinrite handy, just in case.

I wouldn't depend on any one program for anything because nothing catches everything.
But at the sametime who would load redundant applications?
Windows XP all the way back to Windows 3.0 all make use of the upper memory block as a window into higher memory. Microsoft would claim diffferent, as would many people who trust what MS says.

But the real test of that is seeing the Subsystem error telling you that you are out of resourses and can not load a 16bit application, such as when you are trying to install something.

Or the fact that system resoures hit the kitty litter box ad so does system speed as more and more TSR's are loaded into memory.

A good software firewall, virus protection and spyware remover/monitor and registry monitor are one pahse of system security and reovery which is the total package.
The second part is system recovery...

without both, your stuck with recreating everything from scratch. Which brings up another good pratice if you can do it, burn an inmage of your working system for quick recovery and you can exspell the need of spending hours if not days recovering from disaster...

but then again thats just my personal opinion for what it is worth. You can learn a lot from breaking things, or someting breaking them and fixing it.

I'm running this 'Registry Protect' proggy at the moment....if and when it 'finds' something worthwhile I'll let you know...