Scaremongering

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belchingmatt
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Scaremongering

Post by belchingmatt »

Clicky



That is a security report my parents have just been given for their PC and afaik it is a load of tosh. Perhaps the only thing to be concerned about is that it says there isn't a two way firewall running, but I'm pretty sure Zone Alarm is there and working.



As for spyware and registry, well they were cleared out just a few weeks ago when I was last there.



System security is probably due to them running as admin.



Internet security is probably because ie is set to run under medium. And regardless they use Firefox.



System clutter has failed for 245Mb of crap. When I have a clear out I normally lose several Gb. <!--emo&:rolleyes:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->





Or am I missing something? <!--emo&:unsure:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/unsure.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='unsure.gif' /><!--endemo-->



Anyway I've offered to remote in should they need it. <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->




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<div class='signature'> I'm not addicted to porn, I'm addicted to masturbation. Porn is just an enabler.



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RedeyesUK
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Scaremongering

Post by RedeyesUK »

Ah yes, the old 'Your computer has serious security problems, which you're too clueless to understand. Quick, buy this product now, before hackers steal all the money out of your account!' trick. <!--emo&:rolleyes:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->



I've told family members to ignore all that sort of stuff - left to their own devices, they'd follow all the links that pop up on their PCs and start worrying. I remember a couple of weeks after I got my mum connected to the internet, she called me because she'd had a popup that told her that her IP address was being broadcast. No really! <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->



The thing that annoys me is when you get those virus warnings circulated by email - my mum forwards probably about one a month to me. 30 seconds on snopes.com reveals them to be hoaxes - scaremongering for no reason whatsoever!
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RedeyesUK
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Scaremongering

Post by RedeyesUK »

clicky





That's the report for my system - a fresh install, about 4 hours old! <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->



System security is because I'm still set as admin I expect, plus I haven't trimmed the crap out of services yet, and fair enough, I don't have a firewall installed (not got round to it yet)



But seriously:


Your current Internet and system configuration settings are not optimized for maximum performance. Your PC is most likely unable to download files and browse the web at peak speeds.


O RLY?



This is probably because I haven't used IE yet (went straight on to FF), but why would that affect performance?

The last major download I did came down at nearly 400k/sec, so I think I can live with that!


A total of 141 MB of system clutter was found on your PC. These junk and redundant files are wasting valuable hard drive space, robbing system performance, and causing potential reliability problems.


That 'valuable' hard drive space, at current prices, is worth about 1.5p. That is so unvaluable, I can't even be bothered to go and delete it. And with over 73Gig free, I don't think it'll be slowing me down too much. <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->


A total of 2 dangerous or unnecessary program(s) were detected that have been configured to start automatically with Windows. These programs are slowing your system and in many cases endangering your data, privacy, and security.


As far as I can tell, they are VNC server and winamp. Fair enough, VNC can be considered a security issue, but I want it there. And considering the two put together are using just over 5Mb of memory, I'd say the performance hit is pretty negligable.


Your Windows Registry currently has at least 13 problems caused by invalid or unnecessary configuration settings. Registry problems are a common cause of sporadic PC errors, performance loss, system shutdowns, blue screens, and other stubborn issues.


It's the registry. It does that. I don't care. <!--emo&:rolleyes:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->



Apart from the bits at the top, most of the stuff on there is either not a problem at all, or can be fixed in a few seconds by running ccleaner. Which is free. And doesn't bog my system down, which I just bet 'System Mechanic' will do.



belchingmatt
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Scaremongering

Post by belchingmatt »

I was thinking of doing a scan on my laptop so it looks like I will have to now.




--------------------


<div class='signature'> I'm not addicted to porn, I'm addicted to masturbation. Porn is just an enabler.



<img src='http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/ma ... Threat.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

There are plenty more fish in the sea, get your tackle out and see what bites.



Divers go deeper and stay down for longer.
belchingmatt
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Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:00 am
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Scaremongering

Post by belchingmatt »

Clicky



Just what I would have guessed. I also like the way it opens up the report in ie. <!--emo&:rolleyes:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->



I would love to see what it said about a machine with real issues. And I bet this laptop would have failed on something out of the box. Probably Norton. <!--emo&:P--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->




--------------------


<div class='signature'> I'm not addicted to porn, I'm addicted to masturbation. Porn is just an enabler.



<img src='http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/ma ... Threat.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

There are plenty more fish in the sea, get your tackle out and see what bites.



Divers go deeper and stay down for longer.
paulpowers
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Scaremongering

Post by paulpowers »

I'd fail it for having norton on <!--emo&:P--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->




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JJW009
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Scaremongering

Post by JJW009 »

The sad thing is, paranoia is used to get people to install spyware masquerading as security software. I'm sure ZA is an OK product and I wouldn't knock someone for using it, but I know for a fact that someone like my mum or the bloke over the road would be better off with just the Windows firewall and a virus checker. Maybe run Crap Cleaner once in a while.



Norton. <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->




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