Help! Update Security Thread!

[struggle4progress]

You can edit the following thread in the Research Forum, or post suggestions in the Talk Box there, or post suggestions in this thread, or PM me:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=5240&mesg_id=5240

[ConsAreLiars]

1. The first version included and recommended only free tools.

You might begin by stating the fact that everything listed is free to free to home users. If the list includes some that require money to use, you may want to delete them.

Very nicely written and organized. When you get it to finished form, you might beg in GD for folks there to read it and give their feedback, especially any difficulties they might have encountered.

[struggle4progress]

2. Thanks. Not quite everything on my current list is free. But I'll follow your suggestion

[struggle4progress]

5. I think I have now eliminated all direct links to pages that are purely for pay

Some pages still have both pay and freeware products

If you have future suggestions, please freely express them!

[ConsAreLiars]

6. Payware plus freeware pages were never objected to any more than free with a donate option.

One problem one (or more) new users of the old links encountered was clicking on a prominent crapware ad that appeared to be the next step.

It, duh, occurred to me that one problem with the old link was that the original could not be edited after a half-hour, and adding more corrective comments just made the thread more difficult to understand. Keeping this in the Research form and just pinning a link to it at the top here seems to avoid that problem.

Replies to that pinned thread might follow your good example and link to Research forums about other security questions beyond those encountered by home computer users.

[struggle4progress]

7. I added your last suggestion at the end of the Talk Box

[CK_John]

3. I didn't see Avast list. How come? n/t

[struggle4progress]

4. Just added it. Thanks.

[struggle4progress]

8. Any future suggestions should be posted in the Talk Box at the above link

[Earth Bound Misfit]

9. You need to fix the link to this article:

'Operation “Aurora” Hit Google, Others'

http://siblog.mcafee.com/cto/operation-%E2%80%9Caurora%E2%80%9D-hit-google-others/

Clicking the link redirects to Comcast.Com---

"Sorry, we can't find Wsiblog.mcafee.com"

However, it's all well and good that this occured because I had done some Registry "Tweaks" to remove the OEM preset homepage/startpage/my search my way etc and made google.com my permanent home/start page for IE. I've been researching the various tools/programs currently being used to find and remove malware/viruses/trojans/rootkits/etc on badly infected machines and studying their logs, fixes etc. One of them apparently REPLACED those "missing" registry entries (I think it was ComboFix or OTL or OTM????)---a recent OTL scan shows this:

OTL logfile created on: 1/16/2010 5:10:33 AM - Run 1
OTL by OldTimer - Version 3.1.25.1 Folder = C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXX\Desktop
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (Version = 5.1.2600)...


IE - HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.msn.com/
IE - HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomSearch = http://us.rd.yahoo.com/customize/ie/defaults/cs/msgr7/
*http://www.yahoo.com/ext/search/search.html

IE - HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.google.com/
IE - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings: "ProxyEnable" = 0

Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent here. I'm gonna try to put some stuff together to add to the Security Thread---so far it looks good!

[Earth Bound Misfit]

10. Never Mind, I just did it.

unexplained edit #131.

[RoyGBiv]

11. Question ...

This isn't a suggestion so much as a question, so I'm posting it here rather than the Talk Box to solicit input.

Would there be any utility in providing a bit more explanation of firewalls under the Linux section? Since I was accustomed to things like ZoneAlarm when I first started using Linux, this was a very confusing aspect of Linux for me as a newbie.