Keeping it clean
No…this isn’t about keeping smut and pr0n online, or keeping your computer dusted and not covered in grubby finger-marks, but about keeping it clean and free from any nasties like viruses, spyware, trojans and such like – commonly referred to collectively as “malware”.
Last week I had a problem with my laptop which I suspected may be malware connected (my firewall, ZoneAlarm, kept asking me to grant server permissions (permission to listen for requests from other computers on the internet) to all sorts of programs which hadn’t ever before needed server permissions), and after following loads of leads/dead-ends after googling, found myself on some malware clearing advice forum where they were recommending a program called Malwarebytes. I downloaded and installed it, and sure enough I found I’d got three trojans, which neither Windows Defender or my anti-virus software, NOD32, had found. Spybot Search & Destroy and Spyware Blaster, hadn’t made it onto my new laptop yet as I had problems with it using a hell of a lot of memory on my old laptop and was in two minds whether to install it again. Jaybee, fellow webdev though was helping out a client in a similar situation last week, and said neither Spybot S&D or Spyware Blaster had managed to remove the problem, though they’d found it. I’m still not sure whether Spybot S&D’s gonna make it back onto mine.
I’ve also discovered Comodo’s free firewall as well, which is much more paranoid while training it than my old ZoneAlarm one ever was (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), and warns you about apps trying to create new directories, dlls trying to do stuff and such like, and actually gives you useful information about what they do rather than just a rather useless “Do you want to allow this?” message. Much more configurable.
What’s so great about the Comodo firewall? Well it’s made by Comodo, the people who are a certification authority for secure sites – the ones with a little padlock in the address bar of your browser when you’re shopping and banking online that shows the link to the website is secure and that the website is what it says it is, and not a scammer masquerading as your bank trying to get it’s hands on all your money. It’s free because it’s in Comodo’s best interests that people feel secure when they’re online, so the more people feel comfortable being online and shopping online, the more businesses that will be created that will their services. It’s not just a cut-down version of a commercial package though; it’s got features in it that some of the paid-for firewall software doesn’t have. It’s a free lifetime license, and updates, that are essential to keep it up to date with the latest threats out there on the internet, are free too, and automatically downloaded daily so you don’t have to worry about it. It also scans your computer for any nasties during the installation process, so not only does it watch out for stuff trying to download itself onto your computer and wreak havoc, but checks to see if there’s anything nasty lurking there so you can be sure you’re clean before it starts doing it’s stuff.
Over the years I’ve used various different security software, and various firewalls, and the last two I used got ditched because they used far too much of my computer’s memory and processor capacity and slowed things down, but Comodo is perfectly well behaved, and using very little of my computer’s resources, which keeps my computer happy, which also keeps me happy.
While I was at it, I also installed WinPatrol, that allows you to look at what processes are running on your computer and what they’re up to in much more detail than the Windows Task Manager program does. The really handy thing about it though I’ve discovered is that it’s got a nifty “delayed start” feature, where as it’s name suggests you change delay the start-up of apps when Windows starts. On my old laptop I had a load of stuff that all started up when Windows started, and it really slowed the start-up up. With WinPatrol though, not only can you easily take stuff out of the startup folder and stop other apps that aren’t in the startup folder all jostling to be opened up first, without using “msconfig”, but you can delay them starting to speed up your startup time.
I have some programs that run in the background, for example the backup program for my forums that downloads a copy of their databases to my hard drive at scheduled times, but I don’t necessarily need it the moment that Windows starts, so I can delay it until it’s actually needed. Similarly with programs such as Skype, where I’m not gonna be phoning someone up the minute I log on, now it starts up five minutes after Windows has started, so my laptop’s starting up much quicker than it was last week.
All in all they’re all playing nice together, and I have to say that so far I’m especially impressed with the Comodo firewall. A very nice piece of kit.
A clean and speedy computer! Now that’s what I like! 
