How is my protection?

[Jagst3r15]

Hey all,

So I had to send my Dell laptop in for repair and should be recieving it back with it in spiffy working order. I asked them to wipe the harddrive so I can have a fresh start and just wanted to ask a few questions. I usually use MSE and MBAM PRO, along with Windows Firewall. I mainly use IE8 and Google Chrome as well. Is having MSE and MBAM PRO enough protection, or should I have more?

Also, on a more general note, I want to try and back up my laptop better now. I am considering using Microsofts free 25GB SkyDrive. Is this program any good, and does it automatically backup my files? (For some reason I didn't see whether it did or not on the Windows site).

Thanks in advance!

[mountaintree16]

What OS are you currently running?

[Jagst3r15]

They will put Windows Vista Ultimate on it since that is what it came with from the factory, but I have a Windows 7 Ultimate disk that I will install as soon as I get my laptop back.

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Hi.

Since you running IE try using Spywareblaster. It'll help keep spyware from sneaking through IE.

Microsoft's Sky Drive doesn't auto back up. You have to upload everything manually. There is a 50MB upload limit. I would go with adrive as you get 50 GB free and has a 2GB upload limit.

http://www.adrive.com/

[Jagst3r15]

Thank you . Is spywareblaster just for spyware? Meaning, will it conflict with MSE or MBAM?

[exile360]

Spywareblaster is a passive form of protection and won't conflict with MSE or MBAM

As for your original question, I've used that exact combination (MSE+MBAM PRO+Windows Firewall) for some time now on 7 x64, 7 x86, Vista x64, Vista x86 and XP x86 and it's been excellent .

Just make certain you set proper exclusions to avoid performance issues:

Set Exclusions for Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware in Microsoft Security Essentials:

1. Open Microsoft Security Essentials and click on Settings at the top
   
2. Click on Excluded processes on the left
   
3. Click on the Add... button
   
4. Click on the + next to your primary hard drive (usually C:)
   
5. Click on the + next to Program Files (or Program Files (x86) if running a 64 bit version of Windows)
   
6. Click on the + next to Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
   
7. Click once on mbam.exe and click on OK
   
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for the following files:
   
   • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamgui.exe
     
   • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamservice.exe
     

[*]Click on Save at the bottom and click Continue if prompted

[*]Close Microsoft Security Essentials

Set Exclusions for Microsoft Security Essentials in Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

• Open Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and click on the Ignore List tab
  
• Click the Add button on the lower left
  
• In the small browse window that opens, navigate to C:\Program Files and click once on Microsoft Security Essentials and click OK
  
• Close Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  

[Jagst3r15]

K, thanks exile, I'll be certain to add the exceptions to the respective programs when I get my comp back .

[wijllie]

Only MSE is NOT enough, a fake antivirus program took over my laptop and I had to delete

it with Kaspersky MBR fixer. Afterwards fully cleaned with MBAM. I used free AGV before and

wanted to test the MSE... Now back to AVG which has also a good search engine profiler.

[exile360]

Only MSE is NOT enough, a fake antivirus program took over my laptop and I had to delete

it with Kaspersky MBR fixer.

Did you have the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware installed and running alongside it at the time with the protection module enabled? Rogues are one of the areas we specialize in as well as the droppers and trojans that install them.

[wijllie]

Did you have the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware installed and running alongside it at the time with the protection module enabled? Rogues are one of the areas we specialize in as well as the droppers and trojans that install them.

No, I installed MBAM after the MSE horror but I had to install the stand alone MBR killer from Kaspersky first to

get the system back running. The malware was disabling all (ctrl alt del, internet, explorer and so on) and

asked to go to a website to pay for "healing". Couldn't do anything.

To get rid of it I surfed the web with another computer to find a cure and found this forum with a link to the Kaspersky file

which worked. After that I installed MBAM and that killed al the rest of the malware what was left (other malware installed by the first one).

Since then I only use AVG or Avast on my laptops (3), MSE is not capable enough to avoid that kind of malware.

I'm 100% sure if I had left AVG on my system I wouldn't have been infected, but I decided to switch because the

MSE was free, full and from "holy" MS. On the other hand if I wouldn't had that malware I wouldn't have 6 MBAM Pro's

running on all my computers

MBAM is a great addition for any AV program and imo a must have.

However, I would rather like to have 1 program which would have all; perfect firewall, perfect AV and perfect malware destroyer.

I thought NIS would be that, I have NIS2011 on 3 desktop PC's running but even NIS did let some things trough.

So on those 3 desktops MBAM Pro is also running beside it.

Actualy that problem is with much software; when I am playing with graphic programs I like this of one program

and another thing from another program. It's hard to find a program which has all the nice features you want at once

with a nice interface and perfect running (little system resources, stable and fast).

Since nobody is perfect no progams will ever be

[Haider]

Hello wijllie:

You must be lucky to escape recent AVG2011 fiasco Some Windows 7 Operating Systems Cannot Be Started After Latest Update and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) both links are from AVG Official Site

[wijllie]

Hello wijllie:

You must be lucky to escape recent AVG2011 fiasco Some Windows 7 Operating Systems Cannot Be Started After Latest Update and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) both links are from AVG Official Site

I had sortlike problem a year ago with AVG but a short Google pointed me to a quick solution.

Ah well, all programs suffer from time to time from errors or other issues, even

Kaspersky is not secure from hackers.

If MBAM had no issues this forum would be obsolete

[Amethyst]

Set Exclusions for Microsoft Security Essentials in Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

• Open Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and click on the Ignore List tab
  
• Click the Add button on the lower left
  
• In the small browse window that opens, navigate to C:\Program Files and click once on Microsoft Security Essentials and click OK
  
• Close Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  

Thanks for posting this, Exile. I hadn't seen this anywhere else, and it might help with an annoying little issue I've been experiencing with the MSE icon sometimes not showing up in the systray when I power up the laptop. (When this happens, MSE is running, and I can open it by using the desktop icon or Start-Programs menu, and I can update and run scans. It's just the missing icon, which returns if I reboot. It's just annoying having to reboot after I've just powered up, but I do want the icon there where I can see it.)

[exile360]

Thanks for posting this, Exile. I hadn't seen this anywhere else, and it might help with an annoying little issue I've been experiencing with the MSE icon sometimes not showing up in the systray when I power up the laptop.

I've had the same issue on more than one occasion, it isn't related to MBAM as it's happened to me when MBAM wasn't installed. The below steps + a reboot of the system always corrected it for me:

Run the Fix MSE utility created by The Windows Club to repair issues with Microsoft Security Essentials:

• Please download Fix MSE from here and save it to your desktop.
  
• Extract it and double click the extracted file to run it
  
• Click the Fix MSE button and exit
  
• Reboot and verify that MSE is functioning as it should
  

It's a handy tool to keep around if you're a user of MSE .

[Amethyst]

@Exile360,

Looks good, thanks!

[m41j6]

Spywareblaster is a passive form of protection and won't conflict with MSE or MBAM

As for your original question, I've used that exact combination (MSE+MBAM PRO+Windows Firewall) for some time now on 7 x64, 7 x86, Vista x64, Vista x86 and XP x86 and it's been excellent .

Just make certain you set proper exclusions to avoid performance issues:

Set Exclusions for Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware in Microsoft Security Essentials:

1. Open Microsoft Security Essentials and click on Settings at the top
   
2. Click on Excluded processes on the left
   
3. Click on the Add... button
   
4. Click on the + next to your primary hard drive (usually C:)
   
5. Click on the + next to Program Files (or Program Files (x86) if running a 64 bit version of Windows)
   
6. Click on the + next to Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
   
7. Click once on mbam.exe and click on OK
   
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for the following files:
   
   • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamgui.exe
     
   • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamservice.exe
     

[*]Click on Save at the bottom and click Continue if prompted

[*]Close Microsoft Security Essentials

Set Exclusions for Microsoft Security Essentials in Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

• Open Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and click on the Ignore List tab
  
• Click the Add button on the lower left
  
• In the small browse window that opens, navigate to C:\Program Files and click once on Microsoft Security Essentials and click OK
  
• Close Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  

Is it no longer necessary to add MBAM dlls and drivers to the exclusion list as it was instructed in the past?

[exile360]

It never was necessary to exclude the dll's from Microsoft Security Essentials. The drivers aren't necessary either (though the FAQ indicates that they are).

[Jagst3r15]

So Spywareblaster a program I can just use when I wanna, like MBAM free?

[malware destroyer]

i would recommend using comodo's firewall instead of windows one as the windows one is not good enough also if you run sandboxie you should be more protected thats just my to pounds worth

[Jagst3r15]

apparantly the windows 7 firewall is quite good, no?

I guess I was asking if Spywareblaster had real-time protection in its free version? I wouldnt want to conflict with my MBAM PRO or MSE.

[DarkSnakeKobra]

So Spywareblaster a program I can just use when I wanna, like MBAM free?

Sorry for the late response. SpywareBlaster uses passive protection or in other words it configures IE. It adds restricted sites and black listed activex to IE's settings to prevent them. So it does not need to run in real-time as it just locks down settings. Just remember to check for updates once every two weeks.

[malware destroyer]

well its better than vista's if you look at it that way

[Jagst3r15]

Does it have any affect on Chrome? (I use IE and Chrome 50/50).

I am guessing with MSE, MBAM PRO & Spywareblaster I should be fine? (unless I go looking for viruses or malware

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Only IE based browsers or Firefox/Seamonkey. Most protection is only for IE such as activex and restricted sites. Cookie protection is available for Firefox/Seamonkey.

[nosirrah]

No time to read this whole thread so I will mention the 2 that I did not see much in the wild in my IT days that would have helped a lot of people.

Backups of your data are great but what if your hard drive dies? Even if you do it yourself and have an extra hard drive handy you are still likely looking at a minimum of a day to get everything back to the way it was before. If you pay a shop to do it you are likely looking are 3 or more days and a big bill. If you makes images of your hard drive you could be up and running again in under 10 minutes. This is why everyone serious about security should be making periodic clones of primary hard drive. The best time to do this is after a maintenance cycle where you are sure that your setup is just the way you want it. I have used ghost and acronis for this in the past and never had any trouble with either of them.

The other option I virtually never saw was limited accounts. Unless you are going to be installing or updating software there is usually no need to run as an admin. Obviously a limited account is not perfect but it is a free (and 0 performance impact) way to get a lot of additional security.