>>>> "This thread is here for all to add useful sites and/or resources which have helped them and that they want to share. " <<<<

OK!!! Good deal!!!! I want to share the following.....



I have run 3 or 4 or sometimes 5 browsers continuosly since early July '07 no reboots no scans no rootkits no viruses, no worms, no trojans, no nothing (& before that from late Sept. '06 until early July '07 when my daughter turned it off). I NEVER turn this thing off, it is NEVER disconnected from the WWW, It has been running and connected full time 24/7 for over 5 solid non-stop months now!!! And I follow NONE of the advice in the parent post, and yet, amazingly I run without issue or expense.

I left this thing 5 browsers running 23 windows and 123 tabs, and 19 programs running 24/7 for 186 hours when we went to Virginia this past summer. We came home, everything was just like I left it. To be able to do that requires you invest a grand total of $0.00 and less than 1 hour.

I currently have running Opera9 5 windows-17 tabs, FireFox 4 windows-14 tabs, and Konqueror 2 windows-5 tabs, Galleon 3 windows-5 tabs, all open and running alongside 5 open and running programs, I rarely close them out either. I have a search engine open under every browser that are never closed from the minute the browser opens until it is closed.

I run ABSOLUTELY ZERO "AV" or scanners or registry mechanics or any other kind of "security" software, ever. Not even a firewall anymore.
My neighbors 14 y.o. amatuer script kiddie can bypass your password, slide right by your firewall and take all your personal information, in less than 10 minutes if it runs any version of MSWindows (including "Vista"). That might help to explain how so many stay gainfully employed in the "security" business

>>>> "How do I know so much of this? I do spyware removal in my spare time when I am feeling up to it but keep up with the latest. I am a member of ASAP (Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals)." <<<<
do you avoid the worries for yourself and run a Linux, a BSD (OpenBSD, if you're really serious about security?) or a hardened MacOS at home?


I listen to music, burn CD/DVD's, watch movies, do mail and groups, play with photo's, learn stuff, draw stuff, write stuff, everything everyone wants to do with neither a worry nor a care.

Much better to get LinuxMint, or PCLinuxOS, or ZenWalk, or my personal has never failed to install for me favorite: SimplyMepis. And Knoppix, never leave home without it. Modern Linux Joe&Jane user-centric distributions are about idiot proof installations, and KDE and Gnome (which I despise but will admit to being some really good stuff) have become many times easier to learn and use than their MSWindows equivalants.....

Go to distrowatch-dot-com and click on all of the top 12 or so at the "top 100" column on the right side of the page.

if you want to waste your time, your money, and your efforts, have an insecure and continuosly subject to all sorts of security and functional issues, then by all means, get a MicroSoft Operating System.