Firewall

Hi Sorry about posting it here.I searched everywhere but couldn't find any section about firewalls. Plz help I dont seem to have a firewall.Windows firewall is very annoying so its always turned off by me. And when I look in the security folder it doesnt list any… Does it mean that I dont have one? Where can a get one and are there any tests to perform to check if my computer got any malware due to the absence of a firewall? Thanks in advance.

This is probably best in another section, possibly the Windows section, I'll see if I can get it moved over for you.

But running without a firewall these days is suicidal, I strongly suggest turning on the windows firewall straight away (assuming you have no other one installed) so you at least have some protection until we get you sorted.
There are 2 main suggestions when it comes to firewalls, both very good, my weapon of choice is ZoneAlarm, but some people just have no end of trouble with it, best I can guess there are some freak elements it just wont play nice with, so for those who can't use ZA they usually go for Comodo, both have free versions, they also offer paid for solutions that include more cover, just make sure you select free version and don't activate any free trials of the pro version unless you wish to try them.

Now you don't mention what cover you have currently, so a few of the big names usually recommended are as follows:-
Avast OR AVG anti virus.(use 1 ONLY), also be aware if selecting AVG it includes real time anti Spyware cover, so don't use a similar product if using this.
IObit Security 360™ Real time anti spyware cover, although the free version requires manual updating, so remember to update as soon as you go online each time for up to date cover.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
superantispyware
a-squared Anti-Malware
Spybot-S&D (note:- the TeaTimer component is counted as real time protection, it is suggested to uncheck this option during installation to avoid clashes with other protection).
SpywareBlaster a flash based hosts file.
Hosts adds known bad sites to your hosts file.

Obviously you can go on forever (near enough anyway) but these are the most commonly suggested tools, install, update, and run each 1 at a time, and if you have anything between them they should sort you out, if you choose avast (the better one IMHO) for your anti virus then during the install it asks you if you wish to do a boot time scan of your drive, probably a good idea to say yes with what you have said, may take a while so be patient, it will boot your system once complete.

There is an essential rule when it comes to protection, and thats the 1 at a time rule, you should NEVER run more than 1 of each type of protection in real time, so only ever run 1 firewall, 1 anti virus and 1 anti spyware product at the same time, you can have as many standalone scanners as you like, but pause\exit real time cover of the same type BEFORE starting a similar tool

Hi
Thanks for the quick reply.I just turned on the windows firewall after reading your reply.Looks like I'm either suffering from dementia or getting too old because, since months its at the back of my mind that I AM running some firewall, only I wouldnt remember the name.Thats because I am not running any No wonder my mail IDs were getting hacked.
I'll try one of the two you mentioned and post back….hopefully it should work fine.

I do have Avast installed but do not know whether he said 'yes' to boot time scan of drive when hubby installed it (I know he wont remember).Is there a way to change/access it after installation?…because I never seem to understand how to operate it, it just keeps running by itself.
And then I have Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.
SpywareGuard.
SpywareBlaster.
Spybot.
All of which I run occasionally.

Ofcourse with the amount of ad-clicking that I do I think I do need all of these (I do some PTC/PTR thingy).

you can have as many standalone scanners as you like, but pause\exit real time cover of the same type BEFORE starting a similar tool

Ohhhh okayy. That makes so much sense.

Thanks so much for your help.
And before you close the thread plz let me post back after I install the firewall.I just want to be really sure I did it right.

Thanks


PS: I used to have a router (which is not working now), I know routers have inbuilt firewalls in them, so if I use one later , can I turn off my installed firewall on the computer? Or can I run both?

*Edited to add: I just realised that I have windows defender too, came up after restart (I've never seen it before), it probably was there before.Ran an automatic scan by itself and got the result as 'Computer running fine, nothing harmful detected'.

There is no need to worry about Avast, you can run a manual scan anytime you want, and you can set it to do a boot time scan by entering the settings, the main reason I suggested this was due to your concern of being infected, and a boot scan is the most powerful option you have because it's harder for the infection to fight the protection while doing it's job. Now lets get you to run a scan with this, launch Avast by double clicking on on the icon, probably left on the desktop from the install, this will scan your PC's memory and when complete will load to the control panel, there may be a 2nd window open as well, unless you've stopped it loading previously, if not note the check box at the bottom of that window, check that then close it, that window will never bother you again. Now with the main display open, you will see a kind of VCR type interface, play\pause etc buttons, there is a window in the middle, and there are 3 boxes\options down each side of this window, now I can't recall which way round these are, but with my description you will easily understand, click on the middle option on the left of the screen, I think this is the update button, let it complete and close any message when done, now click the bottom left option (directly under the middle one), move the slider bar to the right as far as it will go, this instructs it to do a thorough scan. Next click the top right option, an extension will come up above the window, again move the slider to the right, and also make sure the box to do with zip files is checked, again this makes it do a deep scan, the program is now set to scan deeply, we just need to tell it what to scan, I think the middle button on the right allows you to select what to scan, just check the My Computer option, and it will check everything, next just click the play button symbol on the panel and it will scan your entire system, thats it, let it run and see what comes back. To clarify about standalone scanners, IObit Security 360™; Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware ; SUPERAntiSpyware ; a-squared Anti-Malware are ALL standalone scanners, in simple terms they are not a part of an inclusive suite, hence standalone, and you can have as many of these scanners as you like, BUT, you must only ever run 1 at a time, including any that operate in real time, to run one of the other scanners the current one must be closed first. So from this list IObit runs in real time, to run one of the other scanners IObit must be closed before scanning with any of the other ones, the easiest way to close one is usually to right click on the icon near your clock and select exit or the like, I hope that makes more sense to you lol. No worries about the thread being closed, that is reserved for infections that have been cured, so this will run as long as you need it to. Now a router "usually" has a built in firewall, we call this a hardware firewall, and it is as good as it gets, it is also fine to run this as well as a software firewall as they wont conflict, but like the windows firewall it will let anything out, it only blocks incoming, and does it very well, but I personally like 100% control over what goes out, as well as comes into my system, and this requires a 3rd party software firewall as mentioned above, I also make it a habit to make my email ask permission to go online EVERY time it wants to go out, this way if you haven't asked your mail to go online and it suddenly starts asking, then it's time to deny the request and start scanning, as you probably have an infection. I hope this helps, and feel free to ask all you need, people will always try to help the best they can here. *edit Just saw your edit, TBH I do not rate Defender at all, I personally uninstall it on every system I touch, because the tools mentioned in this thread are all far superior to defender, it just gets in the way, it's up to you of course, and bare in minder defender is real time protection (albeit jokingly), if you wish further instruction on removing this just ask.

Hi
Sorry for the late reply.I dont have access to the computer on weekends.I did install ZoneAlarm and also ran a scan.

The results of the scan were normal with no infection.It couldnt scan a few things though (I'm attaching a pic).
[external image: Posted Image]

Avast detected a trojan (I do not remember if it was before or after the scan) a couple of days ago and quarantined it.

Even though it said no infection, my computer is behaving weird since 2-3 days…the computer slows down after like 2 hours of usage….and doesnt load any website (keeps loading forever…and I have high speed internet). Its becomes like non responsive.I can open and close windows…save my work…but cannot perform any function.I can notice how slow the computer 'suddenly' becomes.Takes 5-10 minutes to respond to a restart and then Works fine until it slows down again.
Sometimes it says that I cannot use my firefox profile because 'its already in use' and that I need to close all instances of it before I try to open.But I know it is not open, yet I see it running in the processes tab of task manager and try to close it but it does not respond or close.So….eventually a restart again.

I never noticed any of this happeining before I installed ZoneAlarm. Do you think its got something to do with it?

Two instances of this open up upon restart(this is been happening sicne like a month):
Memeobackup.exe
I dont know what it is and cancel it everytime(hubby says its the software of the external hard drive we installed a few days back, but dont keep it connected to the computer all the time).
So I went to msconfig and disabled it, yet one instance of it is opening up on restart.

Plz help.

There is nothing to worry about with some files not being scanned, well in this instance anyway, sometimes infections use such tactics to avoid detection, but everything so far says to me this isn't the case here, but you are the one best placed to say if things feel right or not, and once we get you through this if you still get the feeling something isn't quite right, it may b e worth your asking the pro's to give you a check up, but they are busy people so I only suggest going to them when it is fairly certain something is wrong, but in your case I think it is fine for now. Now if this erratic behaviour started after installing ZA, then it is an extremely high probability that it is the cause of this, as I warned above some people do have issues, and with your feedback I fear you are one of these unlucky few that can't run this, fastest\surest way to find out is download Comodo, then uninstall ZA and once rebooted install Comodo, the effect should be instantly noticeable if ZA is behind this, unplug your net before you uninstall ZA, then wait until after Comodo is installed to plug it back in, but if Comodo requires a net connection during the install (it will tell you) then plug it back in so it can complete the install. The name you mention appears to be related to something called Memeo AutoBackup, an application for creating back up's of your system possibly installed by the makers, many allow scheduled back up's, and I suspect this is related to that, so check through your programs list for this application, if you find it open it and go into the options, look for any mention of scheduled back up, and set it to what you want, if your still having problems with this then see if you can take and post a screenshot of this event, or mention what it is thats reporting it, then we can look at other options for you.

Hi
Installed Comodo, and it seems to be running fine. The problem I think was due to ZA after all, since its working fine now w/o any erratic behavior, and I let it run a few days before posting just to make sure.
I guess I was simply unlucky with ZoneAlarm

Thanks very much for all your help.
I know where to come if there's any trouble!

PS:Comodo did ask me for a free antivirus while install(which I declined since I already have Avast). Do you think its a good idea to have both from Comodo, if say, I dont have any antivirus?

Hi, good news that all's well then, in all my years I've only ever had 2 systems play up with ZA, but have seen many others online with such issues as well, but for the most ZA is fine, but Comodo is a very good firewall, I just can't get on with it as I like more control which is easier to manage in ZA, but you are well covered with this so it's all good. Anti virus is personal preference for the most part, personally for a free A\V the top choice is Avast, if I needed an alternate choice I would go Avira, but I wouldn't use the one Comodo combine, don't get me wrong it's not a bad A\V as such, I just rate Avast higher, so personally I'd stick with Avast, but if you wanted to change you will still be covered, just remember if you do go for it, remove Avast BEFORE adding it as you should only use 1 at any time or you can get conflicts. Now if in Comodo it says you have no A\V, it's no different to ZA, they have a monitor to check your A\V, and it will only accept certain A\V's to report on, others it refuses to see, this is what I suspect may be happening here with you if this is the case, only thing I can suggest is to look in the settings and see if it has an option to Not monitor the A\V, ZA does so it can be turned off, I don't know if Comodo does or not as I don't use it, but hopefully with this you can figure it out, hope this helps.