Need some advice on my current security setup.

[46andtool]

Okay, so I am using virgin mobile broadband for internet because of my current living arrangement I cannot get cable or dsl.

http://www.amazon.com/U600-Prepaid-S...bile+broadband

I do not use a router for this and have the usb hooked up directly to my PC.

i use that and pay 35 a month for unlimited 4g, it throttles after 10 gigs but its still plenty fast to stream netflix or game online albeit my ping isn't anything to brag about.

Anyway for antivirus I am using AVG AntiVirus Free Adition 2014, and then I also have Ad-Aware Free AntiVirus+ running with secondary priority so that there is no conflict with AVG in case AVG misses anything.

Then I periodically once every few days run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (its expired, but it still scans and deletes tracking cookies, so far I havent found any malware infections).

In addition I also have HitmanPro installed, which I also run occasionally.

Now is this overkill, and should I fork out the money to activate Malwarebytes? I am not so sure that it updates itself anymore since my trial period expired and this I am a bit worried about because in the past it has found malware every once in a while. I am pretty green when it comes to most of this stuff so any advice or opinions as to my setups general effectiveness would be appreciated. Thanks guys

Oh one last thing, for internet I use firefox now with noscript and adblockplus extentions, and my surfing habits are pretty benign for the most part. I took John Connors advice in another thread and enabled secondary domains for noscript so it doesnt block every single thing imaginable anymore. The worst I do is look at porn but I tend to use stuff like pornhub and youporn and from what I read those two are pretty safe.

I have used viooz in the past to stream movies, but that site is beyond f****d. Its caused me problems in the past with all its pop ups and malware.

 

[John Connor]

I think you're good to go although AVG, meh. I would go with Bitdefender Free or Panda Cloud. Malwarebytes can be used for free. Uninstall and get the free version. Hitman Pro scans a lot and can be quit annoying. There is also Hit Man Pro Alert with Crypoguard I would install that. That is different than Hit Man Pro. They are two separate programs. Keep your plugins up to date.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/

To get rid of cookies never allow third party cookies in Firefox and have Firefox clear cookies and cache on exit or use private browsing mode. Ccleaner will delete cookies. And then I use System Ninja to get rid of temp files Ccleaner doesn't get rid of.

I would look into the following add-ons for Firefox. Ghostery, Self destructing Cookies, Secret Agent (Has to be googled for) and Betterprivacy.

If you use Secret Agent just click the option under eTags "Send spoofed eTag. there is so called cookieless cookies out there.

With using Self destructing cookies go into the options and make sure you hide alerts because it can be quit annoying.

Oh! You should have a Firewall. I use one of Comodo's old Firewalls. It can be had on oldversion.com or oldapp. The new version I had nothing but problems with it.

 

[smakme7757]

The best thing you could do to increase your security is to buy a router which supports 3G and 4G dongles. There are plenty around - Most Asus routers support 3 and 4G dongles. A new router doesn't have to cost a fortune either.

That way you put the router between yourself and the internet.

 

[Kaido]

1. Use a Firewall. I like Tinywall. It blacklists EVERYTHING out of the box and only allows the specific programs you want. You can add by executable, running window, running process, etc.

2. I would argue that Malwarebytes Live is more effective than an Antivirus program for the majority of the threats out there. It certainly makes my life a lot easier at work! Malwarebytes Live plus MSE/Defender is fine, although if your computer can handle it, AVG/Avast/Antivir are all good freebies (just enable Silent/Gaming mode to get rid of the popups).

3. If you want more protection, get a monthly VPN service like StrongVPN.

4. Use Chrome. For added protection, add "-incognito" to the desktop shortcut icon - it prevents most auto-downloaded extensions from loading. Also check "Do not track" in the settings, as well as "Click-to-play" under the Plugins menu so stuff like Java, PDF, and Flash don't auto-load.

5. If you're super paranoid about it, create a basic virtual machine (VMware has a really good free virtual machine player) and surf in there - just reset it every time you shut it down, or install DeepFreeze. I've done this for people multiple times, like for work computers where they can't afford to be infected, but need to access the Internet.