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Security for windows 2000 enough?


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Before I attempt another move back to win2000, I was wanting to know everyone's experiences security wise-I plan to use zone alarm 7 (the last version compatible with win2000), clamwin (set to scan daily-it also seems to catch things even other antiviruses don't at times), spybot/malawarebytes (I run one or the other at least once a week) as well as attempt to use avast free antivirus if it works, if not AVG 9, basically a similar setup to what I have now with win 7 premium/XP installs. I haven't problems with that kind of setup, and since I'm going to use the UURollup patch, I'll be able to use the current versions of Firefox and Seamonkey like I do now. With that kind of setup, do I have any significantly more risk doing normal surfing that I would with my current OS? Right now I mainly do things like check e-mail, check out my favorite gaming sites (no problems there) and perhaps an occasional purchace from ebay/amazon, I'm on dialup so my computer doesn't stay constantly online all the time so do I really have anything to worry about provided I don't go off the beaten track? Just curious?

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Sounds like you want an opinion of Win7 vs Win2k "how secure".

Here - disabled antivirus, Spybot+MBAM, Router+Firewall, don't willy-nilly go to websites "suggested" by Google/Bing. We already have several threads on this-vs-that and "how secure" firewalls/AV's. Some folks use absolutely none on Win9x.

IOW, you're only as secure as you make yourself regardless of the OS.

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You can use:

  1. Avast 8 - the newest version works in Windows 2000. Just make sure to do a custom installation and disable the Software Updater (details here)
  2. Malware Defender - you can download it from my website. It's probably the most recent software firewall working in Windows 2000. It scored decent in the tests.

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If you're running windows 7 with UAC, even with an admin account, Seven is a little more secure but as malware/virus always adapt to their target within 2 or 3 years, it won't really make a big difference now.

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My recommendation for newbs is either just Outpost Firewall 6.5 or for a complete solution

get the Suite ver 7.1 (free) still works on 2000 as is.

Or if you like tinkering get AVG either 7.5 or 8.xx or 9.xx

and manually update from here:

http://www.avg.com/ww-en/download-update-2011

Pay attention to the left pane on the page.

the definition files for 2011, 9 & 8 work in 7.5

but stick to one choice, 7.5 may prompt for update,

ignore, I can't remember how I got rid of nag pop-up

though.

Then use the 1.6.x.x version of Spybot S & D , i still use it as i didn't like

the interface of 2.x.x, definition files still work as I'm using the portable version now.

@

majorgeeks.com

sourceforge [sp?]

&

filehippo.com

for these earlier versions.

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Okay guys, here's a little status update. This weekend I installed 2000, the first update rollup 1, UR2 then the (now) next to latest daily version of UURollup, everything seemed fine and I decided to stick to Zone alarm as I have had a lot of experience with it, then I had clamwin installed-then I decided to install the free version of avast, I went for a minimal installation (which left the updater off that everyone said causes problems) but when I did-at the first scan it alerted on the uurollup patch (a file it had called sfc.dll) and an installed .dll file in the system32 directory of Windows by the same name (presumably from the patch) I deleted the UURollup patch and tried to get avast to delete the .dll in system32 (avast said it was some kind of trojan "banker" or something like that-however a ClamWin scan never alerted to that same .dll) but I couldn't do it. I then got the bright idea to try going into system32 manually to delete the thing with spybot's secure shredder, when I did avast wen't nuts and I got the blue screen of death. I had to do a fresh install of 2000, and went the route of only using update rollup 1 and ur2, then when I tried avast again (minimal settings again without the updater) when I restarted the whole thing would begin to freeze up and act funny. I'm considering the Outpost suite (I'll have to wait to go by the library to get my hands on it, I'm on dialup at home), but I have to ask is UURollup infected or is that just avast flipping out? If it's just avast's probem, I can install UURollup, but will it be compatible with Outpost? Sorry for all the questions, but it's been a rough weekend!

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It's a known problem - Google for "uurollup sfc". In one word, SFC.DLL is responsible for Windows File Protection and UURollup disables it by patching the file. Avast thinks the modified file is malicious. At the moment you should just ignore the warning. I'm working on a different solution to disable WFP without patching the DLL (more about SFC.DLL here).

As for Avast and problems on a clean Windows 2000 installation... Avast requires Windows 2000 SP4 + IE6 + Update Rollup 1. SP4 + UR1 is not enough. You need to install IE6 too as Avast won't work with IE5.5.

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I just went through this SFC.DLL problem a couple of weeks ago when I installed Avast; it was warning me about that file at every bootup, but was unable to uninstall it. However, I noticed a setting in Avast that allowed me to create an exception for that file, which I did. It worked perfectly and eliminated the nag.

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I'm working on a different solution to disable WFP without patching the DLL (more about SFC.DLL here)

Give the SFCFILES.DLL you can extract from this package a try.

Thanks! I'll have a look at it but first I'm going to try disabling SFC through the registry using this method:

Shutting off WFP using only two Registry keys

This was an "oops." I set these keys in fileset 8 (now obsolete) and couldn't figure out why WFP stopped working.

HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon","SFCDllCacheDir",,"z:"

HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Windows File Protection","SFCDllCacheDir",,"z:"

These keys are optional in 2000, XP, and 2003. Windows already knows where to find the dllcache, you don't need to tell it. But Microsoft created these two keys to let you tell it. And if you give Windows an inavlid path, it won't find the dllcache, a WFP error will show one time in the error log, and WFP will be off. UNC paths don't work (in 2000 anyway). If UNC paths worked, wouldn't it be great to keep all of your files for all of the users in a domain on one server? Nah, that would make too much sense, so Microsoft would never do it.

Edited by tomasz86
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Here's the new status report, I tried putting on the UURollup on my main machine but when I tried XP compatiblity mode to install Firefox/Seamonkey-they installed but had graphics glitiches (this was after installing all kinds of other software beforehand so I might have broken something). I got weary of the whole thing and put XP on my main machine. Now I recently got my hands on an older compaq minitower off ebay recently as a backup computer in case my main machine failed, at 2.4 gigs P4 and 1 gig ram, but with only pci slots (not even agp to my shock!) I decided to try again with a win2k installation. This time having learned from my mistakes-everything went smoothly, before I installed any other programs I installed the upgrade patches and UURollup first, then went from there and everything went well, I now have a machine that can run the lastest version of Mozilla and Seamonkey. Having had nothing but trouble from avast (I couldn't even get the sucker to register on XP!-I used to love avast but I will NEVER mess with it again!) I ditched it for good and went with my installation of AVG 9 and with some looking at the settings, I was able to update the thing from the files I got from Browncoat so it's virus definitions are up to date! :) (btw will I have to always manually update or will it update automatically from now on?). I tried an installation of Outpost suite but having had the same inability to register the thing like avast (being on dialup had something to do with it no doubt) I went with Outpost firewall instead.

Which brings me to another question, while poking around in Outpost firewall settings, I discovered the name of a website called www.pcflank.com which has tests you can do to see how good your computer protection is. I ran the quick and browser tests and found it gave me bad marks on my browser privacy while everything else was ok (I was using mozilla), I then tried the same tests with Qupzilla (with some privacy stuff tweaked like I did in Firefox) and the results were great! What my question is, is pcflank a legitimate site or just a big ad for Outpost firewall? Because the tests on my xp machine using up to date Zone Alarm (over 100 meg installation file in comparison to Outpost's being under 20 megs) were just plain awful in comparison to my win2k machine!

Edited by OldSchool38
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Uninstalled current Zone Alarm, and tried the win2k compatible version of Comodo firewall I downloaded a while back-checked it in pcflank and it seems to be more secure than Zone Alarm (current)! That and Qupzilla seem to make an excellent combo! I may give win2k on my main system another shot!

Edited by OldSchool38
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Tried a new Win2k install on my main system today and have everything in place now, for some reason when I begin installing various utilities-Firefox compatibility gets broken but between Qupzilla and Maxthon I'm fine in the browser department for now. The only glitch I'm having at the moment is that AVG 9 once updated seems to be a little jumpy and keeps flagging various files like the uninstall files for 7zip and other utilities that I know for certain are clean, any helpful tips on how to tweak the thing so I don't have to keep hitting 'ignore' while at the same time not compromising on protection?

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