webholder.com software we use

This is software we use to protect our systems.

Not all may be appropriate for your company or computers. There are links direct to the web sites or download locations for each.

The software and what it does.

Why we use it

ZoneAlarm Pro
This is a software firewall. That is it protects your computer from access via an Internet or other connection from rogue, virus and other malicious software programs and attacks. It works by keeping a record of permissions for each program on your computer that uses a dial up connection. We've never tried to configure it for local access denial or control but as Port numbers are available it could be used to protect a workstation on a network.

This should really be on all machines that have an Internet connection; but must be on all that use one of our static dialup accounts. There are other products but this is the best and most reasonably priced we have found. The initial cost is USD and the subsequent annual subscription is USD

It is very configurable but will keep popping up for the first few days asking if such and such a program can have Internet access or operate as a server. It is fine with IIS or Personal Web server and Apache web server is also okay if you have these running on your computer.

As those clients with ADSL or ISDN and perhaps also using MS Exchange are on a static IP address, and therefore vulnerable to scanners looking for such targets Zone Alarm is a less expensive option of a hardware/software firewall.

If you have advert sponsored software that tries to call home secretly then this catches it. Opera is fine, one can see the banner ad trying to refresh and once Opera is allowed one need not be concerned again. However there are plug—ins in Internet Explorer such as Jini and the new.net names resolution plugin that call home without IE being open. Basically I deny everything if ZA pops up unless I have a program open and know what it is going to do. Fortunately one has a choice of allowing something on a 'this instance only' basis so if veering towards a 'probably all right' decision something can be run just once. Then you can look at task manager or cookies etc. and try to track what prompted the access warning.

AVG Anti Virus.
This is a free virus utility that on occasions has beaten the bigger names.

Can one beat free? Yes. This download is reasonably small at 3.2Mb last known and installs easily. It does all the things that you might expect, including e-mail checking incoming and outgoing, and updates as per your own settings. It runs a scheduled check-up - but you cannot choose the time. It runs the day following your setting it to 'on', and then every day at the same time. Better get up early one day to do this.........

It runs alongside ZoneAlarm Pro without hassle (to date) and also with Fixit Utilities, although the virus on-line is disabled in Fix-It.

It was the first of the three we use to detect nimda but cannot kill it or move it to the vault, one has to delete the nimda.dll file by hand.

Fix-It Utilities 3.
Does all the stuff one would expect of a general clean up utilities program.

We started off with Alan Solomon's stuff because he came from a machine code and CP/M background but when he sold up the quality took a nose dive so we moved to Peter Norton because his early stuff was good at keeping machines clean - the disc defrag was really good. Then he sold up and we moved to the first version of Fix-it '99 and stayed with that for a while until the new Norton Systems Manager 2002 came out. But we've gone back to FixIt with version 3 as it lives peaceably with everything else on the machines, while Norton does not.

Reasonable on the Windows registry. I've never been impressed with any of the Crash catchers and don't run this one either.

Tools from Symantec
It's bad enough getting a virus in; but not all virus checkers can remove it. Some will only quarantine the attachment, some will repair damage.

Click here for the latest virus removal tools.
This site has proved the fastest to publish virus repair and removal tools in our experience. Often Symantec will put the removal tool here in advance of updating the software. Should you have a live virus on your machine that has got into files then these tools may help.

Have you got a clean boot floppy disc?
If not I strongly suggest that after a full and complete virus check of your system you create a boot floppy disc, or two, and keep them safe.

Why? Because live virus often hide themselves in your computer memory; and can still be there after a virus check and clean. By rebooting your machine with a clean boot disc, then running the virus checker you may avoid this. It's no longer a sure thing. If your virus program has the ability to make a clean boot disc then take the option...

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Boring Explanation:
It's not unusual for me to be asked "What do you use". In fact it's been happening often enough, and I can never remember all the details, to force me to take the time to write this page. Then I can give brief response and direct our clients here.
Software purchases are often a compromise. Very few do exactly what one would like at a reasonable cost. I give reasons why, but also notes about what I find unhelpful, irascible or otherwise a bother.

Short Explanation:
Because it makes sense.