Gustav Brock
Gustav at cactus.dk
Sat Mar 30 07:58:52 CDT 2013
Hi Jon We had similar considerations and I decided to change the route. First, Microsoft's free offerings, Windows Firewall and Windows Defender, have been running for years with zero issues. Second, the real threat for office users are links to bad web sites, so I decided to implement and sign up for CSIS' Secure DNS service: <quote> Secure DNS protects your organization by blocking access to malicious websites. Secure DNS is updated regularly and does not require any administration or maintenance on your part. You can monitor the usage of your Secure DNS service and generate reports via this personal web portal, accessible via the following link: https://tdg.csis.dk. Your Secure DNS account is configured to allow access from the following IP-addresses or ranges. Please note that the list should include all fixed IP-addresses and ranges, used by your organization to perform DNS lookups or access the Internet. *213.xxx.yyy.zzz/29 *213.xxx.yyy.vvv/29 In order to implement Secure DNS in your organization, you will need to configure the DNS servers in your organization to use the following Secure DNS IP-addresses as DNS forwarders 1.94.126.177.21 2.92.43.123.140 3.Optional: IP1 of your ISP DNS server, Google DNS or similar, for increased redundancy. 4.Optional: IP2 of your ISP DNS server, Google DNS or similar, for increased redundancy. After changing the DNS forwarders, you can test if Secure DNS is working by accessing the website www.blockedbycsis.com. If the text on the site says Access Denied, Secure DNS is working properly. </quote> http://www.csis.dk/en/business/securedns/ Third, I've installed the corporate version of Heimdal to silently and automatically update Java and the Adobe "things" which is a _major_ relief for the users: https://cdn.heimdalagent.com/static/doc/Intro_HeimdalSecurityAgent_Corporate.en.pdf The importance of this is that from your admin login on their website you can document what kind of security steps you have taken and that they do work. Even with the "corporate" label, these services are priced if not cheap then fair. Secure DNS is about USD 30 per user per year. Heimdal twice this. /gustav >>> jon at tydda.plus.com 30-03-13 13:09 >>> So it’s that time of year when my subscriptions are up for renewal… I’ve been using ZoneAlarm Firewall for ever, and Vipre Anti-Virus for over 5 years. I’m more than happy with both products, but when I look at the renewal deals, it’s going to cost me £70 for 1 year’s subscription to both, or I could get the deals and go with the whole security suite from either company, which would be cheaper. With Vipre, I can get the “PC Lifetime Protection” deal for £70 or pay £50 for two years’ protection from ZoneAlarm. What I really want to know is: How good is ZoneAlarm’s anti-virus product? How good is Vipre’s Firewall product? The other thing to take into account is that most of this computer is 5 years old already, but it’s running Windows 7 & Office 2013 with no problems, so I don’t foresee a need to replace it any time soon, although I have just bought a new Windows 8 laptop to play with… If anyone can point me at a good deal to do both AV and Firewall, and on more than one computer, that would be brilliant. I thought I’d seen one for Vipre for the lifetime of 10 PCs but I can’t find it now… Any suggestions? Jon