[bellgamin]

Here's my list of security programs that work well on WinME.

"Something that runs on WinME will run on anything" Therefore, I can safely state that these programs will run equally well on other versions of Windows.

I have installed and extensively used ALL of these programs, but am (at present) only running those marked with an asterisk (*). RT means it runs in real-time. OD means it is on-demand only. F denotes free programs . . .

HIPS - *Online Armor- RT (Please see NOTE below), System Safety Monitor - RT
Anti-Trojan/IDS - *A-squared- RT, WinPatrol Plus RT, Arovax RT F, WinSonar RT F
AntiVirus - *DrWeb- RT, Avira AVPE RT F, EZAV RT
Script Protection - *Script Defender- RT F
Honey Pot - *RegRun WinBait- RT
AntiSpam - *Spamihilator- active only while receiving email F
Registry Scanner - MJRegWatcher- RT F, RegRun's Watchdog- RT
Firewall - *Kerio 2.1.5- RT F
HOSTS - *MVPS- RT F
Cookie Control - *CookieMonster- OD F
File Integrity Monitor - *Watcher- OD F, Fingerprint- OD F, Sentinel- OD F
Anti-Ads - *AdAware- OD F
Anti-Spy - *Spybot S&D- OD F
If-all-else-fails - *Rollback- OD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTE: Online Armor is available in TWO versions: (1) OA-Basic, & (2) OA-AV+ . . .

*** OA-Basic includes the following security protections: Application firewall, Spam killer, Web-surfing guard, HOSTS guard, Email guard, Spam killer, IE extensions guard, key loggers guard, trusted/untrusted/protected web sites.

***OA-AV+ includes all of the protections in OA-Basic PLUS it also includes Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

***A full-scope firewall is in final development stages. It will be included in both OA-Basic and OA-AV+.

***I have licenses for both versions of OA. I alternate between them (using Rollback) in order that I can represent WinME usage information on OA's support forum.

***AFAIK OA and System Safety Monitor are the only HIPS that run on WinME as well as Win9x, WinXP, & 2K systems.

[bellgamin]

Another AntiVirus that works extremely well on WinME & Win9x OS is F-Prot for DOS. It is free, and uses the latest F-Prot signatures as well as F-Prot's excellent scan engine & included heuristics. This program operates under DOS rather than Windows. However, it is readily executed WITHIN Windows.

Limitations are...
1) It is on-demand only.
2) It is designed primarily for full system scans.

Advantages...
1) It's free
2) Its full system scans are VERY fast.

A superb complement to F-Prot for DOS is the program "AV Defs Updater for F-PROT for DOS," which is also free. The Updater program enables scheduling fully automatic updates to F-Prot.

The Updater program also provides a capability to create emergency disks which you can use in case of a malware infection:
1) The program enables creation of an emergency boot disk, which contains the full F-Prot antivirus program, plus it will create 4 disks in order to make available the FULL set of F-prot's virus signatures & cleaning abilities.
2)These emergency disks enable scanning and (hopefully) cleaning a virus-infected system even if it won't boot under Windows.

Downloads from SNAP...
F-prot for Dos http://www.snapfiles.com/get/fprotdos.html
AV Updater Program http://www.snapfiles.com/get/fprotupdate.html

[bellgamin]

NOTE CONCERNING WATCHER...
The link I gave in post #1 points to Snapfiles download of Watcher. The version on Snapfiles is for NT systems.

Here's a link to the HOME page of Watcher, whereat separate versions can be downloaded for Win 9x/ME & NT systems.

My thanks to herbalist for calling this to my attention.

[bellgamin]

Microsoft has encountered a critical vulnerability in Windows 98, 98 SE and Windows Me that it simply cannot fix, the company acknowledged Friday. The flaw affects Windows Explorer and after investigating the issue, Microsoft said it would need to reengineer a significant amount of the operating system.

...(M$'s warning): We do strongly recommend that customers still using Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (ME) protect those systems by placing them behind a perimeter firewall which filters traffic on TCP Port 139 which will block attacks attempting to exploit this vulnerability.

BetaNews Story

Bellgamin reality check -- You may be compromised if:
1. You click on something you shouldn't (duhhh)
AND
2. You're not using a firewall &/OR router (double-duhhh),
AND
3. You haven't configured your firewall to close TCP port 139.

BOTTOM LINE: Port 139 is a critical vulnerability ONLY to someone who surfs dangerously AND doesn't practice even the basics of *safe-hex*.

MORAL of the STORY
*Use a NT router, even if you only have one computer.
*Use a firewall & use it close TCP Port 139
*Do not visit black-hat sites Or porn sites. Don't use cracked software. Don't get confrontational on public forums.

P.S. To find out WHICH security patches are installed on your computer...
Do this...
Start > Run (command enter) qfecheck

[bellgamin]

Life beyond WinME/9x.....

Alternatives to XP/Vista
***Go with ReactOS (still in Alpha). Read more HERE
***Choose a *Live CD* Linux distro to see how you like it. Good choices are:
>Ubuntu
>Kubuntu
>Linspire
>Mepis

[rameam]

How do you configure Zone Alarm to close port 139? Seems as though I remember reading something about this once, and may have already taken care of it, but can't remember for sure.

[bellgamin]

Originally Posted by rameam

How do you configure Zone Alarm to close port 139?

Open ZoneAlarm at your taskbar and go to Firewall Main tab. Click at Custom and scroll down to Block incoming NetBIOS (ports 135,137-9,445) Left click Check. Do the same if you have your network in the Trusted Zone.