I've also noticed a few stability/performance issues with my machines whilst threatfire has been running, but this could just be the usual Windows flakiness. If anyone else has had similiar issues can you let me know?
Well, it ran smoothly on my Vista laptop. I have a Dell XPS 1330, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor, Santa Rosa chipset, and a 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM. Ran good with those specs.
Finally after more playing I've seen that threatfire has a real-time report on the number of global events it has scanned an threats found globally. I haven't had time to investigate this myself yet, does anyone know how this information is reported back and/or what information is included?
Some info I found from ThreatFire's User Guide:
The Worldwide Detection tab displays a sampling of some of the most recent threats that
ThreatFire has detected within the ThreatFire Community. These are active threats that
we are protecting our users from. Click the Malware tab to display recently caught
malware and the Adware tab to display recently caught adware samples. As you click on
each threat in the list the map to the right will display the threat’s recent geographic
distribution in red. It is interesting to see how different threats are active in different
parts of the world.
Please note: if you disable Community Protection then ALL internet communication on ThreatFire's part will be disabled. This can affect other areas of the program including program notices and receiving updated Worldwide Detection data for the list of threats and the map on ThreatFire's Security Status tab. If you do turn Community Protection OFF, then you will only see a cached version (or older data, in other words) of this report.
Additional info from their FAQ mentioning what kind of info is sent to PC Tools if the Community Protection is enable:
The ThreatFire Secure Community is a worldwide network of active users who volunteer to aid in identifying new threats. Any time a suspect alert is triggered in ThreatFire, information related to this event is automatically back reported to PC Tools for analysis through a secure connection. Any information collected is held completely confidential and is used solely for the purposes of researching new or previously unknown threats, gaining an understanding of their behaviors, and developing new protection against them. Information collected may include the ThreatFire alert that fired, the history of relevant events leading to that alert, the decision taken, and a copy of the file that triggered the alert. This immediate confidential feedback on potentially dangerous new threats allows PC Tools to advance its ActiveDefense technology to block these threats. So as threat strategies evolve and new security penetration tactics emerge, ThreatFire technology will remain at the forefront of the solutions that defeat those threats. Participation in the Secure Community is voluntary and even if you elect not to participate, you'll still receive full protection from ThreatFire.
As for g00d_4sh question:
A slightly related, though not totally related question. What firewalls do you all suggest?
For firewall personal apps, I refer to
www.matousec.com for their recommendations. Check out the following link:
Matousec 's Firewall RatingsAs you will see, Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.21.329 and Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.119 are Free apps leading with a perfect score. Based on the results, these what they recommend and they are absolutely free, beating out the commercial firewalls.
Opinions : The greatest Hackers?
