Free anti-virus and firewall software

[dr_ml422]

I came to the exact conclusion myself. It's really more common sense than anything technical. After almost 3 years into this headstrong I noticed the same thing. 1 AV will get what another won't and vice versa.

You've been w/Sandboxie for a while now and suggested it also back then. I'm going to have to dedicate some time to check it out. It's just there are so many things one can do. I get involved in one new project and forget about the other one, or never start the one in the 1st place.

Right now I'm just about done reorganising/rethinking my new Video Collection approach. It's a bpita to say the least. Almost done so now I'll be soon here starting the new plan.

That said I haven't seen you post any virus attack you suffered so Sandboxie has to be working very good tstl. I'm putting this on mt to do list. When is another story.

[MilesAhead]

It's a shame no good free database software designed for media was around when I started getting jazz CDs. I use Personal Video Database for movies and it's not too bad adding entries. It's slogging through the stuff you already have in jewel cases, then adding the DB entry, then putting in the DJ case that takes time.

My jazz CDs are pretty much only "organized" if I have a bunch by one artist it's in the same stack. The ones and twos I try to put in categories like Piano, Trumpet, Sax whatever, but it's not always possible. Sometimes it takes me 1/2 hour to find a particular album. But it's my own fault for not devising something simple like labeling the shelves with numbers and letters and putting the stuff in a text file at least so I could search on the computer with a text editor. I kept putting it off hoping something would come out with a bar code scanner. heh heh

Oh well, at least some of my movies are getting organized.

[titanfan1017]

My wife and I are using MS security essentials on all 4 computers windows 7 home premium on 3 and xp on old desktop works fine for the most part. You still have to watch your regular idiocrities(maybe a bad choice of words lol) but it updates fast and run quietly pretty great for free.

[dr_ml422]

It's a shame no good free database software designed for media was around when I started getting jazz CDs. I use Personal Video Database for movies and it's not too bad adding entries. It's slogging through the stuff you already have in jewel cases, then adding the DB entry, then putting in the DJ case that takes time.

My jazz CDs are pretty much only "organized" if I have a bunch by one artist it's in the same stack. The ones and twos I try to put in categories like Piano, Trumpet, Sax whatever, but it's not always possible. Sometimes it takes me 1/2 hour to find a particular album. But it's my own fault for not devising something simple like labeling the shelves with numbers and letters and putting the stuff in a text file at least so I could search on the computer with a text editor. I kept putting it off hoping something would come out with a bar code scanner. heh heh

Oh well, at least some of my movies are getting organized.

I'm at a standstill right now w/the movie organisation. I have the DJ case but I don't see it as useful as I thought it would be other than it really staying clean n fresh inside. You're right the list and inserting is the biggest pita. I sent my Kung Fu flics to my brother and gave some regular movies to my cousin. Just kept the 2 n 3 part very good sequels and others just in case any of the images I made to the HDDS didn't come out right. Those images are only good for burning to disc though. I can't convert them to H.264 etc... So essentially I'm starting over but this time just the cream of the crop. I'm keeping the DJ case for something else. Idk maybe paperwork or w/e.

How would you use a scanner? You would have to scan something 1st to then go get it anyway? Some cell phones have scanners and they work actually. The Movie Industry really needs to get on the ball w/the whole physicality of this. Oh yeah and let me not forget the backup to the collection which virtually there's no way around 19 for that.

Miles you running Sandboxie on both your PCS? I really going to have to take a look at this and try it out. You're right how else more than not will something come in than through the Browser. Unless some really desperate hack is trying to go through your Modem/phone line for any crazy reason.


@Titan Yes, I also am using MS Essentials and running Mambam every now and then on my builds. Pretty good so far.

[MilesAhead]

The scanner would've been more useful back when I was doing the jazz CDs. There's a bar code on the jewel case and if I scanned as I went along at least I'd have a database.

With broadband though it's pretty easy to do the movies with Personal Video Database. You type in the title and search IMDB for a match. Then if you get a match it fills in all the stuff for you. Also you can have it download the cover image for the movie. The nice thing is once you have a good number in the database it's all searchable. I type in Godzilla and get all my ToHo G movies in the list with the "slot" numbers of the hangers so I can go right to the particular movie.

It also has a couple of extensions so you can print out a hard copy list in plain text or html tables. You can print out in alphabetical order and just staple the pages to have a hard copy list in the DJ case if you're away from the computer or the system is not running.

[dr_ml422]

Is this the free version or the paid? this is another thing to consider. Right now I'm at Ground Zero w/DVD organisation etc...

[dr_ml422]

Sandboxie

Is this the free version or the paid? this is another thing to consider. Right now I'm at Ground Zero w/DVD organisation etc...

I'm reading up on Sandboxie. Everything in it's time. I'll read up on it further though my gut is telling me I'm all in. This makes the best sense I ever heard/seen as of now even though you suggested it over almost 2 yrs. ago.

Talk about a great concept!

[MilesAhead]

Is this the free version or the paid? this is another thing to consider. Right now I'm at Ground Zero w/DVD organisation etc...

Personal Video Database is a freebie. It's the one man programmer who wrote it for himself thing for sure.

It has a few quirks. The main thing to remember for easy usage is to hit the little globe first to go on IMDB site and find the movie. If you see it there, then it will be in the list when you hit the Go button. I kept forgetting that because I go long stretches between using it. But if you are doing a bunch of DVDs then it will be second nature. It's a nice program. I'm using it on Vista 64 bit with no problem.

[MilesAhead]

I'm reading up on Sandboxie. Everything in it's time. I'll read up on it further though my gut is telling me I'm all in. This makes the best sense I ever heard/seen as of now even though you suggested it over almost 2 yrs. ago.

Talk about a great concept!

Esp. if you are running on a 32 bit system it's almost bullet proof. Another cool thing you can do is install programs in the sandbox. Any registry stuff the sandboxed program tries to change, it pulls in those settings and only lets it mess with the copy. So if you suspect some program is going to play registry games, you can install in the sandbox and look and see what keys it messes with.

Of all the prophylactic type programs I've seen, this has the simplest method and you don't have to reboot to turn it off. You can just delete the sandbox, close the control program, and stop the service,, and your machine is running totally native.

I used to turn the service off all the time I wasn't using it, but I don't bother anymore. It doesn't seem to interfere with normal operation just by running.

[dr_ml422]

Right now I'm so pumped about ditching Essentials. I'll buy this Sandboxie if it's just trial at 1st because I already like it w/out even having installed yet. I dl'd the .exe. Lil late to start tinkering, but I will tomorrow/asap. You'd have to be kinda nuts not to like it in favor of more ram/w/e w/out any AV.

How can the 1 guy provide server help for Personal Video Database for free? Doesn't it require some server to hold your titles etc...? Or that's on your PC?


Installed and went through most of the Tutorial on Sandboxie. GUI is great. Out of curiousity was this pointed to you also by one of your guys at the SW forums, or did you see this and gave it a whack? The former is usually the case, though you being into SW you might of just seen the sensibility of it all str8 off the back.

[MilesAhead]

I don't remember where I first saw Sandboxie mentioned. It could have been on 46 best windows freeware Gizmo site: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best..._utilities.htm

Personal Video Database you keep on your machine. It has search plugins for IMDB and a bunch of other databases. Users write most of the plugins esp. for foreign language databases. Afa the file space, I have 490 entries in PVDB many with cover art and it's only at 38 MB. I keep 2 backups because it is a bit quirky. Until you get used to using it if you try the wrong way to get rid of entries it can corrupt the file. It has an online forum where you can download plugin updates and post questions and problems.

http://www.videodb.info/forum_en/

btw Sandboxie unregistered is perfectly usable. The registered version adds a few features like if you download a file to the sandbox you can have it prompt if you want it to put it in the real folder of the same name or another folder, and a few other options. You can use on as many computers as you have personally so the reg. fee is worth it. It's just a one shot cost... no upgrade fees or any of that.

He's always coming up with a new version and beta, so it's not 2 years between free updates either. Many times I post about some machine wouldn't take the driver(usually the problem.. if the driver installs then you are usually golden) and a build will pop up in a couple of days and it will work.

[dr_ml422]

Ok so I got most of Sandboxie downpacked. Only thing which I've searched and found some replys on their forum is the scanning of a downloaded .exe or w/e inside the Sandbox. If you have no AV it won't be scanned. So Sandboxie will prevent almost all viruses from integrating into your OS, but you won't know if it's a virus or not w/out some AV.

So when you said you don't want any AV deciding on a whim what is/not is a virus you're talking resident AV correct? Otherwise there's no real way of knowing it's a infected file unless you run a non-resident like Malwarebytes. I know that a AV will scan the Sandboxie folder w/the file in it etc... Read how to do it.

My question is you are using a non-resident not all the time running AV to scan before installing completely correct? I mean running in Sandboxie to see if one likes it is one thing, but finding out if it's infected is another.

How in the world did PVD get in this AV thread Lol...It happens. Innocent hijacking again. I be on late so prolly that's the answer.

[MilesAhead]

I have Sandboxie set to automatically delete the sandbox when I close the program. I don't use resident shield. Just scan manually. For the ins and outs of using Sandboxie you should check out the forum. Basically though, I'm not into testing nasty software. Mainly if I am going to browse to any site on the web I don't know and trust, I just run the browser Sandboxed. If you don't know what the file in the sandbox is, you shouldn't copy it out anyway. Sometimes I'll run the browser sandboxed because somebody on a forum says "look at the software on this site" and I've never been to that site. That way I don't get unpleasant surprises.

[dr_ml422]

I got you and I've read much already on Sandboxie. Running IE now Sandboxed. Though we might know the site and trust it, when there's some update to a proggie we like or w/e, it's still good to run a scan on the dl'd file. So that's what I meant. Could be corrupt etc... it happens. So I just asked about the manual scan as still a option that you use as I wasn't sure whether or not you chucked all the AV now that Sandboxie is used. Though their Forum advises to have some AV. Resident it doesn't have to be.

Great proggie.

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, I enable the shell extension in Malwarebytes. I can right click a file or folder to scan that by itself, but I usually do the quick scan.

The Sandboxie author must spend all his time on it. I swear, it might be coincidence, but I think in the last couple of years I got a version that wouldn't install the driver. I posted my machine and hd controller specs, and it seemed like within 2 days there was another build that worked. He never said the fix was for me, but he must have included testing for that adapter in with the other fixes.