Whats the Best Free way to stop hackers

Recently We had 2 computers Hacked and was wondering what the best free solutions for making it harder for hackers to enter our system. We have done various things for eg I have basically deleted most email accounts and Facebook and twitter on mine. The other we put peer block on one which has Vista. Contacts we deleted One is now Linux.

I have Open DNS and was wondering what the best solution would be. Open DNS has features to control what goes through router as well. Should we do from Router or individual computers with Open DNS?

What is available software wise to block or disquise IP address that is free?

TY for your Time....

Hello Tom and welcome back to the forums

Just a few questions so I can understand the situation a bit better

What firewall do you have on these computers?
What do you mean when you say 'hacked'? It's a very overused term nowadays and can suggest a range of things.
Are these PCs on a company network?
How do you know the PC was hacked?

Tom

OK We were shown from Microsoft remotely that my computer was controlling other computers..... Also 2 computers on my network were comprimised through email. 2 email accounts were sending emails from our computers with links to other websites we never sent.

we have microsoft firewall for the PC's but one computer is Linux... I will look later for the Linux solutions
Its on a home network.

What e-mail program are you using?

hotmail and good to see you once again ilikefree. I know I should have stated the email program.

Yeah thanks mate, I will have to leave this bit for someone else as I don't use hotmail
I use G-Mail and they have a second security option that if any other computer tries to access your mail you get a code txt to your phone
Maybe hotmail has something like that you could use.
I would use the free MalwareBytes to clean your system and if you are under attack think about using a two way firewall like comodo to start with.
Sorry I am unable to offer anything more to try at the moment.

np mate. I also have gmail now. I will look into comodo. I think its for linux too. Im not so worried about my machine for now cause its better protected, but others on network are more at risk. I know when I build my computer soon.. it will be better protected. and locked up tight...

Okay, again, you weren't hacked. You were infected/comprimised by poor websurfing or bad luck.

Being "Hacked" means someone specifically targeted your computers and went through processes that got you.

MOST IMPORTANTLY..........

Who from microsoft told you? I'm alittle worried you just fell for the MS phone scam going on, where someone calls you, pertending to be MS, and tells you garbage, has you let themn in remotely, then ****s you in the ass.

If you were/are really infected it came from poor surfing/bad luck. This is were you click a link on a website, email or msger. It then steals your email info, fb info and starts spaming everyone.

Your *nix computers fine, while there are virus/infections for *nix, no one uses them.

Please please for all things holy, you didnt fall for the scam.

Paton We called Microsoft about the hotmail issue,,, I looked on microsoft website and got the number. It wasnt a SCAM I fell for. They are the ones who showed us, they showed me the multiple crss what evers .exe and I googled about it. I never go to unreputable sites. MICROSOFT DIDN'T CALL ME. I am not that DUMB. IN FACT I AM VERY WARY OF SCAMS LIKE THAT.

In anycase, I would like to get hold of free anti hack and anti malware spyware, or a good security suite that will be good for a home network. We have Vista windows 7 and Linux. I would like to find it for the other 2 computers.

I know that my Linux system isnt infected and is fine. I installed it after the infection on my system But we just had to restore the laptop to factory settings yesterday. So I was wanting to find out what the best security suite that is free..

You don't have to go to unrepitable sites... Any site can be infected by malware, Even Amazon has been hit like this.

There are no 'Anti-Hack" programs. Hacking is an activity.

Just get MSE, or AVGfree, or Avast. Despite what you think, someone got your system infected by visiting a infected site, could have been any site comprimised by hackers. Any real-time scanner can help stop this, to a certain extent.

The biggest thing is that hotmail sent out things not your computer. Your email and password was stolen, and no firewall or program can stop that. Switching out your password is pretty much only solution.

As for your "controlling" computer, without knowing what you are infected with, Or what else got put in once access was gained via a drive by/bad click, just wipe it out and re install. Once you have a quality AV and Malware detector, Windefender type thing, its just smart surfing... It'll stop 99% of issues. the 1% comes from hacked legit sites that get yha.

As for a individual computer firewall, other than the simple MS one, I used zonealarm loing time back, it was both great and a royal pain.

Linux really doesn't have anything.. With under 4% of market shares, nobody cares about them enough to put forth the effort.

There are no real ways to hide your ip, evenb the so called changer/hiders don't really do it. You could surf through a TOR connection, but that won't stop drive bys. Though It might be a good idea to call your ISP and have them switch up your ip, if in fact you were zombied.

In my opinion, you are over blowing the situation. Get an ip change, clean your systems, and find out who clicked a bad link and educate them.

I think AOL is a pretty safe Email service. I have never heard of anybody using AOL having this kind of problem and my wife and I use it since many years. And we get a LOT of daily mail - more than 100 per day for each of us.

I'm not a network expert. But this may be a better question for Networking and Sharing forum. In the old days it was common to take an older machine and put Linux on it to run it as a router. I'm wondering if there isn't some related scheme to only have direct internet access through one machine running Linux and have superior security on it. Maybe it runs its own mail server that the clients use to get the mail.

It's probably not as difficult as it sounds. Maybe a site where the Linux SysOp Guru types hang out would have some ideas. Windows has traditionally used "undocumented" functions to give those who knew them the edge over those who didn't. Chances are hackers know the undocumented functions you aren't aware of.

The only sure-fire way of avoiding hacking is to disconnect from the network and keep your system physically secure.

MilesAhead said:

I'm not a network expert. But this may be a better question for Networking and Sharing forum. In the old days it was common to take an older machine and put Linux on it to run it as a router. I'm wondering if there isn't some related scheme to only have direct internet access through one machine running Linux and have superior security on it. Maybe it runs its own mail server that the clients use to get the mail.

It's probably not as difficult as it sounds. Maybe a site where the Linux SysOp Guru types hang out would have some ideas. Windows has traditionally used "undocumented" functions to give those who knew them the edge over those who didn't. Chances are hackers know the undocumented functions you aren't aware of.

Click to expand...

ActuaLLY, this is what most residential routers are now a days, my old wrt4gL, L stood for linux.

A maIL server is just that, it sends and recieves email using its own @ name.

However, for a hacker to hack through even just a properly setup router, i.e. no unnessesary open ports, is pretty difficult, can be done, but difgficult.

Its no easy thing to hack a computer straight up, even in the Def Com security comferences, its internet vulnerability that takes out systems in exploiting drive bys.

So securing your system is easy, not getting hit in a drive by is another.

The point is the Linux dudes are probably ahead of the curve since they have an open source system. There's no way Joe Sixpack customer can compete with the hackers on a closed system. They have info he never will.

Likewise the routers made from Linux servers are likely now replaced with something more sophisticated. What it may be I don't know. But it's likely someone in the Linux community does. It may have filters for all those little mail client exploitation hooks that run in Windows machines.

He won't know if he doesn't look. I wouldn't sit around waiting for Email from MS esp. when it's my email that's being hacked.

IMO more so than not hackers attack big buisnesses. Sure they spam your email, plant rogueware, send out viruses, etc. in hopes of getting a few bucks from the average Joe and they get lucky every now and then but I'm sure that any of them would say that the big bucks is going up against big businesses and the government. They spend hundreds of thousands to even millions developing, maintaining, and protecting their infrastructure. It's a bigger challenge (as well as a larger payout) going up against those that are paid to protect their employer rather than Joe. It's a much more complicated set up than most people realize or appreciate and internet facing systems of all kinds are very well protected against such attacks. As for personal computing most people don't have to worry as long as they practice safe browsing and have their computer well protected with antimalware. However there is still a constant threat and if you are really paranoid disconnect from the net.

Google contacted me and told me attempts to access my g-mail had been made from Israel and Ireland. I took up their option of the txt code and any attempt to access my g-mail from any computer but mine (even me) a code is sent to my phone that has to be entered before access is granted. Costs nothing and keeps my mind at ease.
I think people are right and after cleaning your system you should be alright.
It is easier to hack a website than a personal computer, and that's hard to do.

townsbg said:

IMO more so than not hackers attack big buisnesses. Sure they spam your email, plant rogueware, send out viruses, etc. in hopes of getting a few bucks from the average Joe and they get lucky every now and then but I'm sure that any of them would say that the big bucks is going up against big businesses and the government. They spend hundreds of thousands to even millions developing, maintaining, and protecting their infrastructure. It's a bigger challenge (as well as a larger payout) going up against those that are paid to protect their employer rather than Joe. It's a much more complicated set up than most people realize or appreciate and internet facing systems of all kinds are very well protected against such attacks. As for personal computing most people don't have to worry as long as they practice safe browsing and have their computer well protected with antimalware. However there is still a constant threat and if you are really paranoid disconnect from the net.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't go to that extreme. Sure anything connected is vulnerable. But we all want to be connected. That's why we are here. Many people use programs who don't know really how they work. Likewise there are likely some punks out there using scripts that attack email clients, that don't really understand the script. They must download 'em from somewhere. Just like an av can scan for known malware there may be security that scans for signatures of known hacker scripts or email header tricks(if there is such a thing.) All I'm saying is see what is out there. Many Windows utilities use Linux boot CDs. It's silly to have an "us vs them" mentality. It's all PC'in afaic.

There's plenty of knowledge out there. I see no reason to try to keep people on the pablum gravy train. (Likely because I an't gettin' a piece of the action. Money blurs all judgement.)