Advanced Plus Security illumination's configuration

Last updated
Jul 31, 2018
Windows Edition
Pro
Security updates
Allow security updates and latest features
User Access Control
Always notify
Real-time security
Windows Defender
Firewall security
Microsoft Defender Firewall
Periodic malware scanners
Portable tool set
Malware sample testing
I do not participate in malware testing
Browser(s) and extensions
Google Chrome: Ublock Origin, Ip and Domain
Maintenance tools
Analysis: Process Explorer, Autoruns, PeStudio
File and Photo backup
Backed up externally regularly
System recovery
I utilize a copy of Windows Media creation tool on a flash drive for "repairs" and "wipe/reformat's" when necessary.
I

illumination

Thread author
Back to Norton Security :) Why added appguard business >
I will always run AG no matter what, it has become my favorite of all security applications. It has no system impact, and is a very stable little application. It allows me to reduce my surface of attack greatly by disabling vulnerable windows processes. It is my back up solution to any other security i run, as none of them are 100%.
 

ZeroDay

Level 30
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 17, 2013
1,905
I will always run AG no matter what, it has become my favorite of all security applications. It has no system impact, and is a very stable little application. It allows me to reduce my surface of attack greatly by disabling vulnerable windows processes. It is my back up solution to any other security i run, as none of them are 100%.
How are you finding Norton security these day's does it run well protection wise?
 
I

illumination

Thread author
How are you finding Norton security these day's does it run well protection wise?
To be honest, it has been about 7 month's since i have tested it, and just literally put it back on today. I do not run Norton at default settings though, and with some tweaks, you have a more granular control, and this makes a difference from default settings.

Av Heuristic Protection: Aggressive
To block high-certainty threats, and receive notifications for low-certainty threats with few suspicious characteristics, move the switch to Aggressive.

Sonar Advanced Mode: Aggressive
To block high-certainty threats, and receive notifications for low-certainty threats with few suspicious characteristics, move the switch to Aggressive. (This setting is highly sensitive and might cause legitimate files to be identified as threats. It is recommended for advanced users only.)

Automatic Protection/Sonar advanced mode/Remove risks if im away: Always
To block all threats, move the switch to Always.

Automatic Program Control: Off
By default, an alert occurs when an unproven application tries to access the network. If an infected application tries to access the network, Norton Firewall automatically block network access for that application.
If you want to determine the Internet access settings for your programs, you can turn off Automatic Program Control. When a program tries to access the Internet for the first time, an alert prompts you to configure access settings.

Firewall/Advanced Program Control/Block Traffic for Malicious Applications: Aggressive
Firewall blocks application that have even the slightest possibility of being malicious.

ect...
 

mekelek

Level 28
Verified
Well-known
Feb 24, 2017
1,661
To be honest, it has been about 7 month's since i have tested it, and just literally put it back on today. I do not run Norton at default settings though, and with some tweaks, you have a more granular control, and this makes a difference from default settings.

Av Heuristic Protection: Aggressive
To block high-certainty threats, and receive notifications for low-certainty threats with few suspicious characteristics, move the switch to Aggressive.

Sonar Advanced Mode: Aggressive
To block high-certainty threats, and receive notifications for low-certainty threats with few suspicious characteristics, move the switch to Aggressive. (This setting is highly sensitive and might cause legitimate files to be identified as threats. It is recommended for advanced users only.)

Automatic Protection/Sonar advanced mode/Remove risks if im away: Always
To block all threats, move the switch to Always.

Automatic Program Control: Off
By default, an alert occurs when an unproven application tries to access the network. If an infected application tries to access the network, Norton Firewall automatically block network access for that application.
If you want to determine the Internet access settings for your programs, you can turn off Automatic Program Control. When a program tries to access the Internet for the first time, an alert prompts you to configure access settings.

Firewall/Advanced Program Control/Block Traffic for Malicious Applications: Aggressive
Firewall blocks application that have even the slightest possibility of being malicious.

ect...
how's performance with aggressive SONAR? last i heard it wrecks computers :D
 
I

illumination

Thread author
how's performance with aggressive SONAR? last i heard it wrecks computers :D
Been running it that way all day with no issues.

I should add, on this shared system, nothing new is downloaded, we have all the applications we need to function. When updates/upgrades "Windows" are required, it would in general be smart to lower the protection to do so.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I

illumination

Thread author
Well, that did not last long.
Removed: Norton
Added: HMP

After some hours of playing with Norton, which it had been some months since i last have, i ran into a few bugs, not to mention i really dislike they still are using a toolbar in chrome. As much as i like the main suite, i just can not bring myself to use it anymore. One of the fun episodes i encountered was during a full scan, and i tried to open History for a tour of the logs, and the product stopped responding and crashed completely, i had to restart it.

Upon sitting there watching these events, i decided this is ridiculous, i'm an advanced user, and have no need for all of this hard core paranoia. I went back to Windows defaults "hardened via GPE", and Appguard with many windows vulnerable processes disabled. It is all i need even on a shared machine. Appguard is the only application i have tested over the years that i have not had an issues with stability wise. Almost every other one has had some sort of issues, whether it be bugs like i just experienced, or creating double rules, disappearing rules, incompatibilities with certain applications, ect,ect... I'm done with all of this crap that most 3rd party applications cause, it totally ruins the user experience. My machine is thanking me right now, it is blazing fast with just Windows Defaults & Appguard.
 

Cats-4_Owners-2

Level 39
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Well-known
Dec 4, 2013
2,800
Yep, Appguard is all you need, No soft come close to it. The rest is just for fun.
Sign me up!:)

@PathFinder , your "Thankful" & "Blazing fast Machine" reminds me of an old magazine advertisement for Newport Light cigarettes which showed a man (or woman) smiling, holding a cigarette, and sporting a white bruise where a black eye would have been, ending with the caption:
"I'd Rather Light Than Fight!":giggle:
 
I

illumination

Thread author
I haven't thought Norton suffers from such bugs. Almost sounds like it's Bitdefender bad
They all suffer from issues. It varies from system to system on the experience, and also whether a user leaves the settings at default or not. Take Eset for example, at default settings, it is very stable, turn the firewall on in interactive mode, chances are you will see duplicate rules created at some point, same with the Hips. Any time we introduce a 3rd party application to our systems, we are introducing more bugs/issues, thus increasing the attack surface.

When testing your favorite applications, make sure to dig deep into settings, the bugs will reveal themselves at one point or another.
 
I

illumination

Thread author
Removed: Appguard/Hitman pro

Added: Gdata IS, Zemana Anti malware

It has been a bit since i last tested Gdata, and after seeing a few post that it has become lighter, i decided to see for myself, and it has substantially.

As i'm using this shared system, less and less, i'm simplifying the security so that i may jump on, check logs, scan, run maintenance, and get back off, while leaving it simple enough for them to use. A dual engine with a very decent detection rate, Behavior monitor, exploit protection and key logger/banking protection & robust Firewall seems to fill that bill.

I should also mention, that in this household, safe surfing is not only preached, but taught and enforced as a stipulation of using the main system. So i'm good with a simple, yet effective configuration, and necessary tools.
 
D

Deleted member 65228

Thread author
G-DATA appears to be a very good choice, I've heard A LOT about it recently... It's the new thing on the forum for recommendations, replacing how Emsisoft used to be recommended so much.

I look forward to hearing about your experience/s with it :)
 
I

illumination

Thread author
G-DATA appears to be a very good choice, I've heard A LOT about it recently... It's the new thing on the forum for recommendations, replacing how Emsisoft used to be recommended so much.

I look forward to hearing about your experience/s with it :)
It was good back when i tested it, just a little too heavy for my taste back then. I had looked into it back then as a possible companion for Appguard and ended up settling on Eset instead.

To be completely honest, i'm hoping, as i have been talking to my significant other about going back to nothing but Linux in the house, as we used to have it, until i got bored and threw windows back on one of the machines, that ended up being the shared machine. I think she is about to agree on it, as she really does not like MS either, and we are down to the only applications we utilize for business and pleasure can all be replaced with Open Source.

I removed AG, simply because i hope to be configuring App Armor instead of AG at some point soon in the near future.
 

L0ckJaw

Level 19
Verified
Content Creator
Well-known
Feb 17, 2018
870
I really love G-Data, they improved the BB alot with frequenter updates and the definitions come fast, one time in the hub G-Data received the definitions alot faster than Norton did. Also when you SUD infected files they apply a fix immediately. I use it along with OSArmour and thats a fantastic combination.
 
I

illumination

Thread author
I really love G-Data, they improved the BB alot with frequenter updates and the definitions come fast, one time in the hub G-Data received the definitions alot faster than Norton did. Also when you SUD infected files they apply a fix immediately. I use it along with OSArmour and thats a fantastic combination.
Once up and running, i have noticed a marked improvement in system impact. Start up seems to take a hit though, i have not seen my machine take this long to boot fully in quite some time. Scans certainly take their toll on the system as well, and my system, while having older hardware is no slouch, running a 2 generation liquid cooled intel i7 with 16gb of high speed ram on a 7200 rpm HHD. Other then these two points of impact, so far the rest has been smooth sailing. Im riding out a 30 day trial of it right now before i commit any funds towards a license.

I will be evaluating it during the trial period to determine, and will certainly post my findings here.
 

L0ckJaw

Level 19
Verified
Content Creator
Well-known
Feb 17, 2018
870
Once up and running, i have noticed a marked improvement in system impact. Start up seems to take a hit though, i have not seen my machine take this long to boot fully in quite some time. Scans certainly take their toll on the system as well, and my system, while having older hardware is no slouch, running a 2 generation liquid cooled intel i7 with 16gb of high speed ram on a 7200 rpm HHD. Other then these two points of impact, so far the rest has been smooth sailing. Im riding out a 30 day trial of it right now before i commit any funds towards a license.

I will be evaluating it during the trial period to determine, and will certainly post my findings here.
Strange , i have a oldskool i3 with 8GB RAM, SSD and it boots in 20 seconds up and running.
 
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I

illumination

Thread author
SSD and it boots in 20 seconds up and running.
The underlined is why for you.

This is why i always tell users to test software for themselves on their own systems, as it can very from system to system, the over all experience. I normally run layered security, that does not slow down my start up, or max my HHD 100% while scanning.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

ZeroDay

Level 30
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 17, 2013
1,905
It was good back when i tested it, just a little too heavy for my taste back then. I had looked into it back then as a possible companion for Appguard and ended up settling on Eset instead.

To be completely honest, i'm hoping, as i have been talking to my significant other about going back to nothing but Linux in the house, as we used to have it, until i got bored and threw windows back on one of the machines, that ended up being the shared machine. I think she is about to agree on it, as she really does not like MS either, and we are down to the only applications we utilize for business and pleasure can all be replaced with Open Source.

I removed AG, simply because i hope to be configuring App Armor instead of AG at some point soon in the near future.
I'm in the exact same situation regarding Linux. I'm going to keep Windows 10 on a small partition on my main system or maybe a VM. I have a laptop that I'm keeping Windows 10 on for now, but most of my daily computers usage will be carried out on a GNU/Linux system. I see a lot of people seeing the benefits of open source now, even people who are not particular tech savvy. I think for most people who use social media, email, web browsing, YouTube, Netflix and even some office work could transition to a GNU/Linux distro pretty easily and I don't think they'd look back.
 
I

illumination

Thread author
I'm in the exact same situation regarding Linux. I'm going to keep Windows 10 on a small partition on my main system or maybe a VM. I have a laptop that I'm keeping Windows 10 on for now, but most of my daily computers usage will be carried out on a GNU/Linux system. I see a lot of people seeing the benefits of open source now, even people who are not particular tech savvy. I think for most people who use social media, email, web browsing, YouTube, Netflix and even some office work could transition to a GNU/Linux distro pretty easily and I don't think they'd look back.
While i'm playing with Gdata on the main system, just out of sheer boredom "while i wait for the final decision..lol", i'm firing up the laptop with Tumbleweed and setting it up as we would the desktop, making sure i can find what we need, as far as templates for open source office ect. By this evening, she will be coming home and hoping on that laptop set up, and if she is comfortable with it, the transformation will take place soon to all Linux.
 

mekelek

Level 28
Verified
Well-known
Feb 24, 2017
1,661
Removed: Appguard/Hitman pro

Added: Gdata IS, Zemana Anti malware

It has been a bit since i last tested Gdata, and after seeing a few post that it has become lighter, i decided to see for myself, and it has substantially.

As i'm using this shared system, less and less, i'm simplifying the security so that i may jump on, check logs, scan, run maintenance, and get back off, while leaving it simple enough for them to use. A dual engine with a very decent detection rate, Behavior monitor, exploit protection and key logger/banking protection & robust Firewall seems to fill that bill.

I should also mention, that in this household, safe surfing is not only preached, but taught and enforced as a stipulation of using the main system. So i'm good with a simple, yet effective configuration, and necessary tools.
I suggest testing the exploit protection of GData, one of the things that put me far from it.
 
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