Advanced Plus Security Lightning_Brian's 2019 Security Config

[Lightning_Brian]

Probably tweaking Norton You don't need ZAL + VS...

About extensiones, 2 adblockers (even disabling one of them)...

I'll remove uBlock Origin =) Again, I was only using uBlock Origin on demand to test against AdGuard - sorry for any misunderstanding about that. I would disable AdGuard and enable uBlock Origin However, I get your point about that.

I have the same feelings I think as @Lightning_Brian with AdGuard and uBlock Origin. Really like them both.
AdGuard is fine out of the box and using on a family PC.
uBlock gets really powerful when tinkering with the advanced settings, good on a personal PC but not for a family PC.

@Gandalf_The_Grey Both of the adblockers are nice. uBlock can get quite powerful. AdGuard within the advance settings can get or be just as powerful too. Therefore, I'll stop my random tests of uBlock. Hopefully, folks understood that I wasn't using both at the same time. LOL!

Does it allow customizing rules per protocol/port/IP and such or is it just allow/block like in the free version?

@TairikuOkami Sure does! the ELITE does everything that the free does, but even more options. Feel free to ask the developer to see if you can get a free trial to BASIC, Pro, or ELITE.

 

[plat]

That Coffee Lake system is magnificent. Sometimes, you can see a bit more "concern" about security with a higher-end system like that.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

That Coffee Lake system is magnificent. Sometimes, you can see a bit more "concern" about security with a higher-end system like that.

Thanks @plat1098 ! Yeah RAM cost a ton of money, but I got it on a good deal from a trusted seller - little under $600 in RAM alone with the RAM costing much more (far above) $600 for normal pricing. With everything in my rig. I got about $3,000 ish to protect, but well worth it! I use a ton of RAM when I go virtualization networks, working on VMs eats up a lot of CPU and RAM LOL - mainly RAM in my case!

Now to decide if I want to put VoodooShield Premium (paid - latest release) into a as needed field... HMMM

@JM Security Bud, do you have any suggestions on my real time setup? Think I should make VoodooShield Premium (paid - latest release) into a as needed field... ZAL and Norton combined are really amazing.

Everyone - feel free to let me know your thoughts!



Note:

• Removed uBlock Origin as folks didn't see that I was testing uBlock Origin against AdGuard. - All good though!
• Removed Norton Safe Search - supposed to be a good addon for Noton users & or just about anyone, but folks think I have too much stuff. =)

I'll be adding a few other security tools that get used every so often to ensure a nice and secure system....Such as a USB read/write controller and what not. Not sure if I should put a note on my configuration or just include it on a general message on my security configuration. Some folks think I got too many utilities, but once your in the IT sector you learn of a lot of nifty tools that complete various things!

~Brian

 

[JM Safe]

Bud, do you have any suggestions on my real time setup? Think I should make VoodooShield Premium (paid - latest release) into a as needed field... ZAL and Norton combined are really amazing.

Nothing to add, also it seems a bit overkill, maybe choose beetwen VoodooShield and Norton which you prefer

 

[Handsome Recluse]

Main reason behind this is the data compression with AOMEI is second to none!

Any benchmarks/comparisons?

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Any benchmarks/comparisons?

To put things in comparison I benched a normal backup of 128 GB of information and AOMEI shrunk that down to just 59 GB for me. Many others have said that the compression ratio is superb and beats out Macrium Reflect. I have had the same results. I will even said that on high compression AOMEI beats out Acronis True Image 2019 all day any day for being able to shrink the overall size of the image. Never had issues with AOMEI not working either - free or paid.

I say take a look at this great backup program! Lots of other folks I know have had wonderful luck with this great software. If you don't need some of the Professional grade stuff I say go with the free software! I started off with the free software and worked my way into the Professional grade version of AOMEI as I enjoyed using the software - easy to use and nothing overly difficult.

Using Acronis True Image 2019 (paid/latest), Macrium Reflect (free/latest), and AOMEI Backupper (paid/latest) I would highly suggest any of the three. For making some serious compression ratio to save disk space or overall space AOMEI beats the other two hands down in my tests, but everyone will have some variance. You simply cannot go wrong with the three of these great tools @TerrakionSmash !

~Brian

 

[Deleted member 178]

Interesting that people focus on compression, what matters most to me is speed, I do lot of backups/restores a day because of being Q&A/tester, I can't permit my solution to be slow.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Interesting that people focus on compression, what matters most to me is speed, I do lot of backups/restores a day because of being Q&A/tester, I can't permit my solution to be slow.

@Umbra Speed of backups happen really fast on my machine. Usually the backup is done in less than 15 minutes. Deep verification there after actually takes just about as long.

I agree though speed should be key for backups. Both for backing up and restoring.

~Brian

 

[Handsome Recluse]

Interesting that people focus on compression, what matters most to me is speed, I do lot of backups/restores a day because of being Q&A/tester, I can't permit my solution to be slow.

Aren't restores for the free versions equal for all of them?

 

[Deleted member 178]

I have the paid version of Macrium

 

[Handsome Recluse]

I have the paid version of Macrium

Did you give up on Rollback?

 

[Deleted member 178]

Did you give up on Rollback?

Yep, v11 seems to suxx a lot, and I won't pay 100+$ for 3 machines.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Macirum Reflect + viBoot is super nice! @TerrakionSmash ! Give it a try.

As for all three of the backup software I find that Macrium restores a bit faster. One cannot go wrong with either of the three.

~Brian

 

[oldschool]

You really splurged for the holidays! Realtime protection is overkill, but hey - to each his own. Thanks for sharing!

Your configuration is comparable to HMS Victory:

HMS Victory - Wikipedia

 

[Lightning_Brian]

You really splurged for the holidays! Realtime protection is overkill, but hey - to each his own. Thanks for sharing!

Your configuration is comparable to HMS Victory:

HMS Victory - Wikipedia

Thanks @oldschool ! I may have some overkill that needs to get cut down a bit... haha

Your welcome! I always like sharing my configuration. I bet if we put it up against a test in a testing lab the computer would fair quite well compared to most! hahah

Thanks for the complment about my computer. I spent some significant money and quite the investment into it. I figured my last computer lasted me 10 years and I'm hoping this desktop will last just as long with minor tweaks and changes here and there.

Stay tuned friends!! I'll be making a few more changes here to my config for security! Hint: forgot a few things and may be removing a few things too.

~Brian

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Hello Everyone,

I took the plunge into Windows 10 build 1903 a little while ago - so far so good.

Now to Norton.... Norton's code may have been exposed and I'm not liking this. I got my ear down to the ground to see if this is indeed true. I'm sure yall' remember when the source code from major AV companies were exposed, but Norton didn't really want to confirm/deny that such a thing happened to them. I may be swapping over to BD here, but again we will have to see.

Latest Changes!

Added/Updated:

Updated Windows 10 (Pro) to the latest stable (normal release) build 1903

Updated GlassWire Elite to the latest stable version which is 2.1.158

Updated Hard Disk Sentinel PRO to the lastest stable which is 5.40 PRO (happened a little while ago)

Updated VMware Workstation 15 Pro to version 15.1.0 build-13591040 (happened a little while ago)

Updated Sticky Password to the latest stable version

Updated RoboForm for Business to the latest stable version

Added: Glary Utilites PRO 5.121 (latest stable)

Removal:

Removed: Wise Care 365 - Just changing things up a bit! We will see how this goes!

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks,

~Brian

 

[LDogg]

I would say that an Overkill to me personally wouldn't be a "complete" setup, having all these 3 seems completely useless to me as quote here "Norton Security Premium (paid - latest release), Zemana Antilogger Premium (paid - latest release), VoodooShield Premium (paid - latest release)", I believe you're wasting money in my opinion (not telling you what to do btw), having 3 separate security software overlapping each other here makes no sense, ZAL is not needed at all (covered by Norton), VDS could get in the way of Norton if the latter blocks a threat.


Other then the above, sweet config and like viBoot w/ Macrium Reflect.

~LDogg

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Hi @LDogg

I'm exploring the use of just having ZAL on-demand. ZAL hasn't been updated other than some sigs. in a long time. VDS has been nice with some tweaks I have made between the two so neither Norton nor VDS conflict with my system.

I spent some good money on an investment in the past. Norton I often get free or free after mail-in rebate from various deals I find - I'm a deal finder. Plus I have found some issues in the past that I reported out to Norton and got some rewards from them.

@harlan4096 @JM Safe I'm looking to add RansomOff to my config as it has some powerful anti ransomware capability. What are your thoughts? Obviously system resources are not in question here as my computer has more than enough power. A bit over kill providing everything else..?

~Brian

 

[harlan4096]

It has been already discussed in some threads in the forum lately, it seems that product has not been updated for long (Dec. 2018) and it may cause serious issues with the last Windows 10 versions...

 

[Nevi]

As many have mentioned before me, I think it's overkill in the real time department, but if you feel best that way, it's great.
I'm jealous on your computer specs .