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[tiffy]

Quite a few years ago when my local bank changed ownership (Northern to Danske) I was using MS IE-11 in a Win 8.1 environment, my on-line banking stopped working, the bank tech. help department who were excellent, admitted there were Java incompatability issues associated with MS IE and advised the use of another browser, I opted for Firefox and full service was restored.

More recently, have had issues with Virgin Money on-line banking using Firefox browser, could log in normally but at a later stage the site graphics would change from normal to what I can only describe as "raw machine code" making progress impossible.
Took the issue up with Virgin and Mozilla tech. support, unsurprisingly both blamed each other and again Java, didn't get a resolution and had to use an alternative browser for that site.

At some later stage happened to try Firefox on Virgin Money site again and it worked, has been OK since ?

The point being in my case that the issues were browser, Java related and not associated with AV/Firewall protection.
For information, I have used Bit Defender AV/Firewall for many years without any issues.

[Weaver]

[tiffy]

[Weaver]

Many many years ago there were a very few websites that required you to get an additional piece of software as well as your normal web browser, something to run programs written in the Java programming language. This practice is as far as I am aware long extinct.

Javascript is a completely different programming language and all or almost all web browsers (not sure about the Lynx web browser) have a Javascript engine built into them. This engine is a piece of code that can take some Javascript source code and run it. The Javascript source code is either found embedded inside a web page or is downloaded from the web in separate files.

[tiffy]

@Weaver:

Many thanks for the additional information, always glad to learn from the many more knowledgable forum members, most appreciated.

[parkdale]

So....  as a result of my messing around with 1508 MTU settings, as other members have detailed in another thread, I found that if I used baby jumbo frames and trying to logon to Barclays bank portal, would result in a fail.
However if I changed my MTU to 1492 it would work perfectly 

That was a few weeks ago, tried it just now, and it works so more testing required as to why....

Robin

[Bowdon]

I've used Avast for years and had no problems. Sometimes it will block things I don't want it to but I can soon figure out whats happened.

I think it only gets involved in banking if you have that addon installed. When installing Avast make sure you select customize and only install the addons you want.

To stop pop-up alerts tick the game mode or silent mode (can't remember the exact name of it) and you'll never have a pop-up again, even when it blocks something it won't pop-up lol.

TSB and HSBC as been having problems recently with their online banking sites. Hopefully they are back working correctly.

[parkdale]

So... I use Kaspersky... as it's free (Provided by Barclays bank before they pulled it!) I notice that newer versions are using Intel VT-x in the processor to create secure connections for internet banking
Normally I would be avoiding these pop up windows as they very irritating (Blank screen going nowhere) so I will give it full work out to see if I get any benefit by using it.

[Weaver]

[sevenlayermuddle]

Echo the false sense of security that AV carries.

A place I worked had very strict IT policies.   Systems were all built to the same spec by a dedicated IT dept, with mandatory AV, and updates ruthlessly enforced.  Developers hated it, as we were working on time-critical kernel and application software, so AV and untimely updates were not usually desireable.   One day, pretty much every Windows box on the Lan got infected by something nasty.   The only machines not affected were myself and a few other developers.

Turned out, despite their enthusiasm for AV and regular updates, IT had been shipping systems with blank admin passwords.   They had also left the Windows hidden shares enabled, which was how the malware spread itself, after being initially activated by some non techie salesperson who stupidly opened a dodgy email atttachment, that the AV failed to detect as a virus.    The developers, in contrast, had found ways of disabling updates, disabling the useless AV and, more importantly... disabling the hidden shares, hence they escaped the attack.

[renluop]

[Chrysalis]

I dont even run an AV now, the methods used are obsolete.

Generally the best defense is just been vigilant, other then that a default deny ACL on executable's, memory exploit protection, modern locked down web browsers, modern locked down email clients, hardening windows/OS policies, and getting software from trusted sources.

I have done about 80% of my guide to go on the wiki, this guide will be all exclusively using "free" non a/v software and built in windows features.

[Weaver]

Chrys, you are exactly the same as me by the sound of it. I have tools, scripts various bits and bobs for configuring Windows securely in a very locked-down fashion, just like you, using ACLs, deleting bad things, using group policy and SRP, configuring web browsers and email clients securely. One thing I would add is using an email service provider that has superb antivirus scanning and can also deletes evil attachments by file type / extension. All users are unable to execute things on removable drives such as cds, usb flash drives and unable to execute downloads. If they were to try to copy these things into their own user directories then they would not execute because only things installed by an admin in official directory trees that are supposed to contain executable are allowed to run. Users are not permitted to create random directories off the root directory and any such rogue directories that appear because of the activity of apps are automatically deleted and in any case running exes in the is not allowed because of a default no-execute policy.

I would love to see the stuff you mentioned. If you have taken the time to write it up and document it, which I have been far too lazy to do, then well done and thanks.

[spring]

I use one because I don't check every bit of what I download.
On Linux it has to be manually executed [80% of the programs don't need it] or installed but on Windows it even infects every file just by coming across it in explorer u.u

I agree AV software can be a backdoor in itself but I rather not worry and be able to open files I don't trust that much without risking it.

So....  as a result of my messing around with 1508 MTU settings, as other members have detailed in another thread, I found that if I used baby jumbo frames and trying to logon to Barclays bank portal, would result in a fail.
However if I changed my MTU to 1492 it would work perfectly 

That was a few weeks ago, tried it just now, and it works so more testing required as to why....

Robin

how can you use 1508 with a base mtu of 1492? can you paste the results of this test when set to 1508? https://speedguide.net/analyzer.php

[Weaver]