Defragmentation and antivirus

[Hodgkinson]

Hi there,
Can anyone recommend a *reliable* defragmenter for OS3.0 FFS Partitions <1GB in size (With lots of % free room on each partition) ?
(The A1200D that im building up's 2GB HDD probably looks like a car crash... :-D )

Also, does anyone feel that it would still be a good idea to use a antivirus program for their amiga today? Any recommendations for the most-up-to date antivirus software (If any)?

Btw, Can WB be hacked into via the internet in the same way as PC's? Should I be as worried connecting a unprotected Amiga running WB (And probably AWeb) to the internet as a unprotected PC with IE?

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

[Amiduffer]

You have nothing to worry about if you're going to put your Amiga online. All the spyware, malware, trojans, and BS won't bother such an obscure OS as yours

It doesn't hurt to run a virus program so why not run it? They pop up occasionaly. If you're going to be downloading files off the internet, its a good idea to have one running.

[Piru]

Can anyone recommend a *reliable* defragmenter for OS3.0 FFS Partitions <1GB in size (With lots of % free room on each partition) ?

ReOrg

Also, does anyone feel that it would still be a good idea to use a antivirus program for their amiga today? Any recommendations for the most-up-to date antivirus software (If any)?

It can't hurt. I'd recommend VirusZ + the latest xvs.library

Btw, Can WB be hacked into via the internet in the same way as PC's?

As Workbench itself doesn't connect to the internet at all, no. The most obvious attack vectors are the applications connecting to internet (browsers, email, irc apps). One potential exploit is described here.

Should I be as worried connecting a unprotected Amiga running WB (And probably AWeb) to the internet as a unprotected PC with IE?

In practice, no.

Amigas are maybe 0.00001% of the systems on net. People don't bother writing malware for these systems anymore.

[amigakit]

Security through obscurity.

One possible exploit in 3.9 is that it has an AREXX interface and some Amiga browsers support AREXX.

[Piru]

@amigakit

One possible exploit in 3.9 is that it has an AREXX interface and some Amiga browsers support AREXX.

And how exactly can you use AREXX remotely thru the browser?

[Hodgkinson]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll have a look into them, and hopefully end up with a nice defragmented, clean WB3.0 System.

Regards,
Hodgkinson.

[jj]

In a sensible world nobody should get infected with a virus , and im talking about virus here and not spyware/malware.

Even without a virus checker, as long as you dont open dodgy email attachements or download dodgey things from the internet then you should never get a Virus

[Piru]

Even without a virus checker, as long as you dont open dodgy email attachements or download dodgey things from the internet then you should never get a Virus

...and as long as you keep your system updated with the latest security updates.

Today viruses manage to abuse the security issues in various programs. For example without security updates, just viewing the message in Outlook is enough to infect the system.

In a similar fashion, various MUI based email apps were vulnerable to APIPE attacks. Just viewing the message was often enough to trigger the payload. These bugs/holes have been fixed since, but if you use old vulnerable application you could (in theory) be in danger.

Personally I perfer multiple levels of protection:
- Firewall
- Antivirus
- Tight security settings
- Paranoid set of mind

If one or two should fail, then the remaining ones will catch the nastygram.

[jj]

@ piru

I agree tottaly.  I keep all OS up to date.  All programs up to date.  I have a software and hardware firewall.  Spyware/malmare checker and anti-virus running.

But I havee not had a virus detected on my machine for years.

And when I was running XP64 for 12 months , you have to pay for AVG on 64 bit os (was not doing that) so no anti virus, guess what not a single virus

[Hodgkinson]

I've never actually had a Windows, or Amiga virus, that I know of. All I've had are two different applications that only show up in AVG when the Win32 File heuristic is turned up to max, of which I know these files are in fact ok.

Having said that, I don’t really keep any form of backups of anything (Not enough time), so it pays to be safe (He says this then his hard disk fails totally...). Also, the internet is accessed from a separate PC than the one I use for Office, and the two machines are never connected to the network at the same time. USB is used to transfer files between then, of which the USB is always virus-scanned prior to transferring files.

Btw, ReOrg is listed as Shareware. Can anyone confirm if any sort of keyfile/keycode is required to activate it (I cant see any such item in the aminet readme)?

Regards,
Hodgkinson.

[pVC]

With small amount of data, it's easy to copy files from partition to other place, format the partition and copy files back... poor man's defragment

[Egg-Chen]

I have been interested by a "reliable" defragmenter too for some years, but now I use a CF as a HD and I'm wondering if it is necessary to defragment a CF since access time is not head and disk dependant.

Any ideas ?

[Hodgkinson]

Hmmm. I should imagine defragmenting the CF card will improve performance in the same way as defragmenting a HDD. Its still reducing the amount of processing that has to be carried out to load a program (Caused by all the links from fragment to fragment). It also means that the CF card will recieve less of a hammering each time you access it, so regularly defragmenting it should help extend its life in the same way as a HDD.

Hodgkinson.