What’s the best way to protect a computer when someone visits “questionable” sites?

[LawyerRon]

I built a computer for a friend about a year ago and he’s constantly having problems with viri, Trojans, spyware, malware, etc. We both acknowledge the problem is his son (junior in college) who has a habit of visting those “questionable” sites, etc. He doesn’t want to kick the kid off the computer so he asked me, “what’s the best way to protect the computer under the circumstances”? He’s running Norton AV but I don’t think he had it set up correctly (to update, etc) as he’s had a couple of viruses recently. He also scans with Adaware and Spybot S&D.

What’s the best way to protect his machine?

[morriswindgate]

If the computer is running XP, set up a limited user account for him.
Install SygatePE Firewall as it has a very good log set. Then when trouble arises after he uses the computer, go into the log and block all the sites he visited that are not know. Also print out the log and give it to him.
Donload and run StartPage Guard to prevent browser hijacking. And make sure AutoComplete is turned OFF.

[LawyerRon]

Thanks Morris; he's running W2K btw.

[homer15]

if he has a broadband connection, he can program a physical firewall to block access to all those "questionable" sites and stop the problem at it's source... then he could tell the kid to get a girlfriend.

[LawyerRon]

Here's more info:
The kid's partition has a hidden folder on it, something to the effect of: RECYCLER/S-1-5-21-

Adware locks up when it reaches a certain file in this folder

The kid also uses a web cam and I think this "Recycler" folder is related to this activity.

[glc]

That's just the recycle bin.

[LawyerRon]

Great, how do you empty it?

[glc]

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:3-nJeloAex4J:www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20839435.html+windows+2000+delete+recreate+recycle+bin&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

LONG read.

[LawyerRon]

Thanks G, I'll check it out.

[LawyerRon]

G, I can't seem to get that link to work.

[homer15]

try copying and pasting it right into your browser. the : in the middle stops it from working properly for some reason... also, you need to sign up to see the solution.

[glc]

Link edited, should work now - the parsing tossed an extra url pair into the middle.

That's the Google cached version, it shows the solution.

[LawyerRon]

OK, thanks, I see it now.