For reasons I'd rather not elaborate on, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to technology. The day after Christmas was the first time I had ever been online. I like to think I'm a fast learner, and with all the resources the internet provides I think I can catch up pretty quick.
I have a laptop now; a Compaq Presario Notebook. I'm eager to get started training myself on IT, but before I get started I want to know I am safe from having my naivety exploited. I have resolved not to install Tor, because from what I understand merely installing it is grounds for suspicion. However, I would like to know your opinions on the best free security applications.
I have it narrowed down to bitdefender, avira and avast. What is the best one for someone who wants both browsing anonymity and protection from malware (I think that's the term). I don't care if some hacker wants to look at my shit, I just don't want some pussy wrecking my computer for shits and giggles.
I know I'm out of my element here, but I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thank you in advance.
Apparently I need a picture to post. Please disregard it.
How did you know about 4chan if you've only been on the internet since Christmas?
install gentoo
>>52394035
install any other operating system other than windows, that takes care of most viruses and malware
why are you pretending to be an even bigger retard than you already are? this is one of the most cringeworthy things i've seen in a while
god i hate you
>>52394243
Shit. Like what? Someone gave me a computer they said was shit, but I installed Windows 10, did a disc cleanup, and did some odd %temp% bullshit and now the person seems irritated they gave it to me. It took me half an hour on YouTube to 'fix' it. It seems like one of the great ironies of our time; the smarter the technology gets, the dumber the people using it seems to correlate.
If you can recommend an operating system comparable without losing the speed and efficiency, by all means do
>>52394204
What is that?
>>52394135
Is that supposed to infer that 4chan is obscure? I heard about it through a friend, but it seems rather popular to me. I've noticed an influx of almost obsessive political correctness since my reintegration into society. This place seems more reflective of society than some of the other sites that were recommended to me.
>>52394035
yeah no
>first time online
>hey let's go to /g/ and shitpost
>>52394399
>I've noticed an influx of almost obsessive political correctness since my reintegration into society.
Been that way for a long time, it's only gotten worse.
What are the computer specs? Grab a screenshot of Windows using Speccy.
If you really want to block shit but don't know a thing about security, get peerblock and tinywall.
>>52394035
Fresh off the boat from reddit huh kid? heh I remember when I was just like you. Braindead. Lemme give you a tip so you can make it in this cyber sanctuary: never make requests like that. You got no reputation here, you got no name, you got jackshit here. It's survival of the fittest and you ain't gonna survive long on 4chan by saying stupid things that your little reddit friends would upboat. None of that here. You don't upboat. You don't downboat. This ain't reddit, kid. This is 4chan. We have REAL intellectual discussion, something I don't think you're all that familiar with. You don't like it, you can hit the bricks on over to imgur, you daily show watching son of a bitch. I hope you don't tho. I hope you stay here and learn our ways. Things are different here, unlike any other place that the light of internet pop culture reaches. You can be anything here. Me ? heh, I'm a judge.. this place.... this place has a lot to offer... heh you'll see, kid... that is if you can handle it.. ;)
>>52394255
This seems to be one of the major drawbacks of this website. What is wrong with the writing of people being completely bereft of proper punctuation and grammar?
>>52394399
Were you in prison?
>>52394441
You can say nigger and get away with it in here, you know. Feel free to cuss, cunt.
>>52394441
>>52394502
come at me
Just tell us what you did. Murder? Rape? I want the juicy details.
>this thread
spybot anti beacon
>>52394425
Thank you. I'm not on the computer now, or I'd do the screenshot. From the sticker on it, it's a windows 7 home premium amd v140 processor @ 2.30GHz 2GB RAM 250GB hard drive 64bit operating system webcam cd/dvd burner
What security measures would you recommend for keeping email communication private, masking browser history, and (maybe) burning dvds from potentially nefarious websites?
>>52394441
kill urself
>>52394633
KILL URSELF
>>52394633
Dude. Are you seriously new to the internet, or just messing around
If you want to be secure, you dont want to use a windows (7, 8, 10) operating system. But since I take it you are going to be going through hell using linux, you should try getting firefox and installing some addons like an adblocker, https everywhere, among others.
And one last thing, dvds are not a good place to store your average files. use a USB drive or a cloud storage service.
Youll learn how things work with experience
>>52394633
>What security measures would you recommend for keeping email communication private, masking browser history, and (maybe) burning dvds from potentially nefarious websites?
this is windows right?
use public torrents, kat.cr not piratebay for movies, pay attention to the comments to identify if shit is fake or malware or not, nyaa and bakabt for japanese shit
give up on email security, just don't click shady links, gmail or hotmail is entry tier and most commonly used, remember you can have more than one if not a dozen or more email addresses, at least that's how it used to be before they required phone number auths
masking browser history? get firefox, fuck chrome because google is a bigger botnet, set options to never remember history and cookies, make use of bookmarks to remember sites you want to revisit instead of being lazy about right-click bookmark
also, install ublock origin or adblock plus, but for adblock plus make sure to turn off preferential advertising or whatever that allows for some ads through
forget flash, flash is useless unless on a porn site
peerblock to block known adware and malware IPs, tinywall as a simpler UI of windows firewall except you're going to have to manually set what programs you want to connect to the internet
>>52394605
Just checked that out. The problem I have with that is the same one I incurred with bitdefender. You go to install it, and they tell you to get the upgrade you pay for with the unwritten caveat, 'The free one is garbage and will not protect you'.
>>52394445
>>52394592
Self-defense that maybe have bordered on overzealous coupled with a poor attorney.
I really wish I hadn't brought that up, but I felt it necessary to elucidate on why I don't have basic computer knowledge when it seems to be taught from an early age nowadays. Try to put that out of your mind and just tell me what security you would install out of bitdefender, avast or avila.
Any constructive input is thoroughly appreciated. Thank you.
>>52394825
>You go to install it, and they tell you to get the upgrade you pay for with the unwritten caveat, 'The free one is garbage and will not protect you'.
Download qbittorrent or deluge, go to kat.cr and type spybot anti beacon.
And this isn't taught at an early age. Most kids don't care about tech, only entertainment.
>>52394633
>What security measures would you recommend for keeping email communication private
Encrypting your emails. Whatever email service you use has access to them, so the only way to ensure that they can't read them is to encrypt it.
Unfortunately, this means that the person on the other end has to have the means to decrypt it. Unless they have their own public key (look up public key cryptography), which is rare, you'll have to give them a key to decrypt this. Sending it to them through the email kind of defeats the purpose, so your best bet is to do it through a third party such as over the phone, a messaging service, or in person.
They'll probably think you're crazy, because email encryption is uncommon enough that most people wouldn't really know about it, see the point, or let alone bother with it.
>>52394705
>>52394796
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Excellent information and it will take me a while to sift through it but I appreciate you taking the time to inform me.
Dumb question probably, but I'm guessing linux is a preferred operating system to Windows 10? Or is it not even an operating system but just something compatible with Windows?
Sorry for sounding like an idiot, but this is all just a little overwhelming and I'm determined to pull myself out of the dark ages.
Going to go check out some of this info now. Thanks again.
>>52394906
Its alright, we all start somewhere, and most of us were a billion times worse as kids getting into tech. Don't feel judged, nobody knows you on the internet. There is nothing for you to lose, even in places where there are usernames
>>52394906
You're in /g/, the stronghold of gnu/linux, where even Winblows users will use software from linux without even realizing it. There's a fucking sticky with a particular face on it. Also look for the friendly linux thread or stupid questions thread.
Don't use linux if you can't read an online manual. There's no linux OS for retards and saying one OS is a candidate for easy entry will spark a flame war.
Ubuntu is for retards.
>>52394906
Mind explaining why you were off the grid your whole life until now
>>52394906
Oh yeah, if you're looking at pictures, honeyview, jpegview, image eyes, irfanview are better than microsoft's built-in image viewer. For music it's foobar2000, musicbee, mpc+hc, winamp. For movies, mpc+hc, mpv, vlc.
>>52394035
Most security products are snakeoil and they can potentially do you more harm than good. Just don't click on things you're unsure about and preferably stay behind a NAT firewall. Linux is certainly worth considering if you want to go down the rabbit hole.
>>52395119
>Most security products are snakeoil
Especially security products that keep throwing up false positives.
>>52394035
>antivirus
Oh shit am I in 2003 again
you really are asking in the wrong place..
> suggests torrenting movies
Assuming that the guy is telling the truth, the guy just got off. do you really want him back in that badly?
>>52394973
probably a mormon or escaped a cult or something
>>52394705
>>52394939
>>52394948
what's this?
>/g/ has nostalgia circlejerks every 15 minutes
>"everyone new online is cancer and the reason why the internet sucks!"
>"I'm new here"
>it's okay we all had to start somewhere
the old people must not be up yet
>>52394436
I cringed.
>>52394906
how old are you
>>52394436
Getting ready for >52399999
