Bufferzone Pro software

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Los Angeles, CA
I just installed this software and I am in the process of testing it. It creates a virtualized buffer where different programs can run totally separate from the system and personal files. I have been using a similar software called Sandboxie for a while now. It works great but it is not free. Whereas, Bufferzone is free.

You can download and try it from:

http://www.trustware.com/

You might also want to read the review here:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2321867,00.asp
 
Well, My work computer got hit with a pretty nasty trojan this week. I was on a pretty popular tech site doing some research for Google Analytics. Didn't click on anything, just had a bunch of "blocked action" messages from our virus scanner, then Firefox went away. It wiped my start menu, my desktop preferences, locked me out of using task manager, and proceeded to install a bunch of malware from various sites. Finally gave up on trying to get rid of it and had my machine re-imaged. I couldn't even use the Windows restore from an earlier backup as it infected those as well. Tech said he had dealt with about 20 other pc's this week with a similar trojan.

So how did the evaluation of Bufferzone go vs. Sandboxie? I'd be interested in your findings. :wave:
 
on another note darren,, can virus inhibit the ram as well as the hard drive? so if a person replaced hard drive they could still have the virus that caused the crash..
 
Typically you'd power the pc off to replace a hard drive, especially if the OS is running from that drive, so the virus would get wiped out of memory without power. I do think this is a rare occurrence of getting a virus, this variant is updated by the creators about every two weeks, so the virus scanners have to constantly play catch up to them. However the virus scanners do a very good job of doing so.
 
I had one incident where a website tried to download and install something. Symantec Endpoint gave me a warning and unsuccessfully tried to quarantine it. I quickly went into bufferzone's console and cleared the virtual zone. Ran a sweep but didn't find anything. So based on that one incident, it was effective. I am still using it. It does cause some issues opening shortcut browser links. It opens those links with a delay. Also noticed issues PDF launched from a web site. When I encounter these issues, I just open up those sites outside the bufferzone. Sandboxie used to give me an option to save downloaded files or added favourite items outside the sandbox. Bufferzone does not give me that option. I haven't found a way to enable that option yet. Though, I can still go to the virtual folder in explorer and manually move the files outside the bufferzone. Sandboxie didn't have these issues but bufferzone's price is unbeatable.

You should consider imaging your drive or partition. Macrium Reflect is an excellent free software for cloning/imaging.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
This is a good utility to fix task bar/task manager related issues:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/taskbar_repair_tool_plus_d4307.html
 
I appreciate the feedback. It sounds like bufferzone should work, will give it a try. Having to spend a day without the work pc feels like showing up to the job site without my hammer and tool belt. Thanks again :wave:
 
Mohammed,
Can you explain it to us comp idiots like me? Is is a firewall or ? what is the purpose if you already have protection why get a different kind?
 
Chuck, I already have a corporate antivirus installed on my PC and we have a corporate firewall on the network as well but they cannot effectively defend against a malware/spyware infection. In my opinon, Antivirus programs are not effective 95% of the time.

Bufferzone or sandboxie are programs that run other programs like Internet explorer in a virtual environment or a virtual session. If a website downloads a malicious code without your knowledge, it stays within that virtual session. You can delete the virtual session after you are done browsing and all the downloaded code and cookies etc will be wiped out. Your PC will go back into the state it was prior to the browsing session. It has a basic firewall as well but that is not its main purpose.

On the other hand, a program like Macrium Reflect can make an image of a whole partition or drive and dump that image on an external hard drive. If your drive gets infected, you can restore the image back on your hard drive. The best way to use it is to have a system partition with all your programs and a separate partition containing all your data. This way you can make an image of your system partition only when you install a new program or install updates. You will still have to backup your data though.

Hope I was able to explain this.
 
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