My recent obsession with security

By sanctified
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

simplezz

Posted
Posted
Installed Lubuntu in a spare USB thumbdrive as a banking only OS. I installed Lathe on it (Linux equivalent to Deep Freeze) to add an extra layer of security (Linux has malware and rootkits too).

I keep hearing this, but I have yet to see any evidence to suggest any successful malware on GNU/Linux. I'm not denying rogue programs can run on Linux, but it's primarly how users get their software that presents the biggest threat. Because Linux distros employ built-in package managers and peer reviewed software repositories, the risk is very low. Of course if someone starts running random scripts and binaries from unverified sources and giving them root access without caution, then they're silly. That being said, GNU/Linux is the safest platform to use without question.

If you're paranoid about security, you can even opt for the more secure SEL.

Another question would be, what wifi/router security are you using?

Grand Master

simplezz

Posted
Posted

1. How did you become infected, that's the main thing you need to sort out to be safer.

That's simple. He used Windows. I'm not saying everyone will get infected with rootkits, but I've seen a lot of systems infected where users didn't have a clue about it. Rootkits, keyloggers etc are designed to be hidden. And what a pain they are to remove as well. Sometimes, the only option is a complete reformat.

I've said this before, but never ever do banking or financial transactions on Windows. Why risk it? A lot of people will say "I've never had a virus or rootkit", but many wouldn't even know they had a rootkit. Software like Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't work against rootkits. I've seen TSSD infected systems with MSSE running, and scans don't reveal a thing. So when you hear people bragging that their systems are clean and safe, take that with a grain of salt. No Windows system is safe.

Grand Master

sanctified Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted

Another question would be, what wifi/router security are you using?

Not many since my internet provider (Im located in mexico btw) has a very closed router. They dont give you any username and password to access your router anymore. The best thing I can do is using WPA and not connecting to open networks while outside.

Grand Master

+Eternal Tempest MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Good luck with SpinRite 6, it looks like a fantastic product, however it does NOT like my SATA controllers.

Your missing TrueCrypt and encrypted the entire hard drive.

If your not vested in windows programs, would you consider Linux, not saying it's immune by any means, but since it's not as dominant, it's not targeted as much.

Large supported distro's usually are very quick to kill bugs, faster then MS does with windows.

Grand Master

articuno1au

Posted
Posted (edited)

you can be obssessed all you want - but instead of planning on getting infected & loading up on removal tools - wouldnt it be smarter to work towards not getting infected in the 1st place ?

First thing I'd do is get rid of that god awful crap AV MS Essentials, period. Only thing its good for is for people who dont know any better, only listen to someone else's opinion (who also doesnt know any better) & pass said opinion off as their own, or people who are too tight with money to get a proper A/V pkg.

So - get rid of it, and once you know you're clean - get webroot's secure anywhere & sit back and relax

Or dont listen to me and listen to all the nitwits who are certainly going to talk about how good MSE is - "ive used it for 2 years and never got a virus" says more about their browsing habits & not their lame ass A/V software with crap detection rates.

I'm getting geared up because I know all of the flaming this will cause - putting my boxing gloves on :crazy:

/headdesk

You realise some of us who are recommending MSSE (MSE) are doing so because we think it works yeah? Not all of us are blathering idiots or "pro" users taking advice from people.

Microsoft based it off of Windows One Care and made it free to use because they couldn't penetrate the market and were sick getting painted with a "WINDOWS IS VIRUS HERRRR" brush.

Onecare was a perfectly apt and able piece of software. MSSE is as well; made all the more so by the recent code base merge with forefront.. The latest connect beta is absolutely outstanding.. That's the one that's integrated with 8 >.>

If you are going to run around and say MSSE sucks, but all means do so, but don't suggest that anyone who is a proponent of the platform is a retard or a sheep.

I moved from Norton Security Essentials (still have a valid license) back to MSSE because I found it better -_-

@ The OP - "I knew instantly it was something installed in my computer since that specific credit card it's for internet use only and I pay using only trusted sites."

That's a pretty enormous leap of logic. Sure it could be on your machine, but it could just as well be that one of the "trusted" sites got penetrated. If you want an idea of how easy that is, take a look at the recent string of leaks.

Whilst being proactive about security is good, some of the suggestions and things you have gone with in this thread are way over the top. Full drive encryption won't help you as root kits are integrated into Windows which runs on top of the encrypted layer.

Regarding Simplezz assertions, if you want to believe that, go nuts. All you can do to provide a retort to anecdotal assertions like his is say "Well I never.." at which point he falls back on "Well just because you didn't..". Thus I shall not bother.

The simple and frank answer here is nothing is completely secure. The issue is in finding a balance in security versus usability.

If you want to be a nutter, get a live CD for whenever you want to shop online. It means you are essentially browsing on a brand new install each time you go shopping. This will pretty much guarantee the issue isn't at your end, but it's an enormous pain in the ass. It's significantly less of a pain in the ass than the path you are heading down now.

You are (no offence intended) completely uninteresting and unimportant in the grand scheme of viruses and key-loggers. People simply do not care what is on your machine.

Run an up to date operating system, with a decent anti-virus and an up to date browser (preferably with as few plugins as possible). Don't visit stupid sites and do stupid things. Set up your router properly and keep an eye on your credit card bills. I've been shopping, browsing and running a business online for almost a decade and I've never picked up viruses on anything (sure it's anecdotal, but what isn't in this argument).

/shrug

Your call in the end.

Edited by articuno1au
Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

That's simple. He used Windows. I'm not saying everyone will get infected with rootkits, but I've seen a lot of systems infected where users didn't have a clue about it. Rootkits, keyloggers etc are designed to be hidden. And what a pain they are to remove as well. Sometimes, the only option is a complete reformat.

I've said this before, but never ever do banking or financial transactions on Windows. Why risk it? A lot of people will say "I've never had a virus or rootkit", but many wouldn't even know they had a rootkit. Software like Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't work against rootkits. I've seen TSSD infected systems with MSSE running, and scans don't reveal a thing. So when you hear people bragging that their systems are clean and safe, take that with a grain of salt. No Windows system is safe.

Two letters for you...

b.s.

Grand Master

jnelsoninjax

Posted
Posted

Despite what everyone says, I use windows, I run Kaspersky Pure, along with Firefox add-ons, such as noscript and https everywhere, and I do internet banking online (have for years) and have yet to see any odd charge in the bank, and have really never been infected with a virus, I have had virus's try to infected my system, but kaspersky almost always nukes them before they have a chance to spread. So really it is a personal preference as to what program you wish to use, but it also boils down to using some common sense, I get hundreds of spam messages each day, some posing as banks, some as cellular services (that I do not have) but instead of blindly clicking on the link, I hover the mouse over the link to see where it is taking me, I also have an add-on in Thunderbird called mail hops, that shows where the message originated, funny how messages from at&t seem to come from Africa or other countries. So again a decent A/V program is a requirement if you do anything online! I also use OpenDns and have a add-on that prevent redirects, so even if I mis-type an address, I will not be redirected to any other sites.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

That's simple. He used Windows. I'm not saying everyone will get infected with rootkits, but I've seen a lot of systems infected where users didn't have a clue about it. Rootkits, keyloggers etc are designed to be hidden. And what a pain they are to remove as well. Sometimes, the only option is a complete reformat.

I've said this before, but never ever do banking or financial transactions on Windows. Why risk it? A lot of people will say "I've never had a virus or rootkit", but many wouldn't even know they had a rootkit. Software like Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't work against rootkits. I've seen TSSD infected systems with MSSE running, and scans don't reveal a thing. So when you hear people bragging that their systems are clean and safe, take that with a grain of salt. No Windows system is safe.

That's the biggest load of crap if ever I've heard it.

Windows has nothing to do with getting infected, yes it is mainly targeted, but no you don't automatically become infected just because you are running windows.

The last time I remember getting infected was many years ago when I was running XP and decided to take a shortcut and grab a keygen from a malware site.

Since growing up and using my brain / NOD32 / not visiting dodgy sites, I have not been infected, the worst I have had is FF warn me that the site I am trying to access is listed as a dangerous site when sites such as twit.tv were hijacked

You can happily run windows and never get infected as long as you take the correct precautions and run a decent AV / use a decent / modern browser

I still have my moments of clicking links and thinking maybe I shouldn't have clicked that, and no, I still haven't been infected.

Infact lastnight I was playing with my rar file of 1642 viruses to see how many NOD32 detected out of them and guess what, I still didn't get infected.

I do online banking, I buy online, and I have never had my details stolen.

Saying someone got infected because they were running windows is like saying "The reason the guy drowned in the sea last-night is because he only ever drank water"

Neowinian

fmps

Posted
Posted

I work in IT support on a company with hundred of users.

We often say that security problems are between the computer and the chair. Users.

There is no 100% secure antivirus. There is no 100% reliable browser. The security lies in the usage habits. 99% of users will not analyze the source code of open source! They will not build their applications. They use the computer as work tool and leisure.

In my experience almost all the infections come from pen drives and email (attachs or links to sites).

We can not rely 100% on the habits of users. Some measures.

Obviously an antivirus, there are several alternatives.

Firewall.

Disable autorun.

Disable administrator privileges.

Use a password manager, do not use the same password for multiple services.

We can continue with many measures, but the best option is... common sense :-)

Grand Master

JustGeorge

Posted
Posted

For ****s and giggles, I installed a trial version of Bitdender AV 2012. So far, seems pretty nice, but the interface is a bit fat and childish looking. Also, why the hell must a user create an account for everything these days? Hell, you can even sign-in with Twitter and Facebook :rolleyes: Trivial, but I hate they replaced the cool original icon with the stupid "B" icon. I look at it and think my PC is calling me a bitch....

post-34036-0-91882200-1340848224.jpg

Grand Master

Growled Member

Posted
  • Member
Posted

One thing to consider is Puppy Linux. It boots completely in RAM and you can choose whether you want to have a persistence file or not. Even if you got something you could choose not to save your file and the whatever would be gone when you rebooted. Great for swabbing rogue USB's.

Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

Hello,

It depends on how the malware creates the AUTORUN.INF file in the first place, I suppose. I would still recommend disabling AutoRun/AutoPlay, though.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

I've been told (Never said I believed mind you) that creating a folder called "autorun.inf" and placing it on your thumb drive will stop any attempt by an autorun virus to infect your flash drive. Supposedly, they can't overwrite the folder with a real autorun.inf. My personal belief is that its B.S.

Grand Master

JustGeorge

Posted
Posted

Hello,

It depends on how the malware creates the AUTORUN.INF file in the first place, I suppose. I would still recommend disabling AutoRun/AutoPlay, though.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Yeah I figured all the malware would have to do is scan for a file/folder named autorun.inf and delete it before coping its own.

Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

I got Kaspersky included for free with my motherboard. It easily matches or beats any other antivirus product on the market and is currently only using about 4.4MB of memory on my system. Using 2 antivirus programs at once is a REALLY bad idea, in fact it could cause more problems that it will solve.

Grand Master

JustGeorge

Posted
Posted

I got Kaspersky included for free with my motherboard. It easily matches or beats any other antivirus product on the market and is currently only using about 4.4MB of memory on my system. Using 2 antivirus programs at once is a REALLY bad idea, in fact it could cause more problems that it will solve.

I've got a trial of KAV 2012 loaded onto my laptop and both Windows 8 PCs have trial Bitdefender AV Plus 2013 installed. Too be honest, I'm kind of favoring Bitdefender more.

Bitdefender Pros

1. Nice, clean GUI.

2. Safe search (Similar to Web of Trust.

3. Safe Pay: BT's own little enclosed browser with optional virtual keyboard.

4. Auto Pilot Mode: Makes program non-intrusive.

5. USB Immunizer: Stops Autorun attacks.

6. Low RAM footprint.

7. Scores damn good in tests:

http://www.av-test.o...testreports_pi1[report_no]=121363

http://www.virusbtn....mparative/index

Bitdefender Cons

1. Crashed on me once browsing GUI options. I'm running Windows 8, so I'm chalking this up to pre-release bugs.

2. Somewhat slow to load its services after performing a cold boot.

3. Hate stupid "B" icon in the system tray. Kind looks bush league.

4. Why must I create an account???

Kaspersky is no slouch in the detection/repair dept either and is a fine product. I used to run KAV a few years ago, but grew tired of their slow development pace. They never had a fully compatible product ready for early adopters of new Internet explorer releases and for people testing beta OS's like Vista, even though other companies did. While everyone else was happily upgrading to IE7, Kaspersky was shouting "Not yet!" from the roof tops. At the time the excuse over on their forums was IE7's development was a "moving target" and they were not working on it till it was RTM. Whether or not that lazy B.S. came from official channels, I don't know. Another problem I had was Previous Versions in Vista Business didn't work correctly with KAV installed. You would see a blank window if you tried to browse/restore files. KAV consistently dicked with System Restore too causing many failed restore jobs. You should not have to disable protection in order to perform O.S. default functions! They know the feature is there and should've coded for it, period.

Whats funny about all of this is that I went to Staples today and walked out with a 3-user copy of KAV 2012 for $24.95. I had full intentions of purchasing Bitdefender but couldn't turn down the offer for KAV. Was not able to find any deals on BT and $50 is steep for AV. So far, I haven't experienced any problems with KAV 2012 yet on my laptop, so hopefully, they've cleaned up their act from the previous versions I've used. You won't go wrong with Kaspersky for protecting your PC against malware. Before this thread, I had not even thought about moving away from MSE, but after reading up on MSE's detection as of late, I simply don't trust it anymore. Microsoft could do better, but has chosen to go mediocre, "better than nothing" approach with MSE.

Neowinian

Christian86

Posted
Posted

I've got a trial of KAV 2012 loaded onto my laptop and both Windows 8 PCs have trial Bitdefender AV Plus 2013 installed. Too be honest, I'm kind of favoring Bitdefender more.

Bitdefender Pros

1. Nice, clean GUI.

2. Safe search (Similar to Web of Trust.

3. Safe Pay: BT's own little enclosed browser with optional virtual keyboard.

4. Auto Pilot Mode: Makes program non-intrusive.

5. USB Immunizer: Stops Autorun attacks.

6. Low RAM footprint.

7. Scores damn good in tests:

http://www.av-test.o...testreports_pi1[report_no]=121363

http://www.virusbtn....mparative/index

Bitdefender Cons

1. Crashed on me once browsing GUI options. I'm running Windows 8, so I'm chalking this up to pre-release bugs.

2. Somewhat slow to load its services after performing a cold boot.

3. Hate stupid "B" icon in the system tray. Kind looks bush league.

4. Why must I create an account???

Kaspersky is no slouch in the detection/repair dept either and is a fine product. I used to run KAV a few years ago, but grew tired of their slow development pace. They never had a fully compatible product ready for early adopters of new Internet explorer releases and for people testing beta OS's like Vista, even though other companies did. While everyone else was happily upgrading to IE7, Kaspersky was shouting "Not yet!" from the roof tops. At the time the excuse over on their forums was IE7's development was a "moving target" and they were not working on it till it was RTM. Whether or not that lazy B.S. came from official channels, I don't know. Another problem I had was Previous Versions in Vista Business didn't work correctly with KAV installed. You would see a blank window if you tried to browse/restore files. KAV consistently dicked with System Restore too causing many failed restore jobs. You should not have to disable protection in order to perform O.S. default functions! They know the feature is there and should've coded for it, period.

Whats funny about all of this is that I went to Staples today and walked out with a 3-user copy of KAV 2012 for $24.95. I had full intentions of purchasing Bitdefender but couldn't turn down the offer for KAV. Was not able to find any deals on BT and $50 is steep for AV. So far, I haven't experienced any problems with KAV 2012 yet on my laptop, so hopefully, they've cleaned up their act from the previous versions I've used. You won't go wrong with Kaspersky for protecting your PC against malware. Before this thread, I had not even thought about moving away from MSE, but after reading up on MSE's detection as of late, I simply don't trust it anymore. Microsoft could do better, but has chosen to go mediocre, "better than nothing" approach with MSE.

Thanks for the Bitdefender review. As a result, i took it for a spin. :) My first reaction: Awesome!

I've used Bitdefender in the past and had problems with the sluggishness of the system. But with 2012, you don't even feel it's installed on your system (if you have the AutoPilot turned on). I've tried the new Safepay module and i was really impressed. I've made some research and it seems that the safe browser is build by Bitdefender and it uses a secure, crypted VPN connection.

I'm giving serious toughts to buy the application after my 90 days extended trial (offer on their Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/bitdefender/app_118554158281905) will expire.

Grand Master

JustGeorge

Posted
Posted

Did you install 2012 or 2013? I ended up returning that copy of KAV2012 back to staples, bought Bitdefender AV PLus 2012 off Amazon for $14.99 so I can use the license on my BT 2013 installs.

Thanks for the Bitdefender review. As a result, i took it for a spin. :) My first reaction: Awesome!

I've used Bitdefender in the past and had problems with the sluggishness of the system. But with 2012, you don't even feel it's installed on your system (if you have the AutoPilot turned on). I've tried the new Safepay module and i was really impressed. I've made some research and it seems that the safe browser is build by Bitdefender and it uses a secure, crypted VPN connection.

I'm giving serious toughts to buy the application after my 90 days extended trial (offer on their Facebook page:http://www.facebook....118554158281905) will expire.

Grand Master

Arachno 1D

Posted
Posted 


http://ask.barclays.co.uk/help/online_banking/antivirus
[/CODE]

[b] Can I get free anti-virus software with Barclays?[/b]

If you're a Barclays Online Banking customer, you can get free Internet Security software from Kaspersky.

The Free Internet Security offer covers 3 separate Kaspersky products:

  • Kaspersky Internet Security for up to 3 windows PC
  • Kaspersky Mobile Security for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac

[b]To apply for Kaspersky Internet Security for Windows or Mobile Security[/b]

  1. Log in to Online Banking
  2. Select Products from the top blue navigation bar and then choose [b]Kaspersky offer[/b] within the [b]Solutions[/b] section
  3. Follow the on screen instructions.
  4. Once you've registered for the offer and validated your email address you'll receive a 12-month activation code to replace the 30-day trial version.

[b]To apply for the Anti-Virus for Mac[/b]

  1. Download a 30 day trial version (Link opens in a new window).
  2. Apply for your 12-month activation code by calling Barclays Online Helpdesk on [b]0845 600 2323#[/b] and quote offer code [b]KAV-MAC[/b].
  3. Once you receive your Activation Code, enter it into the trial software to then activate the 12-month licence.

Enthusiast

nfiniti9

Posted
Posted

After reading several reviews and a private pm I caved and bought the complete suite. Thanks a lot for that recommendation.

Sorry man. After doing about 500+ malware removal I can say webroot is one of the worst I've ever encountered. If the malware breaks it, and it will if you get infected again, you will have to format most likely. Webroot was a good program years ago before it got bloated. Also there is no need for any advanced firewall, as social engineering (tricking you into clicking yes) has become the only way people really try to infect you now. Advanced firewalls never really did much to protect over windows firewall anyway, its a urban legend in computers to sell more expensive package. Anyway good luck in you quest to be malware free.

Side note, I think the malware revolution has just begun. They are getting much smarter at infecting you and the anti-malware companies pretty much play catchup now. With the government developed ones getting reverse-engineered its going to get ugly.

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In the box F4-425 Pro TNAS device Power adapter LAN cable (CAT 6) Quick guide [full online guide] Limited warranty notice Screws (for HDD bays) Stickers 2x rubber feet (spares) Design As has become kind of common with TerraMaster, certainly in the last three years, the 2025 F2- and F4-series have received a makeover that really adds to the premium feel of the NAS. Gone are the plastic shells, now replaced with an aluminum outer shell, with the front and back retaining the textured black plastic we saw on the 2024 models. Some key differences from the 2024 series include placing the power button back on the front, along with the addition of a Type A USB port. It's not much bigger or heavier either; in fact, it weighs 500 grams less than the F4-424 Pro. It's slightly shorter in height and depth (length), but only by a few millimeters. The front and back do retain a similar style to the 2024 series. On the front, you just have your four bays along with LED indicators for the HDDs and power. The welcomed change is having a USB port on the front for quick access, should you need to back up a USB drive, for example. Around the back, from top to bottom, you have a reset pin hole, an HDMI port, two 5 GbE Ethernet ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type A ports with a Type-C port below them, and a connector for the barrel port power source. Again, there's no Kensington Security Slot present, which is a bit of a shame considering it's a data storage device. Left side Right side On the left and right of the F4-425 Plus, it is completely smooth aluminum with a TERRAMASTER logo printed on both sides. On the bottom, there are some holes to assist ventilation. Unlike with the F4-425 Plus, the rubber feet did come unstuck during the teardown, which was also an issue on the 2023 series. It seems like other customers have lodged complaints about them, as TerraMaster now includes two spare rubber feet in the box, in case any of the preinstalled ones are lost; however, this seems more like a papering over the cracks solution rather than actually fixing the issue with better quality rubber stand-offs. There are also four screws that must be removed in order to access the internals. Teardown Upon removing the four screws, you can slide the device out of its shell to reveal the three NVMe M.2 slots (PCIe 3.0 X1) and single SODIMM slot connector, which is populated with a single 16GB DDR5 4800MT/s module. I added a couple of MP44Q M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs (2 x 4TB) that can be availed on Amazon for $492.99 that TEAMGROUP supplied us with, along with a 250GB 970 Evo Plus that my colleague Chris White sent me by accident and let me keep a few years ago. As I have said in previous reviews, TerraMaster support staff actually encourage installing whatever you want on their devices, and happily, the USB port for the bootloader is now easily accessible should you want to use it for your own flavor of NAS OS, such as TrueNAS, Unraid, or maybe Xpenology. Yes, because TerraMaster has now switched to a 256 GB NAND Flash card (3rd photo above) for the TOS bootloader. This is also replaceable, but you can also simply add a USB bootloader, access the BIOS, and tell the F4-425 Pro to boot from that instead of the Flash card. Unlike earlier iterations of TerraMaster NAS, you don't have to tear this down any further than the four screws on the outer shell in order to be able to access and manage the memory, NVMe slots, and USB bootloader. However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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