This may be one of the most off-topic posts yet, but it is the general section I really need to make some new categories.
If anyone needs an antivirus program, Panda Software is offering a free one year subscription to Panda Antivirus. Get it here: http://www.pandasecurity.com/zd/
Panda has become quite a popular scanner lately. In many tests it beats Norton, McAfee and others in terms of cpu/memory usage and virus detection. It does have kindof a strange name, but its definitly worth checking out.
I had been running Norton Antivirus 2004 but I decided to give this a try. It seems to run pretty good.
I work as a computer technician actually, so viruses and spyware/adware are something I deal with on a daily basis. It is very important to have a virus scanner!
Aleister, have you had as much fun with WinXP SP2 as I have? Actually, you might have had more, as the only computer I've had to fix because of it is my own... (I was up until 12:30 in the morning after my computer decided to install the sevice pack all by itself... Don't ever let anyone tell you gremlins can't affect computers.)
Do you know which, if any, of the antivirus programs correctly report their status to Windows Security in WinXP SP2? Norton AV2002 apparently doesn't...
I know that Norton AV 2003 does not. I do not know about 2004. They may of updated something by now though.
The status of Panda antivirus is actually detected by SP2. I do not recall any others off-hand.
Of course you can always change the option in SP2 to not warn you about the antivirus, by telling it you have your own you will monitor. I also turned off the SP2 firewall, as I despise any software firewalls, and I like my linksys router much more anyway
Maybe I should setup a computers category. I certainly would use it
I don't have a router, and my cable modem doesn't have a built-in firewall, so I have been using the one in SP2. Funny that, I never even considered using the firewall before, mostly because I was never bothered to go in and turn it on. I did have to configure the firewall to pass certain ports, but that's not difficult.
I really need to get a new car, so I can get out of this rat-hole aerosol factory and back into software QA where I belong... (My current employer won't let me even touch any computers, but I do repair the ink-jet printers on the production lines...)
A computer category might be good, then these OT posts won't be OT anymore
If you only have a single computer connected to your cable modem, one thing that will really help things is to go into the properties of your lan connection, and uncheck everything except tcpip.
If you uncheck client for microsoft networks, and file and printer sharing, it will be much more secure.
If a computer (on high speed internet especially) does not have any sort of firewall, anyone on the internet (with some simple dos commands) can map a network drive to your shares (even if they are just the built-in drive shares xp has). I have tried this myself
Yep, yer right... We used to do this at COMPAQ when we had to go between departments, as each department had it's own network. We would get the address of the computer we wanted to access the shares of... easy as pie...
In addition to removing cfmn and faps, if you do use SP2's firewall, disable the default ports for those services if you wish to secure the now open but unused ports...
I think the main reason I usually recommend hardware firewalls to people is that I myself tend to not like things running on the machine (taking valuable cpu cycles) if a piece of hardware can do the same job.
Not to mention I have seen lots of computers with Zone Alarm, McAfee Firewall, Norton Internet Security, etc.. get themselves corrupt, and the user cannot access the internet.
Of course some tcpip repair tools usually do a good job of fixing the problem, but most people do not know about them, much less, what tcpip is
I agree with you there. If my modem had a firewall, I'd use it instead of Windows firewall.
TCPIP: That Colorful Picture In Paris? Oh! You mean all that crazy networking stuff that I spend $30 talking to my mother on the phone trying to get her to do it right... Well, 10 years ago it would have been at least $60, so she's improving
BTW: On my 768k cable connection, it has already taken over a minute and a half for the popup window with all the emoticons to load and it's only half done! That's a lot of emoticons... :occasion5:
SP 2 annihilated my machine. I recommend it as much as a polar bear recommends gnawing on a loaded inuit hunter's rifle....it is the plague i tell you!
I really need to make some new categories.
(I was up until 12:30 in the morning after my computer decided to install the sevice pack all by itself... Don't ever let anyone tell you gremlins can't affect computers.)
