Hi

Have two PC's one on XP with SP2 the other on W98SE.

Just installed a router and understand this will do for the firewall without
need for the Norton one.

The PC with XP has no Norton Firewall installed but the PC with Win98SE has
a Norton Firewall.

Do I uninstall the Norton firewall stuff now?

Ken

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:20:25 -0000, "Ken" <Reply to NG only> wrote:

Keep it. Security is like an onion, it should be done in layers. Each
layer represents an additional barrier.

You should also ensure you're logging in on the XP box with a
restricted login, not an admin one, that you have formatted the system
partition with NTFS and that you're using file permissioning/security
to prevent easy access to things like c:\windows and c:\program files.

Ideally you should also upgrade the 98SE box to XP Home at the least,
as 98SE is largely unsupported and fixes for security holes are
becoming rare.

Agreed

I thought XPlame (sorry, home) only effectively had admin privileges no
matter how you logged on - and that you need Pro to get proper lockdowns
on access.

Then again, security through obscurity is an equally valid option...

I`m on 98SE too, and will not be "upgrading" to eXcrementPile any time
soon. I`ll move over to linux first if I can possibly do so.

I`ve also noticed most viruses bypass win9x completely now, and aim
straight for XP.

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 11:43:25 -0000, Colin Wilson <void@btinternet.com>
wrote:

This is incorrect. XP Home has restricted accts, just like XPPro. With
both, you need to ensure you're using NTFS not FAT32 to get full
benefit. The difference is that XP Home doesn't properly let you
manage permissions on users documents areas.
[ I have 2 XPPro boxes and one XPHome laptop, I've played with
this...]

ROFL !!

Believe me, XP is a big improvement over 98SE. I resisted for several
years, eventially committed and have not regretted it a bit. Its
WAAAAY more stable, runs all my kids games as well or better, and
networks much better.

This isn't true. More accurately, they target known vectors.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:20:25 -0000, "Ken" <Reply to NG only> wrote:

I would. Unnecessary IMHO. I have a Netgear DG 834, and rely on the
internal firewall and NAT (network address translation to protect me).

No doubt somebody will argue that another firewall will give you and
extra layer of protection. What they won't tell you is that you will
go from 99.8% secure to 99.9%. Hardly worth the trouble.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:20:25 -0000, "Ken" <Reply to NG only> wrote:

Yes and no.

Personally, I won't let Norton anywhere near anything I control. They
used to have a very bad reputation for flakiness, and although I
believe they are better now, I'm not changing to them.

Personally, I sue Zonealarm (www.zonelabs.com), but that is still not
perfect.

But you still should have a personal firewall on all your PCs as well
as the router. The router will stop almost all *incoming* problems,
but knows nothing about the programs on your PC that should be
accessing the internet.

So if you get a trojan (and a firewall will do nothing to prevent
that), then it can "call home", and the firewall in the router will
blissfully let it. A software firewall on your PC has a *chance* of
stopping it.

You also very much still need up to date virus protection. (for a good
one, free for home use, I would recommend AVAST from www.avast.com )

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Life is uncertain...eat dessert first!

To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 21:45:07 +0000, Dr Teeth
<no_email_here_please@tardis.com> wrote:

Wrong.

For starters most s/w firewalls block OUTBOUND connections you may not
want, which a router can't do (usefully). This could be anything from
spyware to 'web habits monitoring' s/w to Outlook trying to pull
webbugs and images. If you get a spyware or viral infaction, a cheap
hardware firewall does squat to protect you.

And if you run a webserver (or any other server) on your PC, then the
hardware firewall is doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to protect you as you
told it to let port 80 alone.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 22:00:37 +0000, Alex Heney <me8@privacy.net>
wrote:

Any decent anti-virus program will do that. I use AVG v7 free edition.

Agree with you totally about Norton. Rip off merchants for one; nowt
seems to change between one year's edition and the next. Eee, when I
were a lad you used to get those (small) changes as free patches.

I've had some Norton software here, but got it off sharpish AND it was
cracked (cough, cough).
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

Mark McIntyre wrote:
Actually, the Netgear DG834G has a full firewall built in. I have mine set
to block all outgoing and incoming traffic, other than the known ports I
need to surf the net, retrieve email, etc. If I wanted to, I could lock it
down so that outgoing requests are restricted to certain IP address, e.g.
POP3 requests only go to the IP addresses of my POP3 servers.

--
Regards,
Stephen
Remove theobvious to reply ;o)

Alex Heney wrote:
Hmm, I've used Norton for years and while I agree they were somewhat
flaky, the latest versions (I'm using Personal Firewall and Antivirus
2004) are fine and have alerted me to many potential threats. They do tend
to pop up boxes asking for permission to do things a lot, but personally I
like that as it shows me the software is working.

I used that on a laptop once but never really got on with the user
interface. YMMV though.

Exactly.


Ivor

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 23:30:28 -0000, "Stephen Webber"
<stephen@theobvious.glengoyne.force9.co.uk> wrote:

Yes, but you can't tell it that only Internet Explorer can access Port
80, for instance.

No personal level firewall external to your PC can tell what programs
you are using for outgoing traffic.

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
A rolling stone gathers momentum.

To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 23:05:15 +0000, Dr Teeth
<no_email_here_please@tardis.com> wrote:

It should do.

But it isn't only trojans anyhow. Most AV programs will not stop
spyware, for instance



--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Computer Lie #1: You'll never use all that disk space.

To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 23:05:15 +0000, Dr Teeth
<no_email_here_please@tardis.com> wrote:

NO !!!!!
AV Programmes stop viruses from getting /in/. If you're infected, your
AV software clearly didn't work, and your firewall is all that stands
between you and zombieism. Plus AV scanners don't block spyware,
webbots, and a host of other nasties including apparently legit s/w
you installed that contains dialers, mini-mailservers and so on

Yes, its nice. But its not an anti-spyware tool/

In MsgID<m6s4q05fg7l0hl2kbtd3aadd2nfo7vc2ed@4ax.com> within
uk.telecom.broadband, 'Mark McIntyre' wrote:

I know it's off topic, but does anyone else here use "Avast!" ?
So far, I really like it, a friendly user interface and fairly
snappish updates for new threats.


--
Dave Johnson - requiem@freeuk.com

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:24:40 +0000, Dave J <requiem@freeuk.com> wrote:

Yes.

I think it is the best free (for home use) anti virus program around.

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
No sense being pessimistic. It wouldn't work anyway.

To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 10:11:32 +0000, Alex Heney <me8@privacy.net>
wrote:

Could you tell us why? Is there a link where the free anti-virus
products are independently tested.

TIA.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 22:57:15 +0000, Dr Teeth
<no_email_here_please@tardis.com> wrote:

I mostly based that on personal experience of having tried a few.

there aren't all that many comparative reviews of free products, but
one is here <http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,113462,00.asp>

It is also referred to (in a comparative review of paid for AV
programs) here
<http://www.consumersearch.com/www/computers/antivirus_software/fastanswers.html>

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Resistance Is Useless! (If < 1 ohm)

To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 00:59:00 +0000, Alex Heney <me8@privacy.net>
wrote:

There's one on the Xmas issue of PC Plus, Avast bombed. They advised
that if one wants to try a free AV solution, to try AVG (and they were
testing v6, not the latest).
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

Dr. Teeth:
Please give me the link to the PC Plus Xmas article discussing Avast. I
can't find it and would like to read it.
Thanks,
Nikki