Originally posted by zybch I've never had a problem with IE. I use 3 firewalls (NAT + windows + 3rd party), update my virus scanner automatically every 6 hours, install all the neccessary security updates and run adaware/spybot on a regular basis.
Simply changing to Opera or one of the other browsers wouldn't have stopped Sasser or Blaster, would it? They don't stop stupid people clicking 'ok' when a popup add appears, or downloading the MyWebSearch bar.
Everyone is quick to blame IE when its stupid users that are almost exclusively the biggest problem.
WhY on earth are you using 3 firewalls when one is sufficient. multiple firewalls monitoring the same ports will only conflict with each other. I did it myself years ago and could not achieve full stealth status untill I removed one of them.
The windows firewall is not even worth mentioning. Any firewall that allows the OS to phone home without even informing you is not a security product as far as I am concerned.
Don't feel to safe with your automatic updates. I have just finished disinfecting a machine that had 8 indipendant virus and 1 Romote access trojan on it. The system was running Norton System Works, C/W Anti virus. Auto update was running happily and it was up to date with its virus identities. Trouble is one of the viruses slipped in between updates and shafted the virus scanner. It was up to date but and gave every appearence of working but it was non functional.
As for IE, well its as well programmed and beta tested as any Micro$haft product. so we should be thankful that it works at all.
As I have said, my modem/router has basic firewall functionality built in. The windows one doesn't do much but its allready installed so why not use it. The number of intrusions that Sygate Firewall picks up are quite small, indicating that the other ones block the majority of port probes etc (compared to the number I was getting before I started using the broadband modem with its firewall.
Norton Anti-Virus would have to be the worst AV product out there. Its updates are released in batches rather than as and when the viruses get detected which is why some virii can slip through. Its also a prime example of bloatware, taking up to 160Mb of hard drive space and buckets of RAM. The one I use is tiny at around 10-12Mb, but consistently picks up more viruses than NAV, scans emails and all the other stuff that NAV does, and there are often multiple updates available per day so the window of opportunity for new viruses is tiny compared to NAV which can sometimes leave a window of a week between updates.
The sad fact is that most idiots confuse the ammount of advertising with the quality of the product. Norton spend heaps on advertising and have deals with lots of ISPs so that they get reccomended.
Sorry, should have said.
Vet anti-virus.
Download size around 4Mb, updates often 2-3 times a day and the updates themselves are quite small (<250Kb).
I deal with dozens of PCs every week and almost without fail, those that use Norton AV, even if up to date, have viruses that NAV just hasn't picked up.
Vet does pick them up though and gets rid of them. Why on earth would you want to quarantine an infected file like NAV likes to, instead of just cleaning the file? It just doesn't make any sense.
Why would you want to use a program that takes 15-20+Mb of ram to run and up to 160Mb of your hard drive but doesn't pick up the viruses that a 4Mb of RAM and 8Mb of hard drive space scanner does?
I found that using multiple firewalls was fraught with difficulty but if it’s working for you then more power to you.
Personally I have not found a Norton Product worthy of use but I often find myself picking up the pieces when Norton fails.
Nortons Uninstall utility is pathetic. I have uninstalled multiple Norton products over the years and have always found that the program is still there in a semi removed state with lots of registry entries still being processed.
I use Sophos anti virus software on my machines. Its fast, friendly, reliable and unobtrusive.
But you try buying it off the shelves. Average Joe goes and buys a Norton cos its cheap and they don’t know any better.
Originally posted by Kandar I found that using multiple firewalls was fraught with difficulty but if it’s working for you then more power to you.
Personally I have not found a Norton Product worthy of use but I often find myself picking up the pieces when Norton fails.
Nortons Uninstall utility is pathetic. I have uninstalled multiple Norton products over the years and have always found that the program is still there in a semi removed state with lots of registry entries still being processed.
I use Sophos anti virus software on my machines. Its fast, friendly, reliable and unobtrusive.
But you try buying it off the shelves. Average Joe goes and buys a Norton cos its cheap and they don’t know any better.
Its hard to get people to change their belief that the company that pays the most for advertising is not the best. Every ISP I've dealt with reccomends norton products, I would assume that norton spends big bucks promoting itself at an ISP level and give lots of free versions of its rubbish to staff at ISPs.
While I was working in a department store, canon would give anyone who sold a canon printer a $5 'tip' for each canon sold. This was in the bad old days when canon stuff was truely bad. I personally sold what was best for the customer, but most of the other sales people sold lots of canon crud
Nowdays, I only sell canon though because they really are better.
Originally posted by zybch Ignorance runs rampant among computer users. They get it in their stupid think heads that computers are really really complex so 'I won't bother trying to learn anything because I'll just get confused'.
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My main firewall is Sygate professional, everyone no matter what their browser is should have a professional level firewall.
ignorance is fine by me as long as they keep forking over the cash for house calls.
i dont run a firewall on my home pc, i dont consider NAT a true firewall. Configuring them is a ***** and the last time i installed sygate on my machine i got random bsod, which stopped after removing it. You keep typing about sasser & blaster, well guess what? i keep my pcs patchs up to date so i didn't have to fret over either of them.
Last edited by csamuels; 07-06-2004 at 02:40 PM.
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I use norton corporate. it's alot different than nav retail. For one, it has much better dat and virii updates and the files themselves are better coded. NAV used to be nice, but not anymore,and nav corp. is also alot smaller (footprint and CPU cycles). NAT for me is easy to configure, but then that is part of my business also. Manual port blocking and dcon/telnet/netbios/ms messenger(not im) are the most importance things to secure for regular windows users from my experience and they should be disabled within win/services. Trend Mirco is also a good comsumer A/V, as well as NOD32.
Originally posted by csamuels ignorance is fine by me as long as they keep forking over the cash for house calls.
i dont run a firewall on my home pc, i dont consider NAT a true firewall. Configuring them is a ***** and the last time i installed sygate on my machine i got random bsod, which stopped after removing it. You keep typing about sasser & blaster, well guess what? i keep my pcs patchs up to date so i didn't have to fret over either of them.
I had no difficulties with NAT. I know its not a 'real' firewall but it certainly helps limit the number of nasties that sygate catches.
I also have never had a prob with sygate, something I can't say for Norton Internet Security.
Generally if you get a BSOD while installing somehting, there is something else allready causing problems in your system. U put the free version of sygate on all the PCs I sell (2-3 per week) and so far, no problems
On my builds I would load Whatever came with the Mobo, or AVG (if none) or whatever retail AV they ordered if they wanted me to install unless they wanted to self install it (options). In the past I 'recommended' Norton at 2000/2001/2001 along with Panda/Trend Mirco. I dont recommend Norton anymore (unless corporate ed), and for more advanced users NOD 32, KAV (Kaperski). Software Firewalls Z/A is good, Kerio is ok, E-Trust security suite is not bad (has a dummed down version of Z/A with a different interface). You can get a year free here
Originally posted by csamuels ignorance is fine by me as long as they keep forking over the cash for house calls.
i dont run a firewall on my home pc, i dont consider NAT a true firewall. Configuring them is a ***** and the last time i installed sygate on my machine i got random bsod, which stopped after removing it. You keep typing about sasser & blaster, well guess what? i keep my pcs patchs up to date so i didn't have to fret over either of them.
Do you actually know what a firewall is, cos you don’t sound like you do.
Having a firewall is absolutely essential to monitor all incoming and outgoing traffic connecting to any of the 65536 service ports on your PC that are otherwise wide open to the world.
I don’t care how up to date your patches and service packs are, your programs phone home, connect to the web and send information about you back to whoever they like without your knowledge or permission.
Your firewall stops programs getting out as well as things getting in.
Get Zone Alarm or Zone alarm Pro if you want an easily configured software firewall.
It’s almost idiot proof.
Outpost is also nice and easy to setup but is more configurable for the experienced user. (especially if your hosting something)
IMO Norton & McAfee are both lame Anti Virus Progs but they are better than nothing.
ZA is so easy that its idiot proof, which generally means that only idiots use it
The free ZA is really irritating with its popup adds each time your boot windows. Sygate has none of these and looks like a professional product, not like something made by Fisher Price
Originally posted by zybch ZA is so easy that its idiot proof, which generally means that only idiots use it
The free ZA is really irritating with its popup adds each time your boot windows. Sygate has none of these and looks like a professional product, not like something made by Fisher Price
First of all, idiots don't use firewalls, thats why they are idiots.
Zone Alarm/ Zone Alarm Pro is a nice, easily configurable firewall. It is great for average people who don’t have to know all about the ins and outs of the TCP/IP protocol in order to configure it.
Secondly, Zone alarm has never had any popup adverts; I assume you are referring to an older version of the free Zone Alarm which displayed a splash screen for an inordinately long time. Everyone else must have found that annoying as well as you and I because a couple of version updates and it had gone. It’s not been there for at least 2 years.
As for looking like something Fisher Price made, I’ll grant you that the orange colour of the free Zone Alarm is a little garish but if you don’t like it buy ZA Pro and change the colour. Personally I would rather have a firewall that IS the business rather than LOOKS the business. It could be pink with yellow dots for all I care so long as it does the job.
I have no idea of its past, only that its smaller, protects the same, is faster and has a smaller footprint than ZA.
I'm glad to see that ZA now doesn't popup a 'buy me now' message, thats the reason I switched some time back and I know many people who did the same.
The makers of ZA should at least give users a choice of using kiddie or professional skins without making you pay for the privilage, after all, there are very few differences between the free and pay version.
I maintain a lot of professional business PCs and the last thing these companies want is for a candy cane program encouraging staff to change settings and install crud onto business only PCs.
Originally posted by zybch there are very few differences between the free and pay version.
I maintain a lot of professional business PCs and the last thing these companies want is for a candy cane program encouraging staff to change settings and install crud onto business only PCs.
Sorry but your are totally wrong on that one.
There is a whole world of difference between Zone Alarm and Zone Alarm Pro. There is nothing "Candy Cane" about it
For a start, ZA Pro is password protected and cannot be shutdown, or have its settings altered in any way shape or form.
So your staff would not be changing anything.
Zone Alarm is a nice simple firewall and nothing more.
ZA Pro is a Pro grade fully configurable, fully logging firewall, complete with cookie controller, popup blocker, cache cleaner, inbound/outbound email protection & site specific privacy settings to stop inquisitive staff from going where they souldn't be going.
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