B
Fri Jul 14 05:14:14 CDT 2006
On Fri, 14 Jul 2006 02:07:02 -0700, zutyana
<zutyana@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>"B. Nice" wrote:
>> >I am considering buying one of the 2 products below
>>
>> Why?
>>
>
>I keep reading how MS's firewall is not that good.
With XP SP2, MS finally did something right. However, since a lot of
people have already gotten used to using other firewalls, they will
claim that one is much better.
A lot will claim that since the MS one does not do outbound protection
it's a bad firewall. Well, I disagree to that. Outbound protection is
not reliable since it can, quite easily, be bypassed.
Some people like, e.g. out of curiosity, to know which programs are
connecting to the internet. And they like to be able to be in control
(which they really are'nt) to allow or deny that. Well, that's fine
with me, as long as they don't consider it to be a real security
meassure - because it's not.
There also is a lot of hype about stopping programs from "phoning
home". Well, legitimate programs seldom "phone home" any really
critical personal info. And the phoning home that it does, is mostly
something you can configure it to do or not. Bad programs determined
to phone home will find a way to do it without you noticing.
>As for IE, I'm not sure what you mean.
http://home20.inet.tele.dk/b_nice/Rule04.htm
>Just about everything I've ever gotten free ends up being a real headache
>where I end up not getting it to work right or not working at all & messing
>up other programs.
I wonder where you got those programs from. That's generally not my
experience. I have seen many issues with those big security suites,
like the ones you mention, causing all kinds of problems, though.
>Also, I have the problem of not understanding so much of this stuff.
And that really is fair, as long as you are just willing to admit
that. You can learn. You can, however, also be tricked into buying all
kinds of security related stuff. Marketing is doing a great job in
this area.
> I'm trying to stick with what seems to me to be highly recommended products to
>cut down on my chances of screwing up.
Understandable. But your chances of "screwing up" depends more on what
you do.
>I am surely loaded with all kinds of nasties.
>I figure I need to get better security since my cpu is getting slower &
>slower & so much just doesn't work like it used to. I even thought seriously
>about whiping the whole system & starting clean.
Well, to be honest, that's not a bad idea at all. Just remember to
keep a copy of your most valued documents.
And from there on, start anew. I don't know you, so I don't know
anything about your computing habits. But I know that there are two
extremes of computer users.
A) Those that consider their computer to be a toy and who will
download, install, share, try out, play around with allmost everything
they can get hold of.
B) Those who consider their computer a tool to be used for normal
stuff like mailing, news-reading, banking, a game from time to time,
some surfing and the like - but who don't want to be bothered with all
kinds of nasties - and who are truly concerned about security.
The A ones will find themselves in a continous battle against bad
guys. A battle they cannot win. Those people, I can't help. No matter
how many security products they put on their computers, they will
still end up being infected.
The B ones just need to learn a little - and follow some rules that
are widely available. I am currently setting up a web-site myself.
Feel free to pick some "good manners" from there - even though I
have'nt finished putting all my rules in there. I am constantly
enhancing it.
http://home20.inet.tele.dk/b_nice/index.htm
>I get overwhelmed with all that might go wrong.
What do you mean?