Rob Bell wrote:
> Andrew in Ann Arbor wrote:
>
>> I've had the system connected to my cable modem (through a Linksys
>> router) for over a year and have yet to find any malware on it.
>> My XP desktop and my wife's XP laptop haven't done as well.
>
>
> Have your other family members stop using IE and start using something
> else like Mozilla, Firefox, or Netscape. That will do away with most
of the adware/spyware problem. You can also install a software
protection tool like BlackICE PC Protection to assist in that area. A
tool like that takes a snapshot of a known good system and then monitors
what is trying to execute. If the program doesn't match the
name/date/time/size of the profiled apps it warns you and gives you the
ability to prevent it from running.
>
> Rob
>
No one uses IE in this house, it's Netscape on the PCs and Netscape or
Mozilla on the Mac. Actually the 560x doesn't even have IE installed.
I'm impressed at how the stripped down WIN98 system has collected less
malware than my XP desktop despite the Thinkpad being online 5 days for
every hour the desktop is switched on.
The wife's XP laptop is from the university and is loaded with McAffee
antivirus and all the latest updates. I'm not sure what her laptop has
for a firewall.
I do run Kerio personal firewall <www.kerio.com> but that's mostly to
warn me if something gets inside and starts trying to send messages out.
My personal preference is rather than patching IE to fix security flaws
(and sometimes patching the patches) I like to remove IE from the hard
drive after which point I don't need to worry about whatever security
holes might be discovered in the future.
I don't like the way Windows is coded with all the options set to
default ON. I'm not inclined to try and repair MS software by adding
more MS software. I think it's better to remove the stuff you don't need
and the PCLite installers are just the tool.
I like feeling like I'm in control of my computer's configuration and
getting regular requests to install updates that I don't understand
doesn't sit well with me.
Not an approach for everyone certainly but it suits me.
I'm curious to see how the XP laptop with the professional installation
and all the security patches compares with my stripped down XP system.
So far we're about even, I can't find LPT1 on my system but when I tried
to install a network printer on her laptop it confused the Novell
network login and I couldn't log in to it until I took it in to the
university IT department.
To think at one time I thought that having more than one computer would
increase reliability. True I always have at least one computer running
but I also always have at least one computer that needs work....
Andrew in Ann Arbor
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Received on Sun Dec 12 22:23:07 2004
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