Firewall/Anti-Virus advice

[walking joint]

i haven't had one in a while and was going to purchase some. i know Norton is probably the most popular anti virus, but wanted to see what you guys recommend. also if you could tell me what type of firewall. i'm really clueless on these types of things and don't mind spending a little bit of cash.

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[Kevin]

http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/jimnorton.gif AntiVirus is the best.

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[JustJon]

AVG is a highly rated free anti-virus
Zone Alarm is a highly rated firewall with a free version.

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[FUNKMAN]

a major techie mofo here in work swears by a freebie "bitdefender.com"

very user friendly and automatically sends you updates

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[FMJeff]

Dont waste your time with software based firewalls. Buy a firewall, or a router with a built in firewall. You'll be happy you did.

Don't waste your time with anti-virus software either. Anti-virus will not protect you. The whole purpose of an anti-viral program is to innoculate your computer once it has contracted or detected a virus. This is done by comparing virus signatures against virus definitions. Unfortunately because of the internet, new viruses spread much faster than these definitions can be updated, delivered and installed to your machine. They used to be effective back in the day when computers were only connected by floppy drive and modems...in other words, interrmittently connected to one another. Nowadays, most people just leave their computers running all day, so they spread like wildfire if your ports are open.

Hence, a firewall is really your best option.

I never run anti-virus on my machines and never will. They are extremely resource intensive, slow your computer down, frequently interfere with or crash other software and really ineffective.

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[wilee]

If you're running a broadband connection, you should use a switch with a built-in hardware firewall. This is especially true if you have a home network of some type, because you are blocking access from the internet to the network with one device, and wouldn't need to put up software on each machine. Just make sure that you configure it correctly.

As far as antivirus goes, different people prefer different programs. I'm using Norton right now, and it is quite effective. Many of the old addages about getting a virus only through email are no longer true. You can get them through ActiveX components, buffer overflows and browser exploits among other ways. Chose a product that fits within your budget (many commercial products now require subscriptions to their defintions). There are web-based virus scans, however I find most of them (even the ones offered by McAfee and Norton) to be wanting.

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[walking joint]

to be honest, the reason i'm looking into it now is because i'm looking to set up an account on party poker. i just don't like putting my cash card information on there. thats what i'm trying to protect the most...is there something specific to get for something like this.

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[JustJon]

Don't waste your time with anti-virus software either.
I completely disagree. You should be scanning your e-mail as it comes in and out. There are also viral worms that just hit IPs and try to get in and infest your pc. A hardware firewall should stop most of those, but sometimes they slip through.

Also, you should do regular anti-viral scans because sometimes you will receive a file from a source that is unknowingly infest themselves and infesting your computer with a virus.

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[FUNKMAN]

like Alice said

"wear a jimmy hat"

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[JPMNICK]

I agree with everythign Just John said. its really good advice, I would take it.

Get a hardware firewall, and make sure you stealth port 113 (IDENT). you can go to www.grc.com to see what ports are visable.



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[Reephdweller]

I never run anti-virus on my machines and never will. They are extremely resource intensive, slow your computer down, frequently interfere with or crash other software and really ineffective.



So that's why RF net is always going up and down.

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