Jim, anti-virus and firewall protection are two completely different things.

The most common way to get a virus is through an EXE file. Either you download something from the internet that has a virus attached, you receive a file from a friend that is infected, or you open emails that include viruses in them.

By having your mail program automatically delete all attachments, you get rid of a very big risk.

By having your mail program not automatically show a preview of the mail, you get rid of a very big risk.

Unless you are a very careful person, anti-virus software is important to have. You need to learn to be VERY careful in handling outside files. I have all attachments mailed to me via hotmail, they have up to date virus protection. I only accept files from people I know when I am expecting files. Most of us have servers, and we can upload files when we need to give them to someone else. We don't have to mail them.

Firewalls stop outside people from connecting directly to your PC. Depending on your configuration (and how your cable company makes you connect) your combination of firewalls and such should have you pretty safe. However, if your cable company makes you run special software on your PC to get access, then you have an issue and you need to reconfigure your setup to get rid of that security hole.

Your wireless are not an issue, providing you have some sort of security key on them, WEP or similar. They all have it built in, you have to activate it though. That means that a sort of security key is required to entered before a laptop or other can access your network. If you are not doing this, then all your firewalls and everything else is for nothing, because you locked the door but left the large window next to the door wide open.

Alex

Anybody run McAfee anymore? Is their something I don't know about it ?

I ran it for about 1 month on a differant system to see if it was any better. The only difference I was able to see (which is a big one) they always seemed to be a few hours if not a day or two behind Norton in the really important updates. It got to the point where I started to think they were just waiting for Norton to find the fix and then impliment it themselves. I'm sure thats not the case, maybe they were just running more detailed tests before releasing the update but I just never liked it after that month.

I have a good hardware firewall plus I use Norton Internet Security 2003 and 2005 on top of that.

This week Spybot picked up on and destroyed three hostile items that were designed (or appeared to be designed) to disable Norton completely.

I am guessing that I picked them up from a web site whilst surfing.

I wouldn't be without Adaware and Spybot. :)

Yup, adaware is a good and powerful tool. The microsoft / giant software blocker is also quite good, they seem to be pretty good at getting things.

Oh yeah, don't use IE unless you are forced to. Firefox, Opera, or whatever is MUCH safer (not entirely safe, but MUCH MUCH safer).

When I use IE, I have it prompt before it runs any active-x stuff. I don't use IE very much at all.

Alex

I had no problems with Norton other than it was resource hog. Granted I have state-of-the-art maximum RAM. Still I just didn't like seeing all those processes running. Not to mention the extra time it took to boot my machine.

I have a friend whose has the latest version w/updates and all he ever complains about are the problems it's giving him.

For a moment there I thought you named your dog Norton |couch|

Doesn't that just stop viruses?

Alex
I need to get attachments so I think I will keep what I have. I think I am pretty well protected. All router firewalls are activated and the hardware firewall between the routers and modem is working fine.

I'm behind a router, but I still run McAfee firewall since I really don't know any better. For antivirus, I've been running AVG free for quite a while now.

And, thanks to urb's reminder, I just downloaded and ran Adaware, which I haven't had since the last time I re-did this damned machine.

Your avatar is looking mighty fine UW.

I upgraded my Ad-Aware SE to version 1.06 yesterday. It was a fairly large upgrade. I normally update my db on it every week.

Best combo I've found is:

Avast Antivirus (It's free and it's a bit better than avg)

Microsoft AntiSpyware

I run a Hardware Firewall so it would be redundant to run a software one.

Never accept attachments in emails...if every person did this their chance of infection would drop dramatically.

I haven't had anything infect my computer in a few years and this includes me reviewing popup, spyware loaded, galleries from hell on my tgp.

I had the same problem - my Norton wouldn't update for months. I went with Macafee.

Check out pc-cillin Jay. Hardly any resources and it does everything norton does.

Of course my son told me when my network goes down, look outside and he will be sitting there with his laptop :) Fucking kid is good with networks. I have woke up many mornings with a new directory on my pc saying "Hi Dad". It always pisses me off.

It offers firewall protection and some form of spam protection, I've yet to turn either on and try them.

What do you use for Virus protection. You do know that standalone firewalls don't do much for trojans and viruses.