firewalls / anti virus

now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall but its driving me
up the wall popping up every 5mins could i get away with just a plain old
anti virus program as i thought hackers had to deposit a infected file on ur
computer first.
thanks in advance.
John

John Hood writes:
> now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall but its driving me
> up the wall popping up every 5mins

> could i get away with just a plain old
> anti virus program as i thought hackers had to deposit a infected file on ur
> computer first.

No. I draw your attention to the blaster & associated worms - connect an
unpatched Windows NT, 2000 or XP to the internet and anyone can get a
command prompt on your PC. The symptoms would be shutting down
immediately on connecting to the 'net.

You need a firewall and anti-virus.

I use AVG and Kerio Personal Firewall. How secure you will be depends on
how well you configure and use them.

Check out PC-Cillin 2003 which is an anti-virus program which has a built in
Firewall. It doesn't pop up like Zone Alarm, it just shows a bell in your
taskbar when it detects an attempted intrusion. It also hogs less memory
than Zone Alarm.

The website is www.antivirus.com and you can run it as a demo for a couple
of weeks.

> now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall but its driving me
> up the wall popping up every 5mins

I`m not sure what version you`re using, but i`m still on an old 2.x
version - on the popup, is there a tickbox that says "don`t warn me about
this again" ? (all previous versions to the one I use had it)

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RE: "don`t warn me about this again"

Just because it isn`t warning you doesn`t mean it`s letting them through
- it`ll still stop them and log them quietly, it just won`t go ape every
time it gets one.

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"John Hood" <jhood-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3f5e4aa5$(E-Mail Removed)...
> now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall
but its driving me
> up the wall popping up every 5mins could i get away with
just a plain old
> anti virus program as i thought hackers had to deposit a
infected file on ur
> computer first.
> thanks in advance.

John, you need both a firewall and virus scanner, even on
dialup, these days. Either configure ZA not to inform you
when an attack is blocked, or find something else instead,
but do NOT go without a firewall or virus scanner, you're
asking for trouble.

P.

Yep, I use Sophos and ZA. Both work away quietly in the background, look for
the tickbox in ZoneAlarm to turn off reports. If you go to "Shields up"
security check with ZA it turns out you have an invisible PC to all intents
and purposes.

Les


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"PJB" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "John Hood" <jhood-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:3f5e4aa5$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall
> but its driving me
> > up the wall popping up every 5mins could i get away with
> just a plain old
> > anti virus program as i thought hackers had to deposit a
> infected file on ur
> > computer first.
> > thanks in advance.
>
> John, you need both a firewall and virus scanner, even on
> dialup, these days. Either configure ZA not to inform you
> when an attack is blocked, or find something else instead,
> but do NOT go without a firewall or virus scanner, you're
> asking for trouble.
>
> P.
>
>

uninstall zonealarm.. and go and get "Kerio personal firewall"
superb... and free too

Doz

"John Hood" <jhood-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3f5e4aa5$(E-Mail Removed)...
> now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall but its driving
me
> up the wall popping up every 5mins could i get away with just a plain old
> anti virus program as i thought hackers had to deposit a infected file on
ur
> computer first.
> thanks in advance.
> John
>
>

Use the built-in firewall software that comes with XP. It's fine.

"John Hood" <jhood-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3f5e4aa5$(E-Mail Removed)...
> now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall but its driving
me
> up the wall popping up every 5mins could i get away with just a plain old
> anti virus program as i thought hackers had to deposit a infected file on
ur
> computer first.
> thanks in advance.
> John
>
>

Bobby wrote:
> Use the built-in firewall software that comes with XP. It's fine.

Doesn't control outgoings & would (or should that be could) you trust
a firewall application developed by the same company who left the
exploit which MSBlaster used in their software (amongst others, like
the holes in DirectX, IE6 etc)....

That alone is a good reason not to trust the XP firewall...
>
> "John Hood" <jhood-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:3f5e4aa5$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> now that i have broadband, i use zone alarm as a firewall but its
>> driving me up the wall popping up every 5mins could i get away
>> with just a plain old anti virus program as i thought hackers had
>> to deposit a infected file on ur computer first.
>> thanks in advance.
>> John



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