Firewalls and Anti-virus programs

No problem.Internet is so vast and everyone has their preferences,some work for some,some don't,depends on too many variables.
Only point I ought to make here and now is the reference to SpyBot.Frankly speaking,I have no use for SpyBot S+D,although I do run it daily out of habit,out of allegience;it never finds a dang thing.I only am most impressed with the TeaTime option that comes included with SpyBot.This feature--pretty much--does what Prevx Home does,just not as extensively.Anytime anything/anyone,wishes/tries to make a change to registry or even just the homepage,TeaTime is up on the screen allowing you to give permission or deny it.Don't know if you use Windows Live each day as I do but if I don't turn on the Windows firewall,the program tells me I am open to attack,thus I use the ZoneAlarm at max protect plus the win firewall to avoid a negative report being sent to Microsoft.As you say,I too,don't believe there will ever be a completely safe,well constructed operating system that doesn't have exploitable flaws.Companies are in too big a hurry to get a new version of an OS on the market,make some bucks---and WE have to be the ones to protect it,sheesh.All we can all do is to try to protect ourselves as best we can.Like you,I have tried most everything out there having been enthused with computers since my Apple lle in early 80's well before there was an Internet.G'Day and thx for the comeback.
Bruce

i get why you use the win firewall now i as well was in the beta of the windows one care live but i found the anti-virus and the firewall to be very sub par so i installed it "witch was rather hard and its a pain to get it not to start up with windows"
though it isn't good to use 2firewalls at one time for conflicts "such as holes in both firewalls" i would just use the windows one care live if you really want to test it for them

well you seam like one who enjoys knowing your more secure then the avg user so here's a link you might like i was surprised to what an extent this prog goes to help your overall security
http://syssafety.com/product.html
much like pervx only it covers the other 50% that prevx doesn't id highly suggest it

Your a gentleman and a scholar sir.Thank you for the info.Have downloaded and saved the program,not yet installed but also registered at the site and been activated.
Will give it a go a bit later as have to get to post office shortly.
I use the Windows Live feature daily but I don't use the Full Service Scan.Use each feature along left side seperately,seems to work better for me(being dim-witted--haha)
Have to see now if this program will have any conflict with Prevx,sure trust not,the info on website seems intriguing.Thanks again.
Bruce

Quote: As you say,I too,don't believe there will ever be a completely safe,well constructed operating system that doesn't have exploitable flaws.Companies are in too big a hurry to get a new version of an OS on the market,make some bucks...

You can get this if you are willing to step away from the corporate software model. OpenBSD, for example, is solid as a rock... but a bit sparse on the "ease of use" thing. FreeBSD is already a step better.

Personally, I have come to prefer Debian GNU/Linux to windows. It does everything windows did for me (multi-media, office stuff, internet... you can even run windows-native programs {games, mostly, there is a good Linux-native alternative to everything else}, but you will have to deal with about a 15% speed loss due to emulation/translation), and while not entirely without exploitable flaws, almost viruses (virii?) exist for it (none are circulating right now) and if you are a home user you are not worth the trouble for a hacker to force his way in. I also find its reputation as being hard to use faulty; once you learn to use it is is much easier to maintain than windows.

just my $0.02

Point taken.As I also said,everyone has their own choices that they are comfortable with.I don't think anyone is right or wrong,there is no right or wrong but rather individualism.
I have a large file I've yet to open or install of an Open Office program and also Opera 8.5 I think it is tucked away in Docs folder.
My "problem" I suppose is a great deal of dedication to Microsoft/Windows.Other than some spyware stuff,there's nothing in my computer actively running that isn't Microsoft created.When the Internet came along and I got rid of my Apple lle,there was Win95,kept with that(still have it on my small Compaq laptop)until XP came along and bought this big boy custom built.
If I have to confess to not liking something about Windows,it is Outlook Express,can't hold with it,don't have it on my system.Shucks,even the Microsoft Network is my ISP.I use Msn Explorer Premium Service with the DSL high speed,v 9.2.Priced a DSL modem lately?.I don't pay for one,they are shipped free of charge,anything goes wrong,replaced within 5 business days,upgraded,another is immediately shipped,no charge.Explorer is still the Flagship browser for Microsoft and it comes with it's own email client,2gb storage so that if anything ever went wrong,everything is on their servers,NOT on my computer.All my files,address book etc are stored there,nothing is lost in the event of a crash.Since I've had Explorer,there's never been a hacker or virus or anything else.No updates,upgrades etc as these are all done automatically without your even knowing until it's done.Seldom ever use my Internet Explorer unless I want to get to my Yahoo or Google or Msn search engines because the browser is fixed,much like I hear AOL is.Every email attachment is scanned before I get it.24/7 tech support via fone or email.Something(very,very rarely) happens with the browser or email client,simply bring up IE and go over to their Hotmail site and there is an exact copy of my browser and emails,it's perfect while they work on the Premium Service.Me thinks me rambling on sire.Nuff said and thanks for your comments,always welcome here.Bruce

Even if you use Windows, there is no reason to pay for all the other stuff they have. Open Office is great; it takes some tweaking to get the same functionality as MS Office, be warned. Thunderbird from Mozilla is a great alternative to Outlook and it can interface with your MS Exchange server, i think. Firefox from Mozilla is a good alternative to IE, you should be able to use it with Google or Yahoo plugins as well. From a certain point of view it is actively unethical to use the windows media player (not to mention a security risk), and there are many good alternatives.

That said, I agree that there are different strokes for different folks... but i also think that more people would use GNU/Linux if they new about it... so let me expound...

First of all, I am a rather private person. I personally have a problem with my information being stored elsewhere with other people given access to it. Besides, 2gig is nothing. I have an issue with the way microsoft's tools (like media player) send my activities back to microsoft over the internet for them to in turn analyze and sell to marketers. I do not like information about my computer and habits on it being sent to other companies when i use their tools, which is common on microsoft. Beyond not liking these things, i think they are dangerous and serve to continue to subvert our freedoms to large corporations. These problems do not exist in GNU/Linux.

By the way, those auto-updates are not as immediate as you might imagine.

Secondly (and perhaps most importantly), beyond the voluntary contributions i made to try to ensure that GNU developers can continue giving me great software, I paid nothing for my operating system (most people do not realize that when they buy a PC up to $250 of the purchase price goes straight to microsoft... i saved that money). I paid nothing for my Office Suite (which will open and edit microsoft formats) versus $400 for the microsoft office. I paid nothing for any of the software on my computer, yet i have a great photo editor on par with Photoshop, can create PDF documents, shrink and re-burn my existing DVDs (for backup purposes). I have emulators to create virtual computers (this is a toy for me but can be important to serious users), and anything else you can imagine is available for the taking... you name it i have it (or access to it)

Then, to get patches for updates, instead of sending a list of all software installed on my computer to some marketing expert who then "sends" me the necessary update, my computer just dowloads a list of the most recent versions of all available software and compares that to what is installed... and then downloads the necessary patches... no information about the computer is ever sent anywhere else.

All of this is $FREE.99 and legally so. You cannot beat that.

Oh, and it never crashes.

If you are still reading this, Thanks for your attention.

Take care.
bulldog05

Of course I'm still reading,why wouldn't I be?.Most times,the best,most valued information comes from other actual users,not companies.
I didn't expect you to say too much of anything about my primary browser because no-one knows or sees it other than those who have the same ISP.Or,the advantages of the gratis Modem either.
I've had and used the FireFox browser but sire,I got very angry and frustrated with it.Once it was installed and running.Even if it is closed and I wanted to bring up my IE,FireFox wouldn't let it come up,it was always Firefox that made it's way onto the screen.That,to me,was like someone else telling what I'd use on my computer and what I wouldn't so I got rid of it.Clicking on a IE link still brought up Firefox,sheesh.
As far as the WMP goes,there is an option,an opt-out feature so that nothing you do with the media player went anywhere,which is how mine is set up.
Now,as to the reason I said I had the OpenSource Office program sitting in my Docs folder.I'm well up in age and have no use for any office type products,so,I don't have any Microsoft office products on the computer either.Just takes up a lot of space I can be using for something else.I still have the OpenSource and the original disks for Microsoft Office if I ever changed my mind.Initially,I used to use MS Office for writing letters and things but dang it,the cost today of the cartridges for the printer are right out of sight for me on a fixed budget.As you say,different strokes for different folks,no-one is right,no-one is wrong,is all a matter of individual preferences---right?.
To be honest,I've never seen Outlook.Both the Win95 I had for years and now WinXP,both came with Outlook Express,which,in my personal opinion,sucks,took it out,thus,only 6 of the 7 programs in Avast are running.
By the way,with FireFox,at least from my efforts,you couldn't HAVE the Yahoo/Google/Msn toolbars installed,as you can with the IE.They are not always visible as take up too much screen,so are hidden when not in use.
As far as the information stored on the servers at Msn Explorer---NO-ONE,not even the master Techs/Programmers there can access any of my information as is all password protected.Even the basic info,files and folders etc that ARE stored on my system can not be accessed,even though someone could sit down here and get by my password protection by placing computer in safe mode,they can't access anything else without the second password.That took some fancy tweaking to accomplish.
Don't know what you mean where you say;"By the way,those updates are not as immediate as you might think"??.Explorer updates/upgrades itself,any new tweaks are auto applied the next time you sign in.Being a member of Microsoft itself,I get advanced notice by weeks of any updates that are coming and get them before most users.That's one reason why though,that I seldom use Windows IE,too many flaws,too many risks,always watching,waiting for something to happen.
Like you,I didn't pay for my photo Editor either,nor did I pay for the Paintshop Pro 8.0--or the WindowWasher that Webroot sells.
As stated,am a much older person,so,I don't have any use for other media players,dvd's etc,don't play any games,don't download any songs or anything else like that,so,the WMP does me well enough.Just play my own Classical CD's while I surf around the net 12 to 14 hours a day.
Well,enough said sire,we have different interests but is good to interact just the same,good way to learn new things.Season's greetings to you and yours.

The links on your desktop that say they are IE are not links to IE, that is just the icon that windows puts on a file of type .html or a link to the internet. It is essentially Microsoft advertising. When you double click on the link, you are telling windows that you want to open the file behind it. Windows, then, looks at the file type, and compares that file type to a list of default programs to use to open that type of file. If there is no listing for that file type, you get a dialogue box asking you what progam to use to open it. In the case of Firefox, when you run it for the first time, it checks that list to see if it is the default program for .html and internet links, and if it is not, it asks you if you want to set it to be the default browser for the system. If you click yes, then it changes that list of file types and programs that windows looks at to open Firefox instead of windows. If you say no, it does not and IE remains your system's browser. If you click yes and then discover you prefer IE, you can make IE the default browser again, then Firefox will only open when you specifically request it. You do this by going to the start menu, control panel, and internet options. Check the box that says IE should check to see if it is the default browser, then start IE from the start menu (not from a desktop link). When it starts it will ask you if IE should be the default browser, and then select yes. I can't help you with the google toolbars; i am pretty sure that it is possible to use them in Firefox but i have never messed with them.

As for the stuff stored on at MSN: password protection on a foreign server is meaningless. Every computer system has what is called a superuser (in windows it is usually called the administrator); that is a user who can look at anything on the hard disk (including your files), regardless of password protection. Microsoft may have agreed not to look at your information, but they certainly have the capability to do so and you have no way to check on them. Given their track record i would not trust them.

As for the updates: the windows automatic update tool only works properly if your computer is always on and always connected to the internet. Otherwise, it will take up to two weeks to update properly. Most worms and virii spread in a matter of days, and then the damage is done. Your only option, really, is to update every time you log onto the internet, but the microsoft update tool takes so long that this is a pain in the proverbial ****.

As for WMP, yes, but that should be the default setting, in my humble opinion. I also have some other moral issues with using it.


And season's greetings in return.

My sincere apologies.I didn't notice until posted I'd refered to you as BullDog05.Sorry about that.G'Day