Allow Me to Let You In on a REALLY Big Security Secret...

There are NO threats on the Internet that 99% of you can't protect yourself against with the following simple tools:

1) A router/gateway with SPI firewall

2) Spywareblaster (for immunization only -- freeware)

3) Spybot Search & Destroy (for immunization and scanning -- freeware)

4) Decent anti-virus package.

Software firewalls simply slow down your PC, destabilize it, and give you nothing but false alarms.

Let me guess: 99% of you are not running webservers/e-mail servers. Right? If you are then, yes, you've got security needs that are not covered by the above.

But if you're just running a PC on DSL/Cable, with a semi-static or static IP, you DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT SECURITY if you just use a few simple tools, mostly freeware.

Let's face it. Most of you are just PC users who surf the Net, use e-mail and, occassionaly, go the Usenet to download some p*rn and spank you Johnson. You've got nothing to worry about!

In over 10 years of surfing, downloading, and reading e-mail I've had no bigger problem than an occassional bit of spyware...easily taken care of.

Get a grip! And IF you are one of the users here who runs servers, then you shouldn't be asking for advice on this half-ass board! For what, to get some tin-pot reply from Herr Gotchalk?

Come on! Get out there and surf! Enjoy yourself!

0) A functioning brain

May not be required

Not needed if you have '0)' above, and don't install spyware

May not be needed if you have '0)' above, and disable "AUTORUN" and "AUTO-INSTALL"

Yes, a lot of them cater to the four-year-old mind or the equivalent web user

The problem with your guess is that 99.999% of the users have absolutely no idea what they are running. They may not intentionally be running one, but usually are.

Why don't you show people how to determine what is running on their systems, and how to disable the unwanted and/or unsafe services and applications?

except the equally clueless id10ts who mail pictures of words, so that you can see the subtle shading in the crayon they used to scrawl the message, and the appealing mal-ware needed to get a better view of the pr0n, and to delete the browser history so that Mommy doesn't see you've been visiting those "interesting" websites.

Why are you installing spyware in the first place?

And your advice _might_ be more useful if you had the first form of a clue that this isn't some wonky web board, but is a widely distributed Usenet news group. Apparently, you don't notice the difference.

Old guy