My daughter's PC and mine, both running Windows 98SE, are connected via an Ethernet cable (using TCP/IP). When she insisted on installing MSN Messenger on her machine, I was worried that there might be some sort of security risk (to both machines), but I wasn't (and am still not) clear about the details of any actual threat.
I recently installed Kerio 2.1.5 on both machines [I have read the recent thread about a possible vulnerability, and I'm a little worried, but I'm not about to change - not so soon after installing my first firewall], with her PC set to allow access to all shared folders without question, but mine set to require explicit permission for each access to a shared folder.
Indeed, when she first used MSN Messenger after Kerio was installed, I did get several attempts to access folders on my PC (which of course I denied).
My question (as a newcomer to firewalls) is what changes I ought to make to her filter rules, to reduce the risk presented by MSN Messenger - indeed, whether there *is* anything I can do, or whether I should [try to!] insist on her using a different messaging program (and if so, which one).
(Both machines have antivirus programs, regularly updated
- hers AVG, mine eTrust EZ Antivirus - and I regularly run Ad-aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and McAfee Stinger on both machines, and there doesn't *seem* to be anything nasty lurking on either of them - apart from something called a "DSO exploit", which Spybot v.1.3 can't remove.)
(Before installing Kerio, I had NukeNabber 2.9b on both machines - ancient, but it seemed to stop port scans OK. It used to find lots of port 5000 scans, which I vaguely suspected might have something to do with MSN Messenger, as I never used to get them before that was installed.)