Could you *please* fix your quoting? It is common practice to prefix quoted text with ">" or "> " instead of putting it in quotes. Most newsreaders will display prefixed text in a different color, thus making it easier for the reader to distinguish between quoted text and your text.
There's a lot of things you can do, e.g.:
- Use a system (and filesystem) that does support privilege separation.
- Use a normal user account. Use the admin account only to accomplish admin tasks.
- Keep your system and all the software on it up-to-date, preferrably through automated updates.
- Install a virus scanner and keep it up-to-date.
- Avoid IE and OE like the plague. Use some other web-browser, mail- client and newsreader instead.
- Disable autostarts for removable media.
- Configure your software correctly. Most so-called "phone homes" are misinterpreted valid, though probably unnecessary requests.
- Don't install software you don't trust.
- Don't open attachments from mail if you didn't request that attachment. ...
Yes. Well, sort of. It would have been even better if they had decided to run services only when they are needed, and allow to bind them only to the interfaces they're needed on. Mac OS X gives a good example of how this can be done.
cu
59cobalt