Windows Firewall any good?

Yes you should get a firewall. But a firewall is not a program to be installed on your computer. A firewall is an external piece of hardware.

Use the Windows firewall. Get an external firewall box (minimum of nat/spi) unless you already have this. Some ISPs supply a modem which includes it. Get a better external firewall if you are prepared to learn how to use it. Make sure all Windows updates are installed including SP2. Make sure all updates for other software are installed. Install a free virus scanner such as AVG. Consider alternatives to Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Increase your knowledge and experience of computer security. The security of your computer depends on you, not on which software you install.

Jason

What are the other alternatives apart from IE the only other I know is Netscape.

Stick a NAT router with SPI between your machine and your modem.

Mozilla Firefox (Netscape is based on Mozilla) and Opera are the major alternatives and are come highly recommended.

Craig,

I have used all of these, and all are freeware unless otherwise noted:

The latest (and last) Netscape, Netscape 7.2:

latest (and last) Mozilla Suite, Mozilla 1.7.12: SeaMonkey is the continuation of Netscape 7.2/Mozilla Suite, and is in development as an open source project: SeaMonkey 1.0 was just released. Consider Netscape and Mozilla Suite as dead products. Mozilla will continue to release security patches for the Mozilla Suite, but for how long is unknown.

Firefox browser with Thunderbird email/NNTP client:

will find that if you are familiar with Netscape email/NNTP, Thunderbird is a piece of cake.

Opera Browser and email/NNTP client:

great browser! It only recently became freeware, and many people use its browser but not its email client, at least not yet.

K-Meleon browser only:

more I use this browser, the more I like it.

Eudora email client (adware or paid):

Pegasus email client: Netscape 8 is an AOL/Netscape browser, browser only, no email/NNTP client. I would not recommend using this browser unless you want to put up with a lot of AOL adware crap.

Some general anti-malware info: The best defense against crapware is Safe Hex:

Fighting malware: Eric Howes' site, the definitive word on spyware: Ron :)

Depends on a few factors:

1. Operating System and patch level, if you're running XP make sure it's sp2 and fully patched, turning on AutoUpdate is the easiest way to keep it current. Use the built in Windows Firewall. If you're concerned, turn on the logging and look at the c:\windows\pfirewall.log.
2. Numbers of users and their level. Do you have kids? Do they logon as a user or as an administrator? Users can't install too many programs or modify the os too much. Kids tend to click on anything that says "install this to play this game" online, keep them as users.
3. Run an antispyware program. Microsoft's AntiSpyWare is free and it works very well
4. Run an antivirus application, a good free one is AVG
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   finally, read the articles below

Wayne McGlinn Brisbane, Oz

It's adequate.

Additionally, you should not use Internet Exploder but another browser, not use Outlook or Outlook Express but something else, and you should keep your programs up to date, which are used in the Internet or are used to manage or view data, which you have from other people in the Internet.

If you want to, you could use a Virus Scanner. Beware, that Virus Scanners cannot detect every virus by concept, so a Virus Scanner is handy but never can be totally secure, even if you'll keep it up to date all the time (which you should).

Yours, VB.

To tell you the most used browsers only. And there are many more.

Yours, VB.

:) Snip...

Don't forget one of the very best free email clients Calypso v3.3 or its further developed version known as Courier v3.5

Can you name a few good ones? I have a BEFSX41 by Linksys that claims to offer SPI. Is this a good router?

I like AVG, but I like Avast more. Avast scans NNTP (newsgroup) traffic and there is a lot of dangerous software lurking in newsgroups. I use NOD32, but it does not scan NNTP. Bummer!

It is pretty easy to get away from IE, still there are web sites, particularly government sites and some financial sites, that will only work with IE. I keep it around for those sites but I don't use it unless I have to.

While there are a lot of mail clients out there, it is tough to find a replacement for Outlook. Outlook integrates with such programs as MS Project as well as having the ability to request meetings, view other people's calendars, request meetings, set appointments, set tasks, etc..

Many of the business that I work with use Outlook. It would be difficult if I could not request meetings, share calendars, etc with them. Is there another email/suite program that can do all these things?

I heard that Open Office did some of these things, does it have a mail client?

When you're using Outlook as a groupware client, you could implement a closed system. The gateway to the Internet then should filter away anything which _could_ be dangerous, or you should have another MUA.

Yes. Some of them.

No. Usually, one uses one of the groupware packages like Kolab and Kontact for example with OpenOffice.org.

Yours, VB.

What's wrong with IE. I have never had a problem. IMHO, some people get paranoid with security when they won't use a paticular browser.

Personally, I use a Netgear WGT624v3 as my firewall, McAfee as my anti-virus. Never a hack, never a virus I didn't catch. Also, what I don't understand is that people want to have a secure virus-free computer, but won't spend the money. They almost always look for the free way out, and then wonder why they got a virus.

Paying for something doesn't guarantee that it's better. I've seen plenty of paid firewalls and AVs that are complete crap.

I use IE 99% of the time. I have Firefox on the machine too after listening to what others were saying about FF. I find myself using IE most of the time. I don't have any problems with using IE.

I agree with you on the security aspects of obtaining software and one gets what he or she pays for in a solution.

Duane :)

I got myselfs a Hardware Firewall - I downloaded IPCop 1.4.0 a long time ago and got it updated to 1.4.6 - then i just made a new CD with 1.4.10.

Beyond the fact that its price is very nice it does have some interesting features

- dhcp server

- timeservice

- vpn service/server

- ids / snort - burglar detection

- logbook

- ofcourse the firewall - ipchains

- supports wireless

- red (isp side) - green (users side) orange (3th net) blue (wireless)

- supports adsl, modem, isdn, cable

- linux based kernel 2.4.31 (v1.4.10)

- https/Gui control page

- secureshell connection (putty) supports V1 and V2 ssh

- supports PCI and ISA networkcards

- Current system AMDK6/2 375Mhz - perfect - 5 users (bare setup)

- can be extended / expanded with addons and mods

8GB hardisk is perfect for a year-runtime 4GB hardisk is perfect for 6Month runtime after you move the logs out with WinSCP/ SCP Log storage is depended on logdetail level you can export the log via syslogd service

Updating your Windows/XP and stopping services which are unneeded is important - also installing a background scanner is important. Firewalls do not shield you from virii (some have addons that can handle this.. but require more powerfull hardware)

please enter your experiences - i am very currious about yours

It has so many security design flaws and exploits after exploits, that we better should ask: "What's right with IE any more?"

At least that you'll have ActiveX/COM in this browser leads me to the conclusion never to use it as a web-browser in the Internet.

Yours, VB.

I've used Windows and other MS based software since it came out in the very early days, before MS understood security or that there was a Internet.

I've used IE for many years, but I also follow standard security practices and even the MS recommended settings for using IE. The problem with IE is that sites are coded to work with IE when it's not in HIGH- SECURITY mode, meaning that most sites don't look right if you run IE in high-security mode.

Since FireFox can be run in Default mode and provides better out of the box default security than IE does in default installed mode, I will strongly encourage non-technical users to use FireFox over IE. When it comes to a company network, again, I install FireFox and make it the default browser on every machine we push out to the floor. IE is only left on the machines to allow manual Windows Updates.

I can use IE on my computer also, without any problems, but it's a PITA to have to add sites to the Trusted Zone when you browse to them just to see the content as it was intended, and then what if you make a mistake and add a site that's been compromised or one that you should not have trusted - IE allows complete access to your computer much easier than does FireFox.

Actually, I've seen many applications that didn't cost anything that were worth many times what their paid-for counter parts cost.