jared 0 Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 What do you have? what do you reccomend? I have norton at the moment but it seems a little greedy with the resources and a bit over the top. The people at norton want to charge me money for another year of using their software so I'm looking at my options. any hints? Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 I use that as well, I'm happy with having that on my computer and its not as if it's that expensive. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 This is a good free one (for Windows of course); http://www.free-av.com/ It protects you while you're surfing the web, and you can scan files you download. Of course, like all anti-virus stuff, it's a few days behind the curve... Still gotta keep an eye on the tech news to make sure you don't get got. This is a good mail program if you don't normally get mails in Japanese (it garbles Japanese); http://www.firetrust.com/products/benign/ It strips out all malicious content from email thus protecting you from new evils that anti-virus stuff won't stop. They're going to make a double-byte version at some point. Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Here is another good free online virus scanner. http://housecall.trendmicro.com Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Dont go for free virusware! they ALL suck, I read an independent review and the only ones that block almost everthing and get new virus definitions out there pronto are the ones you gotta pony up for. A "good" antivirus software doesnt cut it, you dont go into a firing zone with a good flak jacket you go in there with the "best" There are many places to cut corners and save money with computers but antivirus ware is not one of those places. According to one magazine review Norton has the best Antivirus (just) over the others but according to another source ( that came to light later in this thread) Kaspersky is the best!. The free ones dont block them all. You have been warned, so use free Antiviral software at your own risk!! Firewalls on the other hand are a different matter. "Zone Alarm" has a free Firewall that is superior to Nortons Firewall which you gotta pay for. I have done some research on the matter. Some viruses and malicious programs can masquarade as genuine trusted programs and fool your fire wall, your firewall is easily duped. but Zone Alarm is appently different because ZoneAlarm is the only firewall to cryptographically certify the identity of executable programs which means Zone Alarm works better. I used to have Norton everything but switched to ZA after some tests I did myself showed Nortons Firewall was easily bypassed and fooled. So I now have ZA firewall, with Norton Antivirus.( but I might even change that now!) Also Jared I have Norton 2001 and the updates havent run out yet because I completely uninstall the program once a year and reinstall and the service updates resets itself back to the full alloted time. Sneaky but it works. Have you tried doing it? Link to post Share on other sites
egglesby 1 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 I use Norton. Can someone explain - real simple like - exactly what a firewall is? Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 firewalls Link to post Share on other sites
jared 0 Posted February 18, 2004 Author Share Posted February 18, 2004 This is what I found so I'm tryijng out Kaspersky http://www.software-antivirus.com/ Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 well that is interesting! Norton is in the stay away list, interesting indeed, the review I read in a magazine had Norton at #1. interesting site indeed there Jared. Might have to have thorough look. Link to post Share on other sites
mikazooki 0 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 u might also try avast the pick of the users on cnet.com the download section. how often are viruses caught by your antivirus programs? once a week? once a month? just wondering about the frequency on other people's machines. Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Quick explanation of a personal home network firewall: Data travels in and out from your computer to the interent via your DSL/Cable modem. When data comes or goes it has an address attached to it so that it knows where to go. The address is made up of the IP (to your computer if it is coming in) and a port. The port tells it where to go once it gets to your computer. For example, http or web addresses use port 80 and file transfer protocol (ftp) uses port 21. What a firewall does can best be described as a gatekeeper of the ports. There are thousands of ports, but picture a little guy sitting on top of each port. By default a firewall blocks all incoming traffic, unless it is a response from your outgoing traffic (viewing a webpage). When data goes out from your computer as you view this page it travels through port 80. The little dude opens up the gate and lets the data go out and then closes it again. If you were running a ftp server you would need to tell your little gatekeeper sitting on port 21 that you are expecting traffic there and to go ahead and let it in. Otherwise anyone trying to go to your ftp server would be denied access. In short, the firewall is protecting your personal network from unknown incoming data. This can also work in reverse. If you want to block people from viewing web pages you can tell your gatekeeper on port 80 to not let any traffic out either. Now that http data can't get out and you can no longer browse the web. Remember, while firewalls protect you from malicious hacking, whether active or passive, they do not do much to protect you from viruses. The vast majority of viruses are spread via email attachments. If you don't know what it is or especially if you don't know who it is from, DON'T open it! I personally don't use AV software (I also don't ride with a helmet) but if I suspect an attachment of carrying a virus I will usually forward it to a web acct (like yahoo) that offers attachment AV scanning. I have found 2 viruses sent to me that way in the last year. I have been infected by zero others. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 So kind! I'm using Norton too. I can't be arsed feeling I have to "check up on the latest" or do anything, so paying a few thou yen a year is fine by me. Link to post Share on other sites
its-a-clock 0 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Here here. I just couldn't be having the hassle of keeping up with all the latest shit that's put out there. Auto updates is cool Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 I tried the uninstall reinstall thing last year, but it would not reinstall for some reason. When I did get it back on, it knew the old date, so I had to pay up. I wish I had paid up at first given the 3 hours or so of time I wasted and the hassle. (I think it was something like 4000 yen) Link to post Share on other sites
fukdane 2 Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 Sometimes "free" things end up being more hassle than they're worth, less stress just to hand over the cash and enjoy the luxury Norton gets my cash. Link to post Share on other sites
jared 0 Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 your cash and half your systems resources. Kapersky will get my cash (about the same amount) Link to post Share on other sites
KonaYuki 0 Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 Half your systems resources? How so? It doesn't seem to have much of an effect here. Never heard of Kapersky. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 It's certainly not "light", but hardly gets near to causing any problems. Link to post Share on other sites
nagpants 1 Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Does anyone here have OCN and pay them the 200 yen or whatever it is to get rid of junk before it comes. I wonder how effective that really is? Link to post Share on other sites
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