paulr

ATM have Win ME and have the free AVG anti-virus software,also win me is registered so have the updates too.

Am getting the NTL 600k @£24.99/month.
What extra security do i need and what about a firewall,dont mind paying if i have to.

Thanks
Paul....

Fatman

Yes, at the very least you need a software/personal firewall. There are freeware solutions available, so consider Zonealarm, Sygate and Tiny personal firewalls. There are also commercial packages including one by Norton/Symantec. A router, or even a router with firewalling capabiities would be a bonus - and it's not *that* unusual either. I've no experience of NTL though, so can't suggest particular bits of kit.

paulr

Are the free ones like sygate good enough or would i be better with a paid for package.

Bear in mind i'm no IT expert,but i'd rather err on the side of caution as i had a virus recently and it took me ages to get rid of it.

Mr.Cookie

Paul

Sygate looks okay from my non IT person perspective i used to use kerio but don't like the new feel to it and before that used nortons, which i will never go back to every again as it absolutely killed my pc performance

Si

Fatman

I have used ZoneAlarm for years without any problems. However, some people don't like it. Those that don't use ZoneAlarm (which is very popular) seem to tend towards Sygate. I used a version of Norton Personal Firewall a few years ago, and it seemed to be very good. If you don't want to 'get involved', it's easy enough to control. But if you want to 'tinker' then it does allow quite a fine degree of control. "Free" doesn't mean worthless with these products.

Hanslow

I'm on NTL and got a combined Netgear hardware firewall/router with wireless capabilities. Think it's a FM114P or something like that.

I also run zone alarm as well as it tends to catch a lot of .exe files and things that are emailed and changes them to a zone alarm extension.

Not that I click on email attachments that look dubious

If you want a hardware firewall, mine has made zone alarm silent, then have a look on http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk. They have some useful information pages on there as well IIRC.

paulr

Thanks.

(I have also read that Norton affects pc performance btw.)

Iain Young

Actually the latest version of Norton firewall (in Internet Security 2004) is pretty good, and allows you to tinker with loads of settings, opening up ports to specific programs, different security zones etc. Not noticed any speed issues with it either (to be honest, ZoneAlarm was worse).

I had to give up using ZoneAlarm as I had loads of compatibility problems (ZoneAlarm kept hanging the machine), but if it works for you then it fair enough...

paulr

Thanks.

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

Whoa whoa whoa, here is a complete gem that will do an excellent job for the home user, is very stable and easy to update, configure and tweak etc:

Every single person with cable that I know and have recommended this to love it to bits:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=35433

I would take a hardware firewall over a software one every time and none of them have had a single attack get through one of these boxes in the year+ that I have been recommending them.

Cheers,

Nick

kamikaze

have had adsl since july
personally i cant be bothered with a firewall
too much hassle configuring for games etc

my norton antivirus picks up any worm/viruses

so far have had no problems

Mr.Cookie

Kamikaze

Nortons etc will only pick stuff up that it knows about and once comprimised your screwed, i'm personally behind a hardware firewall and each machine runs some form of software firewall plus antivirus and i routinely do a housecall virus check and port scan

Si
Ps Might be overkill but i doubt it

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

That RP614 and the DG834 need absolutely no special configs for any games that I have played or have anyone with those boxes that I know. Unbox, plug in, login, put connection details and preferences in, update firmware, forget it is there for the forseable future

Don't take this the wrong way please, but running no firewall is nuts imo

Kevin Mc

Defo get a firewall - after reinstalling Windows on my laptop, I went onto the internet to get ZoneAlarm. Almost immediately, I got a virus (through a port) can't remember which one, but ZA would have stopped it without problem. Pain in the 4rse that this is a must these days, but there you go.

ajm

I am personally not a fan of software based firewall solutions but I guess they are cheap and easy to implement if you aren't too technically minded.

I used a netgear RO318 router when I had cable, and now use a Draytek Vigour 2600 router/ADSL modem. Can recommend both, especially the Vigor which has a nice VPN implementation which works with most commercial VPN solutions such as Cisco so is useful for hooking up the the work network etc. It is also highly configurable.

PPPscooby

defintely get a Hardware firewall, netgears one is easy to setup

I bought a netgear DG834g 54mb wireless router/modem/firewall for £130. Its an all in one unit, firewall on this unit is very good, and also has VPN pass thru, check specs out on the web.

Chris L

Kamikaze by name and by nature it would seem - give me your IP address sometime and I'll see what I can do with your non-firewalled PC

This is a never ending question. My answer from a professional point of view (I do IT Security for a living) would be that anything is better than nothing. A lot depends on the type of sites you are going to access. Some places on the Internet would require you to have a lot more protection than others. From the point-of-view of a general user (which I'm assuming you are), then good up-to-date antivirus, a well patched PC and a decent software based firewall should be sufficient to keep you safe from all but very determined attacks.

My personal preference would be for something like Sygate. It is well respected, stable and takes up very little of your PC's resources. I know of many large organisations who deploy Sygate's software firewalls as a means of host protection (first line firewall protection on laptops etc)

The general view that a dedicated hardware firewall is ultimately the better solution is true, although at this stage I don't think you need to be going down this route.

Most of the attacks and worms commonly found on the Internet rely on ignorance and laziness (Kamikaze are you reading....). You will eventually get hit by something. If you don't have some means of montioring your internal and external connections, how do you know if someone is trying to get in?

Good security is about stealth - the less you give away, the less likely you are to be noticed and targeted. Personal software firewalls will go a long way to achieving this. If you make it hard for someone, they will normally look elsewhere, there is always someone who hasn't been as careful as you...

Chris

greasemonkey

C'mon Chris, you really need to ask Kamikaze to give you his IP address? Surely VBulletin is already set up to reveal poster IP's to mods?

Chris L

I was making a point - Give me a little time....

I do get slightly annoyed when I see this kind of thing posted, because everything you need to protect yourself is available free. My inbox is still overflowing with crappy 'MyDoom' emails because people can't be bothered to protect themselves.

Anti virus software will NOT stealth your PC, it will NOT close 'open' ports, it will NOT prevent someone from establishing a connection to your PC and accessing files and stealing information (or worse).

Chris