Shoutbox

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Originally posted by lhunath
Sean, turn off all your firewalls etc, then say the same thing again.

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There off atm... You have 5 min..

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Originally posted by lhunath
Meaning that they run with the defaults and cannot, because they don't know how to, set up a decent and secure system. I do not believe the windows firewall to be on by default, although I'm not sure about that.

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Windows default configuration is pretty secure, but I agree with you that it should be more secure (talking about IE's settings).
When you set up a new connection, the firewall is on by default. And SP2 emphasizes how important the use of the firewall is.

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Originally posted by lhunath
Now, as for commen sense, yes, that's the one and main thing that keeps you clean, even more so than any virusscanner, firewall, etc. But how many, as for the target of the Windows OS, home users have that kind of commen sense?

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But that's the user's fault, not the OS!! You were complaining about Windows not being trustworthy, but remember that when you download something, Windows warns you that it could be dangerous, yet the unexperienced people don't read that (even when there's a warning icon) and open the file, so whose fault is it? That would happen with any OS!

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Originally Posted by lopardo
I never used any virus scanner, never found a really good one, so I just don't open suspicious files (common sense) and I never got infected. Windows XP has its own firewall, and does its job pretty darn well, so you don't need third party software. So, I agree 100% with WDZ and saralk.

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I used the XP Firewall and it didnt work one bit.It let all sorts of stuff in, I was being hacked all the time, Keylogs all over my computer, finaly i had to buy Windows XP Pro and never use Home edition. At that same time I got a diffrent net connection with a 60$ monthly fee for a fire wall. And even then, it still lets stuff in, it may not look like you have a virus, but it can be hidden you know.

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Originally posted by Vantage
It let all sorts of stuff in, I was being hacked all the time, Keylogs all over my computer, finaly i had to buy Windows XP Pro and never use Home edition. At that same time I got a diffrent net connection with a 60$ monthly fee for a fire wall. And even then, it still lets stuff in, it may not look like you have a virus, but it can be hidden you know.

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Sorry, pal, but you have done something wrong... The firewall is the same in Windows XP Home and Professional... It protects you from outside access. If you open "weird" programs (like trojans or spyware) then there's nothing the firewall can do for you... It's not an antivirus, once you execute a virus or trojan, it can do whatever it wants...

I know but when i bought Windows XP Pro i Used another firewall since XP Home was infected.

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Originally posted by Sean
There off atm... You have 5 min..

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Damn, too late =P

lol, most common people are soo easy to fool, my father constantly downloads adware and such from misleading ads. And emails...50% of my emails contain worms, trojans and viruses, and don't tell me that the Win XP firewall will keep me safe from that. Only time I've ever seen the WinXP firewall at work is when it sometimes screws up my lan.

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Originally posted by Shadow D
don't tell me that the Win XP firewall will keep me safe from that

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No but that is what common sence is for.

I've only ever had a trojan on my computer when i went all script kiddy back when i was a young un, and decided installing Sub-zero was a good idea.
Bring on 21 Different Trojans.
Now a days i've got some common sence, and my computer is, spy/adware/viri/trojan/anyother junk. Free.
I use zonealarm, because i find it more user freindly than the windows one. Plus its like IE, a stand alone ap is generaly safer than something inbuilt in XP. Not that i'd care if i got hacked, i've hardly got top secret MI5 doc's on my computer

again, a firewall is not a virusscanner or spamfilter.

A pure firewall (which the buildin firewall is) will hold things back which aren't supposed to connect from the outside.

Emails are allowed of course (again the firewall is not a virusscanner or a mailspamchecker), and you are the one that opens attachments in emails, not the firewall. And I don't need a virusscanner to tell me that "moremoney.zip     .scr" is a virus or whatever....

So same with trojans and virusses; if you click and run a file which is in fact a virus or a trojan, it is not the firewall's fault, that's your uncommon sense (is that a word? ).

And indeed, those ads like "your pc is insecure, scan it now, click here!" or "you've won a big price, click here to collect" wont be held back, because that has nothing todo with a firewall.

But "hackers", trojans and virusses which are send directly to your PC without any mail or download protocol so to speak (like sasser, blaster, etc...) WILL be held back by the firewall.

The sad thing is, the more that big companies like Norton, etc. are developping special tools to make you even more lazier and not thinking, the more that the people will get paranoid and install all those things, while in fact, they are already well protected with their basic inbuild firewall, common virusscanner, and maybe their spamfilter. The rest should all be common sense...

quote:

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Originally posted by Shadow D
lol, most common people are soo easy to fool, my father constantly downloads adware and such from misleading ads. And emails...50% of my emails contain worms, trojans and viruses, and don't tell me that the Win XP firewall will keep me safe from that. Only time I've ever seen the WinXP firewall at work is when it sometimes screws up my lan.

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That's not Windows Firewall's purpose, it won't protect you from viruses/worms/trojans you open, it only blocks programs that try to access your computer from the outside.

EDIT: Damn you Cookie, you beat me! Anyways, I agree with you.