The Mad Professor said:Without protection the average user has about ten minutes before the machine becomes infected. It's a sobering thought.
Actually not.Nigel Goodwin said:You would have to be particularly stupid to get infected in 10 minutes!
To catch a virus you have to download and run something - the most comon method of spreading them is by email, and as most are targeted against Outlook and Outlook Express it's a good reason NOT to use them. If you're not downloading emails then that takes care of the biggest problem.
Next is downloading files and running them, particularly from dodgy sources, so if you don't do that, then the next biggest problem is overcome.
I suppose the next problem is direct infection from web pages?, probably the biggest risk here is spyware, but you can catch virus's that way as well. Easiest simple 'improvement' is to increase the browser security and disable all the dangerous facilities like Java or VB scripts.
But I would suggest the first thing you should do is use a router with an in-built firewall, that stops direct attacks on your machine.
?Styx said:Actually not.
so question how do you protect yr machine from vuln that exist within the OS and hte only way to patch those vuln is to connect to the internet...
since SP2 for XP there as been over 100patch released for XP, until SP3 is released that can be d/l onto another machine AND then patch a fresh XP isolated from the net (to then upgrade all the other software) THEN you will just get infected!!
since I am re-building my PC in Nov/Dec I am faced with the prospect of when I goto install XP, even with NOD32 & Kerio install I shall be vuln for at least 5min untill the relevant patches are inplace...
so tell my what to do.
the internet is like a cheep dutch brothel, would you go into one unprotected? but what if the protection you needed was in the brothel?
Also a router with a built-in firewall are ONLY NAT firewall and only protect against packet-attacks (invalid CP/IP packets), the MS-Blast worm was valid TCP/IP data and passed through EVERY single hardware firewall their was. Since most PC's at that time needed the RPC port open the data was not stopped by software firewall, allowing the MS-Blast worm to buffer-overflow RPC and execute local root/Admin command to d/l a remote file (the main virus) to infect yr machine and then spread on
i have been using a win98 for past 3 yrs ,(it has avg) and it has never got any virus. yes i do take precautions .an unpatch Windows ### will get infected within 5min on connection to the internet!!
Nigel Goodwin said:You would have to be particularly stupid to get infected in 10 minutes!
The Mad Professor said:Patches for WinXp are available for download as self installing EXE files through third party I.T. support sites , "Genuine Advantage" does not need to be installed in order to recive these. With these burnt to disc there is no need to connect to the net in an unpatched state ever again after reloading the OS.
That's because virus authors are not interested in old OS's anymore. Any pc that running important programs etc isn't using Win 98, 95 and so on.akg said:i have been using a win98 for past 3 yrs ,(it has avg) and it has never got any virus. yes i do take precautions .
again disabling scripting will disable a large amount of functionality in the browse (sure it has vulnerabilities) , most of the spy ware comes in the form of ActiveX , taking care of that will help a lot
then another one .. my office pc is connected to net and is xp , but not received any virus till date .HiTech said:That's because virus authors are not interested in old OS's anymore. Any pc that running important programs etc isn't using Win 98, 95 and so on.
HiTech said:Anytime I reload an OS, I always do it without network connections. All updates, patches, drivers, and spyware pgms. are first loaded onto CD discs beforehand and installed prior to any network connectivity. Then the anitvirus software is the last pgm. to get installed and updated. What a joy it is to reinstall XP compared to 98SE and the older systems!
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