Kathy, on 05 August 2013 - 06:27 AM, said:
You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Not that I expected anything useful when you can't deal with pop-up messages, but I thought you wouldn't at least spread complete misinformation.
I believe Ms. Radar was thinking about the Windows UAC (User Account control) and not the firewall service. Depending on the level of security most people should only have one real firewall and it should be on the perimeter of their network. (A hardware appliance like a router). Anyone who has high speed internet and directly connects their PC to the internet can be asking for trouble. However, any computer device inside the local home network is less critical and exceptions can be made to trust the local subnet so that its easier to share services on the internal home network. Microsoft Windows has Firewall Profiles to choose what level of firewall security you want for each network you are connecting to shortly after the connection is established.
Disabling the built in Windows Firewall is just plain dumb.
Disabling the Microsoft firewall service / security center service will not significantly speed up your computer or file transfers by having it turned off. Typically those who disable these services have no clue what they are doing and rather than learn about it, they just shut these services off. There is a reason these services exist and it is in your better interest to leave these services on to prevent against infections on the local subnet which another local PC might be trying to exploit vulnerabilities within the remote windows services on the same network. If you have a portable device which travels between multiple different public networks a local hardened software firewall would be recommended to prevent people from accessing your information while you roam. (Choose the Public Firewall Policy when connected to any Public network).
Anti-Virus software can be very over rated and give a person a false sense of security. It really depends on how and what people are doing with their computers. The best prevention against any infection is having an educated user at the computer. You can have 5000 dollars worth of Anti Virus protection protecting your PC on the hardware and software level but as long as some user executes or accepts to run something malicious that infection can trump all protection running as an administrator or root. Anti Virus software cannot guarantee 100 percent protection. Personally, I don't think it can guarantee 85 percent protection since now days most malware can effectively work its way around most Antivirus Products then use Trojans to do the rest of the dirty work. Not any one antivirus product can stop all infections. Some products focus on certain types of infections better than others but it all depends on the type of infection you get. There are many flavours of infections out there and each Antivirus product has its strengths and weaknesses.
Microsoft Security Essentials would be considered an absolute bare minimum level of protection and if you can't afford a paid solution then at least you have a free minimal level of protection provided by Microsoft. When Microsoft Security Essentials disappears from your system tray then you know you probably have an infection and to get your PC serviced properly.
I would say Antivirus software is good to have to report the system health & operation. Once your Anti-Virus malfunctions or stops loading at start-up then there's a need for concern.
People who do online banking or make purchases online and refuse to use antivirus are just plain ignorant and they are taking big risks.
People who download torrents take big risks too and I would recommend having some type of decent Anti-Virus solution in place.
There are two paid solutions for Antivirus I can strongly recommend:
1) ESET NOD32 (
http://www.eset.com/us/) coupled with Malware bytes Pro (
http://www.malwareby...lwarebytes_pro/). Malware Bytes Pro is a one time fee and you get free updates for life. Well worth it!
2) Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 (
http://www.symantec....oint-protection)
Keep in mind most Symantec home antivirus is shit. Endpoint protection isn't something you'll find in your retail box stores. It's typically used for enterprise and the business sector and it kicks the shit out of most products sporting a small memory foot print consuming little resources in the background and it typically lasts longer than 1 year for a subscription. I can run the same version of Symantec Endpoint Protection for 5 Years before thinking about replacing it. It also comes with a minimum of 5 user licenses for 5 PC's and in the long run it's a cheaper AV solution then something you'd need to pay yearly for.
When deciding to purchase an Anti-virus solution don't spend the extra money on the upgraded Internet Security bundle that they try and up sell you. You don't need some third party product disabling Microsoft's Firewall service just so it can do the same damn thing. The built in Microsoft software firewall solution will chew up less system resources and provide the same coverage.
On top of this, if you are a parent and want free parental control on your home network I recommend OpenDNS (
http://www.opendns.com/) to do the web filtering and just update your DNS records on your router so anyone using your home internet connection will automatically benefit from Mal-ware/Botnets/Infections/porn protection. It works quite well.
If you're like me and use Netflix to watch movies and you want to be able to watch NetFlix Canada, Europe, USA and whatever else using an Unblock-Us DNS service then instead of using OpenDNS you can move to a software solution called K9 (
http://www1.k9webprotection.com/) for parental control and web filtering for each computer at your home. This also works quite well and both are easy to setup and best of all FREE.
After reading all this crap if you still think you are better off running without an Anti-virus solution because you think you are knowledgeable enough to not get infected. Well let me tell you something, YOU AREN'T! Infections are always evolving faster than you can learn about them which is why the AV companies are always lagging behind. No operating system whether its Linux Based, Unix Based, Mac Based or Windows Based is impermeable to infections.
Here are some BEST PRACTICES you can follow to help reduce the odds of getting an infection on your Microsoft Windows Computer and stay safe without compromising your computer for too long.
Step 1:
Never browse the internet on your computer unless you are only doing online banking and retail store purchases from legitimate companies using Firefox or Google Chrome. Never click on ads or Google Images. (The reason why I didn't list IE is because Firefox and Google Chrome have built in automatic black list checks they use when the browser reports an infected website it automatically gets blocked for all users using these browsers). They offer much better security then IE and they render web pages faster than IE. Bonus!
Step 2:
Create a Virtual Machine within Windows. Create a Vanilla Backup of this virtual machine once you've preloaded your torrent software.
Step 3: Use this virtual machine to do all your risky browsing and downloading & e-mailing. Run all downloads from within the virtual machine only. DO NOT do online banking or online purchasing from this virtual machine.
Step 4: When the Virtual machine gets infected simply delete it and copy the vanilla backup image back to the main virtual machine folder and re-launch the virtual machine. This starts from a fresh copy and over writes any chances of any infection.
If you follow these 4 simple steps carefully you can reduce the impact of an infection. But I would still recommend an Anti-virus solution on the PC itself to protect against infected removable media you may introduce to the system. (Floppies\USB Sticks\USB Hard-drives etc..) Even reputable websites get hacked and compromised infecting PC's that visit them. So it's always good to have a first layer of defence.
If possible: Stay away from installing Sun Java & Adobe Flash. Some nasty infections come from exploited websites that utilize these plugins.
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