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I know what your saying but the chances of my hardware failing are lower then the chances of me getting attacked. That's for ME. as for the 1st comment I agree I was just commenting on myself but it is not rare for a peice of backdoor code to be backed up as I've seen it many times with the suid perl hole on alot of servers I tested it made a backdoor and it was there a month later....I did this having premission to the network of course having a just back it up attitude is bad because your overlooking security when you should be looking at all aspects of the problem.

Dude, less than 0.01 % of the people here are running servers. For the average home user simply backing up the data is the easiest. They don't share the interest in security and simply will not patch every hole. So it's best for them to just save their bookmarks, word documents, digital pictures etc. And when all goes wrong they have backup.

But for advanced users it's, of course, best to do it all. Backup, stay patched etc etc.

Thing is, advanced techniques can cause more problems for a beginner than what they are supposed to prevent.

Complicated firewall setups might take the inexperienced user offline (and away from free help) while there was no real danger of them being exploited).

I was using suid as an example I could very easily do the same to a home user but NEVER attack a home PC as the only ppl who do so are script kiddies who want to cause damage, a D-Link router is not complicated even for a novice user. an attack is an attack ask how many ppl on this forum have had a virus I bet most have so yes they are at risk I agree most will not need the advanced measures I have posted but might like to look into them. Still use Sygate ATLEAST.

It's often easy to overestimate technical saavy. For some people opening a word document is a herculean task. ;-)

I HAVE heard things like "Ok I'm in File, Edit, Tools,..." and have learned not to overestimate technical capability.

These boards have few techies right now (though I am hoping to change that).

I'm just operating on a home network, here, and even though I'd like to think that I'm exciting enough to have to worry about sensitive files getting out, I'm not.

I'm not too spooked, I just don't want weird programs downloaded onto my system from some seemingly innocuous web page. I'm going to agree with both of you -- backups are necessary for docs that you don't want to lose, but with all the random viruses out there, I'm sure that a firewall is a good thing to have, as well. A backup, for me, is very small and isn't necessary even once a week, so that's no problem. With a firewall, I just don't want to waste my time with something that isn't going to work, or have a false sense of security, which is why I didn't bother with ZoneAlarm again.

Basically, all I want to avoid is having to reformat my hard drive and replace everything on it, and I know that with most viruses, that isn't necessary. But when it happens...pain in the butt.

I am interested in the wireless routers, though, and now I might be interested enough to do some actual research on them. It's nice to know that they're no more vulnerable than any other LAN.

One more question:

What is war chalking?

Using chalk to place a special symbol on a sidewalk or other surface that indicates a nearby wireless network, especially one that offers Internet access.

hmmmm....that's good to know.

Instant downloads from web sites


The Google toolbar is well known to contain spyware. Google says it's to make searching easier and more relevant for each individual. It's still a good search engine though, but I'll make do with a shortcut on my desktop.

You can turn the "spyware" features on and off. These claims are overrated by paranoid minds.

In any case Google does not use popups and in fact their toolbar is the best free/commercial popup blocker that is currently on the market.

the best popup blocker in my mind is a browser that does not support popups lol

I'd hate that. It would render many sites unuseable. I want to be able to control which popups I want.

I never tried the Google toolbar -- didn't know it worked as a pop-up blocker. cool

The new Mozilla, btw, lets you control which pop-ups you want or don't want.

Craven try Mozilla it is configureable and works with 90% of the sites out there plus it's more secure. I'm used to it as I run *nix on the server I admin.

I've used Mozilla. I am no fan.

I guess we all have our prefs....IE is the worst for security though and I find using Mozilla keeps my CPU useage down as I don't gotta use a popup blocker.....have you tried the newest mozilla or it's affiliates?

Yeah, I design sites so I often use multiple platforms for testing. I like IE's rendering despite the bloatware elements and the lack of tabbed windows.

safecracker,
can you provide a link to your comments about ZoneAlarm?

I don't have to put up with winblows much as my server is OpenBSD but ya I design sites as well when time and customers permit. Please tell me your not 1 of those "I can't program in C but I'm great at VB and flash" type ppl lol they get on my nerves. The comments are in this thread http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10597

I know nothing of VB and flash. As you can see from this site I use Linux, PHP, MySQL etc etc. All open source.

When I speak of IE I am referring to the fact that over 90% of a webdesigner's audience use IE and dealing with more than one buggy DOM is a pain.

Yes I understand that buddy I wasn't trying to dig at you in any way. VB teaches bad programming habbits I hate it. I use open source as well it is a great resource. What distro are you running of Linux? Sorry for getting off topic ppl