firewalls, security, system works Q.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Norton's Internet Security package. Mostly because it just annoys me but if you have a router and have it's firewall features turned on, have Sygate (or some other firewall) running and have any anti-virus software running then you have all the security you are going to reasonably need.

Adding Norton's package doubles what you already have. That tends to slow down your system and has the potential for creating a lot of problems with other apps.

I'd rather see one properly configured app running than 2 or 3 apps running with the default (or just plain wrong) settings.

I'm with fishin' on this one. . . Norton has a good antivirus, but I don't like their firewall or their bundled pack. . . frankly, it's a lot of money to pay for what they give you. He's right that you should have all the security you could ever need. . . techtv did a very good set of articles on internet security bundles, firewalls, antivirus software, and the like a couple weeks ago and they weren't too fond of Norton in general. . .

If you're worried about security above and beyond what you've got, they actually favored the freebie software over the subscription suites. . . I haven't quite figured out the full set of rules on link posting quite yet, but they're techtv(.com), if you're interested :-)

Thanks fishin and Ash(!). It seemed a bit of an over-kill to me. Now to get my system "properly configured".

tehe. . . that hazy world of proper configuration. . . thank god for my mac. . . I couldn't handle it if anyone were actually writing viruses for my system :-)

sigh
I got that blaster virus and my system hasn't been the same since. I'm afraid to reinstall by myself.

ahhhh. . . that's a nasty one. I got over 500 blaster emails on my defunct yahoo account (courtesy of that good ole Abuzz mailing list- remember? had to abandon that account).

oh, I haven't even checked into my yahoo acct. I wonder if it still exists.

those things are breeding grounds for viruses. . .

NIS (formerly AtGuard till Norton bought them out) is garbage, really, and the router already is a firewall anyway.

If you want to implement a little security with regard to outgoing traffic (i.e. catch trojans or spyware in the act of phoning home), just use the free version of ZoneAlarm. Set it to minimum security. Even at minimum, ZA still always blocks outgoing traffic from any given program till you say it's ok. So then you have the router blocking incoming, and ZA blocking outgoing, and you're pretty much as set as most any home user needs to be.

ANY given program sending outward messages? All of them? How often would I expect to get a window asking permission?

Yes, any program. Don't panic, though. When ZA asks "do you want to aloow <program name> to access the internet?" there is a checkbox that says "remember my answer for this program." So it's not like you have to constantly give permission left and right to various and sundry programs.

The free version (which is really all you need when you have a hardware firewall (the router)), can be found here: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Thanks Hipsterdoofus. But but but, won't it interfere with my morrowind playing? Hehehe. I'm kidding. kind of.