dzJeepChic 2,565 Posted November 21, 2010 As you may know, George's (Number 7) computer has been out of commission for a week or so. TheKsmith found time in his busy schedule to visit today and re-install XP and the other goodies George needs to cruise the internet and receive/send email. 4 hours of watching programs slowly load (or sometimes not load), this has to be a computer guy's most boring of all jobs. So George's PC is up & running and he's certain to check in here sooner or later, so let's welcome the big lug back! Oh, and be sure to remind him: "No Downloads, No Downloads, No Downloads!" Like a mantra. . . Thanks Kdude, you're my hero! Not only do I not have to share my workstation anymore, I don't have to buy a new PC. d Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Number7 87 Posted November 22, 2010 Good to be back. Thanks K! George:cool: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stuckey 0 Posted November 22, 2010 Yeah I learned the same way. No more downloads for me either. Glad to have you back #7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tyche 0 Posted November 25, 2010 As you may know, George's (Number 7) computer has been out of commission for a week or so. TheKsmith found time in his busy schedule to visit today and re-install XP and the other goodies George needs to cruise the internet and receive/send email. 4 hours of watching programs slowly load (or sometimes not load), this has to be a computer guy's most boring of all jobs. So George's PC is up & running and he's certain to check in here sooner or later, so let's welcome the big lug back! Oh, and be sure to remind him: "No Downloads, No Downloads, No Downloads!" Like a mantra. . . Thanks Kdude, you're my hero! Not only do I not have to share my workstation anymore, I don't have to buy a new PC. d Diane and George, Just a suggestion (if you haven't already done so): 1. Get a GOOD firewall. (I have 2, actually. One hardware - my router acts as a firewall - and one software) 2. Get a GOOD anti-virus program that will scan your emails (and attachments) and any downloads you intend to make. Alternate suggestion: Get an operating system that is not as susceptible to virus attacks, such as Linux. Craig Tyche Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dzJeepChic 2,565 Posted November 25, 2010 Diane and George, Just a suggestion (if you haven't already done so): 1. Get a GOOD firewall. (I have 2, actually. One hardware - my router acts as a firewall - and one software) 2. Get a GOOD anti-virus program that will scan your emails (and attachments) and any downloads you intend to make. Alternate suggestion: Get an operating system that is not as susceptible to virus attacks, such as Linux. Craig Tyche Hey Craig, thanks for the advice. Questions for you: what do you consider a 'good' software firewall, AND what do you consider a good anti-virus? I've not been impressed with either I've used in the past. I need to re-install both on G's PC, hopefully he won't click any uglies until I have time. Diane Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tyche 0 Posted November 25, 2010 Hey Craig, thanks for the advice. Questions for you: what do you consider a 'good' software firewall, AND what do you consider a good anti-virus? I've not been impressed with either I've used in the past. I need to re-install both on G's PC, hopefully he won't click any uglies until I have time. Diane It's been a LONG time since I handled a Windows machine. At that time Zone Alarm was about the best firewall. It did not only emails and downloads, but did REVERSE fire walling (nothing goes out except to where you want it to go). As for anti-virus protection, I was using PC-Cillin (BTW, that was at work. I'd convinced the company I worked for to install them both on all the company computers). The ones such as Norton, McAfee and Symantic, according to reports at the time, were throwing too many false positives, and allowing too many new viruses to get through before they got the signatures to be able to eliminate them. You might look into whether ClamAV has a Windows version (it does, I just checked. See: http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/about/win32/ ), or check out AVG. AVG has (or at least used to have) a free version for Windows, though their paid version is much better. The best anti-virus protection I've found so far, though, is to NOT run Windows. I've been running nothing but Linux since 2004 and NEVER get viruses. The reason is simple - no viruses are written for Linux. Modern Linux distributions don't run in administrative mode, therefore viruses can't attach themselves to the operating system and cause havoc. (In addition, most modern Linux distributions - or at least the most popular ones - come with a web browser, email client, and a full range of software that includes an office productivity suite, graphics tools, multi-media tools and players, etc. The cost ranges from the cost of the media plus shipping and handling (somewhere in the range of $3 to #10) to FREE (I'm of Scottish descent. I LIKE that word: FREE). Many are very simple to install, plus you not only get updates to the operating system but to any installed software. And there are support groups for some of the major distributions. Hope this helps, Craig Tyche Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ladybug 505 Posted November 25, 2010 It's good to have #7 back!!! And I'll be interested to hear about the firewalls too.... smiles, ladybug Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
macinyart 8 Posted November 27, 2010 For what it is worth, I am using an antiviral program put out by kaspersky on my WIN 7 laptop. It seems to be doing OK for the last couple of years. The recommendation for Linux is excellent advice, and again for what it is worth, the latest Macs are run on an OS that is very Linux-like. I suppose some day some little script vandal will write something for the Macs, but so far not so much. I have been impressed with WIN 7....it is very much like my Macbook Pro in the user interface. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tyche 0 Posted November 28, 2010 For what it is worth, I am using an antiviral program put out by kaspersky on my WIN 7 laptop. It seems to be doing OK for the last couple of years. The recommendation for Linux is excellent advice, and again for what it is worth, the latest Macs are run on an OS that is very Linux-like. I suppose some day some little script vandal will write something for the Macs, but so far not so much. I have been impressed with WIN 7....it is very much like my Macbook Pro in the user interface. macinyart, Years ago (back when I was using SysVR4 UNIX on a company computer) I heard about a UNIX virus. It was an honor system virus. The recipient was supposed to email it to everyone he/she knew then delete is operating system and reboot. Yes, it was a hoax. But it underlined the security of a UNIX or UNIX-like system. It is still the most effective Linux virus around, and even someone new to computing can see how stupid it is and resist it. Craig Tyche PS:: For those that are truly paranoid (I'm not quite there yet) there is SELinux (SE stands for Security Enhanced), developed by the National Security Agency (your tax dollars at work). It isn't a distribution, but rather a set of additions on top of an existing Linux distribution, and is available with most (if not all ) major Linux Distributions. To give you an idea of how effective it is, make one tiny mistake in setting it up and you will NEVER be able to get into your system. The only recourse, then, is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything (I know. LEARN from my mistakes. Hee hee) CAE Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
