Cable Forum - View Single Post - Do Internet users know how to protect themselves???

Theodoric · 24-08-2003, 13:28

I agree with your general point that some people make no effort at all to protect their PCs but, in my experience, protecting a PC is not the easiest thing in the world, even for someone like myself who has used computers for quite a while. I'd say it was quite a bit more complicated than your examples of a home or a car.

I currently use Sygate for my firewall. I get a number of warnings about various programmes trying to broadcast to various sites out of my PC. These are normally totally meaningless to me. I suspect that they are benign but I haven't found an easy way to find out. Plugging the URL into the OE address box normally leads nowhere. Using a backtrace and Whois provides me with information that doesn't actually tell me anything; now if it said, "You have now reached ww.satan.org. Flee!!" it might be of some use to me, but it doesn't, it normally mentions some obscure organisation that I've never heard of. An example. I have spent this morning using the Sygate tests against various forms of computer attack. After they had finished I checked the security log which was full of attacks that I knew had come from the Sygate testing. Whois gave me some outfit called Verio. Verio? I don't know them from Adam. So I continue with my belt and braces approach of simply saying, "No", when Sygate warns me, but I am probably stopping something that would be of use to me.

Or take this Blaster worm. I've got Norton Antivirus and I've got a Sygate firewall. Is this good enough protection? I don't know. Warning messages are flying around like Armageddon is expected tomorrow, so I have to play safe and go through all the hassle of downloading and installing whatever protection is recommended.

24-08-2003, 13:28	#4
Theodoric Inactive Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: London Posts: 2,974	I agree with your general point that some people make no effort at all to protect their PCs but, in my experience, protecting a PC is not the easiest thing in the world, even for someone like myself who has used computers for quite a while. I'd say it was quite a bit more complicated than your examples of a home or a car. I currently use Sygate for my firewall. I get a number of warnings about various programmes trying to broadcast to various sites out of my PC. These are normally totally meaningless to me. I suspect that they are benign but I haven't found an easy way to find out. Plugging the URL into the OE address box normally leads nowhere. Using a backtrace and Whois provides me with information that doesn't actually tell me anything; now if it said, "You have now reached ww.satan.org. Flee!!" it might be of some use to me, but it doesn't, it normally mentions some obscure organisation that I've never heard of. An example. I have spent this morning using the Sygate tests against various forms of computer attack. After they had finished I checked the security log which was full of attacks that I knew had come from the Sygate testing. Whois gave me some outfit called Verio. Verio? I don't know them from Adam. So I continue with my belt and braces approach of simply saying, "No", when Sygate warns me, but I am probably stopping something that would be of use to me. Or take this Blaster worm. I've got Norton Antivirus and I've got a Sygate firewall. Is this good enough protection? I don't know. Warning messages are flying around like Armageddon is expected tomorrow, so I have to play safe and go through all the hassle of downloading and installing whatever protection is recommended.