Security Systems on connection

[bigal2]

Well, i was thinking, whats THE best way to keep your stuff safe?

My current config is:

http://www.hellzbellz.net/sysconfig.jpg

there, the end one (medion) is mie and has sygate firewall, AVG antivirus etc.
Its well maintained, all updates etc.

The one in the middle is my dads, it has win 98, bit crappy bud does all he wants it to do, it has avg (i think) no firewall, needs a big clean up really!

The one on the left is the compaq 1ghz, its alright spec, but is a bit naf, it could do with a reformat (Well i think so) and i would put xp home on it and get it working nicely with mine! I was wondering, what could i do to spice up the security a bit though?

[compynei]

Originally Posted by bigal2

Well, i was thinking, whats THE best way to keep your stuff safe?

My current config is:

http://www.hellzbellz.net/sysconfig.jpg

there, the end one (medion) is mie and has sygate firewall, AVG antivirus etc.
Its well maintained, all updates etc.

The one in the middle is my dads, it has win 98, bit crappy bud does all he wants it to do, it has avg (i think) no firewall, needs a big clean up really!

The one on the left is the compaq 1ghz, its alright spec, but is a bit naf, it could do with a reformat (Well i think so) and i would put xp home on it and get it working nicely with mine! I was wondering, what could i do to spice up the security a bit though?

Seriously look at getting a firewall on all of these. Do you not have one in your router? www.zonealarm.com may help. Not personal choice but still. Works for beginners

[bigal2]

Originally Posted by compynei

Seriously look at getting a firewall on all of these. Do you not have one in your router? www.zonealarm.com may help. Not personal choice but still. Works for beginners

SO get the other two all going with firewalls and Virus stuff? I can do that. I was thinking of maby getting another one from somewhere (about 300mhz and putting linux on it, make it a hardware firewall too!

[rdhw]

Originally Posted by bigal2

whats THE best way to keep your stuff safe?

If all your PCs are behind the router, then the router behaves as a firewall, and prevents all unsolicited traffic from getting to the PCs. So firewalls on the individual PCs are of limited benefit, and indeed they might even interfere with PC-to-PC traffic on the LAN. The only point to having a firewall on each PC is that some firewalls can detect unexpected outgoing traffic, that might alert you to the presence of spyware or trojans.

But a well-managed PC should not have spyware or trojans on it anyway, so your time would be better spent preventing such things becoming installed in the first place. So you should have a good anti-vrius system running at all times, and from time to time you should run AdAware or SpyBot Search and Destroy to eliminate downloaded malware.

A good strategy for keeping a PC clean is not to use Outlook or Outlook Express as an e-mail client. The majority of e-mail borne viruses and worms exploit weaknesses in those mailers to infect other users' systems. I regularly receive e-mail viruses which would have infected my PC if I had so much as previewed them in Outlook Express: but because I use a different mailer, I can view them without worries.

[bigal2]

Originally Posted by rdhw

If all your PCs are behind the router, then the router behaves as a firewall, and prevents all unsolicited traffic from getting to the PCs. So firewalls on the individual PCs are of limited benefit, and indeed they might even interfere with PC-to-PC traffic on the LAN. The only point to having a firewall on each PC is that some firewalls can detect unexpected outgoing traffic, that might alert you to the presence of spyware or trojans.

But a well-managed PC should not have spyware or trojans on it anyway, so your time would be better spent preventing such things becoming installed in the first place. So you should have a good anti-vrius system running at all times, and from time to time you should run AdAware or SpyBot Search and Destroy to eliminate downloaded malware.

A good strategy for keeping a PC clean is not to use Outlook or Outlook Express as an e-mail client. The majority of e-mail borne viruses and worms exploit weaknesses in those mailers to infect other users' systems. I regularly receive e-mail viruses which would have infected my PC if I had so much as previewed them in Outlook Express: but because I use a different mailer, I can view them without worries.

Thanks alot! Ill keep that in mind!