Re: Another Newbie asking "Which Anti-Virus Sofware is the Best?"

Thanks for the long reply, Art.

Can you elaborate a little more on what makes online gaming insecure or
is it enough to say that you just can't have a secure system if there
is online gaming going on?

I plan to have XP autoupdate but I don't always do it now becuase with
dial-up it can be a real drag when I don't have time to deal with it.
As for OE, I don't have the preview pane on and I never open any
attachments. I don't know if it's text only, but I'll look into it.
Sometimes I get emails from friends with colors or different font
sizes. I'll look into it. I'm guessing this is about security holes
and spammers calling home via some images.

I will get a external hardware firewall. Sounds like an all around
good idea. But I guess I should also keep using a software based
firewall too. I can't say I've tried many, but I've been happy with
Zone Alarm (free version). Does a hardware firewall require updating
the way a software based on does?

Another thing I need to shed is my ignorance regarding routers and
external firewalls. I guess they are essentially the same thing? The
router, like a software firewall, keeps only certain ports open while
closing or hiding those that aren't needed. I can see the advantage of
a router/firewall, but they do the same thing as a software based one,
right?

I'm heeding your warning about M$ software. My wife doesn't get on as
much and I'm leering of using software that she's unfamiliar with or
that doesn't have all the bells and whistles she expects when browsing.
That said, I do try to keep IE a sort of plain jane. I'm currently
looking into other options.

I like your idea of a back up hard drive as an alternative so an actual
second PC. Might be nice if I could hot swap them somehow. I'll have
to look into that more.

Didn't mean to bad mouth KAV. I wanna say I read it in a review
somewhere that it scans every hour, but that was, at worst, probably
just a feature that could be enabled by choice.

If I download, update and run the top 3 or 4
anti-spyware/anti-trojain/anti-malware type apps and I come up clean,
is it pretty safe to assume that (at least for the time being) I'm free
of malware? Or is there just too much of it outthere that isn't
tracked?

I'm a little confused about the "user" accounts as used by XP. I only
have one user account. Is that different from the administrator
account, if there is such a thing? I know I have full privledges as
the user account so it's never been a functional problem. I've heard
you should set a password for loggging in but would be a real bother to
type it in every time I restart the computer. Other than that, what
are the security issues surrounding user accounts for XP, if any, and
what is considered the wisest approach? One thing I've notice from
anti-spyware scanners is that I'll get tracking cookies that track me
by my user account name. I always wipe them clean, but the next time I
get caught by one I assume they just pick up from where they left off.
Is there a way to change just your user account name in XP while
keeping everything else exactly the same?

Wow, there's so much good information here. I've read through most of
the other posts already and I'm trying to be prompt in my replies but
I'm trying to do a little background on the info and terms so I'm not
wasting everyone's time asking terribly basic questions. I'm very
happy with the hospitality of this group and I really am trying to
respond to other posters as soon as I can but first I'm trying do a
little researching, digesting, and thought gathering.

Thanks again Art.

.

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