If everyone was behind a NAT, used a good bi-directional firewall, and a good AVP the net won't be such a snakepit that it's turned into.

And then there's spam, although I actually see very little of it...for that I suggest impaling the senders, like Count Vlad used to do to naughty people. That's a kid friendly history lesson...see Transylvania.

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Account frozen...

It should be noted that no one package/program is perfect. Yes, some are better than others, but in all the 'independent' AV test reports I have seen (I don't consider the company's own tests of their product against others since I perceive bias in them) not one single program has ever gotten a perfect score of 100 (catch everything).

So people should not think that 'my one program' is enough and is perfect. I never rely on a single line of defence. I believe in multiple lines of defence.

Yes Spybot is free, but it does also have an immunization feature, which they claim: "Beginning with version 1.2, Spybot-S&D has been allowing you to immunize your computer against some spyware. This has been extended in every further release, and tweaks browser settings to use their methods of blocking cookies, malware installations, bad websites and more." To me this can be a good thing. How many, how much and how well it does this is probably debatable, but preventive action is better than responding after the event. If it prevents some stuff it is a good thing. As for today 31 Oct 2007 @ 11:15am AEST, my Spybot installation claims to have immunized me against 75,334 'things'. That's a lot. If it truly has then I see that as a good thing. Even if it doesn't against all, but only some than it is still good. Of course it could lull people into a sense of false security.

I like ZoneAlarm with AV because it watches programs going out and accepting incoming connections. It also notices when a program has changed (eg. updating Firefox it knows the program has changed and tells me and ask me should it be let out). It also watches what programs do and if one wishes to use another it asks me should it be allowed. If a program accesses the registry it picks that up as well and asks me to allow it. Hell, it even tells me that a program wants to monitor the keyboard and/or mouse (like on my laptop, the driver for the touchpad needs to monitor the touchpad so it knows how what I am doing so that the OS can update the mouse etc and ZoneAlarm asks me if this is okay).

However, part of stopping nasties getting on to your system is the behavior, knowledge and education of the user(s).

But while I have multiple programs etc, I also want them to be efficient as I want to get a lot of crunching done for Seti and Boinc. So I don't want to waste resources unnecessarily.

I note that it seems we have moved from Boinc safety to Internet safety. Does this mean we are going off topic or just expanding our topic?

Another good spyware blocking app I used with SpyBot is SpywareBlaster v3.5.1. You can get it from download.com.

SpyBot also has a section that places known bad url's in the HOSTS file. It sends those url's back to your local host @ 127.0.0.1.

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Calm Chaos Forum...Join Calm Chaos Now

If everyone was behind a NAT, used a good bi-directional firewall, and a good AVP the net won't be such a snakepit that it's turned into.

Who needs bi directional. The only incomming packets through my firewall are response packets.

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BOINC WIKI

If everyone was behind a NAT, used a good bi-directional firewall, and a good AVP the net won't be such a snakepit that it's turned into.

Who needs bi directional. The only incomming packets through my firewall are response packets.

An outgoing firewall checks which allowed applications are allowed to communicate with the internet. If by any chance some malware which has gotten on your computer, as if your AVP missed it or didn't recognize it hueristically, the firewall would alert you and ask for permissions or denial. If you spotted something strange, you could then take further action. Some firewalls are also configured to recognize behavior that is not in keeping with safe practices during outbound communications, and can recognize secure data going out which shouldn't normally be allowed.

If you install a new app., like Boinc, your firewall will alert you to the new outbound connection attempt, you see that it is the app you just installed and trust, then you give it permission. Also an outbound firewall allows you to limit and restrict which ports are allowed to communicate (port filtering).

In other words, it is just another gate to protect your computers privacy and data, and works like a last resort check point.

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Account frozen...

If everyone was behind a NAT, used a good bi-directional firewall, and a good AVP the net won't be such a snakepit that it's turned into.

Who needs bi directional. The only incomming packets through my firewall are response packets.

An outgoing firewall checks which allowed applications are allowed to communicate with the internet. If by any chance some malware which has gotten on your computer, as if your AVP missed it or didn't recognize it hueristically, the firewall would alert you and ask for permissions or denial. If you spotted something strange, you could then take further action. Some firewalls are also configured to recognize behavior that is not in keeping with safe practices during outbound communications, and can recognize secure data going out which shouldn't normally be allowed.

If you install a new app., like Boinc, your firewall will alert you to the new outbound connection attempt, you see that it is the app you just installed and trust, then you give it permission. Also an outbound firewall allows you to limit and restrict which ports are allowed to communicate (port filtering).

In other words, it is just another gate to protect your computers privacy and data, and works like a last resort check point.

Exactly. You would be surprised at the amount of programs that like to go out and access the Internet for any odd reason. Firewall that watches outgoing traffic lets you have control over that.

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Never surrender and never give up. In the darkest hour there is always hope.