Forking Microsoft!!

[Jonyak]

You do have anti virus though, I hope?

Firewalls will letyou control what comes and goes through your connection..I really sunno whats bad about that, at least bad enough to deicde to disable one.

No I don't have antivirus... I don't need it, never have.

listen I am not some dumb computer user. I am a high level user. I build my rig myself, I control it myself. I maintain it myself. I know what I am doing.

I turned it off because I foud it really interferes with my online gaming and downloading. 2 things I do alot of.

antivirus programs are just bloatware. I have never gotten a virus. its all hype IMO.

 

[WickedPissah]

To think I've been putting off the ZoneAlarm update just for the sake of being lazy or whatever. I've been hitting "Remind me tomorrow" for a couple months.

Avast!, However has found a whole host of viruses for me.

 

[gdthomas]

No I don't have antivirus... I don't need it, never have.

listen I am not some dumb computer user. I am a high level user. I build my rig myself, I control it myself. I maintain it myself. I know what I am doing.

So you have the system turned off and it has never been connected to a network.

 

[Jonyak]

So you have the system turned off and it has never been connected to a network.

nope I have had it on the internet for over a year without formating and reinstalling anything.

it still runs great becauseI perform maintenance on it on a regular basis.

 

[Spikeh]

No I don't have antivirus... I don't need it, never have.

listen I am not some dumb computer user. I am a high level user. I build my rig myself, I control it myself. I maintain it myself. I know what I am doing.

I turned it off because I foud it really interferes with my online gaming and downloading. 2 things I do alot of.

antivirus programs are just bloatware. I have never gotten a virus. its all hype IMO.

All just hype... uhu... I've falen victim to two viruses in my life, each time when I've been on a PC without virus protection. I'm not including trojans here - those are nasty buggers if in the right hands.

One of the companies I worked for had the entire network wiped out by a virus once. I was there, I saw it, @ 13:13 one day, all the network drives were wiped. This was before Anti-Virus was a big thing.

If you use a Windows system, anti-virus and Firewall is mandatory. It doesn't matter what services you have turned on or off, there are ways in to systems if they are unprotected. I have worked as a network / security consultant before now and seen some really nasty corporate situations.

If you're as advanced as you say you are, you would configure your firewall and anti virus to allow you to do the things you want to do, and disallow everything else. You would also know not using a firewall or anti-virus is extremely dangerous. I have a hardware Cisco firewall and a router at home, I also manage multiple web servers with Cisco firewalls installed in front of them. I've also seen some pretty nasty hacks with web servers - two spring to mind - a CPU being burned out by a virus that overprocessed the machine and another where someone hacked in to an FTP server and made the entire hard drive unusable because they filled it with unreadable files.

Personally, I don't think you're telling the whole truth, or if you are, you're extremely lucky, and it'll happen to you some day if you don't do something about it.

 

[mjolnir]

All just hype... uhu... I've falen victim to two viruses in my life, each time when I've been on a PC without virus protection. I'm not including trojans here - those are nasty buggers if in the right hands.

One of the companies I worked for had the entire network wiped out by a virus once. I was there, I saw it, @ 13:13 one day, all the network drives were wiped. This was before Anti-Virus was a big thing.

If you use a Windows system, anti-virus and Firewall is mandatory. It doesn't matter what services you have turned on or off, there are ways in to systems if they are unprotected. I have worked as a network / security consultant before now and seen some really nasty corporate situations.

If you're as advanced as you say you are, you would configure your firewall and anti virus to allow you to do the things you want to do, and disallow everything else. You would also know not using a firewall or anti-virus is extremely dangerous. I have a hardware Cisco firewall and a router at home, I also manage multiple web servers with Cisco firewalls installed in front of them. I've also seen some pretty nasty hacks with web servers - two spring to mind - a CPU being burned out by a virus that overprocessed the machine and another where someone hacked in to an FTP server and made the entire hard drive unusable because they filled it with unreadable files.

Personally, I don't think you're telling the whole truth, or if you are, you're extremely lucky, and it'll happen to you some day if you don't do something about it.

As an IT tech, I fully agree with Spikeh here.

 

[Jonyak]

As an IT tech, I fully agree with Spikeh here.

I'm an electronic engineer.

I know what can go wrong. I am not running anything at my house that I care enough about that if it was wiped I would cry.

For large corporations and such, yes firewalls and antivirus programs are a must. but for the home user its really not that important.

I know how to configure it to allow things through, I really just don't want to put the time into doing it though, nor do I really care.

once again. I have been using, servicing and building computers for around 20+ years. I have NEVER personaly had a real virus problem.

I don't even get spyware anymore. I don't know what kind of sites you guys go to but I really don't see it as much of a problem.

 

[Stumbo]

you know... I have NEVER used a firewall. And I have NEVER had a virus or and hacker on my comp.

its not needed if you can keep you system maintained properly.

How do you maintain your system properly?

 

[DigMe]

I guess you should retitle the thread "forking McAfee!" then

bc

 

[Jonyak]

How do you maintain your system properly?

constantly cleaning out the registry, Defragging. Uninstalling useless software, setting up my boot so that that things that aren't system necessary are not run. I set restore points with a fresh system so that if anything goes down I can restore to it.

I have 2 drives, one for program and one for storage.

I don't download sketchy files, from sketchy websites. I don't open sketchy files.

there are lots of smll things you can do that sgnificantly reduce your personal risk.

 

[Spikeh]

constantly cleaning out the registry, Defragging. Uninstalling useless software, setting up my boot so that that things that aren't system necessary are not run. I set restore points with a fresh system so that if anything goes down I can restore to it.

I have 2 drives, one for program and one for storage.

I don't download sketchy files, from sketchy websites. I don't open sketchy files.

there are lots of smll things you can do that sgnificantly reduce your personal risk.

I do all that, but it still doesn't stop sh*t happening!

 

[Eric Perry]

I guess you should retitle the thread "forking McAfee!" then

bc

 

[Spikeh]

I know how to configure it to allow things through, I really just don't want to put the time into doing it though, nor do I really care.

At last, the truth! If you don't care, then the point is moot.

You seem to put a lot of time in to your PC regardless of how much you care though... at least you understand the importance of anti-virus and firewalls.

And as for firewalls not being required for the home user - I've had a DDOS attack ON my PC, and people have tried to use my PC as part of a DDOS before now too. A proper DDOS severely hinders your internet usage... and that's really not a good thing.

There could be things running in the background (hidden processes) that are using your PC for such things. People could have access to your filesystem without you knowing it. I tell you... I wouldn't want any of the information on my PC in a hackers hands... it'd cause me a lot of stress and headaches... stress and headaches my anti-virus and firewalls keep from happening!

 

[Jonyak]

At last, the truth! If you don't care, then the point is moot.

You seem to put a lot of time in to your PC regardless of how much you care though... at least you understand the importance of anti-virus and firewalls.

And as for firewalls not being required for the home user - I've had a DDOS attack ON my PC, and people have tried to use my PC as part of a DDOS before now too. A proper DDOS severely hinders your internet usage... and that's really not a good thing.

There could be things running in the background (hidden processes) that are using your PC for such things. People could have access to your filesystem without you knowing it. I tell you... I wouldn't want any of the information on my PC in a hackers hands... it'd cause me a lot of stress and headaches... stress and headaches my anti-virus and firewalls keep from happening!

I really don't use my computer to purchase anything either, so I don't even think I have any info on it that could be used against me...

I really only use it for games and music... thats it.

I play games on it and record and play music with it.

I liek to keep it running at peak performance.

 

[69nites]

you know... I have NEVER used a firewall. And I have NEVER had a virus or and hacker on my comp.

its not needed if you can keep you system maintained properly.

there's a lot of people who never lock the doors of their house and never get robbed too. Does that make it a good idea?

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

I guess you should retitle the thread "forking McAfee!" then

bc

That's good, except it was ZoneAlarm.

 

[Jonyak]

there's a lot of people who never lock the doors of their house and never get robbed too. Does that make it a good idea?

haha... I do that too....

mind you I live in the woods with no neibhors near me.... well there are cows...

 

[TheDarkReaver]

That's good, except it was ZoneAlarm.

well it was zonealarm+microsoft and then it was comodo+remnants of a mcafee application that came with my laptop.

 

[moomoocajoo]

No I don't have antivirus... I don't need it, never have.

listen I am not some dumb computer user. I am a high level user. I build my rig myself, I control it myself. I maintain it myself. I know what I am doing.

I turned it off because I foud it really interferes with my online gaming and downloading. 2 things I do alot of.

antivirus programs are just bloatware. I have never gotten a virus. its all hype IMO.

It really isn't.

 

[BassyBill]

As an IT tech, I fully agree with Spikeh here.

Another +1 here. Telling people who aren't technical that they don't need to use a firewall or any sort of AV software is the worst technical advice I've seen on here yet.

And on the original topic - no issues here with any of the recent updates to XP.