Windows xp security

I'm looking for simple and advanced Win xp security tips, on and off line.
Maximum protection possible. Not links, but concise, sensible and reliable
security tips from good users. Thank you.

Nowhere

Nowhere wrote:

> I'm looking for simple and advanced Win xp security tips, on and off line.
> Maximum protection possible. Not links, but concise, sensible and reliable
> security tips from good users. Thank you.

Start with Safe Hex. Here's that link that you didn't want:

(http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html)

If you don't want anymore, let me know. I've got tons.

Ron

Ron Lopshire

"Ron Lopshire" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Nowhere wrote:
>
> > I'm looking for simple and advanced Win xp security tips, on and off
line.
> > Maximum protection possible. Not links, but concise, sensible and
reliable
> > security tips from good users. Thank you.
>
> Start with Safe Hex. Here's that link that you didn't want:
>
> (http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html)
>
> If you don't want anymore, let me know. I've got tons.
>
> Ron

thank you. i don't want anymore

Nowhere

On 1-Mar-2006, "Nowhere" <> wrote:

> I'm looking for simple and advanced Win xp security tips, on and off
> line.
> Maximum protection possible. Not links, but concise, sensible and
> reliable
> security tips from good users. Thank you.

Use a router unless you are on dial-up.
Use an _up-to-date_ anti/virus program.
Use an _up-to-date_ anti/spyware program or two or three.
Use a software firewall.
Use common sense when browsing and opening emails.
Use alternate programs for browsing and email and newsgroups. (no IE or
Outlook or OE)
Turn 'sharing' off.
These should keep _most_ of the 'nasties' at bay.
HTH
HAND
--
We apologize for the inconvenience

ArtDent

Nowhere wrote:
> I'm looking for simple and advanced Win xp security tips, on and off line.
> Maximum protection possible. Not links, but concise, sensible and reliable
> security tips from good users. Thank you.
>
>
>

http://www.montvillearchives.net/Art...e-Edition.aspx


--
http://www.MontvilleArchives.net

Securing the Internet
one person at a time.

Adam W. Montville

ArtDent wrote:

> Use a router unless you are on dial-up.

Why?

> Use an _up-to-date_ anti/virus program.

Usually a good idea, except for maximum protection.

> Use an _up-to-date_ anti/spyware program or two or three.

Why? They're all crap.

> Use a software firewall.

Why? He does _not_ want the system to get compromised.



And damn, you don't tell anything about restricted rights.

Sebastian Gottschalk

Nowhere wrote:
> I'm looking for simple and advanced Win xp security tips, on and off line.
> Maximum protection possible. Not links, but concise, sensible and reliable
> security tips from good users. Thank you.

Why don't you read a good pseudo-eBook about Windows first?

<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8a2643c1-0685-4d89-b655-521ea6c7b4db&displaylang=en>

It contains descriptions about Windows' user rights, Group Policy
settings and ACLs including recommendations for various cases.

Sebastian Gottschalk

On 2-Mar-2006, Sebastian Gottschalk <> wrote:

> ArtDent wrote:
> > Use a router unless you are on dial-up.
> Why?
> > Use an _up-to-date_ anti/virus program.
> Usually a good idea, except for maximum protection.
> > Use an _up-to-date_ anti/spyware program or two or three.
> Why? They're all crap.
> > Use a software firewall.
> Why? He does _not_ want the system to get compromised.
>
> And damn, you don't tell anything about restricted rights.

I was doing a quick list, the OP seemed to want something simple and
straightforward.
I notice that _you_ did not help much here, what exactly was the point of
your post? Unless you felt the overwhelming need to seem a big smarty
pants.
Anyway, to take your comments/complaints one at a time:
A router will block all unasked for incoming packets. There are a lot of
compromised 'zombie' machines out there that send packets out looking for
vulnerable machines, the router keeps these from ever getting to your
computer.
An up-to-date anti-virus program is not just a 'good idea', it is pretty
much 'mandatory' nowadays (there is a thread in one of the 'hacker' ng's
talking about ISP's _requiring_ you to have an up-to-date anti-virus if
you are on broadband of any kind) if you do not want your machine crawling
with trojans and worms.
While I would not agree that _all_ anti-spyware programs are 'crap' (such
a technical term, you must be very proud of yourself), I do agree that
none are 'all-inclusive', which is why I suggested more than one.
Not all software firewalls 'hurt' your machine, that is just FUD talk,
they are there to allow you to control what programs you want to allow
access to the net.
And, no, I did not talk about restricted rights, but then neither did you,
except to mention that I did not say anything, well pardon me, but if you
follow the advice in my first post, then you should not NEED to dumb down
the poor machine so much.
I also notice that you totally snipped my advice about not using IE, O, or
OE, I presume that must mean that you at least agree with that much of
what I had to say. (I see you posted using Thunderbird)

To the OP, while I tried to do this without posting a link, this one might
help if you are that new to all this:
http://internet101.org
--
We apologize for the inconvenience

ArtDent

"ArtDent" <> wrote in message
news:FaFNf.6275$ ink.net...
>
> On 2-Mar-2006, Sebastian Gottschalk <> wrote:
>
> > ArtDent wrote:
> > > Use a router unless you are on dial-up.
> > Why?
> > > Use an _up-to-date_ anti/virus program.
> > Usually a good idea, except for maximum protection.
> > > Use an _up-to-date_ anti/spyware program or two or three.
> > Why? They're all crap.
> > > Use a software firewall.
> > Why? He does _not_ want the system to get compromised.
> >
> > And damn, you don't tell anything about restricted rights.
>
> I was doing a quick list, the OP seemed to want something simple and
> straightforward.
> I notice that _you_ did not help much here, what exactly was the point of
> your post? Unless you felt the overwhelming need to seem a big smarty
> pants.
> Anyway, to take your comments/complaints one at a time:
> A router will block all unasked for incoming packets. There are a lot of
> compromised 'zombie' machines out there that send packets out looking for
> vulnerable machines, the router keeps these from ever getting to your
> computer.
> An up-to-date anti-virus program is not just a 'good idea', it is pretty
> much 'mandatory' nowadays (there is a thread in one of the 'hacker' ng's
> talking about ISP's _requiring_ you to have an up-to-date anti-virus if
> you are on broadband of any kind) if you do not want your machine crawling
> with trojans and worms.
> While I would not agree that _all_ anti-spyware programs are 'crap' (such
> a technical term, you must be very proud of yourself), I do agree that
> none are 'all-inclusive', which is why I suggested more than one.
> Not all software firewalls 'hurt' your machine, that is just FUD talk,
> they are there to allow you to control what programs you want to allow
> access to the net.
> And, no, I did not talk about restricted rights, but then neither did you,
> except to mention that I did not say anything, well pardon me, but if you
> follow the advice in my first post, then you should not NEED to dumb down
> the poor machine so much.
> I also notice that you totally snipped my advice about not using IE, O, or
> OE, I presume that must mean that you at least agree with that much of
> what I had to say. (I see you posted using Thunderbird)
>
> To the OP, while I tried to do this without posting a link, this one might
> help if you are that new to all this:
> http://internet101.org
> --
> We apologize for the inconvenience

Thank you

Nowhere

ArtDent wrote:
> On 2-Mar-2006, Sebastian Gottschalk <> wrote:
>
>> ArtDent wrote:
>>> Use a router unless you are on dial-up.
>> Why?
>>> Use an _up-to-date_ anti/virus program.
>> Usually a good idea, except for maximum protection.
>>> Use an _up-to-date_ anti/spyware program or two or three.
>> Why? They're all crap.
>>> Use a software firewall.
>> Why? He does _not_ want the system to get compromised.
>>
>> And damn, you don't tell anything about restricted rights.
>
> I was doing a quick list, the OP seemed to want something simple and
> straightforward.

Your approach is none of those.

> I notice that _you_ did not help much here,

And I draw it to the question.

> A router will block all unasked for incoming packets.

Wrong. In fact, many consumer routers exactly do the contrary: using
certain heuristics, including some for typical home users' behaviour, to
make best-chances choice packet forwarding.
And damn, why not configuring the computer correctly instead of such
trials of workarounds?

> An up-to-date anti-virus program is not just a 'good idea', it is pretty
> much 'mandatory' nowadays

Then I wonder why I, and for sure many other people that are posting
here, are going pretty fine without it.

> (there is a thread in one of the 'hacker' ng's
> talking about ISP's _requiring_ you to have an up-to-date anti-virus if
> you are on broadband of any kind)

Which one? I'll add them to my braindead ISPs list.

> While I would not agree that _all_ anti-spyware programs are 'crap' (such
> a technical term, you must be very proud of yourself),

So far I didn't find any that even installs without any big quarrels,
and those which actually run are showing up both a lot of false
positives and a lot of clear nonsense on a clean system, so I really
wonder what quality the reports on a compromised system are of.

> Not all software firewalls 'hurt' your machine, that is just FUD talk,

No, it's sad reality. Besides that they all open up your machine to
certain DoS conditions (ICMP flood, UDP flood, IP fragments flood), most
are easy to tunnel from the outside (f.e. with overlapping IP fragments)
and most allow privilege escalation. Not to mention such wonderful
self-DoS capabilities like Auto-Blocking or so-called private data
protection which actually leads to the contrary. And didn't the Witty
worm just show that the extra complexity certainly is a serious problem?

> they are there to allow you to control what programs you want to allow
> access to the net.

You'd wish. Volker Birk had a lot of fun with showing trivial
counter-examples? Which are actually default tricks of common malware.

And remember that most users are logged on with admin rights. That's
super-trivial.

> And, no, I did not talk about restricted rights, but then neither did you,

Because it's a default consideration.

> but if you
> follow the advice in my first post, then you should not NEED to dumb down
> the poor machine so much.

Hehe... isn't that exactly what you're suggesting? Wamping down the
system with all kind of shitty software instead a straight and clean
approach.

> I also notice that you totally snipped my advice about not using IE, O, or
> OE, I presume that must mean that you at least agree with that much of
> what I had to say.

For sure, but shouldn't that be common sense? IE is no webbrowser and
OE/O is known to be totally broken so far.

> (I see you posted using Thunderbird)

At least that's what you assume, but I had the same identification
string with Forte FreeAgent.

Sebastian Gottschalk