Dear All

The article, that my URL links to, show that the number of PCs being compromised by zombie bots, ad and spyware is growing daily.

And, by extension, points out why it is so important for users (especially newbies) to protect their PCs against intrusion.

http://software.silicon.com/malware/...9150263,00.htm



UK Bob

Thanks, ukbobby, for the info, I've got 3 firewalls (don't use the one with XP, Windows firewall sucks!), Norton Internet Security, 2 spyware/malware programs, and I still get crap! No matter what you do, there will be some ******* to design something to screw up the works and if they really wanted to "give it to the man", they need to send a virus or something to the credit bureaus or banks, so we can all get in!!!! Until then, all we can do is to stay vigilant....

You may have answered your own question.....I have always believed that running more than one firewall at a time was a serious no-no..you might want to pick one and disable any others you have running.....also Norton is not the most perfect thing in the world either..many people have a false sense of secuirity with norton products...and of course people that still use IE get what they deserve.....

My recommendation is to use a software firewall behind a router with a hardware firewall. The router's firewall wouldn�t be as robust as the software, but remember, it's always on, as specially those critical seconds when windows is running at start up and the firewall hasn't started up yet.

Gaming issues can be addressed with controlling the DMZ within the router but remember to return the DMZ to an address that isn't your computer to keep your protection level after. In my opinion routers shouldn't be use without a software firewall, software firewalls can stop a leak of your information from leaving your computer, your typical router can't protect you this way, however if you had the money to spend, you could purchase a hardware firewall to get the protection, however it's not cost effective.

How good is your firewall? Check this site out: http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm
If any of you are using BLACK ICE, you may want to rethink your firewall program after this.

Good luck