[paul.fr]

How good is the firewall that comes bundled with vista? Should i get another "just to be safe". Also does anyone reccomend a good antivirus programme that is vista compatable?

[DoctorBeaver]

Are you connected through a router or just DSL modem?

[paul.fr]

Are you connected through a router or just DSL modem?

all three are through a router, two on xp and one with vista.

[DoctorBeaver]

Then you should be OK with the bundled firewall.

[paul.fr]

Cheers Doc, i do like to have lots of security!

One quick q, if i may. where is the "run" facility in vista? I only got the machine yesterday and it is loading too many things at startup. How and where do i configure these to not run at startup in vista?

[DoctorBeaver]

Control panel -> Change start up programs

[Nobody's Confidant]

"If you don't buy windows vista, we'll kill this dog"

Love that slogan!

[DoctorBeaver]

Make sure you get the Vista upgrade that actually works properly. It's called Linux!

[ukmicky]

If you want to buy vista then  the cheapest way is to buy it and download it from sites in the USA as its half the price compared to the UK.

You can get Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit COMPLETE for  £88 which is cheap,very cheap.

However i dont like vista its crap and i prefer XP.

Also the windows firewall isnt good enough and i wouldnt trust the Vista 1 either.

[another_someone]

I have not had anything to do with Vista to date - too much bloatware - would require a more powerful machine, which then consumes more power, and generates more heat (as it is, it can get hot in the summer with all my computers switched on, and these days when I put together a computer I try and look at power consumption and heat output as one of the criteria).  Then again, I suppose if you are heavily into games, you would be looking for a lot of heat generation from your computer anyway.

My experience of XP is that if you already have NATing (as you almost certainly would have if you are using a router), then the built in firewall has little benefit (I have zonealarm installed, since critically that moniotored outbound traffic as well as inbound traffic).

As for anti-virus - the first question is whether you are using 32 bit or 64 bit vista?  Don't know for sure about vista, but for XP, support for 64 bit was somewhat more restricted (why I went back to 32 bit - although the problem was more with printer drivers than with anti-virus).

I would think that all of the current anti-virus software that works on XP should work of Vista (may not have done in the first few months of vista, but should do by now).  My own preference (and I know a good few who are happy with it) is AVG, but the lack of 64 bit support when I was playing with XP64 meant that I install Avast on that.  Both are free downloads.

[DoctorBeaver]

Micky - that's why I asked about a router. If using just a DSL modem I would certainly advise more than just the Windows firewall. But routers have good firewalls in them anyway so adding another is pretty much superfluous.

As for anti-virus, I too use Avast.

[another_someone]

Micky - that's why I asked about a router. If using just a DSL modem I would certainly advise more than just the Windows firewall. But routers have good firewalls in them anyway so adding another is pretty much superfluous.

As for anti-virus, I too use Avast.

Hardware firewalls and software firewalls serve two subtly different functions.

Certainly, in terms of blocking inbound ports to prevent hackers getting in, they are both doing roughly the same job; but where a software firewall (such as ZoneAlarm, but not the built in XP firewall) does a job that a hardware firewall cannot do is to track outbound traffic.  This is important not so much in blocking hackers from getting into your machine, but in helping detect them if by chance they have got in.  It monitors every program that is trying to make an outside connection, and if any program that should not be trying to make an outside connection tries to do so (possibly because it has become infected by a virus), it will notify you.  Since a hardware firewall cannot monitor individual programs, it cannot perform this task.

Where hardware firewalls (not simple NATing, but more sophisticated firewalls) really excel is in protecting against packet spoofing and denial of service attacks (even they are not immune to such attacks, but software firewalls will not even begin to cope with these threats).

[DoctorBeaver]

I've got a program that hides my ports & another that monitors outgoing traffic. They're not firewalls as such, they just deal with the ports.

I've got another that keeps a metaphorical eye on the registry & informs me if an unauthorised program tries to alter it.

On top of that, I've got a few progs that run at startup and/or shutdown & check for system/registry changes. I get a list of changes and if there are any I don't recognise I can undo those specific changes. I have to manually say which changes to undo but it's a lot better than having to roll back the whole system & losing any legitimately installed software.

It takes me a few extra clicks to install stuff, but I think it's worth it. I've had no malware for almost 2 years now.

[lyner]

Macos 10.4 is pretty solid!

[Quantum_Vaccuum]

dont get vista, it has verry little backwards compatability, it is very slow and takes up more than 2 times RAM we have now, stick with XP.

[DoctorBeaver]

dont get vista, it has verry little backwards compatability, it is very slow and takes up more than 2 times RAM we have now, stick with XP.

That's the most sensible recommendation since I mentioned Linux

[lyner]

but have you ever  lived with Macos?

[DoctorBeaver]

but have you ever  lived with Macos?

Not recently

[another_someone]

but have you ever  lived with Macos?

Is not the current Macos just a variant of Linux?

[Quantum_Vaccuum]

Did u mean Macantosh, or Macos, i've never heard of Macos, and I am one of the many that perfer PCs