anti-virus

[Brian R. VanCise]

Okay you guy's are talking way over my head!:idunno:

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

 

[BlackCatBonz]

Ive been using AVG free for quite some time now......I wouldnt even bother with mcafee or norton anymore.
I believe its the same application as it's enterprise version, but because it's free, it has only the basics.

 

[OUMoose]

The word I'm looking for is ...... "hacker" as in the little crap heads that write up the code that is used to probe the hundreds of ports on hundreds of machines that are used for exploitation purposes. so yes there is a "guy" sitting there trying to access systems.

No, the word you're looking for is "cracker". A hacker is just someone who likes to tinker around with systems to get them to work in new ways. A net hacker is someone who pokes and prods at systems to see if they're vulnerable, then most likely patches said hole and moves on. A cracker is someone, who does a similar activity, only for nefarious purposes. The little crap heads you so eloquently mentioned are called "script kiddies", who go download the "|\|3\/\/357 & 1337357" pieces of code (mostly written by decent pen testers) to use against uneducated end users who don't patch their Windows 95 boxes because "it's worked fine, why fix it?".

@Bigshadow: I've been checking out smoothwall. Was it a difficult config? Right now I think I'm leaning toward PF on OpenBSD just to play around with. My quad PPro server is collecting dust. heh.

 

[Marvin]

Ok, I have a router as well. Do I need to configure it to "hide" my computers? Why I ask is because, for example, on Andrew Greens posts it lists my ip number, does that mean he/you can see it or is that a little bug to mess with my mind?

 

[Andrew Green]

Your IP address is visible anywhere you go. But that IP address is not your computers, it is your routers. Your computer exists on a smaller network not visible to the outside and interned traffic is sent through the router. So I can see your router, but not your computer.

 

[fireman00]

No, the word you're looking for is "cracker". A hacker is just someone who likes to tinker around with systems to get them to work in new ways. A net hacker is someone who pokes and prods at systems to see if they're vulnerable, then most likely patches said hole and moves on. A cracker is someone, who does a similar activity, only for nefarious purposes. The little crap heads you so eloquently mentioned are called "script kiddies", who go download the "|\|3\/\/357 & 1337357" pieces of code (mostly written by decent pen testers) to use against uneducated end users who don't patch their Windows 95 boxes because "it's worked fine, why fix it?". quote]

The difference between the gray hats and black hats is minimal at best. The definition of hacker to one person can mean stolen data for hundreds of thousands ala AT&T's personal data fiasco from last weekend. I work for a company that has to deal with dozens of DOS and literally tens of thousands of port probes a year I'll stick with "little crap heads" I'd have used a much more colorful description but I wouldn't want to run afoul of the ROEs.

 

[Andrew Green]

It's a mess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_definition_controversy

 

[Bigshadow]

And the white hats can get gray hats or even black hats and the black hats can become white hats or gray hats, and gray....etc. Make sense?

 

[Toby]

I'd say, stick with AVG. Mcafee is useless and more prone to attacks by virus writers (as in they disable the AV) as it's one of the bigger companies.

From when I used to use it, AVG offerd decent protection for a free AV. And wasn't too taxing on system resources.

I use Nod32 these days, it costs like $40, offers the best protection. IMO. Has the smallest footprint of any AV.

For firewall (cause' I don't have a router) I use Outpost Pro and for Anti-Spyware I use Spy Sweeper.

Haven't been infected for ages.