Ukers - Free PC offer.

[Specially Cork]

You do realise you probably can't upgrade that machine? Celron with onboard GFX? Ew

Whats wrong with that?
You arent one of those "PC Gamers" are you?

Also about the whole BB, firewall thing.
This is a family comp, if somebody fucks up the whole system (which my mum does all the time anyway) my Dad will just buy a new comp. Or it will force me into formatting my hdd, which I should really do.

I have yet to find a firewall that doesnt:
1) Hog resources
2) Complain about pretty much everything on the internet ever
3) Prevents connections to legit websites
4) Showers me with dialog boxes all the time about what program Im using and how its unsafe.
5) Allows video streaming.

[area]

I have yet to find a firewall that doesnt:
1) Hog resources

20Mb of memory is what Kerio Personal Firewall (my current firewall) is currently using, and 0% CPU usage. That's not bad at all.

2) Complain about pretty much everything on the internet ever

I upgraded it this morning, and decided that instead of importing my settings from the old version, I'd teach it everything again. Half an hour of standard use of the internet later, I wasn't seeing any more prompts, and it hasn't complained since. It will complain next time a new program runs, but that requires two clicks to create the appropriate filter rule.

3) Prevents connections to legit websites

Haven't had a problem so far. This new version even incorporates a pop-up and advert blocker which have been working fine since this morning.

4) Showers me with dialog boxes all the time about what program Im using and how its unsafe.

Again, once the filter rules have been taught to it, no problems.

5) Allows video streaming.

I'm going to ignore what you say and assume what you meant ("I have yet to find a firewall that allows video streaming", rather than "I have yet to find a firewall that doesn't allows video streaming"). If that's wrong, say. I've just tested Winamp 5 with Kerio, and watched the REM stream with no troubles. I would guess that you mean streaming from you, though?

[Specially Cork]

I mean streaming from Launch.com

[Nyarlathotep]

Yeah, all they have to do is scan your ports and if any are detected to be open, try to upload various programs/exploits through them. There's different tricks for each port, so all they have to know is the open port in order to know what will or will not work.

Right.

The problem with that scenario is that most virus writers and 'hackers' are just script kiddies using well documented *and patched* exploits; if you have a *genuine* hacker after you your firewall is not a lot of use - in fact often you can be worse off with a firewall, because of a false sense of security (Oh, I have a firewall, I don't need to worry about what websites I visit / what .exes I run) and whats worse, some firewalls will bounce back signals from port scans letting the 'hacker' know *exactly* what firewall you are using and what ports it is trying to protect.

That combined with their being known exploits on certain software firewalls, together with the knowledge that if you have a firewall you're likely to be of the 'well if its not telling me theres nothing wrong, theres nothing wrong' mentality *simply because you have 'a firewall'* means in a lot of cases its *easier* to go for a supposedly protected machine.

Do I think firewalls are useful computer securikty devices? Yes.

Do I think you'll be rooted the second you go online if you don't have one? Absolutely not.

The average computer user with a fully updated and patched OS and a virus checker with the latest definitions stands very little chance of anything bad happening to their PC.

If you're a heavy P2P user, or download a lot of 'dodgy' stuff (warez, cracks, etc) or piss off script kiddies on a regular basis, and / or are paranoid then yeah you probably should have a firewall.

Just so you know, I'm not currently using a firewall, and I got a nearly perfect score on grc.com (I have open ports, but nothing can be done with them - gibson always has loved scaremongering) and have never been hacked. Hell, I've never been infected with a virus.

Common sense > any kind of 'automatic computer security' application.

[Specially Cork]

If you want to know how useless a Firewall really is, just talk to CG in #dcemu

[Lunchbox]

You do realise you probably can't upgrade that machine? Celron with onboard GFX? Ew

sounds exactly like my computer still runs Half-Life and HL mods at 99 fps, what more do you need?

[mink03]

i say get the pc..then totaly take the shit appart and build ur own with the parts

[SuperMegatron]

get the pc use partition magic to create a second partition install xp there to and use that for your daily use when you go to bed reboot the system to the original partition and the ads will pop up while you sleep.

[ragnarok2040]

I know my firewall doesn't bounce back signals, and I use BigFix in conjunction with my firewall in order to keep up-to-date on patches for Windows without the need to visit microsoft all the time. I don't run outlook express at all, though I need to install Mozilla Firebird so I can quit using IE6, heh.

Sygate only uses 5 mb's of ram for me, and it works in a kind of combination of allowing applications to connect to the network and monitors the connection in case there are any attempts. Though if I was afraid a real hacker was trying to get me, I'd buy a cheap system to route my connection through and setup a hardware firewall/dns/whatever.

[perry]

get the pc use partition magic to create a second partition install xp there to and use that for your daily use when you go to bed reboot the system to the original partition and the ads will pop up while you sleep.

Allthough the disk/machine may do more than jus show adverts an send a log..