[cofe]

check it out. i finally get broadband tomorrow.

what firewall, anti virus etc stuff do i need to stop nobcheeses rogering my new computer?

[Bubba]

Are you doin' it through a router?

[cofe]

?

they've sent me a small black box called 'modem' it has a white bit with it with two sockets for phone and adsl.

do i sound like a retard?

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

do i sound like a retard?

No Cosy, not at all

AVG Anti-virus (free version)

ZoneAlarm firewall(free version)

Adaware Anti-spyware (free version)

[cofe]

cheers obi.

bubba pretends to know a thing or two about computers but really.... :wink:

[Bubba]

retard.

[Control freak]

The safest thing really is to get a seperate router. They dont cost too much and mean that your computer is always protected. Make sure you get one that has a built in firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI). I also run Sygate Personal Firewall (which is infinitely less annoying than zone alarm) cos it lets me know what applications are trying to access the network via little pop up messages.

Adaware is a definite - make sure you run it aboot once a week.

Anti virus cosftware is a tricky one - Ive never used one and Ive never got a virus on my PC. They have to be kept constantly up to date which usually involves money. A good option is Stinger from McAphee - this is a single use virus checker which will scan your system for all the latest nasties. Just download the latest one when you need it.

Every so often I'll also check through the process list in task manager and do a google search for any which I dont recognise.

The biggest defence tho is common sense. Dont install anything that you arent sure about. Never open an email attachment from someone that you dont know or your not expecting.

If you get that little lot sorted you'll be fine and dandy
  :D

PS the white bit is probably an inline filter. You only need to use it if you want to plug the ADSL and a telephone into the same socket in the wall. God - retard...

[cofe]

The safest thing really is to get a seperate router. They dont cost too much and mean that your computer is always protected. Make sure you get one that has a built in firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI).

like this one?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=15002223563&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=48448

PS the white bit is probably an inline filter. You only need to use it if you want to plug the ADSL and a telephone into the same socket in the wall. God - retard...

i'm guessing i'll need this then?

[Fj]

I'm selling this on ebay at the moment. Sounds like it fits the bill.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-Voyager-240-Router-Unused_W0QQitemZ5852464460QQcategoryZ3706QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm in S11 so you'll save yourself the postage.
Make me an offer

[Little Paul]

From personal experiences DON'T get AVG free edition it sucks and it fucks up ur pc afta a bit. Get McAfee it's only £30 for a years subscription.

[underground]

From personal experiences DON'T get AVG free edition it sucks and it fucks up ur pc afta a bit.

How's that then fella?

[Bubba]

I just installed AVG free today coz it's rated as the best freebie antivirus

[Control freak]

The safest thing really is to get a seperate router. They dont cost too much and mean that your computer is always protected. Make sure you get one that has a built in firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI).

like this one?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=15002223563&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=48448

That one will do nicely. You cant go wrong for that price. Forgot to say before that the biggest advantage of using a router is that it gives you something called Network Address Translation. This basically means that the address of you PC is hidden behind the address of your router and hence wouldbe hackers cant get through (ok so Im simplifying a bit here). Theres other advantages too relating to the way addresses are routed but if I tell you everyone will think Im really dull.

Basically, fuck the free modem off - get one of these

PS the white bit is probably an inline filter. You only need to use it if you want to plug the ADSL and a telephone into the same socket in the wall. God - retard...

i'm guessing i'll need this then?

If you want to plug them both into the same socket - I guess you will

As for the antivirus - make your own decision. Like I say Ive never used one; the biggest protection against a virus is you.

If you choose to use IE as your browser make sure you have automatic updates turned on so you get Microsofts half hourly securty patches as they come out (theres been a critical one in the last day or two)

[cofe]

I'm selling this on ebay at the moment. Sounds like it fits the bill.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-Voyager-240-Router-Unused_W0QQitemZ5852464460QQcategoryZ3706QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm in S11 so you'll save yourself the postage.
Make me an offer

does it have the SPI thing? it mentions 'packet filtering'.

[cofe]

anyone got the knowledge on wireless. i know obi has.

good idea? secure? cost-effective? not worth it? smoke and a pancake?

[Bubba]

not worth it unless you need it. wired is cheaper and faster.

nice to be able to use a lapdog wherever you want in the house, but apart from that I wouldn't bother again. Switching mine back to wired apart from the lapper.

get a router that will do both.

[Fj]

does it have the SPI thing? it mentions 'packet filtering'.

dunno.
but its cheap, brand new and local.

[Control freak]

I'm selling this on ebay at the moment. Sounds like it fits the bill.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-Voyager-240-Router-Unused_W0QQitemZ5852464460QQcategoryZ3706QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm in S11 so you'll save yourself the postage.
Make me an offer

does it have the SPI thing? it mentions 'packet filtering'.

Ok - it doesnt have SPI but it does have a basic firewall and it will give you NAT that I mentioned earlier. This should be sufficient - you caould install a seperate firewall on your PC if you wanted n extra level of protection (remember to disable the bag of shite that ships with windows)

anyone got the knowledge on wireless. i know obi has.

good idea? secure? cost-effective? not worth it? smoke and a pancake?

not worth it unless you need it. wired is cheaper and faster.

True - wireless is marginally more expensive and marginally slower (I know its 54Mbps (11g) compared to 100Mbps of a wired LAN but this is the connection speed - the throughput isnt that much lower)

However - I find it much more convenient to not have wires all over the house and just have my WAP tucked away next to the phone line. I suppose it is more of an issue if either your phone line isnt somewhere convenient or you have more than one PC. Ive got a server, a desktop and two laptops on my network and it all works a treat.

Security....
It kinda goes like this. Theres two main ways of securing your network. You can place a incoming MAC address filter on the WAP which basically stops anyone else connecting to your access point and using your bandwidth or accessing your networked PCs. This you must do - its pretty easy and it should be in the instructions for the router. If you open a command prompt in windows and type ipconfig /all, this will tell you your MAC address for your wireless adapter.

Secondly, you can enable encryption on the access point. This means that every device which connects to it has to have a pass key which is used to encrypt and decrypt information sent over the link. I dont bother with this because a) its adds extra overhead to your information sent over the wireless and b) any secure site you visit (Hotmail, eBay, Amazon etc) encodes all you information using something called SSL. 128bit SSL has been broken but it took a university department 4 days to do it - so basically your safe. You can tell if a page is secure because the address will be 'HTTPS' as instead of 'HTTP'

So wireless? Its up to you. Its a little extra cost and hastle but you need to decide what the benifits are

[Johnny Brown]

You not worried about filling the house with EMR? Bad Ju-Ju!

[Bubba]

I dont bother with this because a) its adds extra overhead to your information sent over the wireless and b) any secure site you visit...

It's worth pointing out that if you don't enable MAC address filtering then securing your wireless using WEP (or better, WPA) is essential unless you want the paedo next door downloading kiddie pr0n using your connection.

[Control freak]

Good point well made

[simes]

anyone who thinks their system is clean might want to try a scan with ewido anti-malware.

http://www.ewido.net/en/

youll be surprised what it digs up...

its free to use for 21 days, but serial numbers are easy to find with a quick search.

[Bubba]

I agree, Ewido is excellent - have it on all my computers now.

[Bubba]

From personal experiences DON'T get AVG free edition it sucks and it fucks up ur pc afta a bit. Get McAfee it's only £30 for a years subscription.

Whilst this topic has been revisited, I can safely say that the above advice is not true. I reckon the source of your troubles was something else L.P.

AVG Free is way less pain that something like Norton - I've been running it for a few months now and it's much easier to update, and doesn't tie up system resources like Norton.

In fact, I've now removed all Norton/Symantec stuff that I've ever used (uninstalling was a nightmare in itself) and my systems are much happier now.

[underground]

Agree with simes and bubba on both points- ewido just unovered a huge amount of stuff on my system. A large majority of it was in files in a directory
C:/RECYCLER/NPROTECT

or similar. Now, I ssumed I had uninstalled Norton / Symantec, but having heard other folks' reports of it being a nightmare, I may be missing summat.

Any ideas?

[underground]

Crikey, following doing the scan t' other night, things have speeded up dramatically with my internet connection, I'm amazed.

Here's a question relating to the original topic- I'm interested in the benefits of the router/modem suggested earlier in the thread, but also have a need to use the one printer shared between two machines one of which is used all the time, the other is a lapper only used 3 days a week, but disconnecting the cables and  stuff is a major pain due to the desk position.

I also already have a modem- so, would this Here do the similar job and give print sharing aswell?