"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:1102269099.4qsvEFS3LJXCi87mfPUrSA@teranews...
I fixed up my crashed server and also decided it was time to clean up my
main desktop machine, so...

I bit the bullet and did a clean install of WinXP Professional. It went
smoothly, with no error messages, and I've reinstalled the application
software I actually use.

I suppose this is only a sideways step from Win2k, which I had been
using on this machine. There are a couple of nice new features on XP
that weren't offered on Win2k, though. But not enough to induce anyone
to buy XP Pro. WinXP incluides a basic firewall which seems robust
enough to resist probes from the usual test sites.

FWIW, I've had XP Pro on this (the Florida laptop) for over three years and
have never had a problem with it. I prefer it to the older Windows
programs, although I've heard others feel differently. I keep it updated,
including the SP2 release.

Eisboch

I too have been running WinXP or a few years. Have had to re-install a few
times
but that's mostly because I do lots of development work, install and
uninstall all
types of software. I find a reinstall every 6 to 12 months to be a nice way
to clean
up the system. It's a bit of a pain but OK by me.

I like WinXP. Serice pack 2 certainly seems quite secure with it's firewall.
I used
to use zonealarm.

Computer Associates is giving a 12 month (12 month!) free trial of their
anti-virus & firewall software, so that's what I'm using there.

And a helpful site for WIndows fixes, etc.
www.Annoyances.org

Peace Out,
Gary

"Eisboch" wrote in message
.. .

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:1102269099.4qsvEFS3LJXCi87mfPUrSA@teranews...
I fixed up my crashed server and also decided it was time to clean up my
main desktop machine, so...

I bit the bullet and did a clean install of WinXP Professional. It went
smoothly, with no error messages, and I've reinstalled the application
software I actually use.

I suppose this is only a sideways step from Win2k, which I had been
using on this machine. There are a couple of nice new features on XP
that weren't offered on Win2k, though. But not enough to induce anyone
to buy XP Pro. WinXP incluides a basic firewall which seems robust
enough to resist probes from the usual test sites.

FWIW, I've had XP Pro on this (the Florida laptop) for over three years
and
have never had a problem with it. I prefer it to the older Windows
programs, although I've heard others feel differently. I keep it updated,
including the SP2 release.

Eisboch


We run XP Home on all 4 family computers and have not had any problems with
the application. We also installed SP2 when it was released this summer and
have seen no negatives as a result. The automatic update feature is also a
plus. As we run Zone Alarm Pro as our firewall and Avast Pro v 4.5 as our
anti virus we disabled the firewall and AV features on SP2.

A couple of anti spyware programs you should consider installing are
Ad-Aware Personal Edition (free at
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ), Spybot Search and Destroy
(free at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html ) and Spyware Doctor.

The XP firewall won't stop a rouge program (or spyware, or virus) from
phoning home. It
only stop stuff coming from outside.


"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:1102269099.4qsvEFS3LJXCi87mfPUrSA@teranews...
I fixed up my crashed server and also decided it was time to clean up my
main desktop machine, so...

I bit the bullet and did a clean install of WinXP Professional. It went
smoothly, with no error messages, and I've reinstalled the application
software I actually use.

I suppose this is only a sideways step from Win2k, which I had been using
on this machine. There are a couple of nice new features on XP that
weren't offered on Win2k, though. But not enough to induce anyone to buy
XP Pro. WinXP incluides a basic firewall which seems robust enough to
resist probes from the usual test sites.

Everyone should run Ad Aware and SpyBot to remove all the cruddy spyware
coming in off the net.
My daughter installed a screen saver and there was so much attached spyware
her computer could barely function

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Chuck Tribolet wrote:
The XP firewall won't stop a rouge program (or spyware, or virus) from
phoning home. It
only stop stuff coming from outside.


"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:1102269099.4qsvEFS3LJXCi87mfPUrSA@teranews...

I fixed up my crashed server and also decided it was time to clean up my
main desktop machine, so...

I bit the bullet and did a clean install of WinXP Professional. It went
smoothly, with no error messages, and I've reinstalled the application
software I actually use.

I suppose this is only a sideways step from Win2k, which I had been using
on this machine. There are a couple of nice new features on XP that
weren't offered on Win2k, though. But not enough to induce anyone to buy
XP Pro. WinXP incluides a basic firewall which seems robust enough to
resist probes from the usual test sites.





thanks for the tip, Chuck. I just turned off the XP firewall and
reinstalled the one I usually use. Of course, the whole mess is now
sitting behind my server and hardware firewall...

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 06:58:36 -0500, "scott downey"
wrote:

Everyone should run Ad Aware and SpyBot to remove all the cruddy spyware
coming in off the net.
My daughter installed a screen saver and there was so much attached spyware
her computer could barely function

I got news for you - Adaware and SpyBot didn't get half of the spyware
on that computer.

You need to add Pest Patrol and No Adaware and forget about SpyBot.

SpyBot is useless.

Later,

Tom

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:36:58 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 06:58:36 -0500, "scott downey"
wrote:


Everyone should run Ad Aware and SpyBot to remove all the cruddy spyware
coming in off the net.
My daughter installed a screen saver and there was so much attached spyware
her computer could barely function


I got news for you - Adaware and SpyBot didn't get half of the spyware
on that computer.

You need to add Pest Patrol and No Adaware and forget about SpyBot.

SpyBot is useless.

I believe our friend Tom frequents places he shouldn't...and picks up
doses of things polite folks don't mention in public!

Excuse me? Or you?

In fact, most of the spys were from the NYT, Washington Post and all
the little marine places I visit - all the ones that Adaware and
SpyBot didn't get that is. Pest Patrol got them all - every last one
of them.

As far as SpyBot - it's slower than hell and misses more than you
might think.

Later,

Tom

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:1102336618.09d33faec01ccec4b377cac6c4f8bed9@t eranews...


I believe our friend Tom frequents places he shouldn't...and picks up
doses of things polite folks don't mention in public!


This past summer I had a new laptop on the Navigator. I bought it because
it had a built in WiFi setup and the marina had WiFi service.

Within a month, I picked up some kind of worm, bug, virus, disease or
whatever that affected the search engines. Once in a while, instead of
displaying the results of my search, it would direct the computer to a porn
site. I really have no interest in these sites and had never purposely
visited any, but somehow the computer became infected with something.

Since then, I've learned more about WiFi service and it seems you have to be
very careful. Other people can apparently piggy-back on your computer to
gain access to the Internet.

Since switching to Firefox on that computer, I have had no further
problems. That reminds me. I've got to download Firefox and Thunderbird and
install them on this laptop.

Eisboch

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:46:53 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 06:58:36 -0500, "scott downey"
wrote:


Everyone should run Ad Aware and SpyBot to remove all the cruddy spyware
coming in off the net.
My daughter installed a screen saver and there was so much attached spyware
her computer could barely function


I got news for you - Adaware and SpyBot didn't get half of the spyware
on that computer.

You need to add Pest Patrol and No Adaware and forget about SpyBot.

SpyBot is useless.

Uh... care to expand on this theory of yours?

I use SpyBot from time to time in conjunction with an anti-adware
program and they both seem to find what they are supposed to find.

What's so terrific about the two you are recommending?

I bought into the SpyBot/Adaware freeware concept and relied on them
to keep things out of the computer. Based on the first results, I
even sent the guy who developed SpyBot $25 I was that impressed.

Then I noticed that something was amiss - the computer started acting
strange again - popups and the spam started to escalate. Then I got
whacked in an email trojan on a .jpg that Norton missed (which is a
whole 'nother story) and was passed by a member of a lure maker/rod
building mailing list I'm a member of. Couldn't get rid of it.

SpyBot never caught it and neither did Adaware. Norton would catch it
on a scan, but couldn't delete or quarantine it. I started looking
around researching the trojan and came across Pest Patrol. Bought it
and WOW - what a difference!! 168 - count'em - 1 6 8 bugs, trojans,
spys and such - a bunch of them bugs that SpyBot was supposed to
eliminate.

Since then, run side by side with SpyBot, Pest Patrol has caught much
more than SpyBot - most of it in the form of cookies which execute
spys.

It's the same with Noadaware - much better performance and it actually
does what it says it does.

Like I said, I wouldn't give you ten cents for SpyBot - lesson
learned.

Later,

Tom

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 07:53:59 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:1102336618.09d33faec01ccec4b377cac6c4f8bed9@ teranews...


I believe our friend Tom frequents places he shouldn't...and picks up
doses of things polite folks don't mention in public!

This past summer I had a new laptop on the Navigator. I bought it because
it had a built in WiFi setup and the marina had WiFi service.

Within a month, I picked up some kind of worm, bug, virus, disease or
whatever that affected the search engines. Once in a while, instead of
displaying the results of my search, it would direct the computer to a porn
site. I really have no interest in these sites and had never purposely
visited any, but somehow the computer became infected with something.

Since then, I've learned more about WiFi service and it seems you have to be
very careful. Other people can apparently piggy-back on your computer to
gain access to the Internet.

Since switching to Firefox on that computer, I have had no further
problems. That reminds me. I've got to download Firefox and Thunderbird and
install them on this laptop.

And that's another whole subject. I have a wireless router and I keep
the firewall off because of the XP firewall and a specific firewall to
the computer - but...

There are several wireless computers surrounding the homestead in
other homes and I have been infected several times via that route. I
now keep the wireless portion of the router off until I need it.

Even then, I keep a Spy Eye running in the background to make sure
nobody is piggy backing on me.

Later,

Tom