On Saturday, July 19, 2003, at 07:29 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 14:17:52 +0900 Peter Evans
wrote: We read that in Windows:
Running without anti-virus tools is suicide expecially if you use that virus spreader called Outlook (lookout).
I was using MS-DOS and Windows from 1991 until about one month ago. I never used an anti-virus tool to check a Windows program, I never used
an anti-virus daemon, As you and others have mentioned, if you practive "safe computing" you should not have a problem. Anti-virus programs tend to give the user a feeling of complacency. Viruses, worms, and trojans can enter your system as an email attachment, from an infected removable media (floppy or CD), or by importing or running infected software from a LAN or even a download. While most of the major software vendors aggressivly keep their software distribution sites clean, some have allowed viruses onto their shrinkwrap products. Another way you can become infected is by using an email client (eg. Outlook, Outlook Express) that automatically executes embedded scripts (The Windows Scripting Host feature). And, WRT: attachments, never trust them no matter who you get them from. I was once sent an infected spreadsheet by department's secretary. My wife runs Windows and also has never had her machine infected, but she also follows my rules: Never, ever open an executable attachment. Always do a virus check before and after installing any software. Remember that many Windows viruses arrive with double extensions: FOO.TXT.pif Windows, by default, does not show the extension. This fools the receiver into thinking this is a text file, but when clicked the system becomes infected.
The bottom line is that no system is immune to worms or viruses. And, a good anti-virus program is a very useful tool, but not a panacea. Use good common sense. -- Jerry Feldman
Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 <mime-attachment>
I've run windows 2k server, 2k pro, and 98xx without any problems except the 2k server. I just explicitly block all non-requested access to the machines and block all ports out that are not needed. 2k server was a web server that has been replaces by SuSE 7.3 pro (of which I'm am incredibly pleased with, after some incredible amount of learning and research. I'm a mac man from the 80's. :-)), and 2k server just has too many back doors it seems. Ripped up my firewall with out going traffic in the neighborhood of 3000 outgoing connection attempts a day at it's peak. Did traces and found most of them were going to m$ and ad agencies. That's when the pop ups started on friends browsers. The 2k server had virus software to keep it up. Never any problems with macs either. Os9 and x. x rocks but I've found lots of missing little features since playing with Linux and BSD, and it's no where near as configurable. Rock solid though. So it makes me wonder how much of the m$ problems aren't intentional to boost the revenue. Not downloading software you don't trust and checking the extensions along with just common sense configuration and checking the extension seems to to well. At least it has for me over the last 5 yrs of using windows. Just some observations. will