Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone, My Norton Internet Worm Protection has just detected and blocked a Netbus Trojan Horse, thank goodness! Just to remind you all to run live update on your Virus Protection. Kathyx

Broadband - if you have a Firewall in place, very little should get thru. Norton anti-virus will catch anything in email body or attachments.

I only have a dial-up system. Have just installed Norton System Works 2005. Should I install the Personal Firewall which came with it though? PC World have this on half price offer at the moment £29.99 instead of £59.99. Kathyx

Kathy - I'm not 100% sure, maybe others on here know more about networking .... but i t h i n k that only broadband broadcasts your IP address, allowing the hacking and trojan community to home in. Dialup connection handles IP differently - but @i'm ready to be corrected. I either case - it can do no harm to have a firewall. XP comes with one as standard but Symatec (Norton) is more sophisticated* I hear. *Sophisticate - to spoil something simple....

I use Zone Alarm, and it's free, I have the settings at it's highest and have no problems up to now, I have Broadband and with Zone Alarm and Agv Anti Virus (Which is updated almost every other day automatically) I feel quite safe. There is a Program that I log onto which checks the computer and so far it tells me that it cannot detect a Computer at this address. The program is called 'Shields UP'. Just put it in your search and it will ask if your want a security check done, say yes and you will get a report for All the Ports on your machine. It is a safe program to use.. 'Walter' City of Lincoln...where because of the Snow, our garden looks as good as everyone else's LOL

Laird and Patricia, Thanks for your comments. Walter in Snowy Lincoln, Have taken note of your freebies! Kathy in Snow-free Bicesterx

BTs Firewall is pretty good but I still get a few get past.

Hi kathy, norton is always blocking mine i must get about 10 a day lol kimx

Walter, I just ran the Shields Up program and got a 'perfect stealth mode' which it tells me is excellent. It also said that my pc did not respond positively or negatively to probing which is unusual. Apparently this is 'cool' (their word) because any prober would not know whether the pc existed at all. If anyone is interested I use AVG7 antivirus and Sygate Firewall - both free downloads.

Walter, Thanks for sharing the Shields Up program with us. It is an excellent and fascinating method of testing a computer's security and vulnerability. I just ran a test on my own PC and am pleased to say that it passed perfect stealth, and did not respond to any ping echo which means that my computer is invisible to hackers. All attempts to get any information from my computer failed, which is very uncommon for a Windows networking based PC and means it is Very Secure. If anyone wants to test their PC for security, just google Shields Up and it will take you to the site. Peter and Kim - give Shields Up a try!! Heather - Thanks for letting us know about the free downloads for anti-virus and firewall. The Shields Up seems to work very well with the freebies that both you and Walter are using!! Kathyx

Norton is one of the best you can have installed,have this on my comp,and stops all virus several a day in fact, its part of life on computers now.

Oh to have the joys and luxuries of Broadband! I live about 500 yds from the London border into Kent, I have a Kent address but a London phone number so this is causing Bt all sorts of porblems in trying to arrange Broadband. Its only been ongoing for about 4 months now!!! At least the viruses that seem to get through are less..............