Posted on 02/13/2007 10:59:28 PM PST by Spktyr
I never considered UAC as a gateway but rather a guard.
Is it a pain? Yes. Installing games, Office, apps, etc. that damn prompt gets annoying.
However, I think it serves a very good purpose to alert you to a stealth program trying to install itself.
Downloading bunny pictures and all of sudden UAC pops up and wants to know if you want to install MistressJoanWhipme.exe. At that point running it as administrator doesn't even enter into the decision.
Sorry you had me up until that point. Compared to AIX and HP-UX, Solaris is barely usable.
Those were comments by Slashdot users; I just reposted them for the amusement of FReepers...
Do you have a recommendation for a Linux installation for running a network monitor and firewall? I have a P3 450 with two nics sitting right here that I've been meaning to dedicate to that purpose.
What I'm looking for is a cook book to configure the system for security, and a recommendation for the firewall app. This system would be the first connection point for a simple home network.
pwn3d is cheesy internet slang for "owned" -- i.e. a hacker has taken control of an unpatched computer.
These days, hackers want to control hundreds or thousands of computers to relay spam or commit denial of service attacks.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough time and space to list all the options here, but I can get you started.
Take a look at OpenBSD, which despite the name is designed as an ultrasecure operating system. This makes it a poor choice for a desktop operating system and an excellent choice for a server, router, or other network appliance duty. There are many router projects built off OpenBSD, including some that run off a single floppy or CD. Google for "OpenBSD router" and you should find quite a lot of info.
It's computer slang. "Owned" means that you've been screwed by someone. "Pwned" indicates that you've been totally screwed by someone.
Oh, forgot to mention - there will be no separate firewall app needed. IPFW is included in just about every distribution of Linux/BSD.
Use both. Outpost is very good.
Guess I'm older than I thought I was. :-)
Thank you for the advice gentlemen:
1) It is a hardware firewall I am running.
2) I just turned on "auto-update" and caught up in my patches.
The reason I ran unpatched was my friend advised me that the eventual slowdown in my machine would force me to buy another, due to the patches slowing it down so much.
But thinking more about why my friend would say this, I realize that SINCE HE USES IE (Internet Explorer), this is a much more likely source of slowdowns due to the spyware and junk he would attract to his machine.
Agreed?
Spktyr: I hope you are wrong.
Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and AVG AntiSpyware Free are your friends. Download them from download.com and run them immediately.
Then take your machine over to housecall.trendmicro.com and do a full scan.
Your friend is an idiot. I like that kind of idiot, they generate so much work (and therefore money) for me!
Windows-based software firewalls are a sick joke.
If you mean the software firewall built in to Windows...I agree.
If you mean any software firewall that runs on a Windows OS...what alternative is there if you don't want to chuck Windows?
Any software firewall is Windows-based in that regard.
Sorry you had me up until that point. Compared to AIX and HP-UX, Solaris is barely usable.
Well, truth be told, SunOS on the old Sun III workstations was a real breath of fresh air. The GUI was new to most *IX users at the time.
Mark
ROFL!
Thus the difference between people who only go for the money and those who truly want to build a quality product. Michael Eisner looked only at profit, and we all know what happened to the quality of Disney animation after Wells (Disney prez, COO) died and Katzenberg (studio head, now Dreamworks) left, and Eisner totally took over.
You see the difference in Ballmer's recent speech. He basically said the new Windows was just there to keep the revenue coming in. Apple improves Leopard also because they want to push the envelope of what an OS can do. This is why Apple is known for innovation, and Microsoft is not.
Microsoft will improve if necessary to avoid getting run over. Another good example is IE, which sat with no improvements for years until Firefox became a danger, and then Microsoft just played catch-up.
I've been in programming for a while, but I've also been in design. The worst thing I normally see is programmers coming up with "the great idea" that completely forgets the human nature of the user at the other end.
This is summed up well in #32: "and the 1 out of a million clicks when your supposed to say No, you click Yes because that is what you ALWAYS HAVE TO DO TO GET ANYTHING DONE."
It's basically the boy who cried wolf.
Yup. There is a small learning curve. Of course Darwin will weed out the incompetents who are bound to get virii anyhow.
Doesn't Mac have a similar "feature"?
Yes, it's one of the features of OS X that Microsoft is trying to copy. But the OS X warning doesn't come up very often, only when installing software or updates, so there's no "cry wolf" aspect.
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