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[Taz]

trillian owns

[Hyper]

lol@Hyper,it's xp pro man,no icons come on desktop unless you shortcut them there:P.Also,everyone disrespects windows/msn....if you have your shit setup right it all works flawlessly.I used to recommend firefox to most people as ie was gettin whacked so bad by browser hijackers,but actually mozilla is flawed and will never be fixed.Fact.Msn is the best messenger service out there,imo,tried all the rest,all of them,msn owns....

I had XP. The first thing I did after setup was restoring 'my computer'. Bit I'm glad I run 2K again, I don't like the bullshit that comes with XP.

And MSN is quite nice if you're not too demanding. But it limits your possibilities to communicate, because it only has the MSN protocol.

[Hyper]

I'm trying the new Netscape browser by the way: It's based on firefox, but more secure. But the bad thing it's also bigger and still beta. But Netscape 8 is worth a try for the security / privacy freaks out there. You can configure the settings per site and it can render sites both with the Mozilla as the IE engine, depending of your preferences.

[SpikeMan]

My desktop... Using Win ME..

Sys tray: Internet Connection thingy.. MSN Messenger 7.0, sometimes Winamp too, using WMP now since Messenger supports the ID3 tags to show on my nick. Nope, no antivirus.. Oh, yeah I also have SpyBot Resident up, but shut it down when I started my computer.

[Hyper]

Windows ME, Internet Explorer, MSN, No firewall, No antivirus.

This is asking for trouble. You might want to consider to install an OS based on NT technology, and of course a firewall and antivirus.

[Xavious]

maybe not a firewall...i dont think its that important. to be honest, i think its more trouble than its worth too have a firewall.

[Hyper]

maybe not a firewall...i dont think its that important. to be honest, i think its more trouble than its worth too have a firewall.

You think wrong. When you have no firewall and do have an internet connection, you are subject to continuous passing network scanners. Hackers scan entire IP ranges for OS services to exploit, file shares and some worms can infect Windows systems by just sending some data to the IP of the victim. Even when the sources are password protected, hackers an take hours, days or months to just try all possible passwords untile the security breaks. And you as user never notice it.

A firewall stealths you, just ignores any incoming packets and protect you from rogue apps that want to send your personal data to the wild.

I can recommend to go to http://www.grc.com and do the shields up test.

[Xavious]

ow i already have a firewall and all, just that it blocks lots of things.

the worms could be blocked by the antivirus?

and i have no personal data further than my logins for things like forums..

[}TCP{Ramses]

XP really annoys me the way it throws out so much without letting you know. But its pretty easy to configure a firewall so that it only allows what is needed and some google research helps in deciding what to allow.

The XP firewall only blocks incoming as I'm sure you know, so you should use another firwall as well for the reasons that Hyper gave. Antivirus programs are never 100% effective in detecting stuff. Your pc and connection would be slowed by the background activity and just think of the hastle of restoring your pc if your files or system is taken out by a bored hacker, even if your backup is always up to date.

[Xavious]

well, ive got 2, cuse theres one on my router also, and thats pretty much the one causing problems. i cant configure it cause i dont have admin rights to the internet connection. stupid really, since its my step dad that controls all that stuff, and he doesnt know a thing about it. less than me, even.

[}TCP{Wolf]

Windows ME, Internet Explorer, MSN, No firewall, No antivirus.

This is asking for trouble. You might want to consider to install an OS based on NT technology, and of course a firewall and antivirus.

Some common sense is all you really need - the best protection is useless if the user then clicks on some attachment he got in a mail telling him there's some important info in it

[Xavious]

hah!

yah, its people with none of this common sense which windows xp appeals to most tho...all the automated stuff and crap...

[Hyper]

Windows ME, Internet Explorer, MSN, No firewall, No antivirus.

This is asking for trouble. You might want to consider to install an OS based on NT technology, and of course a firewall and antivirus.

Some common sense is all you really need - the best protection is useless if the user then clicks on some attachment he got in a mail telling him there's some important info in it

Not all virusses and worms require user action. Some just enter the system via bugs in the OS, services and applications. An unpatched Windows XP catches a virus in 30 minutes by just letting it be connected to the internet.

[}TCP{Wolf]

Yup... and for the same reason, simply closing all network ports used by MS get rid of nearly ALL problems Who wants to use the crappy MS services over the internet must be nuts in the first place anyway lol

[}TCP{Ramses]

RANT GRR GRR RANT ...... I cant imagine XP actually appeals to anyone ... it just has the monopoly if you want to use a recent pc (with the drivers and games and all). If they wanted to make it user friendly they could but they prefer to hide and automate everything. I started using it about a month ago and I am still trying to get it to work as I prefer .... switching off this and that service and feature that I don't want and will never use etc. I'm sure that it has nice features because everyone says it has but I really would prefer a more minimalist approach that you could add features to when you wanted them. I've used pc's for twenty odd years and it really shouldn't be this frustrating. I just did a security update and it's switched lots of things back to how they were .... one step forward two back .... and why oh why cant you elect to switch mouse acceleration on and off when you wish .... GNASH GRRR GRR RANT