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OFF TOPIC Frustrated Rant

This is test, composed on my laptop while trying to repair my desktop?

1. Which is worse? Choose all that apply.

a. Norton Anti-Virus
b. A Virus
c. Norton Anti-Spam
d. Spam
e. Norton Anti-PopUps
f. PopUps

2. How much of the processing power of your computer does Norton take?

a. none
b. a lot
c. more than it should
d. just about right
e. almost all

3.

a. Do you remember that picture of handsome Peter Norton, the outdoors
man, who lived in the mountains and came down to civilization once a
year to create disk(ette) utilities?
b. Do you wish he was still around?
c. Why was there never a Petra Norton?
d. Did his software actually work without ruling the world?
e. Do you still think Norton is a 500cc single? (or were they all twins? )
d) What's a cc?

4.

a. Have you looked at the html source of a page downloaded from the
internet lately; got Norton Anti-Popups? notice anything ... wonder who
wrote those javascript functions whose names begin with "Sym", ... same
spelling as "Sym"antec?
b. Do you like some who mung gus companies rewriting the html you download?
c. How about who mung gus companies rewriting the html you write?
d. Did Peter Norton ascend into heaven from that mountain top and now,
sitting at the right hand of God, determines what your computer can and
cannot do, can and cannot see, can and cannot ...?

5.

If you came upon three bags with someone struggling inside which would
you kick first?

a. the one labelled Peter Norton
b. the one labelled Ronald Dumsfield
c. the one labelled Al Franken
d. the one labelled Bill Gates
e. the one labelled Lyle Fairfield
f all of the above
g too confused coz there are more than three bags

6. Same as 5 but substitute "hardest" for "first"?

7.

Where should I have posted this nonsense?

a. here
b. there
c. no where
d. in the women's loo at the Imperial War Museum in the big town of the
country that loved (loves?) to wage Imperial War?

8.

Am I sleepy enough to go to bed now ...

a. Maybe, but probably worrying about my unprotected desktop ... Norton
is like a self-sufficient condom ... it protects your computer and f__ks
it too, no human intervention required
b. No, ... too excited about the desktop which is fast and responsive
now that Symantec has been expunged
c. No, going to go out cruising the streets of Julian looking for Petra
Norton? (on a BSA 650 ... maybe a Vincent Black Lightning, or a little
Velocette? ... no more Nortons for me).

--
--
Lyle
--
Nov 13 '05 #1
9 1500
Lyle Fairfield wrote:
This is test, composed on my laptop while trying to repair my desktop?

1. Which is worse? Choose all that apply.

a. Norton Anti-Virus
b. A Virus
c. Norton Anti-Spam
d. Spam
e. Norton Anti-PopUps
f. PopUps
b,d & f, just :-)
2. How much of the processing power of your computer does Norton take?

a. none
b. a lot
c. more than it should
d. just about right
e. almost all
c
3.

a. Do you remember that picture of handsome Peter Norton, the outdoors
man, who lived in the mountains and came down to civilization once a
year to create disk(ette) utilities?
I remember a man in a pink shirt.
b. Do you wish he was still around?
he is, but polishes his chair with his arse and his PA does his typing
for him, she can't code BTW.
c. Why was there never a Petra Norton?
He's not as handsome as you made him out to be? :-)
d. Did his software actually work without ruling the world?
e. Do you still think Norton is a 500cc single? (or were they all twins? )
Dominator/Manx racer was a 500cc single, Commando and Atlas (I think)
were twins, F1 was a Rotary.
d) What's a cc?
A Royale with Cheese (because of the metric system) smaller than a Cu-In.
4.

a. Have you looked at the html source of a page downloaded from the
internet lately; got Norton Anti-Popups? notice anything ... wonder who
wrote those javascript functions whose names begin with "Sym", ... same
spelling as "Sym"antec?
b. Do you like some who mung gus companies rewriting the html you download?
c. How about who mung gus companies rewriting the html you write?
d. Did Peter Norton ascend into heaven from that mountain top and now,
sitting at the right hand of God, determines what your computer can and
cannot do, can and cannot see, can and cannot ...?
I use Mozilla Firefox, what's a popup? :-)
5.

If you came upon three bags with someone struggling inside which would
you kick first?

a. the one labelled Peter Norton
b. the one labelled Ronald Dumsfield
c. the one labelled Al Franken
d. the one labelled Bill Gates
e. the one labelled Lyle Fairfield
f all of the above
g too confused coz there are more than three bags

6. Same as 5 but substitute "hardest" for "first"?
g to both, dunno who b and c are. Might get a reward for letting d out.

I bet e doesn't contain Lyle either, but an MPV you duped into getting
in there :-)
7.

Where should I have posted this nonsense?

a. here
b. there
c. no where
d. in the women's loo at the Imperial War Museum in the big town of the
country that loved (loves?) to wage Imperial War?
:-) Dunno if we love to wage it, but we're the most experienced at it.
8.

Am I sleepy enough to go to bed now ...

a. Maybe, but probably worrying about my unprotected desktop ... Norton
is like a self-sufficient condom ... it protects your computer and f__ks
it too, no human intervention required
b. No, ... too excited about the desktop which is fast and responsive
now that Symantec has been expunged
c. No, going to go out cruising the streets of Julian looking for Petra
Norton? (on a BSA 650 ... maybe a Vincent Black Lightning, or a little
Velocette? ... no more Nortons for me).


Nortons are ridden by people with lots of mechanical knowledge, usually
gained from owning a Norton.

I'll stick with my Ducati, it's strangely more reliable than my VW
(which requires a trailer to be towed all the time to catch the bits
that fall off) My local garage loves that car for some reason... oh
yeah, I keep them in business. If everything in life was as reliable as
a VW, why are there repair shops that specialise in them?

--
This sig left intentionally blank
Nov 13 '05 #2
Trevor Best wrote:
I use Mozilla Firefox, what's a popup? :-)
me too ... well I'm moving to K-Meleon ... try it if you like mystery
.... but regardless of what you use, look at the page source and tell me
if you are happy with the javascript additions at the beginning and end;
better still write some asp with an error; look at the page source to
try to ascertain what the error is; then deal with the confusion of YOUR
javascript and THEIR javascript ... arggggggggggghhhh ...
I bet e doesn't contain Lyle either, but an MPV you duped into getting
in there :-)
MVPs are way too smart to be duped ... right?
Nortons are ridden by people with lots of mechanical knowledge, usually
gained from owning a Norton.


I have no mechanical knowledge; all I know is when I see those little
chrome cylinders running from the bottom of the engine to the top I say
.... "Whazzat?"
and when it's explained I say (to the Harley guys) ... so you carry
extra rods in there and keep 'em hot right up next to the engine? ...
cool idea! ... Bet it's ReaLLy efficient! ... so you are celebrating not
only ugliness but stupidity? ... well, I don't say that out loud!

General Motors too ... eh?

--
--
Lyle
--
Nov 13 '05 #3
> 1. Which is worse? Choose all that apply.

a. Norton Anti-Virus
b. A Virus
c. Norton Anti-Spam
f. PopUps
a and b. However, I will replace a as soon as the trial period on the new
computer runs out, and download AVG. I have never in 19 years of computing
had a b, and have not had an f since switching to Opera.
2. How much of the processing power of your computer does Norton take? c. more than it should
c, probably, but it's so hard to tell with the new machine :)

3.

a. Do you remember that picture of handsome Peter Norton, the outdoors
man, who lived in the mountains and came down to civilization once a
year to create disk(ette) utilities?
c. Why was there never a Petra Norton?
Are you telling me that he's not a real person? What about Bill Gates?
Is he real?

4.

d. Did Peter Norton ascend into heaven from that mountain top and now,
sitting at the right hand of God, determines what your computer can and
cannot do, can and cannot see, can and cannot ...?
Wait ... now he's dead??

5.

If you came upon three bags with someone struggling inside which would
you kick first?

a. the one labelled Peter Norton
b. the one labelled Ronald Dumsfield
c. the one labelled Al Franken
d. the one labelled Bill Gates
e. the one labelled Lyle Fairfield
f all of the above
I'm an American .... definitely b. Is there really anyone in a?
6. Same as 5 but substitute "hardest" for "first"?
I'm an American .... definitely b .. harder. Is there really anyone in a?
7.

Where should I have posted this nonsense?

a. here
b. there
c. no where
d. in the women's loo at the Imperial War Museum in the big town of the
country that loved (loves?) to wage Imperial War?
alt.comp.drunken.MVP.bastards
(low membership but well-frequented)

8.

Am I sleepy enough to go to bed now ...


Just read the PC Magazine article that recomends Trend Micro over Symantec
and Macafee ...

Darryl Kerkeslager



Nov 13 '05 #4
Darryl Kerkeslager wrote:
Are you telling me that he's not a real person? What about Bill
Gates? Is he real?


There are 758 239 British Columbians who have met Bill in real. Each was
driving through a treacherous part of the Rockies in a deadly storm and
came upon a man whose car had broken down; this poor man was close to
succumbing to the bitter cold. Each rescued this man, repaired his car
and drove behind him until he reached safety.
Later the man appeared in the good samaritan's town and
1. rescued the hospital from financial ruin
2. paid for the university education of the good samaritan's children
3. provided computer labs for the impoverished high schools
4. your choice; fill in the blank; be creative
______________________
No Really ... ask them!

I have heard this from 6782 of them directly. Would I exaggerate?

--
--
Lyle
Nov 13 '05 #5
Trevor Best <no****@besty.org.uk> wrote in
news:42***********************@news.zen.co.uk:
Lyle Fairfield wrote:


[a set of quite valid complaints about Symantec AV]

As I've said many times, I don't run any AV software. I do have AVG
Anti-Virus (a free program) so that I can scan when I have suspect
files that I want to check before opening.

But I long ago stopped giving up CPU cycles to AV scanning.

How do I keep from getting infected?

1. I use an email client (Pegasus Mail) that is specifically
designed to be unable to automatically execute any email content.

2. I have my SpamAssassin proxy set to mark as SPAM any email it
identifies as including a Microsoft executable (which includes EXE,
SCR and so forth).

3. I never use Internet Explorer for browsing the web. I used to
occasionally, because support.microsoft.com was crippled in any
browser but IE, but nowadays it renders exactly same in
Mozilla-based browsers as in IE, with exactly the same features. Of
course, I'm also now using http://google.com/microsoft.html, which
is easier to find things than MS's own searching tools. I've been
using Mozilla as my primary browser since version 0.9.3, installed
in August 2001.

4. I open attachments only when I've been informed that they are on
the way.

5. I know how to read email headers and can tell a spoofed email
from a real one (it's not all the difficult), if it's not already
obvious from the subject/content of the message.

6. I have taken the time to understand NTFS security and have set up
my computer accordingly, never running as administrator (unless
necessary), and making sure that certain default file associations
are neutered (especially Windows Scripting Host -- this doesn't
disable WSH, just makes it so that you have to call it explicitly
for a script to work).

7. I do not install any music software, since every one of them that
I've ever looked at installs spyware. Of course, I don't have any
desire to *use* that kind of software. Oh, I do have iTunes
installed, but use it only to play music, not to write CDs or rip
MP3s (I already have good software for those tasks).

Aside from AV issues, I do these things:

1. I never connect directly to the Internet, instead putting a NAT
router between my PC and my cable modem. This blocks all nefarious
incoming scans (I don't have any common ports redirected to my PC,
either; if I were running a testbed HTTP server, I'd be running it
on any port *but* 80).

2. I run a software firewall (Tiny Personal Firewall, an old
version, before they went commercial and screwed up the program)
that allows me to control all outgoing connections. I've authorized
only those programs that have need to make an outgoing connection in
order to work, and by default block all other ports without
notification. If I install new software that really needs the
connection, I temporarily turn on notification to allow me to
authorize the narrowest connection possible (restricting on ports,
IP addresses, protocols).

3. I don't allow any of my web browsers to connect directly to the
Internet. Instead, they all connect through a proxy, Web Washer
(which filters out ads and other things). This has the effect that
any web page that is using non-standard ports (i.e., not 80 or 443)
is blocked (that trick is used by a lot of nefarious exploits).

4. I run only the minimal NT services necessary for my PC to
operate, and make sure that anything that can make network
connections is disabled (unless absolutely required). When Blaster
hit, I was on vacation for 3 weeks, and at the time (because of
RoadRunner problems), my PC was firewalled but *not* behind a NAT
router. My PC was *not* infected, because my firewall blocked the
incoming connection, and because I'd disabled the remote component
of RPC services. I have MSDE installed, but it is disabled. I have
MySQL installed, but it is disabled. I have any number of other
services that by default allow network connections, but I've made
sure that all of them are DISABLED. When I need them, I turn them on
(along with blocking external connections with my firewall
software). That said, any time there are networked vulnerabilities
found in Windows, I download the patch from MS and install it (I do
not unable automatic updates from Windows Update for two reasons: 1.
I want to choose which updates to apply, and 2. I want to download
the patches so that if I have to rebuild my PC and re-apply the
patches, I can do it *before* connecting to the Internet).

5. In regard to pop-ups and spyware and the like, I never see any.
I've been using a browser that blocks pop-ups since August 2001
(Mozilla; before that, WebWasher was blocking most pop-ups already,
since it allows filtering out JavaScripts connected to the OnOpen
and OnClose events of web pages). I was shocked this past summer to
be staying at the home of someone who used Internet Explorer
unprotected, and saw exactly what kind of a mess you end up with. I
was stunned and couldn't figure out why people would put up with
this stuff!

Now, I'm not saying that I'm not vulnerable -- I do have to be
diligent to make sure I keep things set up right and don't forget to
re-enable my firewall software any time I temporarily disable it for
some purpose, and so forth. And, of course, occasionally, the
software I use turns out to have a vulnerability. The latest is the
IDN spoofing vulnerability, which applies to every recent browser
(which, of course, excludes IE, because it's not a recent browser
and has no IDN encoding support, unless you install an ActiveX
plugin). But there's a temporary fix for Mozilla-based browsers and
there will be a permanent fix within the week (the new code is
already in testing). In this case, IE is not vulnerable because it's
codebase is old enough that it predates the implementation of the
IDN encoding standard. This article explains what you need to know
about it:

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/298

That article also has an interesting set of comments on AV software,
where it is pointed out that all AV software scans ZIP files, but
they all ignore all the other common compressed formats (e.g., RAR).
This exemplifies one of the reasons I've always been incredibly
annoyed with the AV software makers -- they are reactive. They
catche the stuff they already know about, but fail to build in any
features that catch things for virus-like behavior. They are stuck
in the pattern-matching mindset (there's no other explanation for
scanning only one kind of compressed file).

For instance, there never should have been any Word macro virus
except the first one, because all that was needed was to scan Word
files for VBA that included the finite collection of dangerous
commands included in VBA (file operations, Shell(), obfuscated code,
etc.). But that's not the way the AV software makers did it -- they
did it with pattern matching.

Granted, macro viruses are gone now, because they were so easy to
scan for, and the number of possibilities were so small (compared to
EXEs, for instance). But they could have been eliminated a few
months after the first macro viruses came out, permanently.

On the other hand, I consider the cost of AV software to be a
Microsoft tax, as it's a result of MS's bad design decisions
(nefarious software might run once, but it shouldn't be able to
install itself in a fashion that re-starts after a reboot -- this is
easily accomplished by applying appropriate security settings to
certain registry keys; it could also have been accomplished by
making writes to those registry keys user-confirmable).

The current Microsoft-created problem is massive spam, because of
all the zombified PCs out there that are being controlled by the
spam networks. This happens because people are running as
administrators and are connected directly to the Internet with all
ports wide open. Both of those problems are caused by Microsoft: the
former is encouraged by the initial setup programs on all versions
of Windows, while the latter is the default configuration for
Windows. Both of these problems are very easily remedied, but you
have to *know* that they are problems before you can fix them.

And Microsoft could have easily engineered things better on the
front end. There is certainly no reason whatsoever for Win2K or
WinXP to have shipped by default with all ports open, because by
that time it was clear that open ports connected to the Internet
were a huge danger. But it was only with WinXP Service Pack 2 that
MS woke up and smelled the coffee -- finally fixing something that
should have never have been implemented in the first place.

In any event, it's possible to compute perfectly safely without
being forced to sacrifice one CPU cycle to 3rd-party AV software.
You just have to understand where you're vulnerable and protect
yourself accordingly.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
Nov 13 '05 #6
David W. Fenton wrote:
Trevor Best <no****@besty.org.uk> wrote in
news:42***********************@news.zen.co.uk:

Lyle Fairfield wrote:

[a set of quite valid complaints about Symantec AV]

As I've said many times, I don't run any AV software. I do have AVG
Anti-Virus (a free program) so that I can scan when I have suspect
files that I want to check before opening.

But I long ago stopped giving up CPU cycles to AV scanning.

How do I keep from getting infected?

1. I use an email client (Pegasus Mail) that is specifically
designed to be unable to automatically execute any email content.

2. I have my SpamAssassin proxy set to mark as SPAM any email it
identifies as including a Microsoft executable (which includes EXE,
SCR and so forth).

3. I never use Internet Explorer for browsing the web. I used to
occasionally, because support.microsoft.com was crippled in any
browser but IE, but nowadays it renders exactly same in
Mozilla-based browsers as in IE, with exactly the same features. Of
course, I'm also now using http://google.com/microsoft.html, which
is easier to find things than MS's own searching tools. I've been
using Mozilla as my primary browser since version 0.9.3, installed
in August 2001.

4. I open attachments only when I've been informed that they are on
the way.

5. I know how to read email headers and can tell a spoofed email
from a real one (it's not all the difficult), if it's not already
obvious from the subject/content of the message.

6. I have taken the time to understand NTFS security and have set up
my computer accordingly, never running as administrator (unless
necessary), and making sure that certain default file associations
are neutered (especially Windows Scripting Host -- this doesn't
disable WSH, just makes it so that you have to call it explicitly
for a script to work).

7. I do not install any music software, since every one of them that
I've ever looked at installs spyware. Of course, I don't have any
desire to *use* that kind of software. Oh, I do have iTunes
installed, but use it only to play music, not to write CDs or rip
MP3s (I already have good software for those tasks).

Aside from AV issues, I do these things:

1. I never connect directly to the Internet, instead putting a NAT
router between my PC and my cable modem. This blocks all nefarious
incoming scans (I don't have any common ports redirected to my PC,
either; if I were running a testbed HTTP server, I'd be running it
on any port *but* 80).

2. I run a software firewall (Tiny Personal Firewall, an old
version, before they went commercial and screwed up the program)
that allows me to control all outgoing connections. I've authorized
only those programs that have need to make an outgoing connection in
order to work, and by default block all other ports without
notification. If I install new software that really needs the
connection, I temporarily turn on notification to allow me to
authorize the narrowest connection possible (restricting on ports,
IP addresses, protocols).

3. I don't allow any of my web browsers to connect directly to the
Internet. Instead, they all connect through a proxy, Web Washer
(which filters out ads and other things). This has the effect that
any web page that is using non-standard ports (i.e., not 80 or 443)
is blocked (that trick is used by a lot of nefarious exploits).

4. I run only the minimal NT services necessary for my PC to
operate, and make sure that anything that can make network
connections is disabled (unless absolutely required). When Blaster
hit, I was on vacation for 3 weeks, and at the time (because of
RoadRunner problems), my PC was firewalled but *not* behind a NAT
router. My PC was *not* infected, because my firewall blocked the
incoming connection, and because I'd disabled the remote component
of RPC services. I have MSDE installed, but it is disabled. I have
MySQL installed, but it is disabled. I have any number of other
services that by default allow network connections, but I've made
sure that all of them are DISABLED. When I need them, I turn them on
(along with blocking external connections with my firewall
software). That said, any time there are networked vulnerabilities
found in Windows, I download the patch from MS and install it (I do
not unable automatic updates from Windows Update for two reasons: 1.
I want to choose which updates to apply, and 2. I want to download
the patches so that if I have to rebuild my PC and re-apply the
patches, I can do it *before* connecting to the Internet).

5. In regard to pop-ups and spyware and the like, I never see any.
I've been using a browser that blocks pop-ups since August 2001
(Mozilla; before that, WebWasher was blocking most pop-ups already,
since it allows filtering out JavaScripts connected to the OnOpen
and OnClose events of web pages). I was shocked this past summer to
be staying at the home of someone who used Internet Explorer
unprotected, and saw exactly what kind of a mess you end up with. I
was stunned and couldn't figure out why people would put up with
this stuff!

Now, I'm not saying that I'm not vulnerable -- I do have to be
diligent to make sure I keep things set up right and don't forget to
re-enable my firewall software any time I temporarily disable it for
some purpose, and so forth. And, of course, occasionally, the
software I use turns out to have a vulnerability. The latest is the
IDN spoofing vulnerability, which applies to every recent browser
(which, of course, excludes IE, because it's not a recent browser
and has no IDN encoding support, unless you install an ActiveX
plugin). But there's a temporary fix for Mozilla-based browsers and
there will be a permanent fix within the week (the new code is
already in testing). In this case, IE is not vulnerable because it's
codebase is old enough that it predates the implementation of the
IDN encoding standard. This article explains what you need to know
about it:

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/298

That article also has an interesting set of comments on AV software,
where it is pointed out that all AV software scans ZIP files, but
they all ignore all the other common compressed formats (e.g., RAR).
This exemplifies one of the reasons I've always been incredibly
annoyed with the AV software makers -- they are reactive. They
catche the stuff they already know about, but fail to build in any
features that catch things for virus-like behavior. They are stuck
in the pattern-matching mindset (there's no other explanation for
scanning only one kind of compressed file).

For instance, there never should have been any Word macro virus
except the first one, because all that was needed was to scan Word
files for VBA that included the finite collection of dangerous
commands included in VBA (file operations, Shell(), obfuscated code,
etc.). But that's not the way the AV software makers did it -- they
did it with pattern matching.

Granted, macro viruses are gone now, because they were so easy to
scan for, and the number of possibilities were so small (compared to
EXEs, for instance). But they could have been eliminated a few
months after the first macro viruses came out, permanently.

On the other hand, I consider the cost of AV software to be a
Microsoft tax, as it's a result of MS's bad design decisions
(nefarious software might run once, but it shouldn't be able to
install itself in a fashion that re-starts after a reboot -- this is
easily accomplished by applying appropriate security settings to
certain registry keys; it could also have been accomplished by
making writes to those registry keys user-confirmable).

The current Microsoft-created problem is massive spam, because of
all the zombified PCs out there that are being controlled by the
spam networks. This happens because people are running as
administrators and are connected directly to the Internet with all
ports wide open. Both of those problems are caused by Microsoft: the
former is encouraged by the initial setup programs on all versions
of Windows, while the latter is the default configuration for
Windows. Both of these problems are very easily remedied, but you
have to *know* that they are problems before you can fix them.

And Microsoft could have easily engineered things better on the
front end. There is certainly no reason whatsoever for Win2K or
WinXP to have shipped by default with all ports open, because by
that time it was clear that open ports connected to the Internet
were a huge danger. But it was only with WinXP Service Pack 2 that
MS woke up and smelled the coffee -- finally fixing something that
should have never have been implemented in the first place.

In any event, it's possible to compute perfectly safely without
being forced to sacrifice one CPU cycle to 3rd-party AV software.
You just have to understand where you're vulnerable and protect
yourself accordingly.


Fascinating. Perhaps, you should write a book; you could probably easily
find enough things about which NT Services to disable and which not to
disable to fill a chapter. It seems that everytime I disable one,
something goes wrong

--
--
Lyle
--
Nov 13 '05 #7
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:54:35 GMT, David W. Fenton
<dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote:
course, I'm also now using http://google.com/microsoft.html, which
is easier to find things than MS's own searching tools.


Lots of great stuff! This one is especially cool - since the MS search
function is absolutely incredibly horrible.
Darryl Kerkeslager
Nov 13 '05 #8
"Darryl Kerkeslager" <ke*********@comcast.net> wrote in
news:op**************@tigger.cnorth01.va.comcast.n et:
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:54:35 GMT, David W. Fenton
<dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote:
course, I'm also now using http://google.com/microsoft.html,
which is easier to find things than MS's own searching tools.


Lots of great stuff! This one is especially cool - since the MS
search function is absolutely incredibly horrible.


Actually, I've always found the Knowledge Base search to be quite
easy to use, though one often had to know things like searching on
codes like kbbug and the like.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
Nov 13 '05 #9

"Darryl Kerkeslager" <ke*********@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:op**************@tigger.cnorth01.va.comcast.n et...

1. Which is worse? Choose all that apply.

a. Norton Anti-Virus
b. A Virus
c. Norton Anti-Spam
f. PopUps


<BIG SNIP>

Just read the PC Magazine article that recomends Trend Micro over Symantec
and Macafee ...

Darryl Kerkeslager


I have to recommend Trend Micro over Symantec also.

And, like David Fenton, we hide behind firewalls, and control our ports,
etc., etc., etc. EXCELLENT advice by the way, David.

I haven't trusted Norton for years.

My company has used Trend Micro for years with GREAT success, and we have
also started using Zone Alarm.

I used AVG some years ago, before we started using Trend Micro, but was
never really satisfied with it, or trusted it as much as I do Trend;
perhaps they've gotten better in the last few years. I have set Trend to
scan for on-line updates every couple of hours, so that I get the latest and
greatest virus files.

Too many people turn off the auto-updates to their files so they won't be
interrupted during their work day, or they let their subscription lapse
after it runs out. HUGE mistakes to make! I would rather be interrupted,
and pay for subscription renewal than have to go thru the pain of getting
rid of viruses, worms, etc. I have friends that I've helped get rid of
viruses! NASTY! Sometimes the only solution has been to wipe the system,
and do a fresh install. REALLY nasty!

I would also have to agree with David regarding Mozilla/Firefox. A much
better browser than IE, and more secure.
The people at Mozilla/Firefox have also released an email program,
Thunderbird, that I am in the process of evaluating that looks pretty good.

Ruben Baumann
Nov 13 '05 #10

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