Re: i bought a walmart cheapie

[Jean-David Beyer]

Theorem wrote:
> > > ::::::  I am very careful on my Windows box.
>
>
> I personally do not think it is possible to be careful enough with 
> Windows that you can safely expose it to the Internet (give it a public 
> address).

I was talking to the chief Techie at my ISP about putting Windows XP Home 
on one of my machines. After saying "Don't do it!" he told me of one of 
their clients who installed it, and the first thing he did was dial up the 
Internet to get all the Microsoft Updates. During the time he was 
downloading those, a cracker took over his machine.

It was that techie that suggested firewalling it before even allowing it 
to communicate with the Internet. And not the firewall that comes with it.

> The only somewhat safe way to use Windows is on a private 
> address behind a suitably configured Unix firewall and to never ever run 
> Lookout Express or Internet Exploder. Even then, anti-virus software is 
> a must. Even then...
My firewall (on a Linux server) is set up using iptables so that my 
Windows machines accept _no_ incoming messages except those in reply to 
something I sent out.

Furthermore, the firewall will not allow the Windows machines to send 
anything out except to Microsoft (needed just for updates), Intuit 
(TurboTax for updates, and Quicken for updates and downloading data), and 
American Express, and my broker (because Quicken uses these). And those 
only to port 80.

So it is pretty difficult to infect my Windows machines, and even if you 
do, you will be severely limited in what you can send out and to whom. And 
any failures will be logged.

--
  .~.  Jean-David Beyer           Registered Linux User 85642.
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