[extropy-chat] Anti-virus protection -- problem fixed!

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Mon Apr 18 09:47:33 UTC 2005


On 4/18/05, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> Problem solved--it seems to have been a conflict with residual Norton stuff
> that was allegedly uninstalled after the catastrophe.
> 

Good that you solved the problem. The last estimate I read was that
90-95% of WinXP computers would have no problem with the SP2 upgrade.
But ~5% of all the WinXP computers around the world is still a
horrendous amount of trouble for users.

Keeping Windows running is gradually becoming more and more of a
hassle. You need hardware firewall, software firewall, anti-virus
software, several anti-spyware packages (one isn't enough),
anti-trojan software, watchdog-type software (to stop unauthorised
changes to your software), registry cleaners, rubbish files cleanup
software, the list goes on... And once you have all this, you then
have the ongoing task of keeping it all up-to-date.

If you don't use WinXP on the net you can avoid all this. Get a Linux
live cd, like the new Knoppix 3.8.1. Download an iso image from one of
the mirrors:
<http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html>
and burn it to a blank cd. Then for any surfing, just slot in the cd,
reboot and off you go. As your operating system is running from a
read-only cd, any viruses or spyware you might pick up ('might' being
the operative word as they are very rare on Linux) will remain in
memory and disappear when you reboot.

There are many similar options. I am writing this from my Gmail
account using Xandros 3.0 Linux which I have installed as a dual-boot
setup with Windows. Really, it's easy!

To make Linux users smile, Intel and AMD are bringing out dual-core
processors to increase the power, as they have reached the max on chip
clock speeds. A review in PC Mag suggests that for Win users, the
second processor core can be used to run all their security software,
while they do their surfing on the other core processor.

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1784533,00.asp>
"One of the complaints we've heard from readers is that "protection"
programs, like Norton Internet Security, are useful for safeguarding
their systems. but slow their computers to a crawl. Dual-core
Hyper-Threaded processors, such as the Pentium EE 840, can help,
improving your computing experience because the processor's dual cores
can process tasks simultaneously. While most of the system is
"concentrating" on making sure your Internet or gaming experience is
fulfilled in the foreground, the reserve power that the dual cores
provide protects you in the background, running Norton or other
antivirus or firewall programs."

Best wishes, BillK



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