Broadband and Antivirus Protection

[John Simpson]

sounds too complicated for me Phil 😳
good luck

[Alan Drury]

I have 3 desktop computers and 1 laptop conected wirelesly to a router/modem which is plugged into the phone line. All 4 computers have internet access and all 4 have anti virus and firewall this is as well as the firewall which the router has. I think Dave’s your man on this one though.
Alan D

[Nigel Wagstaff]

Phill, having less than about 5 computers on a private network (which is what you have behind the router) I don’t recommend networking the Antivirus.

To share protection on the network you have to purchase a "Network licence" from Norton. It needs about 5 computers before you should begin to consider this option.

Best suggestion is to install standard Norton on both machines (you can purchase additional licences from Norton direct and use the same installation disks)

I would also recommend installing Microsoft’s Windows Defender, a very handy utility. Google "Windows Defender" and you will get straight there.

Nigel

[Rod Young]

quote Phill:

I have just installed Broadband AOL at work and I am concerned about antivirus protection. I have Norton antivirus and Firewall installed on one PC but not on the other. My Broadband connection is through a router and I have two PCs networked together through this router. Both PCs can access the internet now and are both permanently connected on line. Do I need to install a seperate firewall and antivirus software on both PCs or can I install my firewall and antivirus on one PC only but have protection through the network?

Hi Phil,

I would strongly recommend you disconnect the system that has neither antivirus nor firewall. From how you describe your setup, it has no protection and was likely compromised within minutes of being brought online.

Now, if you had a system set up as a manner of gateway, through which all Internet traffic was being piped to your other systems, then you could make do with just having a firewall on that system. Still recommend having virus checkers on each system.

Further, it would not hurt to have a secondary virus checker for occasional use to confirm that the primary virus checker had not been compromised. However, I don’t see many people going to this amount of trouble. Your choice.

Regards,

Rod

[Nick Minall]

Phill, you can get avg free antivirus software and as been said before and get windows defender also free on all your PC’s.

Nick.

[Nigel Wagstaff]

Rod, don’t you not think the router will be acting as the gateway for the network. I think it will be blocking ports etc and managing IP addresses (DHCP)?? Not 100% sure but most routers I have used take that role.

Nigel

[Peter Normington]

go to http://www.grc.com/default.htm scroll down to shields up, see if your you need a firewall, anti virus is something else Never down load emails etc unless you check them out first,. I use mailwasher to view all emails before downloading.

Peter

[Richard Urquhart]

Peter thanks very much for that great results

Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice.

[Marcella Ross]

I passed with flying colours trustealth mode 🙂

….. which only goes to prove one thing ………………. it’s me that breaks my pc 😕 :lol1:

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Marcella:

….. which only goes to prove one thing ………………. it’s me that breaks my pc 😕 :lol1:

im not saying a word……………………… :peek:

nik

[Phill Fenton]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I’ll try Peters "Shields Up" test when back at work tomorrow. Meanwhile I tested my home PC to discover that what I thought was safe is actually vulnerable 😕

Rod, I had the same concerns as you and have been unplugging the PC that has no independant firewall or antivirus from the router when I am not accessing the internet or file sharing with it (I’ll continue to do this until I know it is protected).

I’m considering installing AVG on both PCs and need to determine that each PC is protected with a firewall (from what I have learned today the router itself may well act as a firewall – I just need to double check that this is indeed the case) if not, I’ll try installing a separate firewall on this machine as well.

Martin has also sent me a couple of emails with useful advice.

Hopefully I’m on the right track – if I’m missing anything please let me know

[Rod Young]

quote Phil:

I’m considering installing AVG on both PCs and need to determine that each PC is protected with a firewall (from what I have learned today the router itself may well act as a firewall – I just need to double check that this is indeed the case) if not, I’ll try installing a separate firewall on this machine as well.

quote Nigel Wagstaff:

Rod, don’t you not think the router will be acting as the gateway for the network.

Hi Nigel,

You’re thinking in terms of a network firewall, whereas from Phil’s description I do not believe that is what he has set up. It will be up to Phil to check the specifications on his equipment to confirm what manner of firewall protection he has. Hopefully this will not be too time consuming.

All the best,

Rod

[Phill Fenton]

I have just tested both PCs using the "Shield" site suggested by Peter. The results are both PCs are protected. (I even switched off the firewall installed on one PC and it still passed) this suggests to me that the router does indeed act as a firewall which is what I was hoping. 😀

[Phil Barnfield]

your router should act as a firewall and only allow inbound requests if they are set up in your static routing table within the Router Admin interface.

As for antivirus, had many a bad experience with AVG. You dont get anything for free these days….. certainly shows with AVG. If you want something exceptionally cheap you can do aVast which is ok ish, or then again contact me and I can sell you a reputable AV package )including spyware protection) from a company in Germany called BitDefender -www.bitdefender.co.uk

Not worth running the risk these days. Always best to use protection from the start…. bit like something else too!!! 😛

[John Singh]

Phill I think you can only have one free copy of AVG at one address
I had AVG some years ago installed but was told by a techi that I could be running a risk with a freebie

I’m presently using bitdefender pro
Has a firewall and anti virus etc
Not a bad price
Also the router has a firewall

[Nigel Wagstaff]

Phill It does look like the router doing it’s job (as it should).

Hardware firewalls are far better than software firewalls on a PC because of the reduced workload on the CPU.

The discussion of which software to use for AV can go on for ever. Everyone uses what they are comfortable with. I was a big fan of Norton until I was stung 6 months ago. Fortunately I recovered in 30 minutes with a working drive image 😀

We all love computers, but we also hate them too.

Nigel

[Checkers]

You know what they say about opinions, everyone has one and they all stink! 🙂
Here in my shop, I mainly use 1 PC, but I do have a second connected to the "network" as a back up. Internet access is routed through the router/firewall, plus, I use both software firewalls and anti-virus software on each PC.
Remember, attacks and infections are not just "net" related, so you also need to protect the computers from themselves and/or other users on the network. At my former employer, I couldn’t count the number of times we were saved by having every PC in the network protected with anti-virus software. We used and I would recommend http://www.sophos.com. Their system worked quite well on a network of 12 computers and 2 servers.
Sure it costs a fair amount of money, but how much would it cost you if you lost even 25% of your files and you had to reproduce them from scratch.

Checkers
a.k.a. Brian Born
Harrisburg, PA USA

[Phill Fenton]

I’ve tried a 15 day trial version of AVG but find it’s slowed one of my PC’s right down (It’s a windows 98 machine) – can anyone recommend any antivirus software that doesn’t slow things down on older machines?

[Phil Barnfield]

BitDefender as mentioned above.

My 80% key selling factor of the product is due to this.

[Lorraine Clinch]

I downloaded Zonealarm as a free 15 day trial, then bought it, as it is so good at filtering out junk email-it hardly ever makes a mistake, it’s MUCH better than any I have tried before, and has anti-virus etc. too.
The result of the web-link Peter put up passed my comp. with flying colours too.

[Nick Minall]

Lorraine, are you sure Zonalarm is anti virus? thought it was just a firewall and anti spam.

[David Rogers]

I’m using (at work) – Crappy BT router with firewall & Sophos on network.

At home – Zonelabs (zonealarms), antivirus (and firewall) package. Doesn’t slow down your machine like the lumbering dinosaurs of Norton & McAfee…live scans so less chance of getting a virus in the first place, configurable firewall to allow / deny any and all traffic….all for $20 a year.

I’ve tried some of the freebies in the past, AVG was hopeless. you don’t get something for nothing.

I’ve had one instance of virus infection on my home PC (running norton) – got three of them & in the end required a total system wipe as it ate my boot sector. About 15 hours of recovery & the loss of a LOT of emails from when me & Manda were courting so I was none too popular 😥

Went and paid for something decent – NEVER had a successful intrusion or virus attack in 3 years now.

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/c … d=db_trial

[Lorraine Clinch]

quote Nick Minall:

Lorraine, are you sure Zonalarm is anti virus? thought it was just a firewall and anti spam.

I bought the full version (£35 paid last week) and have anti-everything as far as I can see. It’s doing a virus check as we ‘speak’.

[Nick Minall]

quote Lorraine Clinch:

quote Nick Minall:

Lorraine, are you sure Zonalarm is anti virus? thought it was just a firewall and anti spam.

I bought the full version (£35 paid last week) and have anti-everything as far as I can see. It’s doing a virus check as we ‘speak’.

Yes, I have just had a look and the full version has it all .

[David Rowland]

i have no idea if AOL caught up with the real word of internet networking but back on aol 7 they couldnt even share over a basic router, when i confronted aol they said no to networking.
also they seem have a crazy spam filter that blocks my email incoming email to AOL users, AOL has only one practical use and that’s home Internet, absolutely not reliable to the business user. I also know a courier company who moved to a relisble provider as they were spammed out… your best having a good domain name and driving into Outlook and choose any isp and router

[Rodney Gold]

Just get Nortons anti virus 07 and install it on both puters , it will allow you to do so on both and will protect you for a year what with updates etc. Pay the price , it’s cheap and works.
If you have an old puter that doesnt run Xp , you might not be able to use 07 but will have to go down a version or 2.
Its normally a painless install and on a decent machine wont slow you down that much.
Ive tried a few "freebies" but they sometimes a little dodgy , so I just pay around 10 quid for Nortons.

[Garrie]

I wouldn’t touch Norton with a barge poll, however that is just my opinion.

I have a small wireless LAN, the wireless router (old BT voyager 2000) has a built in hardware firewall, I use wireless for the laptop and wired connections for both PCs.

The PCs run no firewall other than XP service pack 2 firewall, all PCs including the laptop run AVG, never had an issue at all, in fact I’ve never had a virus ever. I don’t use IE, only Firefox for browsing.

All the PCs don’t suffer any slowdown running AVG.

Cheers
Garrie

[Alison Falzon]

I’ve got AVG free on both my PCs, and the free ZoneAlarm firewall. Never had any problems with either, and I’d recommend them….

[David Rowland]

i ordered Dell’s recently and they come with McAfee…. first thing I do with them is uninstal the crud… slows the PC’s down by about 10% in my view

[Martin Pearson]

I run AVG on most of my computers and install it on the laptops I sell and have never had a problem, the earlier versions of AVG did not self update and problems were usually caused by people not updating it.

If you want a good product and are happy to pay for it then as Phil has said you cant go far wrong with Bitdefender although Phil is probably biased because he sells it.
For 20 dollars it is a good buy and has had some very good write ups. I have it on a couple of older machines running windows 98 and have had no problems with it.

Dave AOL are still a problem when it comes to networking, it seems OK if you get one of their routers but if you buy one for yourself then it is a nightmare to set up as AOL won’t give you the info you need to set it up properly.

[Phil Barnfield]

quote martin:

If you want a good product and are happy to pay for it then as Phil has said you cant go far wrong with Bitdefender although Phil is probably biased because he sells it.

not arff!

Saying that there are a couple of others out there. Just steer clear of freebies, Norton and McAfee. I have a long list of reasons why…. I deal with customers every day who have problems with the last two!!