[SATLUG] Future of the Internet? [Mostly-OT]

[Charles D Hogan]

Michael,

First of all, welcome to the world of responsible computer users in your 
actions to lock down your system. In addition to the suggestions offered 
in the other replies, you could also set up a "user" account with 
limited system priveleges, and password protect your "admin" user 
account with a password. Also, for antivirus AVG does have afree 
solution for home users. I've no idea what their web-site is, but it did 
receive some praise on "The Screen Savers" the other day.

Charles

M. Filio wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Wednesday I became a victim of the recent Windows RPC exploit that Microsoft released a patch for not too long ago. I noticed my bandwidth was being used more than what it should be and discovered some cable modem user leeching about 10K off of me downloading I don't know what from my machine.
>
>The machine in question was on my DMZ port since I mostly use it play games and I'm too lazy to figure out all the different ports I need open. 
>
>After that I patched it, and finally decided to protect myself a little more so I installed Symantec Dekstop Firewall.  Nope, I haven't got my games and other stuff I use working correctly yet. Firewall rules are so annoying to non network people.  I've lost access to my secure shell that I set up on that machine, even though my rule says it's suppose to be open :\
>
>Since the install I've noticed I'm getting scanned about a 100 times a day for various Trojans. I had no idea it was this bad. With the marketing campaigns and further decrease of prices for broadband, is the Internet just going to get more polluted with all the worms and other crap that's floating around now?
>
>If my average Joe cable modem is getting hit this many times, how bad is it for you Net admins with real traffic?
>
>And while we're at it, does anyone have a really good site for discovering what all these services in WinXP do?? It's always been a PITA that I couldn't find any real information from MS.
>
>There just seems like there's too much to learn. I'm by no means a regluar computer user and so that makes me wonder how bad off the Internet really is? Any ideas?
>
>Looking forward to seeing your thoughts.
>
>-Michael
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