Has your internet gone down? this may be why!

superscaper

be_alright wrote: »

Back to the previous point, if you've got a router then you don't need to go overboard on locking your computer down with software firewalls which aren't the silver bullet to computer security a lot of people will regard them as.

Horses for courses though. I guess you can't put a price on peace of mind.

Unless you're constantly configuring the router's firewall for every program you install and the ports it wishes to use etc then I don't think the firewall router is very effective on an individual pc level. Ok for protecting intrusion from the network as a whole but in my experience I've found that your pc can still be intruded upon if it doesn't have a software firewall but is behind a router firewall set up properly. A simple shields up test'll probably show that. I've seen a pc get infected in minutes of being online by not having a software firewall even though it was behind the router's firewall.

As far as s/w firewalls I use Eset's. I used to use ZoneAlarm until they started putting 3rd part software in that installed without permission and conflicted with Outlook etc. I then moved to Comodo which then started off light but after many updates became a bloated mess in my opinion. Eset is the least intrusive and lightest resource footprint firewall I've ever tried. Definitely worth it and blocks all the intrusion attempts that the router firewall doesn't stop.

esbo

If you ask me I don't see what security routers give you.
If you can send and recieve data via the router then so can viruses etc..
So that is the big deal with them, yes so the virus has to go throuogh the router,
but everything seems to sail through fine

[Deleted User]

esbo wrote: »

If you ask me I don't see what security routers give you.
If you can send and recieve data via the router then so can viruses etc..
So that is the big deal with them, yes so the virus has to go throuogh the router,
but everything seems to sail through fine

Routers don't prevent Virus and Malware, that's not what they do.

esbo

be_alright wrote: »

Routers don't prevent Virus and Malware, that's not what they do.

I know I never claimed the do.
The claim for routers is that they act as a firewall.
I don't see how they can do that effectively.

When a program dial out zonealarm blocks it.
How can a router block it?
It can't it does not know anything about the program, all it sees is a stream of data.
And it is the same going in, just a stream of data, all it does is routes it
through to the computer it is aimed at.

roddydogs

roddydogs wrote: »

No, not using a router, but with "Superantispyware" and "Spybot" surely it should be ok?

sorry, thought you ment wireless router, its Virgin Modem, can i assume thats got a router in it?

espresso

roddydogs wrote: »

sorry, thought you ment wireless router, its Virgin Modem, can i assume thats got a router in it?

Only a router contains a hardware firewall (network address translation) not a modem. Learn about the benefits of NAT here

exprog

Well, I had trouble after installing the latest Microsoft update and I do not have Zone Alarm.

I have WinXP, the firewall that comes with XP, AVG and Spybot.

I use one isp for my email (though I can use it for general net use) and another one for surfing. I use dial-up not BB.

After installing the MS update I could still access the email one as usual. The other one had problems. Sometimes it would not let me connect to the net for one spurious reason or another. Mostly it connected me for a few seconds (on one occasion for about a minute) and then disconnected me.

I have now done a rollback to last Thursday. The problem only started on Saturday, having (I think) installed the MS update on Friday.

Everything now seems to be working again.

Of course that could all just be coincidence.

superscaper

Well if it's only one ISP that's having problems then that indicates it's only a problem with either that ISP or that you're browsing instead of emailing. What browser do you use?

And which update was it? Is it definitely the same one that's being referred to on this thread?

exprog

superscaper wrote: »

it's only a problem with either that ISP

I know. I'm in no position to make definitive statements about what actually happened. I posted just in case my experience correlates with anyone else. Seems not, at least on this board. Still, it does seem curious that things work now after rolling back. Conceivably there could be a conflict between the MS update and some, but not all, ISPs.

superscaper wrote: »

or that you're browsing

For what it's worth, the email one also worked okay for browsing (but it costs me more money).

superscaper wrote: »

What browser do you use?

IE7

superscaper wrote: »

And which update was it? Is it definitely the same one that's being referred to on this thread?

Having rolled back to Thursday I now have a notification of three MS updates waiting for me to download i.e KB951748, KB890830, KB936929.

I'll download and install them one at a time, leaving KB951748 for last.

Lugh_Chronain

I only wish I'd inquired about this earlier!

When I first downloaded ZA I didn't bother to save them to my computer, instead I just clicked on RUN and the ones I chose downloaded without any problems. I then noticed that these were only available on a 15 day trail after which I decided to save all ZA's to my computer, which took ages, only after realising that I should have just clicked on RUN as before.

Anyway, eventually I clicked on RUN as before only to discover that only two seemed to download. :mad: I noticed the ZA icon as before but after clicking on this, and then clicking the continue trail button, I decided to turn of my computer thinking everything was fine after noticing every thing I downloaded before was up and running, or at least I thought so.

Shortly after turning my computer off I decided to turn it on again only to discover a box with the words 'Thank you for evaluating Zone Alarm Security Suite. Your trial has expired!' and with the option buttons of 'Buy now' & 'or No, thanks'. I clicked on 'No, thanks' only to discover that I could no longer see the ZA icon. How, if there is no ZA icon, do I even start "evaluating" what I have or haven't got?

What the heck have I done wrong? How do I know if I've downloaded everything I need properly onto my computer?
Someone help please!! :eek: