What Security do you use?

NorfolkCanary

espresso wrote: »

Is your wireless connection encrypted? If so how?

It isn't lol. Uni Network is unsecured if you set Network Authentication on computer it just disconnects from network. Have MS IPsec config tool running also.
But then again I don't keep what I consider 'valuable' info. on computer, it's on cd/dvd/memory stick, what's on computer can be lost and got back later, file wise.

Yes i suppose packet sniffing may be a problem but I can't do much about it.
Also ip address changes on the lan side and use a firewall. Would assume uni uses mac filtering, not sure though. Our I.C. is different from the main Uni network as well.
Plus to connect to the internet we have to login using our uni info. Oh and I don't use IE anymore.

So all in all not that safe but I'll take that chance.

Davesnave

I use :
Mc Afee Security Suite (came with the computer)
Spybot
Ad Aware
Microsoft Defender
Spyware Doctor

Everything was fine till this week when McAfee kept switching its System Guard off. A quick run through Mc Afee's virtual technician got me nowhere, so it was down to their 'award winning' Live Assist Chat with a real technician ....well almost. What you do is correspond via the keyboard.

Nevertheless, I soon felt convined that I was 'talking' to Hal from '2001 A Space Odyssey' because the conversation went something like this:

Hello David, how may I assist you today?

My Systemguard keeps switching itself off!!!

You are getting the 'not protected' status on the Security Centre, am I right?

Yes, and it's freaking me out!

Thank you for the confirmation David.

It was like this unattended for 30 minutes after I booted up today. Anything could have got through in the meantime.

I appreciate your concern, David.

Blah, blah, blah. Whatever I 'said' brought the same, detached & frighteningly calm response.

It took us half an hour to go through all the checks & change some default settings. Finally, when all seemed to be done came the parting bombshell:

'Now you need to uninstall the old version of Mc Afee, Mc Afee Quickclean and Spyware Doctor, Spybot and Ad Aware as they are all incompatible with Mc Afee.'

I was a bit taken aback. Here was Mc Afee telling me its own products were incompatible. Not only that, but I was expected to ditch all my other protection except Windows Defender. Just about any article on security that you read will say that having multiple defence programs is desirable, so I wasn't too impressed or keen to carry out the instruction. I decided that this is probably something Mc Afee techies have to say as part of their script.

Since not doing what I was told, the system has behaved. Just thought I'd relay this to warn others and to see if it is a common experience.

n65uk

NOD32, Online Armor HIPS, a NAT router, and common sense.

Thats all.

foofi22

FuzzatUni wrote: »

It isn't lol. Uni Network is unsecured if you set Network Authentication on computer it just disconnects from network. Have MS IPsec config tool running also.
But then again I don't keep what I consider 'valuable' info. on computer, it's on cd/dvd/memory stick, what's on computer can be lost and got back later, file wise.

Yes i suppose packet sniffing may be a problem but I can't do much about it.
Also ip address changes on the lan side and use a firewall. Would assume uni uses mac filtering, not sure though. Our I.C. is different from the main Uni network as well.
Plus to connect to the internet we have to login using our uni info. Oh and I don't use IE anymore.

So all in all not that safe but I'll take that chance.

It doesn't matter what's on your computer - if you have an unencrypted wireless connection *any* information you send is readable by anybody.

I would suggest you don't log in to any online banking or buy anything online using that connection to the Internet!

buglawton

On-line banking is usually encrypted for the whole session (can see https at the start of the web address). If your router is encrypted then you would have double encryption.

sixtyplus

I have the AVG free edition (7.0 I think), but they keep asking me to update - for a fee. Do I have to do this or can I just keep it as it is?

Art_2

sixtyplus wrote: »

I have the AVG free edition (7.0 I think), but they keep asking me to update - for a fee. Do I have to do this or can I just keep it as it is?

You don't have to subscribe to the paid-for edition but you are using an old version of the free one. You should update your free version.

Regards,
Art.

MothballsWallet

I use:

• Netgear WiFi router with built-in hardware firewall
• Windows XP Firewall on
• AVG 8 (will reinstall soon without the extra garbage they've added)
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Ad-Aware 2007
• Spyware Blaster

Peter_Pan

Art wrote: »

You don't have to subscribe to the paid-for edition but you are using an old version of the free one. You should update your free version.

Regards,
Art.

I'm also getting this message as are some friends, it says that updates for the AVG free will not be available after 31st May and they suggest we upgrade to AVG8 which isn't free when i checked.
Is this the end of AVG free then?
If so anyone know of any other good free ones please?

spud17

See post #28 HERE