security

[CoReTeK]

Back again,

I have been reading up a bit about security on computers and wanted to know if it is worth hidding your IP address and how to do it if it is. And also how to know if I have a firewall installed and if I haven't got one should I get one?

Thanks

[Confused]

If you have broadband then I consider a firewall to be a absolute must. If running XP it has one built in. To check if it is on Start > Control Panel > open Network Connections > right click Local Area Network and select Properties. Select Advanced tab.

I prefer a hardware firewall (for broadband connections only). You can run the XP one with it also.

Zonelabs has a free one that can be downloaded.
Chas

[GaryRouth]

If you connect by dialing over a regular phone line, using the modem in your computer, you can use a software firewall that will hide your computer from the Internet ("stealth" the ports). We've been recommending ZoneAlarm 4.5 a lot, available at this link http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/fre...45_594_000.exe - but don't upgrade to version 5 for a while, until they get the bugs worked out. Kerio and SyGate also have free-for-personal-use firewalls.

If you connect by a cable or DSL device, that box may or may not include a "hardware firewall" builtin. To find out if a hardware firewall is included in your cable/DSL device, you'll need to call your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

If you connect by a cable/DSL device that does not have a hardware firewall built-in, but you have a home network that shares the cable/DSL Internet feed with a "router", most recent-model (last two years) routers have a built-in hardware firewall.

A hardware firewall will usually do a good job of hiding your computer from hackers (usually doing the port "stealthing" I mentioned earlier [there's a strategy called "NAT" - Network Address Translation - that helps hide your networked computers, exposing only the router's address on the Internet --> so if you do have one, it's important to remember to change/assign a strong password for the router's Administrator login).

Even with a hardware firewall in place, you may find that a software firewall can provide peace-of-mind, since they can block spyware that might've managed to sneak into your computer from dialing home with your credit card numbers, passwords, etc.

Win9x doesn't have a software firewall built-in (nor do WinNT/2000). XP has a built-in software firewall, but prior to SP2 it was disabled by default, and it doesn't block outgoing communications.

You can check your overall system security by visiting a site like "Shields UP!" [over at Gibson Research Corp. https://grc.com/ ... and here's a PC Mag review of that test http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C41...0746%2C00.asp] or - if you have any Win2000/XP PCs on your network - you can test them by running the MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser tool) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../mbsahome.mspx

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[p.s. Hi Chas - just saw your post (I was typing very leisurely today!) so of course I just repeated a bunch of stuff. Well, they say History repeats itself, and I'm just about as old as History . . . ]

[Confused]

Originally Posted by GaryRouth [p.s. Hi Chas - just saw your post (I was typing very leisurely today!) so of course I just repeated a bunch of stuff. Well, they say History repeats itself, and I'm just about as old as History . . . ]

But yours was much more informative and detailed.

Chas