Re: Win 98 laptop

DigitalVinyl wrote:
"JIP" <JIP@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello

I keep reading in this group about how crap personal, software
firewalls are.

I've just been asked to take over an oldish laptop running 98SE and
set it up for the user to have email and internet useage through a
dialup account, using her account settings from her even older
computer.

So, here is this laptop with an internal modem. It has Norton
Security Suite 2001 (don't laugh).

I aim to remove Norton (hints on anticipated problems appreciated)
and put in a free AV.

Given that there will be no firewall, what should I do in the 98SE
settings to stop it being attacked the moment it goes on line?

Cheers

Well, without a firewall you are using a OS that is gauranteed to be
vulnerable. I have actually seen XP machines become infected over
modem lines in the last year. So it CAN happen. One would think the
bandwidth would constraint the possibilities enough. But on a slow old
machine it doesn't take much to bring it to its knees.

Win98 is such a vulnerable OS at this point. And the internet tools
are likely out of date on the system.

I would invest as little time as possible. Norton products are not
know for easy, clean uninstalls. Uninstallation may leave you
rebuilding the machine. How many hours do you feel like spending on
this silly little outdated box?

I would leave it as is. See if you can get a paid subscription to the
existing norton antivirus (make the company pay for stupid decisions).
Warn them that uninstalling an outdated program on an outdated OS
could result in the machine going belly up with no support. It could
ocst hours to rebuild. You could try just putting a free AV on top of
it and leave it at that. Win98-based outlook would be very vulnerable.
So unless this person is doing aol/webmail clients, there's another
can of worms ready for the can opener.

I would accept that this is a bottomfeeder machine. Given probably to
someone who is clueless about computers so they feel relevant. Don't
try to force it to be "current" when it obviously isn't.


I tell my customers I don't work on pre-XP boxes. I simply won't take
the job. They are slow and troublesome and would take up too much of
my time. Cheaper for the customer to buy a $400 refurbished XP PC than
to pay me for the hours it takes to get a 98 machine in decent shape.
I hear all you say, but this is a friend who has no possibility at all of
buying a new machine, and her desktop machine, also running Win 98, is
beyond reasonable repair. She ahs been given this laptop. As a friend I
don't care about how much time is taken, I'll do whatever is needed to give
it the best protection I can, with low resource virus and spyware scanning.



.

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