Re: Zone Alarm (free addition) and Netscape dialup accelerater.

"ArtDent" <par@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:PWkKg.2032$v%4.955@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On 2-Sep-2006, "Jason Edwards" <none@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You do however need to understand what may
happen if you go the wrong way down a one-way street.

They don't.
They click here click there, that is what I am saying.


Personal firewalls will do nothing here because they require technical
knowledge which the user doesn't have.

No, they don't.
To _truly_ understand some of their messages it may, but that is when they
come here or go to google or the pf's forums for answers. Or call you.
But to install and run in default mode does not require any more
'technical' knowledge than installing most other programs.

It does give a false sense of security though.
Malware which is evil enough will simply walk over the personal firewall without
the user knowing anything about it.


Why is it better that the OP should be denied network access because he
doesn't
have the technical skill to figure out how to get ZA to allow it? Why is
that better??

Which is why the OP came here, to get 'help'. That is a 'good' thing.
And people that just go off and talk about 'other' things, like how he
shouldn't be needing / using it in the first place are certainly not
'helping' him with his current problem.

Sure they are because if he hadn't installed it then he wouldn't have his
current problem.
He has come here to get help for a problem he inflicted on himself by installing
software he doesn't understand.

Now, suggestions how to learn
enough to _eventually_ know that he/she does not need one are fine, but
that should be in addition to at least trying to help with the problem
they have _now_.
I don't think we shall ever agree on this, this seems to be an issue that
people's opinions are set in cement and can / will never change.

Yes that does happen. Also if you've spent years advising people to use personal
firewall software it's not going to be easy to suddenly start telling them why
they don't need it.

All I can say in my defense is that I have been using computers for over
30 years, (yes, since the early 1970's) and have watched them and their
software evolve over all this time. Along with the maliciousness of the
criminal element.
And my belief is that an extra layer of protection is 'good'.

It may be good for you because you have 30 years experience to draw on and so if
a personal firewall said something like dfgoshsd.exe is trying to access the
internet you would instantly take the computer off the network and deal with it.
Put yourself in the position of the new Windows user with 0 years experience.

It is my belief that this extra layer of protection would be good if it worked
but I believe it is imaginary and leads non-technical users into a false sense
of security.
I don't like to see computers taken over by criminals either but that isn't
going to stop until an operating system is in widespread use at home which
doesn't lend itself to easy take-over by criminals.
I have never seen a personal firewall help an unknowledgeable user. I have seen
many cases where it caused problems which were not there before it was
installed.
I _have_ seen virus scanners help an unknowledgeable user by preventing download
of malware but this is not a completely reliable solution because the scanner
may not know about the malware.

I believe that the problem of malware on home Windows PCs is Microsoft's problem
and cannot be solved by adding personal firewall software.

Until Microsoft fix these problems home users would be well advised to install a
virus scanner.
http://www.eset.com/ seems to work well without bothering the user too much.

Jason


--
We apologize for the inconvenience.


.

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