RE: Norton Antivirus 2004 on XP
From: mapportal (mapportal_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 09/11/04
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Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 17:21:04 -0700
Pammy, I used Norton Antivirus 2004 XP briefly (manufacturer preloaded) and I
found that attention to the Norton "script" scanning settings can alter how
online games play. Look for the little scroll icon in the Norton settings
sub menus. If you've simply fired up the Norton and only look at the basic
"on/off" settings without exploring the whole menu, you might not have
noticed that there are customizable features of the Norton Internet Security
suite available as they relate to "scripted" objects on the web.
Installing a firewall and then turning it off, even for a second, if you
have _any_ physical contact to the net (i.e. modem plugged in/ cable
physically connected on broadband with modem and computer poweron) provides
that brief moment when port scanning attacks or trojan dialers or remote
access channels find out you are vulnerable and target you for nasty and
sophisticated hacking after having got lucky the first time. I've spent the
last week continually rediscovering that portscanners have been having a go
at my machine since mid-August (timed for several attacks an hour to find a
vulnerable moment on my machine - which they found lots and lots of in
August) and I've responded by repeatedly reconstructing my whole system from
disk partition format on up through SP2, only to find that one brief moment
of lapse while loading some program that doesn't want the firewall on while
it loads was all that was needed for the port scan to sneak in and reinitiate
hacking, after all my effort to completely nuke my disk - etc. Ultimately I
installed Panda firewall, which permits real-time acceptance or rejection of
contacts through the firewall and tells me in great detail the IP and other
information about the attack coming at me and what the attacker is trying to
access in my machine. After a few more days of a port scan attack every 10
minutes or so, I think I'll have it beat once I get more knowledge of the
nuts and bolts of XP.
The moral of the above is _______ NEVER NEVER NEVER_______________ turn off
your firewall for the briefest moment unless you are LITERALLY unplugged from
the net - the cable or phone line to the computer is unconnected or an
essential connection device is unplugged from electricity and can't possibly
pass on signal from the net to your computer. You might not have _yet_ been
hacked by the sophistacted kind of hacking loop I've been involutnarily
recruited into, but it is a matter of time for *everyone*. Once they hack
you, they are incredibly persistent in checking back on you to find one
single moment of vulnerability to resume access, even after being denied
access repeatedly. These attacks are run by bots, not humans, that don't
give up and don't sleep, and once they've got you with one type of malicious
code they have an address to try all kinds of other interesting malicious
code and probing for security holes. These bots are going to live on the net
until such time as _everyone_ gets a good firewall like they should, keep it
on whenever the computer is plugged in with power and the connection to the
net in place, and stop allowing their machine to be hijacked by bots.
Turning off your firewall for even a brief moment, while at all physically
connected to the net, is courting hacking in the modern era. I sure hope
those Wi-Fi lovers don't think that a laptop set on "sleep" and without a
firewall is immune as they walk about in a world with increasing WiFi portals
here and there.
Much adware out there will kill various Active X controls, which can also
hinder on-line games played in a browser. (Be sure the adware isn't being
offered by someone who would simply like to block everyone but THEMSELVES
from hacking you - "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" - browse with
Google [[ or MSN search ;) ]] to get referrals at many different technology
review sites). Perhaps that is, indeed, the source of your problem.
Actually, this is a good thing because Active X is worse than Java as a
hacker tool - IMHO - and I hope the inventors of both Java and ActiveX get
additional time in purgatory for these sins of commission. ;) I'd tell
you how to get a flash game safely scanned and locally resident, if it isn't
malicious, so it can be played without net contact, except that doing so
would advise you of how to violate copyright - much like illegally pirating
music - unless the media creator actually permits this. (Some would, merely
to save themselves from paying for bandwidth to have you repeatedly access
the game/media on line. Doesn't hurt to ask.) Learn about ActiveX controls
and the security features of them, or learn to do without ActiveX is my
humble advice.
Some people offering free flash games or similar media on-line aren't doing
it for giggles or self-actualization. Their pages readily contain all sorts
of malicious or at least deceitful code or calls to other places to download
malicious or deceitful code via the internet explorer/active x hole in
security, for those who unwary permitters of ActiveX controls. Sometimes
even a safe edition of some flash media or game can be found on one page but
an altered experience lurks on another apparently featuring the same flash
game/media - it loads more than you are expecting it to because Active X is
authorized to load more than what the eye sees. Not all such pages are
like this, of course, but a surprising number probably are.
You should regularly form the habit of seeing what kind of ActiveX code has
latched on to your browser ("Manage add ons") and disable any that doesn't
have proper authentication or that you don't know you need. Actually, IMHO,
any page that asks you to enable ActiveX is more likely than not asking you
to do so for a deceitful reason. The slimballs have latched on to the
technology at a much faster rate than nice friends who want to share
something good that happens to require ActiveX. The crooks often are first
to fully exploit technology - just as hookers were the first to adopt
answering machines in a major way to never miss a customer calling for a
"date". You should have this attitude towards every new media invetion
appearing on the web, IMHO. I am now in the habit of only allowing ActiveX
on any page at all _only_ after first loading the page while denying ActiveX
controls and seeing if there is in fact anything on the page missing that
**I** actually want to see on the page!!! I think this will make life
soooooooooooooooooooo much simpler for me.
I imagine there are opinions at great variance with mine in this newsgroup,
and I certainly do not object to all civil and informed discussion on these
topics.
"pammy" wrote:
> HELP Please!!! Anyone with any info to help me please do..I have updated my
> subscription to Norton 2004 since I have did this I cannot connect to the
> server for an online game. I have disabled the autoprotect cause sometimes
> this is the factor but still no luck. I also downloaded some adaware
> software and did a scan, could this be a factor?
> Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated.
> Pammy
- Next message: anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com: "?? How can I turn my Virus Protect back on??"
- Previous message: Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\): "Re: Deleting files using VBscript"
- In reply to: pammy: "Norton Antivirus 2004 on XP"
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