Why Should I Stop Using Internet Explorer?

**Cleetus** · January 15th, 2005, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

I would have to agree not using an antivirus is nothing more then irresponsible
Hopefully soon ISP's will have AV verification before your allowed on the net

Do any of you know how to read or are you all just stuck in your self centered world of "I am the best tech ever, and no one else can deviate from my norm"

**** YOU

**Matridom** · January 15th, 2005, 02:16 PM

I don't feel that FF, Opera or Mozzila have less security flaws.

IE has a HUGE market share.. like something obscene like 80% (don't quote me on that)

Personaly, if I had the choice of running down a firing range with a big target on my back VS running down the range with no target on my back.. Well, I think the choice is simple really.

**craigmodius** · January 15th, 2005, 02:52 PM

I think if you're not running AV or a firewall, you're begging for trouble.

Viruses are one thing, WORMS are quite another. A firewall/AV is essential to prevent that.

You may think you're protected because you know how viruses work and all, but alotta these worms like Slammer, Nimda, and Blaster spread across the globe in a matter of a few short minutes. When a simple firewall could've stopped it.

And oops, someone didn't have a firewall, well the rest of the internet thanks you.

A typical day of seeing what my hardware firewall blocks from coming in (even without a computer connected) quickly shows just how foolhardy an unprotected system is.

You may think you're protected because you have all the latest patches, but who says you're patched against the next variant, or next worm? Do all your updates still pass verification, or did some software you installed yesterday overwrite a previously patched file?

On a strictly human level, back in the days before worms I thought I didn't need AV either and I was on dial-up, so what did I need a firewall for? Then my girlfriend checked her hotmail email one day from my computer and hey presto there's a virus for everyone from my email.

And I have friends over all the time that check their yahoo email or hotmail on my computer as we power down the brews, and I don't need to worry that they'll infect my computer.

my $.02

**NooNoo** · January 15th, 2005, 09:51 PM

A router, not opening suspicious mails (not even preview) and the correct settings for ie - turn of jscript and activex and you are much more secure.

It is possible to get by, but you must know what your doing and where you are going to avoid the traps.

Personally, if you have other users on your network, av and firewall is a must.

**TripleRLtd** · January 16th, 2005, 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

A router, not opening suspicious mails (not even preview) and the correct settings for ie - turn of jscript and activex and you are much more secure.

It is possible to get by, but you must know what your doing and where you are going to avoid the traps.

Personally, if you have other users on your network, av and firewall is a must.

Sorry Noo, but you are wrong. When things change every single day, how can anyone know where the "traps" are? The web is inundated with crap nowadays, and it's only getting worse. Like Ferrit said, it will be a good day when ISP providers do their job and provide security for us. As they should.
btw, when it comes to cleetus as an example of just how safe anyone is, just read this:
http://forums.windrivers.com/showpos...8&postcount=52

...sorry cleete, but you are wrong on this....

**NooNoo** · January 16th, 2005, 09:17 AM

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

Sorry Noo, but you are wrong. When things change every single day, how can anyone know where the "traps" are? The web is inundated with crap nowadays, and it's only getting worse. Like Ferrit said, it will be a good day when ISP providers do their job and provide security for us. As they should.
btw, when it comes to cleetus as an example of just how safe anyone is, just read this:
http://forums.windrivers.com/showpos...8&postcount=52

...sorry cleete, but you are wrong on this....

Cleetus is free to state his opinion in the tech lounge within the guidelines Trip. I don't see anywhere that a person is not allowed to relate his/her experiences with a particular setup. I suspect Cleetus does not recommend this setup to a "standard" user, but, I have not asked him, so I don't know. Perhaps you would like to Trip?

Re-read my post, you will find it says

It is possible to get by, but you must know what your doing and where you are going to avoid the traps.

A number of times you have accused posters of forcing their viewpoints upon others... pots and kettles Trip?

**Tazdrummer** · January 16th, 2005, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Cleetus is free to state his opinion in the tech lounge within the guidelines Trip. I don't see anywhere that a person is not allowed to relate his/her experiences with a particular setup. I suspect Cleetus does not recommend this setup to a "standard" user, but, I have not asked him, so I don't know. Perhaps you would like to Trip?

Re-read my post, you will find it says

A number of times you have accused posters of forcing their viewpoints upon others... pots and kettles Trip?

Let me ask this to Cleetus.....

Why do you not use a/v at least?

**craigmodius** · January 16th, 2005, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

A router, not opening suspicious mails (not even preview) and the correct settings for ie - turn of jscript and activex and you are much more secure.

It is possible to get by, but you must know what your doing and where you are going to avoid the traps.

Personally, if you have other users on your network, av and firewall is a must.

Sorry NooNoo, I'm gonna have to disagree here too.

I do know what I'm doing, and that is exactly why I run a firewall and AV. A quick check of just the suspicious inbound activity for only 1 measly day shows 905 access attempts. These vary from viruses like Sasser trying to come in plenty of times on port 445 to SQL Slammer which tried about a dozen times on 1433 and 1434 and so on and so forth.

You may think you're patched, but I've seen enough patches from microsoft come thru and then get revised, and revised again as different worm variants come out.

It seems rather vain of someone to say, "I know what I'm doing, I don't need a firewall or AV". You may think you know what you're doing, but there's a ton of virus writers and hackers out there who know more than you.

And yet a simple effort on someone's part to install 2 programs can help them be more responsible.

**TripleRLtd** · January 16th, 2005, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

I suspect Cleetus does not recommend this setup to a "standard" user, but, I have not asked him, so I don't know. Perhaps you would like to Trip?

Re-read my post, you will find it says

A number of times you have accused posters of forcing their viewpoints upon others... pots and kettles Trip?

Perhaps I will.

I did reread your post and I, in fact, highlighted exactly what you noted. That was what I was really replying to.
But, I'll tell you what, if it seems like I am being like the government forcing drivers to wear seatbelts, and forcing my viewpoints on the necessity of a/v and firewalls, I am sorry. But, when it comes time for a cleanup of the infected computers of those who choose not to be "safe", I'll glady do the job.
For a small fee of course.

**Ferrit** · January 16th, 2005, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Cleetus

Do any of you know how to read or are you all just stuck in your self centered world of "I am the best tech ever, and no one else can deviate from my norm"

**** YOU

Yes I can read and lemme just post this so you might be able to read to

CIH: Aptly named Chernoybal, this destructive virus executes on the 26th day of the month. It proceeds to erase the entire contents of your hard drive and render it unbootable. DATA IS NOT RECOVERABLE. It will next attempt to "scramble" the BIOS - basic operations chip - of your computer. If this is successful, you motherboard will most likely need to be replaced. This is one of the few virii that can cause the need to have actual hardware replaced. Number 11 on a scale of 1-10 in maliciousness.

Oh and my opinion would be
With any kinda luck this is the one to hit the systems with no antivirus thereby alleviating us of said problem

**TripleRLtd** · January 16th, 2005, 11:17 AM

With Cleetus it's almost senseless to argue or debate at times. You end up getting cursed out and doing one of these:

But, the views of a few others on a/v protection and f/w's are surprising to say the least.

**NooNoo** · January 16th, 2005, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by craigmodius

Sorry NooNoo, I'm gonna have to disagree here too.

I do know what I'm doing, and that is exactly why I run a firewall and AV. A quick check of just the suspicious inbound activity for only 1 measly day shows 905 access attempts. These vary from viruses like Sasser trying to come in plenty of times on port 445 to SQL Slammer which tried about a dozen times on 1433 and 1434 and so on and so forth.

You may think you're patched, but I've seen enough patches from microsoft come thru and then get revised, and revised again as different worm variants come out.

It seems rather vain of someone to say, "I know what I'm doing, I don't need a firewall or AV". You may think you know what you're doing, but there's a ton of virus writers and hackers out there who know more than you.

And yet a simple effort on someone's part to install 2 programs can help them be more responsible.

I don't believe I agreed with Cleetus as to his setup. I just said it was possible. Personally I run a/v and software firewalls and a hardware firewall.

**3fingersalute** · January 16th, 2005, 10:25 PM

Personally, I won't take a pc online until it has a very minimum of an AV software with most current updates as I have available on disk, as well as most windows updates too.

To go online without AV kind of reminds me of Die Hard 3, where Bruce Willis walks into Harlem wearing that sign...........

**3fingersalute** · January 16th, 2005, 10:32 PM

Oh, on a side note, well, not really since it was the original topic, but anyways.....what really sucks is even if you quit using IE, you need to keep it around for some sites.

For example, last week I needed to go to walmart.com to purchase a few legal mp3's, (for work, using company cc), and got this nice little message:

Originally Posted by WallyWorld

We notice you're not using Internet Explorer. To continue, please visit this page using Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

Link Here

**Khazad** · January 17th, 2005, 09:31 AM

wel well, it seems i've opened another can of worms. TO explain to you my viewpoint on the matter more clearly. I personally do not run a software firewall. I do however always run behind a router with a hardware firewall. I find i have no need for the double redundancy. An i do not run antivirus software because it is a resource hog, and i know enough about virus patterns that my risk of getting infected at home is minimal and i only use web based e-mail, so that point of access is eliminated. Couple that with the fact that i use mozilla and that most of the malicious programs written today get into a system using vunerabilities in ie by using firefox i'm that much more secure. I only install adaware if i think there is an infection on my system which i can not manually remove (most of which i can) but on my last install of windows i had it left unprotected in this fashon for 6 months and then ran the programs for ****s and giggles because i was reinstalling the os due to a motherboard change and there were no viruses and only 4 datamining cookies on my system (the cookies had not been manually wiped in six months). So i think my process is safe for myself. I however do not reccoment this for the average user, because their web surfing habbits make them much more prone to infection. And at work I make sure every means of protection is in place.

You may not agree with this, but it works for me and i prefer it this way.