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External
Since: May 24, 2007
Posts: 27
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(Msg. 1) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:32 am
Post subject: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)?
Archived from groups: microsoft>public>windowsxp>general (more info?)
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I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
protection
for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to me that
only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any attack that
might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry too much?
I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site that
downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening mail
attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like to
learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there doing its
background things, specifically in an XP environment, with the AV
momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge. |
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External
Since: Jun 21, 2005
Posts: 268
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(Msg. 2) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:11 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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You worry too much.
A "few" seconds* is not going to kill you, but if in doubt, run your AV program scan.
To learn about threats, do a google on 'computer threat protection tutor'.
You should find lots of reading.
*How long is a minute? Depends on which side of the bathroom door you are on.
"Anthony Buckland" wrote in message
|I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
| protection
| for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to me that
| only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any attack that
| might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry too much?
|
| I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
| common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site that
| downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening mail
| attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
| All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like to
| learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there doing its
| background things, specifically in an XP environment, with the AV
| momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge.
|
| |
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| Back to top |
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External
Since: Jul 01, 2006
Posts: 2486
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(Msg. 3) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:28 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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Whilst your AV may be good for detecting virus's it probably wont detect
many Trojans or Malaware, so it would probably make little difference
whether running or not, when nothing is going on.
Both your winfirewall and any router firewall should prevent anything
penetrating your sys
"Anthony Buckland" wrote in message
>I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
>protection
> for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to me
> that
> only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any attack that
> might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry too much?
>
> I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
> common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site that
> downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening mail
> attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
> All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like to
> learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there doing its
> background things, specifically in an XP environment, with the AV
> momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge.
>
> >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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External
Since: Jan 03, 2008
Posts: 289
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(Msg. 4) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:01 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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What did you do (online, primarily) during the few seconds your AV app was
disabled? Was the Windows Firewall or your third-party firewall (not the
network gateway firewall) enabled and always enabled?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
Anthony Buckland wrote:
> I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
> protection
> for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to me
> that
> only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any attack that
> might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry too much?
>
> I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
> common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site that
> downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening mail
> attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
> All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like to
> learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there doing its
> background things, specifically in an XP environment, with the AV
> momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge. >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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External
Since: Mar 18, 2008
Posts: 59
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(Msg. 5) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:35 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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Anthony Buckland wrote:
> I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
> protection
> for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to
> me that only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any
> attack that might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry
> too much?
> I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
> common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site
> that downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening
> mail attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
> All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like
> to learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there
> doing its background things, specifically in an XP environment, with
> the AV momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge.
If you have a NAT router, you're probably fine. They're pretty decent
firewall and for a few seconds it's reasonably unlikely anything
untoward happened. That's not to say it wouldn't be a good idea to run
your AV when you retire for the day, and let your anti-spyware arsenal
have a go at things. Since it's so easy to go those things it makes
sense IMO even though you're probably fine. "Probably" is like "always"
and "never"; not very reliable<g>.
Cheers,
Twayne >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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External
Since: Mar 05, 2009
Posts: 3
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(Msg. 6) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:27 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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Anthony Buckland wrote:
> I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
> protection
> for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to me that
> only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any attack that
> might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry too much?
>
> I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
> common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site that
> downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening mail
> attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
> All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like to
> learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there doing its
> background things, specifically in an XP environment, with the AV
> momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge.
>
>
If you have a soft firewall like XP's firewall and a router with the
hard firewall enabled, your ports should all be closed and you'll appear
invisible on the Net. Check your ports here:
http://www.auditmypc.com/firewall-test.asp
One should *always* disable the anti virus resident scanner when
installing *anything*, especially Windows Updates.
Alias >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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External
Since: May 24, 2007
Posts: 27
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(Msg. 7) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:45 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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"Twayne" wrote in message
> Anthony Buckland wrote:
>> I did something I very rarely do this morning. I stopped my virus
>> protection
>> for a few seconds and then restarted it. Afterwards it occurred to
>> me that only the network gateway firewall stood between me and any
>> attack that might have been waiting for the opportunity. Do I worry
>> too much?
>> I guess what I could use is a link to some authoritative discussion of
>> common threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit. Going to a site
>> that downloads something nasty, I guess we all know about. Opening
>> mail attachments, ditto. Running programs from dubious sources, etc.
>> All these require my doing something I shouldn't have. But I'd like
>> to learn about threats that require only my machine sitting there
>> doing its background things, specifically in an XP environment, with
>> the AV momentarily on a coffee break; this is a gap in my knowledge.
>
> If you have a NAT router, you're probably fine. They're pretty decent
> firewall and for a few seconds it's reasonably unlikely anything untoward
> happened. That's not to say it wouldn't be a good idea to run your AV
> when you retire for the day, and let your anti-spyware arsenal have a go
> at things. Since it's so easy to go those things it makes sense IMO even
> though you're probably fine. "Probably" is like "always" and "never"; not
> very reliable<g>.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Twayne
>
>
When I was setting up our home network, I found I needed
to disable the Windows firewall in favor of the gateway
firewall. But the latter is always running and seems
robust. The first thing I did after realizing I'd had that
brief interval of no AV was to update the virus definitions
and spyware file and do a complete scan. Nothing
found except a couple of tracking cookies. So, with
the comforting advice of several respondents, I'm not
worrying. But I will take one poster's advice to let
Google be my friend and fill the gaps in my threat
knowledge.
Thanks to all. >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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External
Since: May 24, 2007
Posts: 27
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(Msg. 8) Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 10:05 pm
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote in message
> What did you do (online, primarily) during the few seconds your AV app was
> disabled? Was the Windows Firewall or your third-party firewall (not the
> network gateway firewall) enabled and always enabled?
> ...
Nothing on line, and the gateway firewall was up as always.
The behavior of my AV when I entered its new license number
(subscription renewal) had convinced me that I needed to
stop and restart it for the license number to "take". Actually
it turned out that that wasn't true. Another datum to remember.
Thanks, and the overall response convinces me I didn't have
a worry. >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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External
Since: Mar 05, 2009
Posts: 3
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(Msg. 9) Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 6:28 am
Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
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Anthony Buckland wrote:
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote in message
>
>> What did you do (online, primarily) during the few seconds your AV app was
>> disabled? Was the Windows Firewall or your third-party firewall (not the
>> network gateway firewall) enabled and always enabled?
>> ...
>
> Nothing on line, and the gateway firewall was up as always.
> The behavior of my AV when I entered its new license number
> (subscription renewal) had convinced me that I needed to
> stop and restart it for the license number to "take". Actually
> it turned out that that wasn't true. Another datum to remember.
>
> Thanks, and the overall response convinces me I didn't have
> a worry.
>
>
When I install XP, the *last* thing I install is an anti virus program
and I never get malware. The firewall is what's important when on line.
The AV is important when you are doing something on line.
Alias >> Stay informed about: Was I for a moment there (without my AV)? |
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