Firewall/Antivirus

What would be the best free combination of the above for W98 that is still
freely available and is least demanding on system resources. TIA

"El.Plates" wrote:

What would be the best free combination of the above for W98
that is still freely available and is least demanding on
system resources. TIA

Firewalls are generally regarded as useless by experts (contrary to
what many stupid-ass tech journalists say).

What every broad-band connected home computer should have is a
"NAT-router" which costs around $50 and performs essentially like an
incoming firewall but in a manner that is more secure, more effective,
and with ZERO performance cost to the PC. Most (or all) items that
are called "routers" are NAT-routers so don't worry about that.

What NAT-routers don't do is perform out-bound firewall filtering -
only a software-based firewall operating on the computer can do that.
But that function really doesn't provide any "protection" to the user,
and is largely irritating as it is learning what is normal for your
system and it can generate a lot of false-positive alerts. A
software-based firewall (like Zone Alarm or Black Ice and others) can
be turned off (most likely it WILL be turned off) or shut down by a
virus or trojan running on your system so again the reason why
software firewalls are now useless and just a waste of time and
computer resources.

As for anti-virus protection on Win-98 machines, if you can find an
old Norton Anti-virus CD (2001 or 2002) then use that. Don't let the
age of that program fool you. When you install it, it will update
itself to the newest viral definition files and scan engine. All you
need to do is the un-install and re-install it when the 1-year
subscription to the definition files expires.

PS:

Please try to use microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion for future
posts and replies because this group (microsoft.public.win98) is
practically a dormant group.

"El.Plates" wrote:

What would be the best free combination of the above for W98
that is still freely available and is least demanding on
system resources. TIA

Firewalls are generally regarded as useless by experts (contrary to
what many stupid-ass tech journalists say).

What every broad-band connected home computer should have is a
"NAT-router" which costs around $50 and performs essentially like an
incoming firewall but in a manner that is more secure, more effective,
and with ZERO performance cost to the PC. Most (or all) items that
are called "routers" are NAT-routers so don't worry about that.

What NAT-routers don't do is perform out-bound firewall filtering -
only a software-based firewall operating on the computer can do that.
But that function really doesn't provide any "protection" to the user,
and is largely irritating as it is learning what is normal for your
system and it can generate a lot of false-positive alerts. A
software-based firewall (like Zone Alarm or Black Ice and others) can
be turned off (most likely it WILL be turned off) or shut down by a
virus or trojan running on your system so again the reason why
software firewalls are now useless and just a waste of time and
computer resources.

As for anti-virus protection on Win-98 machines, if you can find an
old Norton Anti-virus CD (2001 or 2002) then use that. Don't let the
age of that program fool you. When you install it, it will update
itself to the newest viral definition files and scan engine. All you
need to do is the un-install and re-install it when the 1-year
subscription to the definition files expires.

PS:

Please try to use microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion for future
posts and replies because this group (microsoft.public.win98) is
practically a dormant group.

It would have to be free. Nothing recent has been written to work within
the 98OS environment that costs money. Nothing "least demanding" in the
98OS environment mindset has been written for half a decade that costs
money.

Its all about more. Courtesy, Bill Gates.
--
Jonny
"El.Plates" wrote in message
...
What would be the best free combination of the above for W98 that is still
freely available and is least demanding on system resources. TIA

It would have to be free. Nothing recent has been written to work within
the 98OS environment that costs money. Nothing "least demanding" in the
98OS environment mindset has been written for half a decade that costs
money.

Its all about more. Courtesy, Bill Gates.
--
Jonny
"El.Plates" wrote in message
...
What would be the best free combination of the above for W98 that is still
freely available and is least demanding on system resources. TIA

Omitted to say this is not for me but a work colleague, is there anywhere
that he could download an older version of Zone Alarm and something like
Avast or Avira from ?
TIA.

Omitted to say this is not for me but a work colleague, is there anywhere
that he could download an older version of Zone Alarm and something like
Avast or Avira from ?
TIA.

"El.Plates" wrote in message
...
Omitted to say this is not for me but a work colleague, is there anywhere
that he could download an older version of Zone Alarm and something like
Avast or Avira from ?
TIA.


http://www.oldversion.com/

bottom of page

"El.Plates" wrote in message
...
Omitted to say this is not for me but a work colleague, is there anywhere
that he could download an older version of Zone Alarm and something like
Avast or Avira from ?
TIA.


http://www.oldversion.com/

bottom of page

"98 Guy" wrote in message ...
"El.Plates" wrote:

What would be the best free combination of the above for W98
that is still freely available and is least demanding on
system resources. TIA

I don't know about either best or lowest on resources, but AVG is a very
widely-used free antivirus tool, and seems very well-behaved. For the
firewall, ZoneAlarm is the commonest, and Kerio as good. (Note - the latest
version of one or both of these may not work under '98. However, unlike
antivirus software, this is less of a problem - though in time could still
be one - for firewalls.)

Firewalls are generally regarded as useless by experts (contrary to
what many stupid-ass tech journalists say).

How does it go - a spurt is a drip under pressure, so an ex-spurt is a
former drip under pressure ...

What every broad-band connected home computer should have is a
"NAT-router" which costs around $50 and performs essentially like an
[]
What everyone who dares to ask about firewalls should know is that 98guy
will pop up with the above reflex response (that's "knee-jerk" for those
who've forgotten that the word "reflex" exists). Note that he never explains
what NAT stands for, though he repeats it multiple times.

(Oh, and he's almost certainly right - a hardware firewall, whether it's in
a router [which it usually is] or something else, is most of the time better
than a software one, in that it is much harder to circumvent. I just get
tired of the stuck record/reflex action. I'd not agree 100% with his
assertion that software ones are completely useless, though, especially on
the outgoing side - OK, they _can_ be disabled.)