Be advised that you've ALL READY given MSFT permission to mess with your computer. I've installed software on XP machines and then not be allowed to use it. The following from the complete article at: http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm


An article from Microsoft called Managing Automatic Updating and Download Technologies in Windows XP [microsoft.com] mentions 11 ways in which Windows XP components automatically download software from Microsoft computers. The article says,

"Outlined below is a list of components, applications, and technologies discussed in this whitepaper that have the ability to automatically download and install updated software and information from the Internet."

Note that this does not say that the 11 are the only ways that Microsoft XP connects with Microsoft's computers. It says that the 11 are the only ones "discussed in this whitepaper".

The Microsoft article tells how to disable the hidden downloading. However, the disabling is very time-consuming. Also, Microsoft has a history of using defect fixes and security fixes to change the operating system settings. This means that all the settings would need to be checked after every defect fix or security vulnerability fix.


You should also read about 'Trusted Computing.' `Trusted Computing' Frequently Asked Questions
GO TO THIS SITE TO GET THE HTML VER WITH LINKS: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html

I don't use anything past Win98se, and I Explorer is always ripped out, plus other MSFT junks. Let's me run 98 with no swap file, andv very little virus junks. I don't think MSIE6 can't be ripped out of XP, but probably; you'd just have to find a file manager that worked. If you must use XP, real bad idea, go to http://www.litepc.com/ and gain some control over that piece of .....

That's odd, I've been using XP for the past three years with no glitches at all. Must be luck.

No, Al, it's 'cuz in Australia it's upside-down, and XP can only cause problems when it's right-side up. I use it in Vancouver, but that's 'cuz all the rain makes it rusty, and XP can only cause problems when it's right-side up and not rusty.

Hang on, the universe has no top or bottom, so how do you know we're not the right-side up and you're upside-down?

Jake, your post was dated April 2. You woke up one day late.

Ah, good ol Al... Giving his opinion on comp security..
You better stick to your crayons, sheepeople need more themes.

You 666. Shut your pie hole, and leave jake alone.
As I see, you dont know squad about the topic.

rory, go back to the rock you usually crawl under. You don't know what you're talking about and jake doesn't know either.

Why does jake link to a $40 program (xplite) when nlite does the job for free?

Did jake ever try to handle a DVD image file in win98 (FAT32, $GB file size limit...)?

Why does the article he links to recommend ZoneAlarm? Together with Norton, BlackIce, and the built-in M$ crap, ZoneAlarm leads the pack of buggy firewalls.

nLite requires .NET framework. I don't want to install .NET.

As for the linked article, the overall content is quite okay.

Since january 18, nlite separated the required runtimes from the .NET framework, so you don't need to install it anymore.

Al, you made a good point. I thought we were on top becuz we keep getting so much rain in through the roof. However, I've got a ticket to Costa Rica for July. I thought I'd go stand on the Equator (well, it's really 10 degrees off) just to be safe.

The articles are what they are; I didn't write them. They mostly have a home a Cambridge U. I've found XP to be more trouble than it's worth; but I see it can be had for <$90 now days. I think MSFT just wants to have as many people under it's reign as possible. Didja notice how the monopoly lawsuit went away at the US admin change? Not that I think that makes a diff; whatever admin has surly cut a deal for MSFT back doors. Why develop Carnivore when MSFT all ready has the keys?

XPlite; as noted I use nothing later than 98se, & 98lite is free. An Australian writes the program, and he's done a fantastic job.

However, I am porting everything to a Linux, so MSFT will be history on my machines soon.

K-Meleon, it's a grand browser, and I hope they do a Linux ver. But Opera has been my default since ver 3.6, when it did 128 bit encrypt and everyone else was 56.

As for MSFT, resistance is not futile, and I will not be assimilated.

666 said: >>ZoneAlarm leads the pack of buggy firewalls.

Not to troll, but I've used Zonealarm for six years now on my win98 boxes, and it's never let me down.

I don't take my XP box on line, so I haven't tried Zonealarm on it. Do you mean it's buggy on XP only?

And I sure wouldn't trust winXP firewall, no way.

What firewall do you recommend thats freeware?

No, I'm not cheap, but very poor.

Can anyone please link to info about this bugginess?

Thanx
D -

What firewall do you recommend thats freeware?

ZoneAlarm. Works beautifully with XP. In other words, stay where you are.

ZA went up to ver 2.6, if I remember right, with Windows 98se and ME. At that juncture there were problems beyond ZA 2.6 if it was combined with Norton and some ADSL setups. It worked but occasionally seemed to get "tangled up" with Norton and cause some very bad starts back in those days when operating systems crashed; if you remember the blue screens.

A very bad situation could be quite difficult to sort out, although, sooner or later, the various components would play nice again.

Beyond ZoneAlarm 2.6, 98 and Millennium gave more complaints than what it was worth. Before long, everybody was cautioning his friend, if he had one of those OSs, to keep hold of Zone Alarm 2.6. Strangely, ZA themselves seemed somewhat unaware of this, as 2.6 became scarce before its time. AFAIK it would still be the appropriate ZA to use today with ME, and I have no idea whether that would be an effective firewall in 2005. Maybe it would be.

But after that, ZA seemed to build for XP, and it worked very well indeed. I haven't heard of problems now for years. Even so, I personally prefer the ZoneAlarm freeware download--I bought a ZA Pro and literally threw it away. It contained more than I needed, and IMHO it got into its own way. I suppose there are just so many programs taking care of the peripheral details now that things can get a bit too complicated.

A right-click on ZoneAlarm on the taskbar allows you to "stop all internet activity", which is useful for ADSL.

ZA also gets along quite well with XP SP2's firewall. Is that Avast? (I'm not sure which one they chose; I think it might be Avast.) Anyway, if you set up your system with both, ZoneAlarm just politely turns the other one off, and Windows is smart enough to perceive you prefer ZA, so it monitors ZA as being your installed firewall after that. You can very easily test the system by manually turning whichever one on, and checking the results. Very smooth.

ZoneAlarm (or rather the part that takes care of logging traffic, vsmon.exe) has a memory leak that makes vsmon.exe grow and crash your system when it has to handle a lot of UDP traffic.

Most people never notice (which is why ZoneLabs doesn't bother to fix it), but if you leave clients for the eD2k file sharing network running for a while ZoneAlarm will crash and take your system with it.

According to the ZoneLabs forum, this happens on every version of windows.

Kerio is free and doesn't crash when you feed it a lot of UDP packets.

Been using The Proxomitron, a freebie for years. No longer supported but latest vers at; http://www.proxomitron.info/

Also Tiny Firewall at 1.4MB is very good. Latest ver just out, and I can't remember if it's free. pf2.exe was/is. I forget why it named pf2.

However, ripping out I Explorer, and other Win junks will do wonders for your machines. Smoother, faster, more stable, and more secure. Haven't a BSOD in years.

I take a Shields Up trial and all my ports are closed or in stealth mode running no anti anything or a proxy or a firewall.

On a different note, ya think MSFT with tens of billions in the bank can't come up with a private, stable, non-buggy sys? They prolly all ready got it; but it would be the last sys you needed, and that's not profitable.