On Tuesday 31 August 2004 08:16, Andrew Graupe wrote: > For the last month or two, I have been especially paranoid about what > could happen to my computer, beyond all reason (I'm behind a firewall). > I made obsessive backups and such, but I still feel paranoid about the > following: > > Windows XP SP2. I've turned autodownload off because I fear this will > break things, as it has been reported to do in certain circumstances.
Particularly if you have an Athlon 64. > I think my linux box might be 0wned, because it makes "processing > noises" in the middle of the night (might this be xscreensaver?). I'd bet on a cronjob. > Sometimes I fear that Windows will corrupt itself, as it has been known > to do in the past. A legitimate concern... The problem is windows though, so the fix is getting rid of it. > Sometimes I fear that emerge --update world, or a kernel update, will > make me Gentoo system unbootable. I can't imagine why. I've had a midnight cronjob updating my system nightly for months, and there's never been a problem. Actually, In spite of what people say, this process has been flawless for me, but I know someone running SUSE, and the autoupdate DID screw his system up a bit... It deleted his modules after replacing his kernel. A reboot fixed it by pointing to the new modules once the new kernel was in use, but the point is, this isn't a really legitimate concern, IMHO. > Sometimes I fear that either harddrive will die for no reason. If this is going to be a serious problem, then mirror the drives. If not, then don't worry about it. > Sometimes I fear that my Windows XP system disk will not boot. To be honest, I've never heard of this unless some new software was installed. > This has probably been exacerbated by my Windows system not booting up > do to some sort of Dell BIOS idosyncracy. I hate to say it, this ISN'T a windows problem, nor is there much you can do to prevent it. > What should I do? Have any of you had this happen to you? I have gone > so far as thinking I should set up my old computer with an ultra-stable > gentoo configuration, firewall it completely (hardware router+iptables), > make a new account for school on my fast box, and do weekly backups onto > CD, which could then be put onto the stable box. You could do Rsyncs. There's minimal traffic, it's fast, and you don't need the CDs. Sync from one box onto the other. If you REALLY want to be paranoid, drop the network connection, and bring it up for the cronjob to do the rsync, then drop the conection again. > Is this beyond the realm of being security-consious? Perhaps a bit paranoid, but I don't think so. It's more of a corporate mindset than a home user one, that's all... It certainly isn't bad. Kev. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
