> On 22 Nov 99, 11:09, Issac Newton wrote:
>
> > I am looking for info on software for home internet security. I am
> > going to get hooked up with cable access and am concerned about prying
> > novices and hackers. Is Guard Dog any good? Is a firewall practical?
>
> In the past few month's, Steve Wilson of Gibson Research Corporation,
> has been the leading flag bearer in the area of personal computer
> security. Let me suggest you run by his web page and read up on his
> latest projects. You can link from that page to most any other page
> you would need to visit.
>
> http://grc.com/steve.htm
I'm assuming that Alan is actually talking about Steve _Gibson_ of
Gibson Research. The grc.com site has got a nice facility for
probing for insecurities on a machine.
Assuming you're running Windows (implied by the question about Guard
Dog)--Gibson's site recommends two firewalls: BlackIce and At Guard.
BlackIce Defender is available at www.networkice.com. Among hackers,
it's the firewall of choice. (Well, hackers want to protect their
own machines!) It runs about $40. At Guard is no longer supported
by the original company but word has it that it will be offered as
part of Norton Internet Security 2000 by Symantec.
PC Firewall offered by Conseal/Signal9 (http://www.signal9.com) is
also fairly well known as a firewall. It's easier to configure than
BlackIce, but it has the nasty habit of frequently generating a blue
screen of death at startup. This makes it considerably less
desirable as a firewall. However, if you wish to try it, Signal9 has
a 15 day trial license.
For the very adventurous, of course, there are categories of personal
firewall software at stroud.com, tucows.com, and davecentral.com.
These are worth browsing just to check out the difference in features
between the different packages--and to get a bit of an education
about firewalls in general.
In the meantime, I assume that if you've set up any of your disks for
sharing, they at least have a sharing password, yes? This is the
most common--and pitifully easy--way to gain access to someone's hard
disk.
> Another site you may wish to visit and bookmark is "Privacy.net":
>
> http://www.privacy.net
>
> I think once you glean everything those two sites have to offer, you
> should be in pretty good shape.
>
> Alan
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
