Tell me how to protect my computer

[willmiller]

My firewall that comes with my windows xp slows down my computer What will be a better one firewall I can download and use for free?

[Fallen Angel]

Hi, and welcome to MW! 

ZoneAlarm does a free version of their firewall - ZoneAlarm - I've heard good things about ZoneAlarm from a number of people.

I thought that Kerio did a free one as well, but I've just checked out their site and can't find anything. I think Caz mentioned she uses theirs, so maybe she'll know where to look.

At the moment I'm using Bitdefender Internet Suite on mine, but after having problems with it slowing down my system - problem tracked down to one particular element of it and the AV portion of it's now disabled, but still it's causing me problems, and their tech support has been useless, so now I'm looking for an alternative - ZoneAlarm looks like it might be getting a try.

[Caz]

You can download the trial version, which reverts to the free version from http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm
As the full version is only $19.95 you may wish to run that one instead.
Kerio was acquired by Sunbelt a few years ago so it's now Sunbelt-Kerio and a users forum can be found here http://www.castlecops.com/f208-Sunbelt_Kerio.html which will give you an insight to the application and any help that you might need. I always look for what others are saying about a product before I try or buy. 

Welcome to this cranny of the interweb Willmer. 

[PrawnDog]

I too would like to say hello to Willmiller, but I doubt he will be listening

He yesterday tried to join the forum I administer too; he has joined a lot of forums in the last 24 hours, and most of his posts, if not all, contain a link or two to a US sports website: yes, they are there, buried in a full stop and the smiley. 

Most forum spammers are easily detected; I usually delete anyone with a cashette.com/gawab.*/*.ru email address, and anyone with a homepage link of any sort gets flagged as suspicious. Willmiller seems a little more devious than most.

I'm currently deleting about 20-30 new members every day - I'm using phpbb, and I've set it up so that I have to manually allow new members in, and the memberlist only shows those who have posted at least once. It keeps the forum spammer-free, but is a bit of a pain to maintain.

[Fallen Angel]

Thanks for the tip-off PrawnDog. We've had a lot of problems with spammers as you know, and some we've caught out by googling either their email addy or username and found a large number of sign-ups. I think we've got a blanket ban on cashette.com/gawab addresses set up so they can't even reach the forum (SMF's very configurable in the various options on the ban list - head spam killer Darkside's usually very efficient at deleting suspected spammers on sight, but has recently been abducted and whisked away to Planet WoW - that Taz is a very bad influence on him! 

[Caz]

Sorry FA I beat you too it 

I noticed that underlined full stop last night but just thought that is part of the interior design of this place - thanks PrawnDog. 

[Fallen Angel]

Underlined full stop? That's why I have mods that can actually see the screen (getting my eyes checked out again next week)

[MJMoore]

Prawndog.. I've found this to work well on my phpBB forums...
http://www.marshalrusty.com/phpBB/vip.mod

It does add an extra step to registration, so may put off some people, but I don;t think I've seen a spammer since.

[Fallen Angel]

That's similar to the one I've installed here (just over a week, and so far no more spammers): http://www.zubrag.com/scripts/password-protect.php - which can be used to password protect any page. I'm wondering if a question that's easy for humans but not recognised as a question by the spambots, like the one used on Mike Cherim's lovely secure and accessible form, might work better from an accessibility point of view though.

[PrawnDog]

Prawndog.. I've found this to work well on my phpBB forums...

That's a good idea, I'll probably add that one when phpBB next needs updating. I'm not keen on making it harder for new registrants, but deleting 30 new users a day is pretty time consuming (I use Admin Userlist to make it easier).

I wonder how long it will take to automate a system to fetch and read the VIP code? If this feature were added to the next phpBB version (or v3 Olympus) I doubt it would take more than a few days before it is defeated.

It's like the email address munging which turns it into individual characters. It's been around for years, but is still being pushed as a panacea. Anyone who can write a script to fetch and parse html pages for a mailto: can probably get it to match and convert characters back to a valid email address!

[Fallen Angel]

* Fallen Angel thinks there's only one solution. Bring back hanging...

[PrawnDog]

Hanging? A bit harsh, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better to just chop off their hands, crush all their computer equipment, and replace all their CDs with James Blunt's Greatest Hits?

[Caz]

I favour the stocks and the ducking stool myself, after which they should have a brand burnt onto their foreheads- 

[Giomanach]

Hanging? Branding? Heathens!

The solution to this problem requires much less effort that those.

What you do, is you replace their eye drops with their own product - Viagra.  Squirt that in their eye and they wont be able to see straight for weeks!

[Fallen Angel]

Hanging? A bit harsh, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better to just chop off their hands, crush all their computer equipment, and replace all their CDs with James Blunt's Greatest Hits?

/has a James Blunt album and quite likes it