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You will probably have a static IP. When you use dialup, you get a different IP every time.
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Dialup itself means there is a regular break in your connection, and a different IP every time. While hackers can scan those IPs, the machines they are conncted with change all the time.
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A cable modem connection will mean a 7/24/365 connection. Yes, that’s correct. Just watch and see how much more you will be online. No, not actually using your computer, but having it online while you read, watch TV, eat, take a shower, run out for groceries, etc.
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With a 7/24/365 connection using a static IP, hackers can zone in on your IP, check whether you have a firewall in place, ports blocked, etc. You forget that most DoS attacks on Yahoo and other big-time sites came from cable modem users who operated Windows 2000 with installed defaults and no protection. They did not know they unwittingly participated in the attacks.
The reason broadband gets hax0red more often is those computers are a more desirable target. If I’m a script kiddie going to be DOSing that jerk who keeps beating me at Counterstrike, do I want to control a low-bandwidth dial-up machine that has some random IP address and probably isn’t gonna be online when I want it to be? No! I want the zombies doing my bidding to be high-speed, always-on dealies!
Basically, as cost-reward things go, dial-up is a waste of time, so unless someone scans a dial-up block by accident, that demographic is fairly safe.
With a broadband connection, you can have two web pages open and download two pages at the same time, however with slow sites (such as the SDMB!) it would be best to have only one window open.
I came it to throw out “Firewall” but that’s taken care of.
Have fun!
Two?? Two!!! (checks calendar…nope, not 1994)
I guess I’m a geek & a half. I generally have anywhere from 20-40 web pages open at a time. I have DSL now, but I always did with my cable modem too. I have 22 open right now. I also have open Eudora, UltraEdit, WebEdit, WinAmp, Paint Shop Pro, a couple of Explore windows, WS-FTP, PowerDVD and various other things. Plus, Championship Spades Pro for when I’m bored and take a break. I should beta test for Microsoft, because I love multitasking!
Wow !
I finally got this thing all set up last night. It’s so fast, I’m almost lightheaded.
I got the Zonealarm and it’s scaring me a little bit, it’s telling me that I am just always being attacked. I’m having problems with the AVG thing though.
dragongirl, make sure you turn off the display for Alerts Events Shown. Click the Alerts and Log Tab in ZA. Go to Main and check the box to turn it off. I will still display Program Alerts but that is OK because you want to know what programs are trying access the Net.
The vast majority of the alerts from ZoneAlarm are nothing to worry about.
What kind of events?
A properly configured broadband router should just drop all unsolicited inbound packets. Nothing should reach your PC at all.
Of course, a broadband router won’t stop things from going out, so you could still justify ZA by saying you use it to catch spyware and what not. Personally, I just don’t install such things.
I don’t know about Daizy, but I have some ports forwarded by my router, which was required for some applications. I’ve speculated that this might be a bit of security weakness, so I continue to run ZoneAlarm most of the time.
Thank you Revtim. Well said.
I’ll not go round and round with you Severian, as it’s all semantics from here. I can assure you that spyware doesn’t touch my machines either, as I’m quite diligent about what goes on here.
A router is used primarily to block incoming traffic… Zonealarm is used for outgoing as well as incoming. With respect to port forwarding: if you open up ports for incoming traffic in your router to allow some program you installed to communicate, then your router will not block unintended incoming traffic from other sources through these open ports. Zonealarm will…
Let’s also keep in mind that dragongirl is new to highspeed. My advice remains…if you can afford to get a hardware firewall…do so. But also run zonealarm.
Well, to each their own. In my opinion personal/software “firewalls” are modern-day snake oil that do more harm than good in many situations. But some people like them and that’s fine. I have to ask about what you said above though. If you opened a port on your hardware router to inbound traffic for a specific application, why would you want ZA to block that port?
ZA does not block ports; it works on an application basis (at least the free version works this way).