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XP Regurgitated

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<font color=red> And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign </font color=red>

98ME = XPR2 (albeit 2005).

Yup

I would like to see Microsoft break out of the constraining box of pre-configured applications that you need to pull like rotten teeth.

MSN goes first then all the background services that provide nothing but backdoor access to Trojans and Hackers.

Since a Trojan is basically a program they are not cleanable and you have to remove the actual Trojan Program if you can find it. Viruses are mainly caused by poor internet use with out dated antivirus software.

The software I use for Firewall and anti virus asks me to turn the XP fire wall OFF because it's functionality is compromised.

So as a consumer where can you draw the line on what is really good for your computer. Most would think logically that the MS firewall in XP would protect or patch all the holes in the OS that they know about but never disclose.

General users have no perceived idea of what set-ups they should use for safe networking.

All of the above is compounded by the advanced networking abilities of XP that are loaded as default settings from the OS.

I have tried both my Firewall and XP's running and it failed to work I was forced to wipe&Reload. I am currently running on my own Firewall software and antivirus.

On this install I removed all Microsoft networking and simply run TCP/IP on my Network card. I only use my firewall software and have all XP auto update and firewall software disabled.

The MS update site runs perfectly with Microsoft Networking removed as long as you temporarily enable Auto Update then later disable it after you are done updating.

All in all this is a very basic description of the steps taken to get a clean network and the common user is left out in the cold at Microsoft's mercy.

A poll done in the U.S asked 100 users if they have a virus free computer and they said that they did have a clean P.C. Later when they allowed their machine to be checked 80% of them were virus and Trojan infected. Some computers in the poll had over 1000 Trojan and virus software applications running.

<font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=orange>LOVES</font color=orange> <font color=red>CANADA</font color=red>

People should really bite the bullet and get a cheap router to put between their computer and their net connection. For people on DSL or cable, there's a ton of good options that offer relatively high quality security for very little money. For dial up users, devices are a little harder to find and tend to be a bit more expensive, but they're out there.

Firewalls really belong between your computer and the public internet. That's when they're most effective.



<i>Nemo me impune lacesset</i>

Windows XP SP2 firewall isn't that bad. It's functionality is limited though (offers protection for incoming traffic only, not for outgoing). If you run a free software firewall like ZoneAlarm/Sygate Personal Firewall, a good antivirus with latest updates and practice safe computing, then you're 99.99% protected form viruses and trojans.


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Well Sod, this is one of those rare instances that I totally agree with you. It takes more time to remove the crap that windows fills your hdd with, than it takes to load xp. Even when you remove the prog, the compressed file is still sitting there. I would love to send them back all the msn chit, the radio crap, and the AOL gorp.

Yes you are right XP firewall is not a bad program and you can use it to block in-coming in fact it does that all by it's self, however you can not control port blocking and I need the ability to block ports.

I online game and I want to join a server under a specific IP number and a certain Port number.

With a good firewall you can allow that IP number on only that port. The reason you want this option is to prevent other players online and in the game server from causing your connection packet loss.

Many reasons for in game packet loss is caused by things such as the Friends list program in Steam and third party live chat software that will be going in and out of the servers IP on other ports during game play.

I also want to make more then 1 firewall rule for each server I connect to such as block any ICMP pings from that IP and block ports 137,138 and 445 all three of those are Trojan ports that hackers use when trying to backdoor your computer.

I can run a program called COMMVIEW and connect to a game server and see the proper port it's supposed to be on. A few minutes later still in the server drop back to the desktop and look at COMMVIEW and you can see ports 137,445 and 21007 tagging along on the back of the game server port number.

None of that is a good thing and a good indication you are being intruded on.

Online hackers come in a few different groups.

(1) Hackers that use scripts and cheats to enhance their game play because they lack any skills of their own. Classed as Noobs and harmless.
(2) Hackers that hack for pure enjoyment and could care less about either the game their scores or how well they play these are curious people with some minor hacking tools just mucking around.
(3) Connection hackers that specifically attack other players or the game server out of pure malicious intent. They might in fact not have the connection bandwidth available to them to crash a game server but they can sure make the server run poorly. Most of these people are grouped into the above 2 groups of the curious intruder and the guy that was game hacking got caught and banned from the server.

In any event they can with pre-written script files they did not have the brains to write themselves but simply downloaded tools hack the living [-peep-] out of other regular players and the game server.

They go through Norton products like tissue paper and MacAfee because the scripts and hacker tools are designed to circumvent large corporate firewalls. Zone Alarm is a better alternative then either of those software programs but it next to useless for online play because the firewall prevents a player from playing properly you are lagged out by ZoneAlarm on any high speed ISP or fast computer regardless.

I got hit last Thursday Night in a game the guy was Ghosting me a typical scripting hack. What in effect they do is they join your IP number off another port number and in effect their point of view is from within your own player model.

The guy went right through my Router my fire wall software and MS Fire wall and took over my player model he could even fight my manual input on the mouse.
If I went into a dark area of the map he would turn his flashlight on and look around the room or tunnel. I turn my flashlight off and he's still got his on looking around the room.

It's like a split personality event. I knew he circumvented my system software and had already got a Trojan link into my computer. In other words I was Hooked already.

On Saturday I blew both hard drives out clean FDISK and reinstalled XP clean kinda nice I got SP2 clean with no SP1 already present.
I got the fire wall back in fresh and that guys IP range fully banned before I ever went back online.

Yes MS firewall is nice if all you do is surf the internet. Don't try being part of the online world wide gamming community only protected by MS fire wall you will get owned. Even with a router its firmware installed and updated and your own Anti-Virus and firewall software installed your still at great risk.

Been online gaming for a long time years and I have never found a balance of firewall software that can prevent hackers owing your computer through UDP ports. No one has written a software program for gamers specific to online hack prevention. The reason is no one can it's impossible. If it was possible to provide gamers with bullet proof firewalls for online gaming some company would write the software and make billions because every hard core gamer on the planet would buy steal and cut off their left nut to have it.

<font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=orange>LOVES</font color=orange> <font color=red>CANADA</font color=red>

Use <A HREF="http://nuhi.msfn.org" target="_new">nLite</A> to remove unwanted crap from Windows CD and install Windows without things that you want to avoid.

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Can you point me to one of these scripts or information about them?

<i>Nemo me impune lacesset</i>