[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: NetNanny and Firewall

[Przemyslaw Plaskowicki]

On 2003-09-06 20:51, Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) wrote:

>--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Przemysaw \"Pshemekan\" 
>Paskowicki" <przepla at i...> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>2. Windows -- http://www.windowsupdate.com is your best friend: set
>>it to automatically install critical patches. Run it manually at 
>>least weekly and install non-critical patches.
>>    
>>
>
>Which non-critical patches do I have to install? It says there 
>are 43 of them for me, but most of them seem to be foreign languages.
>

Perhaps I'm a bit reckless but I usually install everything other than 
those: foreign language, .NET, and MSN messenger. You should definitely 
install everything with word "crash" or "security" and newest version of 
IE (ver. 6 SP 1 is current I believe) and DirectX -- since games will 
install it anyway. First thing you should install from this section of 
Windows Upgrade should be newest version of IE, as it often contains 
other patches in this (and critical) page.

>I'll spare you my three-day-long saga (with vast e-mail help from a 
>technie acquaintance) with the Critical Update that continually 
>Failed to Install and broke a lot of other things: it *seems* to be 
>solved now.
>
That's Microsoft.

>>6. Use AdAware to check for spyware: 
>>http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ (Free)
>>    
>>
>
>Thank you. It found 145 Evil Cookies (is that just my IE cookies, can 
>it check Netscape 4.7 cookies? -- yes, I know I need to upgrade to 
>Mozilla some day when I'm feeling brave) and seven Gator objects 
>(they'e gone now), so I went searching and got educated on the 
>evilness of Gator (and why it was still there despite having been 
>uninstalled) at www.unwantedlinks.com - click on Consumer Info in 
>menu bar for dropdown menu that has "what is Gator?" as last option.  
>
>I welcome advice on how to keep Gator from sneaking in again.
>
>  
>
As far as I know AdAware detects Netscape cookies. (In fact it just 
detected few evil ones as I run it simultaneously while writing this 
letter).

You don't need to be brave to test Mozilla: 
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.4/mozilla-win32-1.4-talkback.zip 
-- is the link to unzip-and-run distribution (NB. Mozilla will *copy* 
yours Netscape profile to new directory and later convert it to it's own 
format, so it's perfectly safe).

Gator might be installed two ways: by being bundled to some 3rd party 
software and by pop up window in IE. Solution is to read what installers 
are saying -- unfortunately it often means reading legal text in those 
installers ;-(.

Regards,
Pshemekan

-- 
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. (Mahatma Gandhi)