Security messures 4 the paranoid

[deviouz]

I have seen many post regarding the security when playing online, so I tough I'd post a few helping lines.
from scratch, if you want to be really secure follow these steps.

first I like to say that if you don't own a copy of XP or Windows 2000, you should get it, DON'T expect any other windows versions like ME or Win 95 98 to ever be secure

1. reinstall your windows to get rid of all the crap you might allready have on your system, I suggest you delete the partition and create a new one, you can do this with the bootable xp or win2k cd, you should format with the NTFS wich is more secure, make sure you set a very long admin password with both letters and numbers, during the install when it's about to install your network, you should (if you dont use the internal network) uninstall the file and printer sharing, all you need is tcpip and the windows logon manager, in the same menu, right click the tcpip and set it to NOT allow netbios over tcp. since we made a new partition and formatted the drive, be prepared that the serials for odds calcs and other (poker software might not work, just mail them and tell them you reinstalled your system, you made a new partition and formatted, and I'm sure they send you a new serial for these apps,

2. nice, now we got a fresh windows installed, the first thing you should do now is to download all the security updates imediatly, do not browse any other site before you have fixed this, go to windows update and do this, you may need to reboot your computer several times and recheck the windows updates to se if any more updates are avalible, you should repeat this procedure untill there are no more updates to download, then set your update manager to download and install updates automaticly, then it downloads and install updates whenever a new one is released, and you can feel safe about that part, you can set this in the controll panel,

3. now it's time to think about a firewall, if you are as paranoid as me, don't settle with a application firewall, an experienced hacker can turn these things of from remote, I am not saying you will encounter any of these people, but you never know, a NAT firewall is the best sullotion cus it can't be taken down, if you don't have one, consider to buy one, they are not to expensive, we (also) should have a application firewall, I recommend Blackice cus it also have the feature to block unknown .exe files from running, but I'm sure there are other softwares out there wich have the same features, to make it even more difficult to any hacker you should rename the adminisrator acount to a different name, delete any other acounts installed by win addons from win update, like NET Framework , the guest acount cant be deleted (I think) so set it with a password

4. install a good Anti-Virus program, symantec or any other,
set it to download updates automaticly, then you allways have protection to the latest treaths, note: many people think that this will also protect them from spyware and snopware, but that is false! spyware and trojan horses are NOT considered to be viruses so your Antivirus program will probably not look for these, you also need a anti spyware program, I recommend Spybot Search & Destroy, wich is free, or lavasoft AD-AWARE SE also free, and probably the only providers you can trust, there are software out there who claims they will protect you against spyware but are infact them self spyware, I use Spybot Search & Destroy, and I am very happy with it, by default Windows have alot of processes running that might make it possible for a hacker to get in, you should use the Computer Security tool, a nice software wich will close all dangerous processes for you, it's not free but I think it's well spent money

if you followed these steps you should be very safe,
but you DO need to be very suspicious to new softwares tough, so you don't make the misstake to allow these apps to sneek into your system anyway, when you dowload and install new programs, dont trust any software who opens up a tcp port to connect to another ip, you can check this with TCPVIEW, this could allow the programmer to even see your hole cards without you ever knowing it, if you are not sure about the program, lets say you download and install it and make it ok to execute, it can do some serious damage to your clean systen, it can inject dll files and whatever, one sullotion to this is to install VM and you can test all new applications from a safe inviroment.thats all I think, have a paranoid day

links to the recommended software

http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/TcpView.html
http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec...&sid=26412
http://www.computersecuritytool.com/
http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/

[deviouz]

hm, this was a popular post!

[poker-penguin]

I found it useful a month later [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Dazarath]

Where would one get a NAT firewall?

[MrMoo]

Please don't take the original posters advice. His posts shows an obvious lack of knowledge in regards to computer security. It's not that his advice is necessarily wrong, it's just.... poor.

This thread offers much better advice.

To answer your question, there is no such thing as a "NAT firewall". There is NAT which stands for network address translation. NAT is often used on routers which enable you to use "private" IP addresses on your internal network. NAT takes those private addresses and switches them with the routers IP address so other computers on the internet can't really see your system. Most cable modem/dsl routers that are popular with home users come with NAT and already have it enabled by default.

[Mogobu The Fool]

[ QUOTE ]
Where would one get a NAT firewall?

[/ QUOTE ]

Any home router which lets more than one device share the internet connection includes NAT; network address translation is how the sharing is achieved! It effectively acts as a hardware firewall. You will sometimes need to "open ports" to allow certain services to work, since most home router ships with the vast majority of port numbers blocked - that's why it's secure. Of course, if you go opening a lot of ports, you open up potential doors for hackers to use.

The link MrMoo offered has very good, if slightly paranoid, advice.