[at-l] RE: OT computer Trouble!!

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 07:52 PM 12/29/2003 -0500, Walter Daniels wrote:
>All of the Win 9x Os's are no longer supported by MS (Dec 23rd). This means
>that there will be no more security patches for any of them. At the very
>least this means that if you want to stay with your current OS (or must
>because your machine is too old to upgrade to Win 2000) you should install a
>strong firewall between you and the universe. Either a hardware box or
>ZoneAlarm, or lookalikes will do. Anything short of doing this makes you a
>threat to both yourself and the rest of the internet. If you get infected
>with some of the particularly bad viruses your ISP is likely to drop you.

If you are connected to the Internet you should have a firewall and 
anti-virus software even if you are running the latest version of XP. Zone 
Alarm is one of the best firewalls (if not the very best) but be careful to 
check with your ISP. If the ISP is also running a firewall and it is not 
compatible you could have problems. I ran Zone Alarm for years then after 
an upgrade a few months ago both my computers stopped connecting to 
anything on the 'Net. After a conversation with the support desk for Road 
Runner we determined that the new version of Zone Alarm in conjunction with 
Road Runner's firewall was literally stopping *all* Internet traffic. 
Nothing was getting through. Zip, zilch, nada.