[Virtualacorn-list] End of Microsoft support for Windows XP

[Chris Hughes]

In message <987490fd53.mike at greengenie.plus.net>
          Mike Hobbs <mike at greengenie.plus.com> wrote:

> In message <6DC968C5AEBC4FC7A1C5E018A5354956 at philipsdesktop>
>           "T.O.M.S." <admin at toms12.plus.com> wrote:

> [snip]
>> The firewall built into Windows XP still seem to be working OK on our
>> machines and (AFAICT) there haven't been any dire warnings on the more
>> reliable forums. Is anyone still using MS Security Essesntials and, if
>> so, does it appear to be working?
> I've used it on a couple of XP machines for a while and a trusted
> friend suggested I use it instead of AVG when we first started to
> have the performance problems.  However, MSSE has never, ever,
> thrown up any virus warnings so I am skeptical as to whether its
> doing anything.  Like most people, we receive emails that look like
> they might contain viruses and MSSE has never thrown a warning,
> either during mail scanning, or during file system scanning.

Microsoft Security Essentials does not even touch emails (so does not 
scan them)

>> However, I think the problem with the Windows built-in firewall is
>> that it protects against incoming threats only. Is that right?
> Windows XP firewall stops ShareFS from working (and, yes, I have
> tried to set appropriate exceptions in the firewall settings). So I
> have it turned off on our house network and rely on the firewalls in
> the routers.  I actually don't see that the Windows firewall is going
> to do anything more than the routers do except to possibly protect
> one computer from another on our intranet. The real threats are
> the trojans in emails and active URLs that will bypass any firewall.

ShareFS does work with the Windows Firewall.

You are better with something like Zone Alarm Free Firewall or a 
proper Internet security package, that protects against malware, virus 
and scans emails, and checks websites etc.


-- 
Chris Hughes
Wakefield Show 26th April 2014 - http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk