Combat Blaster worm without Firewall.

[Guest]

Is there a way to avoid the blaster worm other than having the firewall on? I'd like to disable the firewall so that I can download with BitTorrent faster. I find that having the firewall disabled, my downloads are noticably faster. The cons to that is that the auto shut down thing keeps bothering me. Can anyone help?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

Is there a way to avoid the blaster worm other than having the
firewall on? I'd like to disable the firewall so that I can download
with BitTorrent faster. I find that having the firewall disabled, my
downloads are noticably faster. The cons to that is that the auto
shut down thing keeps bothering me. Can anyone help?

Protection against a specific worm or virus is not the point of a
firewall. A firewall protects against many possible intrusions.

Running without a firewall is nothing short of foolhardy.

 

[TJ]

Get a router - a hardware firewall. The software firewall won't use nearly
as much resources, and will really only be useful for stopping stuff on your
machine from calling out, since the router will keep stuff from getting in.

Is there a way to avoid the blaster worm other than having the firewall

on? I'd like to disable the firewall so that I can download with BitTorrent
faster. I find that having the firewall disabled, my downloads are noticably
faster. The cons to that is that the auto shut down thing keeps bothering
me. Can anyone help?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

If the machine is properly patched, the blaster worm cannot infect you. But
I could, or anyone with the where-with-all to spend 30 minutes learning how
to use hacker tools to upload a trojan to your conspicuously vulnerable
machine. Do not run without your firewall for any reason.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Is there a way to avoid the blaster worm other than having the firewall

on? I'd like to disable the firewall so that I can download with BitTorrent
faster. I find that having the firewall disabled, my downloads are noticably
faster. The cons to that is that the auto shut down thing keeps bothering
me. Can anyone help?

 

[Guest]

Hi,

If the machine is properly patched, the blaster worm cannot infect you. But
I could, or anyone with the where-with-all to spend 30 minutes learning how
to use hacker tools to upload a trojan to your conspicuously vulnerable
machine. Do not run without your firewall for any reason.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org


on? I'd like to disable the firewall so that I can download with BitTorrent
faster. I find that having the firewall disabled, my downloads are noticably
faster. The cons to that is that the auto shut down thing keeps bothering
me. Can anyone help?

Okay then, I shall have the firewall on at all times. (I'll just download slower) Thanks for the replies and advice. I guess my machine is well patched. I have the latest updates for Norton Antivirus 2004, AdAware and Spybot S&D. But I find that I still need the firewall. WIthout it, after leaving the machine on for a few hours, the auto shut down thing would come up. With the firewall on, nothing of the sorts will happen even if I have it on for a few days. Again, thanks for the advices.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Given today's widely-publicized and well-known hostile Internet
environment, only a fool or a masochist would go on-line without both
a firewall and antivirus protection. People really shouldn't need to
be told to use a firewall or an antivirus application, no more than
they should need to be told not to stick their hands into an open
flame.

While specific hotfixes and up-to-date antivirus definitions can
now protect a computer from Blaster, Welchia, Sasser, and their known
variants, such reactive methods cannot provide any protection from any
new threats that are bound to come along.



Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

Is there a way to avoid the blaster worm other than having the

firewall on? I'd like to disable the firewall so that I can download
with BitTorrent faster. I find that having the firewall disabled, my
downloads are noticably faster. The cons to that is that the auto shut
down thing keeps bothering me. Can anyone help?

 

[Danny Mingledorff]

Okay then, I shall have the firewall on at all times. (I'll just download

slower) Thanks for the replies and advice. I guess my machine is well
patched. I have the latest updates for Norton Antivirus 2004, AdAware and
Spybot S&D. But I find that I still need the firewall. WIthout it, after
leaving the machine on for a few hours, the auto shut down thing would come
up. With the firewall on, nothing of the sorts will happen even if I have it
on for a few days. Again, thanks for the advices.

============
It sounds like you may be missing a Windows patch, or two, if you get the
shutdown message with the firewall disabled.

....danny

 

[Hilary Karp]

I'm not sure why you are seeing a performance hit with a firewall. I
don't really see much difference. Or put it another way, with the
firewall I still get blazing speeds on a cable modem.