firewall, anti-virus?

[Jonny]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&as_qdr=all&oi=defmore&defl=en&q=define:Antivirus

http://www.google.com/search?q=define:firewall&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=lang_en&as_qdr=all

 

[Guest]

Can someone explain in very basic terms what the difference is between
anti-virus and firewall.

 

[John]

Hi
Antivirus
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/virus_protection/nav2006/features.html
Firewall
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/internet_security/npf2006/features.html

Regards

John

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Basically:

An antivirus program is one that is design to scan files for the potential
of being an infectious agent. This could be in the form of a file downloaded
from a web site or one received in email, but is not limited to such.

A firewall is a program or hardware that is designed to prevent unwanted
intrusions into a system from outside. Any system connected to a network can
"talk" to another one. Some out there are infected with various bugs and
actively attempt to contact an "open" system and infect it as well. A
firewall prevents the outside system from invading the protected one.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Vanguard]

Can someone explain in very basic terms what the difference is between
anti-virus and firewall.

http://www.wikipedia.com/ has lots of definitions.

Google works, too. Rather than do a search on a term which results in
millions of hits, you can ask Google to define a term.
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:firewall
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:"anti-virus"

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Can someone explain in very basic terms what the difference is between
anti-virus and firewall.

An anti-virus program looks at *files* and tries to identify and delete
those files that are malicious (viruses, worms, trojans, etc).

A firewall looks at *access* attempts to the computer and prevents them
(without knowing anything about whether the attempt is malicious or not).

If you have a stand-alone computer not connected to the internet, you don't
need a firewall. But you still need an anti-virus program because you are
still subject to getting viruses from removable media: diskettes, CDs
(finding a virus on a CD is rare these days, but not unheard of), thumb
drives, etc..

 

[Gerry Cornell]

You highlighted something for me that I will find very useful:
http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

I never knew about operators despite using Google and it's
predecessor for a number of years.

Thanks.


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Vanguard]

You highlighted something for me that I will find very useful:
http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

I never knew about operators despite using Google and it's
predecessor for a number of years.

One of the operators not listed is "group:". It comes in handy when
searching Google Groups to limit the search to a particular group or a
specific set of them, as in:

"Windows XP Pro" group:microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers

+EFS +certificate group:microsoft.public.*

Other than group:, I mostly use the site: and define: operators.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Ta.


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~