Intrusion Protection Overkill?

[Ummagumma]

OS: XP Home
ISP: a DSL provider
Bowser: IE
E-mail: a POP account with a pretty good spam filter

Is it really necessary (or recommended), (in addition to
using XP Home's native firewall on top of a LINKSYS
router's FW), to use further protection, e.g.,
SpywareBlaster, Spybot - Search&Destroy, Ad-aware,
WinPatrol, Zone Labs' FW, AnalogX's ScriptDefender,
maintain a 127.0.0.1 style HOSTS file, and a proprietary
AV program to protect one's computer?

It's painful to download, install, and update all these
programs.

Why can't MS do this in a self-contained manner?

 

[PA Bear]

MS isn't responsible for how you and others use their machines.

If you're not having problems, no, you don't need most of those (though I'd
strongly recommend SpywareBlaster as protection) but you do need a reliable,
up-to-date AV app. See...

Before You Connect a New Computer to the Internet
http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/before_you_plug_in.html

Protect Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/default.asp
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.aumha.org

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http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect