Is there a checklist to prevent "phoning home"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peabody
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Peabody

I am a Luddite by nature, and also paranoid, and don't want my
computer going on the net automatically without asking first. I've
turned off Automatic Updates and a couple other things, but I'm sure
I've missed some. Does anyone know of a checklist that covers all
the settings you need to change, or registry entries you need to
make, to turn off automatic internet accesses? Some other paranoid
Luddite may have put this together already.

I'm really talking about Windows itself (MCE2005) and related
programs installed along with it. I know I have to deal
individually with programs I install.
 
Peabody said:
I am a Luddite by nature, and also paranoid, and don't want my
computer going on the net automatically without asking first. I've
turned off Automatic Updates and a couple other things, but I'm sure
I've missed some. Does anyone know of a checklist that covers all
the settings you need to change, or registry entries you need to
make, to turn off automatic internet accesses? Some other paranoid
Luddite may have put this together already.

I'm really talking about Windows itself (MCE2005) and related
programs installed along with it. I know I have to deal
individually with programs I install.
Click to expand...

Some Luddites have already invented a product call ZoneAlarm. Unlike Windows
Firewall, ZoneAlarm allows total control over anything on your machine that
might want to contact the outside world. It'll alert you to attempts from
any source and at that point, you can allow internet access just once, or on
an ongoing basis (the typical "don't ask me about this particular program
again" type of thing).

Highly recommended. There's a free version, and a "Pro" version, which,
among other things, allows you to protect all settings with a password. I
use this feature because there's a teenager in the house who will click
almost anything that gets in his way because teens are so busy and life is
so short. When an alert pops up, I want him to enter a password, simply
because it slows him down slightly and forces him to think about why some
stupid computer game thinks it needs access.

Highly recommended.
 
Do you mean that you want to destroy knitting machines and power looms, or
that you are opposed in principle to technological advances, or just that
you are conservative, in the proper sense of the word? Makes some
difference in the kind of advice people might supply. :-)

Joe
 
Peabody said:
I am a Luddite by nature, and also paranoid, and don't want my
computer going on the net automatically without asking first. I've
turned off Automatic Updates and a couple other things, but I'm sure
I've missed some. Does anyone know of a checklist that covers all
the settings you need to change, or registry entries you need to
make, to turn off automatic internet accesses? Some other paranoid
Luddite may have put this together already.

I'm really talking about Windows itself (MCE2005) and related
programs installed along with it. I know I have to deal
individually with programs I install.
Click to expand...

Use a 3rd party firewall. There are several good free ones from Sygate,
Zone Alarm and Kerio.
 
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