h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wonder if this might be better asked here:

Just how safe is Zone Alarm? How uncorruptible is it by a Trojan or hacker? My program controls are pretty well locked down - virtually the only programs I let have unrestricted net access are Mozilla, Firefox Opera, Skype and my BitTorrent client. I even demand that AVG asks permission before it can download an update. Paranoid or what?

But every now and again I go to the ZA program control and find that processes and applications I have have previously banned from accessing the net have a green tick next to them huh One of these is something called LSA Shell (export version) which I Googled when ZA flagged its first attempt to phone home and found that while there is a genuine Microsoft application called lsass.exe, there's also a Trojan by the same name - I wasn't geek enough to understand exactly what the deal is with that.

Fact is though, that even though I denied it access to the the net, I often find that green tick next to it, and next to some other programs I don't want accessing the net too. I didn't grant it permission, so who did? And how, if Zone Alarm is supposed to stop that?
F30859?thread=892428&show=20&skip=20#p12008224 (and the following post)

Norton Firewall and anti virus package with the addition of Microsoft anti spyware works great for me.

Being older and in a steady relationship I have no need of many of the childish suggestions given above.

But I do depend on the Lightsabres given free with Rice Krispies on a day to day basis, just in case.

BD2

I find that a bow and arrow usually does the trick. More effective than durex any day!

I just go out with very old women

err...

Browser: Firefox with 'NoScript' extension

E-mail client: Thunderbird

Antivirus: AVG Antivirus free edition

Firewall: Zone Alarm

Temp/history cleaner: Crap Cleaner

Antispyware: Spybot - Search & Destroy

Task ending thing: End It All

Total cost: £0.00

However, having said that, the most important things I do is to have a good idea what my system is doing at all times, being selective about my installs/downloads and keeping my system generally clean.

I find running Windows ME is a good way of forcing me to do this
And you CAN be too careful.

Wow, what a tedious post.

Wolfticket

Forgot the condom joke, please feel free to insert you own here>[ ]