Klarinet Archive - Posting 000092.txt from 2002/05

From: Kenneth Wolman <kenneth.wolman@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] More virus info.
Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 17:28:45 -0400

This whole virus thing has become really ugly. I'm in belt-and-suspenders
mode now because of my setup here. A cable modem and router (we have three
people here with computers) makes a nice inviting target. The fact I also
use Outlook has caused me to get a bit security-crazy. Eudora, which would
ordinarily be my mailer of choice, doesn't seem to have figured out what to
do with XP yet: its import facility migrates empty mailboxes or
packed-together garbage, take your pick.

So I'm running ZoneAlarm Pro PLUS--after doing some research on
about.com--Command AntiVirus. The latter was highly-rated, is far less
expensive than Symantec's offering, and takes up a lot less room on the
machine. Norton AntiVirus, when I ran it under Windows ME (the less said
the better), also had a bad habit of interfering with other programs, even
freestanding things that made no internet connection. And everything I've
heard about McAfee disqualified it at once.

The one problem I've run into with Command AntiVirus is that it seems to
create conditions that require frequent modem resets. I don't know how or
why this happens, but it does. The nice part, however, is that they send
you information about updates to their virus definitions. I just ran a
check on my machine and came up clean. That at least is a comfort.

At the risk of being accused of indulging in more Microsoft bashing, I can't
help but wonder why on earth Microsoft cannot design a piece of software
that doesn't need 300,000 security patches to make it somewhat operational,
and why its email clients are notorious for letting in everything from virii
to rats carrying the bubonic plague. I long for the days of OS/2....

Ken
-----------
Kenneth Wolman
http://www.kenwolman.com
"...perhaps forgiveness is a process more than an emotion, perhaps it's
meant to make us discover those other conditions within ourselves, love,
belief in love, to which forgiveness itself is incidental..."--C. K.
Williams, "Misgivings"

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