Thx Msmittens. I am going to ask around my gaming community for those that are using proxies and see what would be the best choice.

& im oh so grateful tht this forum uses this ignore option....one click and poof he's gone..its perfect! I didnt realize that option was there , or i woulda clicked it rather than replied...it just crap when someone wants help and gets berated by the people who could help.. but most of you have been very nice & helpful...so again thx

Im finding out more and more everyday that mcafee isnt going to work for me,pieces of the suite are missing..so im voyaging into learning what will work...and going to get some differnt opinions. I dont mind paying.. but what i do mind is paying for products that dont work.. I think mcafee has done themselves a huge dis-service with this new suite. I surely wont be buying their products again. Even their stingers dont work! thats pretty bad.

I didnt realize until yesterday someone from this forum wrote to me and told me that firewalls should mask my ip address... which hmmmm..didnt know tht..

mittens..you are very correct that there is inherit level of risk involved with security and being an admin, its a very well known server.
but mostly my overall sense of assurance...

Winmx is one of my favorite programs that i use to get just songs and the simpsons..

I do have a question regarding file sharing, two computers and one internet connection.

If I use one pc for nothing other than storage and downloading and the other pc for everything else.. and use a router .. is there a risk for contamination from one pc to the other?
Assuming they are networked in NO way and connected just by the router..
It may seem silly to you all but I genuinely dont know and its something ive been seriously thinking of doing for ease of downloading and gaming??

Jaxx

Originally posted here by MsMittens
Proxies can only "mask" your IP so to speak. There is always a way to trace someone if the person or organization that wants to do the trace has the time, resources and money to do so. So, using a proxy for personal privacy of day-to-day surfing should be sufficient for the average joe or average jane. I know someone said that Anonymizer was old but I've used it recently (last year?) and it wasn't that bad. Public proxies might be difficult for gaming but Anonymizer might be a little more flexible and the cost isn't that high ($40/yr ?) .

BasementJaxx,

There has been quite a bit of good info provided to you. There has been a couple of flames. It does happen and if it goes too far, please use the Report feature (found on every post). Alternatively, you can use the Ignore User option to weed out those that annoy you too much. If you really feel that you want to complain send a PM to myself or Negative (we're the board wide moderators) and we'll see what we can do.

That said, the issue with putting up your personal info is that it falls under what might be termed as "information leakage". Given your comment such as this:



It actually might be worthwhile to be careful as to what info you provide that includes your real name and email address. Putting up too much info about yourself can be risky and can open you up to attack. The choice is still ultimately your own and you have to be comfortable with what you choose.

Additionally, you have identified a very important reason why someone would want to compromise it: it's used for admin. So it should be, IMO, hardened and protected a little more. Hundreds can view it. The issue is does it have something worth viewing. Some of the attacks being done recently are based simply on the fact that a machine has a vulnerability. You asked in one of your posts for a specific reason why someone would attack you. Here's one: because you are online and have a machine that might have something 1) good 2) useful in an attack 3) useful to store something for later use 4) just because.

As for McAfee, I personal do not like it (or other all-in-one options). The biggest reason is that if a flaw or vulnerability is found in one aspect of it, the whole thing could be suspect (call me paranoid -- I just don't trust it). Personally, I like different tools and I like the words "don't pay" or "free". So instead of an all-in-one from Norton's or McAfee I use AVG (from Grisoft.com) for AV and Sygate as a firewall tool. I also use Secway (from Secway.fr) as an MSN encryption tool (pretty nifty IMO).

As for WinMX, anytime you do something that connects you to the internet you are opening yourself up to risk. You might be opening yourself up higher with WinMX and downloading of "software" that might be infected. The reality is that the more you do online, the higher your risk is to be compromised or attacked. It doesn't mean you will be, just that that odds are higher.

HTH.

If you have other questions, ask away.