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i had a search but couldnt find anything specific on the subject , if there was a post about it i`m sorry i missed it
a media centre machine is a Pc with a pretty front end and an always on Internet connection , how do you guys view virus protection , what are the consaquences of having virus protection on a MC machine , would it interfere with anything , is there a need for it ?? or do u see it as a must have ??
my machine dual boots which is a pain but for now good enough , my normal O/s , Xp pro is covered by Trends latest offering but my MC side of my Pc isnt , i happily use the net with album art fixer and media player , but the consequences could be fatal for my disk which MC is installed on
whats your experiences and thoughts guys and gals ??
You can never have too much....run a good firewall (I use zone-alarm), hide behind a router..use the holy trinity...firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware...
yeah i`m behind a router m8 so thats sorted , and i use ZA myself on my normal O/s along with other bits and pieces , so using them on the MC side will be fine ....thats good to no , rekon thats my next job
Hi Gil,
Yep I can vouch for ZonaAlarm Security Suite. I've been using it for years. The only thing to know is it will be a pain in the rear until you get it to learn what it should allow and disallow but then it just sits there and does exactly what you'd want it to do.
Za is good phil but Outpost is supposed to be better , after a long drawn out fight trying to get outpost configured properly i gave up and came back to Za , its not brilliant but does a reasonable job , i also like protowall , that stops alot of stuff ya never new was coming and going add to it blocklist manager and yer getting there
ps
i just noticed we are running pretty much the same rig , how odd is that ??? same mobo and cpu , but i have 3 Eide HD and 2 sata HD`s....weird eh
That is weird but then one might argue that great minds think alike mate! (Yes I did read somewhere that there's an alternative view to that ) Seems you must be recording 24 hours a day or maybe you've copied your DVD collection to hard disk. Personally I find I don't keep my recordings. Their main purpose is to allow me to watch them at a more convenient time so mostly they get deleted as soon as I've watched them. It blows me away that you've got the same mobo and when we were discussing whether or not you have spdif all I needed to do was ask what mobo you had. lol.
BTW I'm praying for your sake you don't have the same case as me. It's more of a talking point than anything and usually manages to get a bit of a smile!
Gil,
If you have an always on Internet connection your first line of defense, IMHO, is a hardware router/firewall box in between your LAN and the Internet connection.
Software-based firewall have their place in the overall security scheme but they are just software, and can take time "to come up" while the machine is starting as well as being just as vulnerable to getting infected as any other piece of software on your machine. A hardware firewall is already there stopping inbound connections irrespective of the state of the LAN machines behind it.
couldnt agree more Oz , lucky i`m already behind a Speedtouch router add to that ZA , Trend Virus , Trend spyware , Protowall and some other stuff , i`m pretty well protected BUT when i switch to MC i havent installed anything like i said thats my next job ....after i have finished encoding something something the Asus board and 3.2 HT is very good at , specialy when software overclocked
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HTPC - 1TB HDD - 3 Gb mem - Quad core - DVB-T - BR/HDDVD - DVI-HDMI Video/sound simultaneous S/pdif Coaxial - 50" LG - Yamaha DTS amp - USA Orb surround - Million colour LED lit custome shelving for all kit
Gil,
If you are already behind a hardwall, and presumably using NAT, the softwalls are probably only affording you alerts/protection against outgoing connections and/or other machines on your LAN. I have read (but unfortunately don't have any referecnes handy) that running multiple softwalls on the same machine is Not a Good Idea (tm) beucase they can fight with each other and otherwise hobble performance.
As for A/V insurance, I use Symantec products (which some luminaries don't like).
My MCE box is really only used for TV/DVD/Music use, rather than as a general purpose PC in the house (there are plenty of other PC's here for that). That may explain my dearth of problems as opposed to other persons' plethora.
Yep I think it's a given that the hw firewall will do its part Gil. These days most people have something of that nature built into their routers etc anyway. I have to admit that I find ZA on the HTPC a little bit of overkill since I rarely install anything on it and mostly everything gets scanned by my normal pc before it gets near the HTPC. It's just nice to have that added security of the anti-spyware and the anti-virus just in case and I do like to control which software is allowed to call home!
As for A/V insurance, I use Symantec products (which some luminaries don't like).
Yes I have to say that most people I know have given up on Norton AV. While I do like their work on releasing alerts and signatures in a timely way most people I know have found it to slow performance considerably. I know Oz doesn't agree and he's entitled to his opinion but I'm just relating my experience. Take it or leave it! The other factor I took into account when choosing ZA was the fact that it's a full suite and therefore unlikely to cause the sorts of issues you can have with multiple packages to separately deal with spyware, antivirus and firewall config. Also I've found that some of the more recent solutions are nowhere near as configurable as ZA but in the end it comes down to what works for you and what you feel comfortable with.
I go with Phil. Oh no,not again!
Serious now, I never download/install any pog on my main MCE rig without testing it on my small factor MCE. On this rig I use AVG and Nod 32 in conjunction with Microsoft Anti-spyware. On my big rig, I use McAfee/Nod 32 and Microsoft Anti-spyware for normal downloads. ZA on both as Firewall. McAffee is a bugger though. If a want to use Ebay within MCE, I have to switch off scripting protection, it seems to have an issue with PHP.exe on which the Ebay plugin runs.
) Seems you must be recording 24 hours a day or maybe you've copied your DVD collection to hard disk. Personally I find I don't keep my recordings. Their main purpose is to allow me to watch them at a more convenient time so mostly they get deleted as soon as I've watched them. It blows me away that you've got the same mobo and when we were discussing whether or not you have spdif all I needed to do was ask what mobo you had. lol. 
like i said thats my next job ....after i have finished encoding something 