I use no virus detection, no firewalls, no nothing. Yet have never been attacked by
anything in 12 years of internet usage. My solution?
I don't use anti virus software either, but firewalls are pretty much a requirement.... at the very least, because of worms. Worms are viruses that can attack and infect a computer, without the user doing anything at all, only by having the comptuer on. This type of worm attacks an "exploit," or a flaw in the OS that allows some worm virus to get into the computer, and make it respond to the virus while the attacked computer is just sitting there doing nothing. I have seen a computer infected within seconds of connecting to the internet... it can happen. Microsoft is regularly releasing patches to fix these exploits as soon as they are discovered. If you've ever read what Microsoft states about the patch, you'll often read something like, "Critical Security Update... ...fixes flaw that will allow a remote attacker to take control of your computer...." It's not a joke, and these types of flaws are discovered quite often.
Don't forget that computer criminals now create virus worms to silently and covertly enter a computer and transmit to the criminals keyboard capture, in an attempt to steal credit card numbers, bank account information, etc. In the past, virus writers wanted to damage computers for publicity.... but that's been changing. People can be infected and never know it, only to later become victims of identity and electronic credit card theft. The attack of choice is called a root kit, because a root kit is invisible to anti-virus software. Root kits are extremely difficult to find and can be rather difficult to remove when found. That's because they "become part" of the operating system, and can tell the operating system to ignore attempts by the user and anti-virus software to find it.
For firewalls, the most basic box that provides a substantial level of protection for very little cost is a box that provides "NAT (Network Address Translation)." It's just a box that sits between your computer and the internet, and changes public addresses to private ones. This prevents your computer from being directly accessable to vulnerabilities. (More advanced firewalls will monitor inbound and outbound traffic, and block specific types of traffic inbound, oubound, or both, and the more recent firewall technologies now scan for exploits in web pages, email, etc.)
More and more internet providers are already providing NAT in the cable and dsl routers... if your computer's IP address starts with 192.168.xxx.xxx or 172.(16-32).xxx.xxx or 10.xxx.xxx.xxx you are already using NAT and you already have good basic firewall protection outside of your computer. The key word here, is basic. A determined hacker has tools that can penetrate NAT, but otherwise your computer is basically invisible to the internet at large, when hidden behind NAT.
You can check your IP address by clicking Start-->Run... then in the RUN window, type " cmd " (without the quotes). Hit enter and a black command window will open. Type " ipconfig " at the command prompt and hit enter. If you don't have a private IP address, you should have some sort of firewall on your computer turned on, or you're at risk during connect time to the internet, regardless if you're surfing or not.
I don't like firewalls on the computer itself, and always turn off the Windows firewall, using only a "hardware" firewall. That basic level of protection can be bought starting atabout $50.00 from a place like Fry's or Best Buy.
