stupid computer associates!!?

Question

so i bought ca internet security, which i would like except for the fact that it won't let my ActiveX work, it won't let me play any videos on myspace, and it won't let me log in on hotornot. I fought with it for an hour just to get it to let me online at all! any suggestions?

Answer 1

NEVER disable a firewall in order to make a game, a web cam or some program work, it is a major no-no. Your computer can be attacked or infected with worms and viruses in minutes!

Learn how to properly configure your firewall, but never disable it, even for a minute. A firewall is there for a very good reason: to protect you from hackers!

Firewall is your friend, it is not your enemy!

Answer 2

jibbarjabbar is right.

Yes someone can infect you just by having a port open. All of the major worms (sasser, blaster, slammer) used Microsoft vulnerability to infect people computer. This is why its very important to keep your system up-to-date. Now its true that having a port open wont necessarily result in an infection, but since there's always a delay between the time a vulnerability is discovered and the time a patch is released, there's always a chance that you get infected.

Now, you do need outbound connection on port 80 (and 443 if you ever want to access HTTPS site), but you definitely don't need inbound connection on port 80.

And finally i don't know which firewall software you are using, but you definitely need to update it. First if you have a firewall, there shouldn't be any Open port to connect to. Secondly, a good firewall would crash if many command are sent. An finally a buffer overflow only occurs if the listening system lack of input validate and allocate a buffer smaller that the size of the data that it actually accept. Sending a lots of command would mostly result (if anything) in a DOS (Denial of Services) and not a buffer overflow.

Answer 3

jibbarjabbar:

You are most definitely incorrect. You do not get a worm/virus/trojan horse by letting your firewall down. A firewall blocks inbound/outbound data on specific ports. But someone CANNOT infect a computer just because a port is open. If that was the case, then everyone online would get virii/worms all the time. In order to browse the internet, you have to allow inbound and outbound connections on TCP/IP port 80, which is the standard HTTP port.

Either way, someone can send a command/several commands on ANY open port and cause a buffer overflow in a firewall and shut it down, sometimes without the "victim's" knowledge.

You are partially right. But all-around, your answer was way off. =D

Answer 4

the old saying RTFM comes to mind, but it sounds like the thing is set too strict.

if you read the about the settings it will probably have a list of "allowed" sites to do certain things, that needs adjusting... thats all.

so i wouldn't blame CA for such things.

NEVER disable your firewall.

Answer 5

Try turn off the firewall and see first