security/technical

[Somerford]

hi - is there anyone here who could advise me on some technical/security aspects (not internet security) for the PC ?

PM appreciated

regards

S

 

[peteinwilts]

do you mean like a kensington lock or someone physically not running off with the PC, or logical protection from the wife finding your porn?

 

[Somerford]

thank you pete for that. no - was more along the lines of anti-spy, secure net, and a few other things besides

 

[peteinwilts]

protection from dodgy neighbours hacking your wireless??

I use spybot for anti spyware, but need to turn down the settings or it will become to restrictive and annoying...

 

[Brosville]

Short simple answer, ditch windoze and run linux (or dip your toe in the water gently - http://wubi-installer.org/)
or if you want to stick with the execrable products of Mr Gates, the free copies of Zone Alarm and AVG anti-virus should keep you safe

 

[Poly Hive]

I wondered how long that suggestion would take.

And yes I run Linux on my lappie but as our stand ins use this machine it is on windows.

PH

 

[Norm]

Bros, I installed Ubuntu through the wubi link. That was really easy but every time I tried to update anything, the grub was changed and hung the boot on the re-start. I have no idea why, or how to fix it, but I did a complete re-install 3 times and the same happened each time. Do you know how this can be fixed. I really liked the look of Ubuntu.

Short simple answer, ditch windoze and run linux (or dip your toe in the water gently - http://wubi-installer.org/)
or if you want to stick with the execrable products of Mr Gates, the free copies of Zone Alarm and AVG anti-virus should keep you safe

 

[DulwichGnome]

If you do use M$ windows, it's worth going into 'Users' and creating a restricted profile and use that for your day to day work. It's a bit of a pain changing profiles when you need to install something but it does mean no one else can install anything as you!

Mike.

 

[Onge]

Short simple answer, ditch windoze and run linux (or dip your toe in the water gently - http://wubi-installer.org/)
or if you want to stick with the execrable products of Mr Gates, the free copies of Zone Alarm and AVG anti-virus should keep you safe

I used to use Zone Alarm and AVG, then I switched to NOD32 (recommended)

Now I use Mac (with added smugness )

 

[Somerford]

will ubuntu allow use of MS programs (ie word, excel, Sage accounts ?)

regards

S

 

[DulwichGnome]

will ubuntu allow use of MS programs (ie word, excel, Sage accounts ?)

regards

S

Open Office is as good as, some say better, and there are ways of running others with a program called 'wine'.

 

[Brosville]

For Norm - I think there's two ways round it - either uninstall Ubuntu using Wubi, then re-install the newest version using Wubi, OR download Ubuntu, burn it onto a disc, and then do a full install, which will obviously allow full updates without problems.......... I'd suggest checking on one of the excellent Ubuntu forums for chapter and verse. I started with an early edition of Wubi/Ubuntu (about 7.10 or thereabouts), and it totally transformed an otherwise clapped-out Dell laptop (soooo fast in comparison to Windoze), but it didn't want to update, so I ran it for nearly 3 years as was, and only booted into Windoze half a dozen times - then last year "took the plunge" and my present desktop is solely Ubuntu (found Mesh will provide a computer without bally windoze, and Ubuntu installed instead, saving £85), and haven't regretted it for a single moment....
Which leads neatly onto the thing about "what about my Windoze programmes?" - as has been said, there are nearly always substitutes available which work every bit as well, and often better........ Firefox and Thunderbird for the net, Open Office for virtually everything, "The Gimp"
for graphics (shame about the name, far more intuitive than Photoshop) etc - for the odd one or two that you can't find a substitute for you can use "Wine" or other similar ways of running them "within Ubuntu".
Since making the change I have only briefly used machines running Windows, and it usually results in complete and utter frustration at their slowness, and idiotic way of doing things, and as for "security problems", they are but a distant memory - there is an antivirus scanner on this computer, that'll kick in if it's needed, but it's never needed (the operating system is properly designed in the first place), firewall? - no need - pay for software? - don't be silly! (How last century!)
To be frank, I'm utterly amazed that Gates manages to preserve a near-monopoly with such an inferior system, with all it's slowness, security problems and expense..........

 

[Hombre]

I'm running SUSE Linux 11.0 on an AMD Sempron 2200+ cpu, so far from being a hardware powerhouse.
I am not a fan of dual booting. I tend to leave the box running; current uptime is only 22 days with four desktops. Currently with 0, 1, 2 and 3 windows open respectively.
With the price of disks these days, I would recommend removing the one you have and putting in a new disk and then installing your favourite Linux distro.

I understand that Ubuntu 9.10 (2009 October) is not as polished a release as was 9.04 2009 (April). Mint uses Ubuntu and adds it's own friendliness to the equation, with access to all the Ubuntu software repositories and so well worth a punt.

Always use a router with it's own firewall and NAT (Network Address Translation) will keep the outside outside.
To check the visibility of your processor to the wider internet, I recommend using the "Shields Up" facility at Gibson research. https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Incidentally Kbuntu is the same as Ubuntu with the KDE desktop, which I prefer as I believe it to be more flexible/powerful.

I don't know why Grub should be changed as you mention Norm; sorry.

The original disk can always be re-attached as a separate device once the installation is complete and there is no risk of confusion. NTFS filesystem support has been read/write production quality for a couple of years now. The strategy is probably not of much use to a laptop user.

 

[Heather]

I also use 'mailwasher', its free and I can look at all mail before it downloads- dumping anything suspect.

 

[peteinwilts]

Steve: If you want to 'borrow' a hard drive to try a linux flavour, just ask...

I have been a technical guy for over 20 years and have Microsoft accreditations (not really worth the paper they are written on!), but also have Unix accreditations.

Over the years, I have tried many Linux versions and each time have reverted back to Windows. I guess a lot of the pain is removed because I have never needed to buy Windows due to the jobs I have been in.... so have been comparing free linux to free windows.

I have found that I have always struggled with compatabilities and have just really not got on. The GUI's try so hard to look like Windows, but just are not.

Virus's and spyware and antibillgatesisms are often big reasons for not wanting to go for Windows, although not foolproof. There are Linux, Mac and cross platform viruses, including those that attack OpenOffice.

At work I use Linux and Windows (most of us do). I know the risks, the performance reductions and the benefits of Windows over Linux, but my home life is just Windows... I protect against bugs, and if I am not happy, I just wipe it and start again...

There are pro's and cons for each of the OS's, but 'at the end of the day' it really is horses for courses and what you feel comfortable with.
The best thing is to try Linux... you could always go back to Windows if you don't like it...

 

[Brosville]

I'm really pleased with the diffences, and notice that features that appear in Linux first are suddenly hyped as a "wonderful windoze invention".
I could rattle on for pages, but I'm a relatively new convert (3 years) and have no particular claims to geekdom (I'm a point and clicker) - much of Hombre's recent post went clear over my head
I'm not in a position to spend a lot of money on equipment or software (lets be honest, I have other priorities), but have found that the newer "user friendly" Linux distributions underline the myriad flaws in Windoze, and it's meant that I was able to buy a new desktop computer that does more than I could ever want at breakneck speed, despite a relatively modest specification because it's running Ubuntu instead of Windoze bloatware - I think it's a bit like learning a foreign language, if you keep "translating back to Windoze" it'll take forever, and you'll never speak it like a native - far better to install it in some shape or form, and "live with the natives" - rather than moaning about Linux progammes as being in some way "inferior", I'm now finding that they're often FAR superior to the Windoze ones, and they're free! (fr'instance if you're into digital photography, "Digikam" is stunningly good)

 

[Norm]

Thanks Bros & Hombre for your replies. Perhaps I could make a backup of the grub in notepad, then if it fouls up again I could re-copy it. Would that work?

I use Puppy Linux on a PC in Sweden that has a motherboard fault so when it accesses the hard disk it freezes. I have set the boot to run from USB stick and have Puppy on that. It runs everything from RAM and really is fast. You can't do that with windows!

 

[Hombre]

Your little dog is renown for it's very small footprint Norm.

Google "saving and restoring grub (from Google.co.uk) it should give you something to chew on if this doesn't give you the answer http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=24113

From your Ubuntu command line (pull up a console and use sudo where necessary for the permission to access files)

df > ~/Myoutput.txt
This will put a copy of the df command output into /home/yourusername/Myoutput.txt where you can look at it with cat, more or less or your other favourite page browser or send it to someone when asking for advice. Without that info as a minimum and your distribution release data they are essentially working blind and having to guess rather a lot.

sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst > ~/MyGrub.txt
To list your grub menu file. Just to look at it on screen miss off the redirection and output filespec.

If you need any assistance I'll be back in an hour. I have a radio sked to keep.
Ian

I can recommend the ubuntuforums.org for ubuntu specific questions or linuxquestions.org forum for more generalised (including ubuntu) Linux questions.

My friend (not Google or the man with 'the shirt') reckons that either Windows is not playing fair (no great surprise) or that it a setting in the bios that is invoking the protection mechanism to prevent changes to the boot sector where the Grub resides.