thanks funkyworms. its good to know a few weeks after pushing security stuff out there and "spamming" all the mods with PM's some more work other than that reallly dated FAQ has been done. I dont suppose you thought of doing this because of all the noise ive been making and all the stuff ive been asking mods to put up in the mods forums? nice contribution.

id like to add that talented hackers with a windows IP address can hack you remotely even with a firewall. ive seen this happen first hand to a fully patched vista box with all the security software in the FAQ. ive done xtensive research on this and concluded that all the people hanging around in the msnl irc channel are begging to be enslaved waving their IP addresses around like that. its about time pokerstars and the major players start porting their software to linux or even openbsd (an os which has only had 2 remote exploits in the last 10 years iirc) for the suepr paranoid (those that are in posession of the facts)

good work please add this to the FAQ. the HSNL mods have been wise enough to add a sticky to their forum about computer security. hopefully all the strat forums can do this.

Done

Running Holdem Manager properly requires that you have UAC completely off (http://www.holdemmanager.net/faq/afmmain.aspx). Does anyone know if that is just for the installation process or must it always remain off when using HEM?

Another excellent post by funkyworms, thank you.

hacked how? details please. i think you are just spreading FUD. share your "xtensive research" or stop making people worry.

I have a netgear WGR614 v.7 and am having trouble finding a third party firmware because apparently it is not linux based. Any suggestions?

funkyworms, I haven't had time to watch your vids, but if you haven't mentioned them, it might be worth doing some videos on things like HIPS and sandboxie.

If you're happy with it, keep it. It's probably fine from a security standpoint, just keep the firmware updated.

But I am almost positive it won't be as stable as a Tomato-based router (from my experience).

I would just like to say that this is not true.

I could set a totally unpatched Windows box behind a firewall and not even the most skilled hacker could get to it. It takes much more than knowing an IP address to hack someone remotely. A user must have some port open on their firewall or he must access some remote resource to enable himself to be hacked.

For example, I could post my IP address and there is no chance of someone hacking me with only that info. I don't post it because there are other things that could happen, such as someone launching a DDoS attack against me. Though such an attack would severely inconvenience me, it would not compromise any of my sensitive data or make it more prone for me to get hacked.

Please let it be known that I do not take your claims lightly. If you have some kind of proof that a remote user can hack a completely stealthed iptables implementation then I would like to see the evidence. Feel free to PM me with any info you have. Otherwise I see these as dubious claims.

SilentNoise falls pretty squarely into the Kook category Funky...

I wasn't aware of Secunia PSI, looks pretty solid.

Regarding the personal firewalls, I agree that they can be a bit time consuming to configure, but to say they have cost poker players more money than hackers is a bit far fetched IMO.

what are the differences between windows firewall, windows defender, and comodo firewall?
does comodo take up a lot more space? or just have more popup windows?
im confused because u talk about how bad firewalls are, but then it seems like u reccomend windows firewall.




also, i'm confused about what NAT is. where can i get it (or did u say it comes with routers now)?is it easy to set up Tomato or untangle (sounds complicated and not so importan)?
very helpful vids, tyvvm

Windows Defender is an anti-malware program that can also be used to edit start-up programs. I recommend only using it to disable start-up programs then disable it because its anti-malware functionality sucks. In my previous series I show how to disable Windows Defender.

Re: Firewalls - I only take issue with so-called "personal firewalls" otherwise known as software firewalls. My stance is pretty well summed up by this article. Personal firewalls are mostly snake-oil.
I recommend leaving the Windows firewall enabled because its effect on a system's performance is negligible and requires almost zero interaction from the user. The truth is the only time the Windows firewall will be doing any work is when you're on an untrusted network. The danger of being on an untrusted network can also be mitigated by disabling unneeded services.

Don't get too caught up in trying to understand NAT. Just know that you should be using a router and not plugging directly into your cable modem. NAT drops connections that it doesn't understand such as connections initiated outside your network. This make it difficult for someone outside your local network to get information about your system.

Tomato is easy to setup and I recommend it mainly for reliability reasons.

Untangle is not easy to setup, but it is definitely an attainable solution even for a novice if you're willing to put in some time.

What if I use a modem-router? Will it be the same thing?

That is fine too.