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Will using an older operating system lower your chances of Viruses?


Atmosphere XG

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Oh I should have mentioned, on all systems I don't use Internet Explorer 6 as my default browser.

On Win9x, 2000 and XP machines I use Opera or Firefox

(I haven't had any problems with the newer Internet Explorer 7 in XP)

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You'd have to be out of your freakin' mind to be using Windows 2000 with NO service pack these days! You might as well drive your car without wearing a seatbelt and wonder why you flew through the windshield when you crashed.

As for using an older OS, I guess it is logical to state that if barely anyone uses it, no one will bother to attack it. But honestly, I really haven't gotten any viruses, malware or spyware since I stopped using dialup, and kept my computer up to date ALWAYS. I haven't used an antivirus program on my desktop for years with highspeed internet, and I haven't really had any problems at all, but it's always up to date (with WinXP SP2).

My laptop, however, has windows 98 (I'm writing this message from it!) and I've never had any problems with viruses on it either.

So to recap, you can use an old OS (with any available updates) and it will protect you to some degree from intrusions or attacks. But I think using a modern OS (like XP, but not Vista) that is fully updated and maintained by a responsible user is equally as effective.

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I figured someone would comment on that. I don't trust SP3 on XP, it screws up some of the drivers. (My wireless adapter was unrecognized after I installed SP3). Other than not having SP3, its fully updated. Even at my university, all the school computers have SP2, almost none of them have SP3. Nevertheless, I haven't gotten any viruses!

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You'd have to be out of your freakin' mind to be using Windows 2000 with NO service pack these days! You might as well drive your car without wearing a seatbelt and wonder why you flew through the windshield when you crashed.

I would say how someone drives will hold more weight than, wearing a seat belt. Why you are so confident someone is going to crash while driving is beyond me. :whistle::

Nevertheless, I never came looking for anyone's approval in what I am doing and, I haven't had any issues as of yet. Fifteen days left to go and counting. :sneaky:

How many of you are running an AMD K6 500 MHz, or a Celeron 500 MHz in this day in age? There are many things you just cannot do today with Computers that old on the Internet.

My main computer is running on a Pentium II 233 Mhz. Apart from embedded Flash (I use the stand-alone player and YouTube downloading services) and Java, I can do anything I want.

I can relate totaly to this. I rarely if any watch Youtube based on the standing picture while the sound is playing. No gif animation whatsoever. I've learned to do without throughout the years. When I finally got a machine that could manage all that flashy movement, I turned it all off.

Websites that offer Flash home pages I bypass by using Google's search. I don't remember the last time I ever used Java.

This is my life using an old computer throughout the years. I know you've been using 95 for as long as I remember seeing your screen name. If there was a way I could make this Pentium 4 work on 98 (Sata Drive, Intel 915 Chipset) I would go right back to it.

Edited by Atmosphere XG
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I don't trust SP3 on XP, it screws up some of the drivers.

An important update was released in October for a security vulnerability that is now exploited by worms. No user interaction needed! I think this update requires SP3 to be installed, but don't quote me on that.

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[...]IMHO the best for you is not having one or the other, but the one and the other [i.e. XP and 98SE]. In any case, if eventually one of them were infected it would not affect to the other and you could restore everything in less than 5 minutes.

And also for total security, for the reasons I've said, I would recomend to use a parallel external USB2 HD.

Agreed. I just want to add that imaging periodically each system's partition adds still one more layer to one's ability to recover from any eventuality. Hence, XXCOPY and Ghost (or whatever one's favorite imaging software happens to be) are worthwhile tools to have handy. If the external HDD is big enough, it can accomodate copies and images, as needed. And a DOS-based recovery bootable CD-ROM, and a Bart PE based recovery CD-ROM.

Edited by dencorso
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Basically I am happy to use Windows 98 Second Edition on the internet without a firewall, but anything else newer you need a firewall.
Totally stupid to run without a firewall!!

Anyone can get in if you dont have one!! (Why chance it with something as good as 98/98se?)

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Tell us how someone can get in when there is no service accepting outside connections.

Server service isn't needed to get in over all protocols, just protocols like SMB and RPC. If something was able to get on the machine, it can listen for incoming connections on it's own, without the need for the server service. Disabling the server service basically disables SMB and RPC incoming connections, but other protocols would still work fine.

Win9x does have some safety due to it not having some of the newer Win32 APIs introduced in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but it does have a flat memory design, meaning any user-mode address can write to any kernel-mode address (and vice versa) with zero protections. 9x is less prone to the newer viruses, but old ones still exist - due to the memory model alone I still think running a 9x system without antivirus or a firewall is a little crazy, but to each his / her own.

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It is always convenient to have a firewall to avoid not only intrusion but the unconvenient access to the internet of any of your own programs. But you don't need a large firewall when you are using Windows 98 or even XP if you are behind a router.

I use a router since 2001, and for both OS I installed ZoneAlarm 3.1.395 in the year 2002 (less than 4.000 kb), and never felt any need to update or problems of any kind. It is extremely light, fast and stable.

BTW I use old apps whenever they are sufficient for my needs, a very convenient KISS policy, in special if you are not a newbie and you know how things are going on.....

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Yes the older versions of ZONEALARM are a must for newer OS's (XP,Vista) due to its OUTBOUND FILTERING!! (Newer version of ZA do not block outbound traffic (I wonder if M$ had a hand in that))

Edited by Dude111
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There were versions of ZoneAlarm that had a bug in their IM filtering routine which made it impossible for our Miranda IM users to connect to certain protocols anymore. There was no solution other than completely uninstalling ZoneAlarm, at the time. Later on, they (ZA team) apparently fixed it.

Just so you know in case you stumble into such issue.

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So after re-installing Windows XP every month for four months due to being contaminated with Viruses & Trojans, I decided to turn off my Pentium 4 and use my Celeron with Windows 2000 as my main Internet PC with the Pentium 4 using Windows XP as the back up.

One thing I remember about Windows 2000 and, 98 is using them for nearly a year without being contaminated with viruses. I actually re-installed because I used to destroy the registries accidentally. I do not use the Internet for Pornography, Peer To Peer or, Bit Torrent so, I didn’t see why I was getting so much viruses.

Upon researching the average Windows 2000 user brought forth this chart then, it made sense.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

Looks like I will remain on Windows 2000 and, I’m sure 98, & 95 users can relate why.

With Linux being more in demand on the Internet than 2000, 98, & 95 the chances of being infected is minimum to none. We are officially out of the limelight and, Virus/Trojan developers will not waste their time attacking those operating systems anymore.

Using old Windows or OS of an Unix type prevents Virus infection – Definitely true.

I have used Windows NT from 1996 to 2008. I experienced Virus attack (actually got active in memory) only once in 12 years and game file download (virus did not do anything since codes were not executed) 7 times in 12 years span. I run virus scan for downloaded files every time I download something. OS were O/S2, Windows NT, Solaris about the same share of usage.

XP and Vista are structured with places where virus can hide. Alternative Data Stream Metafile Structure and System Volume Information Directory were not initially designed for such usage, but they have in fact become favourite spaces for ad ware, key logger, malware and virus to hide and wait for certain amount of time.

Problem with O/S2 and Windows NT was that I have received complaints from eBay, PayPal and an online banking institution that they no longer supported my old Netscape 4.7 or Mozilla 1.0 on these platforms. Sun Solaris 10, Suse Linux 11 with Mozilla 3 are just fine and seem to resolve JAVA scripts better than Windows. Neither there are infamous XP-Acrobat stall not even once on these OS. Well enough, JAVA is designed for Unix platform to begin with. Browser and plug-in development seems to be no slower on these Unix like OS due to open source nature. Sometime even faster than Windows these days. Programme porting is voluntarily performed by student of many Universities world-wide for Linux and Solaris. They are designed to be people’s OS. Of cause it does not apply to OS like SCO Unix tends to be 3 years behind. Learning Unix or Linux does not hurt.

If you install XP on FAT32 partition and disable hard disk write back cache, then you are more likely to find presence of malware and virus activity because you hear the hard disk activity not in sync with your modem light or application programme data demands. NTFS is a journaled file system derived from O/S2 whose disk write may not occur for a long periods of time. Later version of O/S2 uses more efficient and highly secure inodes based Unix like file system designed by IBM

Today, AntiVirus programme like Avast can competitively find presence of virus in time before it gets into memory. Avast virus database is updated everyday lately

Pinecloud

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