Am I really crazy for not running an AV or Firewall program?

I have been recently told that I am crazy because I don't run any type of Firewall or AV product. No please read on so you know why at least. I am on dial-up, or I should say slooow dial-up. I connect at a maximum of 26.4kbps (Pair-gain phone lines). I am also an online gamer. I play WoW, SWG, EQ, EQ2, Shadowbane and Horizons. The problem that I is the way AV and firewall products interact with my gaming. I have tried a bunch of products, all free, since I don't want to spend the money to find out that yet another program doesn't work well with my games, and they all cause issues. The problems they cause make the games that I play basically unplayable, untill I uninstall said security programs. Issues include lag, lock-ups and disconnections from the servers. This doesn't happen when I don't have any type of security program running. Just disabling them doesn't help, especially with firewalls since they seem to just make things work when disabled.

Now, I have been pretty much firewall and Av free for 3 years and in that time, all my AV scans using Bitdefender's online scanner have come up clean. The 3 spyware products I use each week only come up with tracking cookies and nothing more. my wife and I don't go to suspicious sites, we don't download programs that haven't been researched by one of use before hand and we delete any suspicious e-mails. I feel that we do a good job and are aware of the threats and avoid them. Most of the remote services are disabled, save for RPC and remote access connection manager (since that allows me to connect using dial-up). I am all patched up with microsoft updates, save for one which is a known dial-up breaker.

If there was a product that didn't cause issues with my games, I would be using it, but I have yet to find one. Maybe it's because my connection is so slow, so the slow down caused by these programs is more noticeable. I don't know the reason why and I have configured the Firewalls the way the games want them and it does no good.

So am I crazy or what?

 

if I were you,I wouldn't worry too much about not having a firewall either, but I would have a antivirus (just in case).

If you are the only user of a computer (on dialup) and your smart about your btowsing and downloading, you may never get a virus, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

BUT-If I were you I would get a antivirus progrram like Avast/Avg (both can bet downloaded for free) because (and I don't know if you ever have had a virus in your past) they are not very fun, some don't let you even use your btowser, install programs, and stuff like that. So if you have anything important on your computer; Get a antivirus program of some sort.


just to be safe and smart.


later.

 

I do have AVG installed, it's just not enabled. Again, with the lag and disconnect issues, I disabled it.

I'm not the only user, as my wife also uses the computer, but she is just as careful as I am. So I don't have to worry about her when she is on the computer.

I will enable Avast again and see how it goes.

 

If it works for you both, then forget what others advise.
Your practices are a lot better than their theory.
Only thing I would advise is to run your PC housekkeping program after every session on the Net, rather than weekly as you apparently do, at the moment.

If you pick up a nasty, it will be detected earlier, assuming you use your PC more than once a week, of course. Bazza

PS: A little bit of experience is better than a lot of theory. Baz
===

 

yes i believe you are crazy.
i do not have any anti-virus programs but i do have anti-spyware, 3 or 4 of them, and i use them all. i also have a router (linksys) with a built-in hardware firewall and a software firewall (zone alarm free).
i have had my connection since october of last year and of this date i have had only 2 trojans. one was installed with a commercial product the other came from a crack site. the one from the crack site drove my firewall crazy, i couldn't believe there were so many programs that could request internet service.
anyway i got rid of both of them.
without a firewall you are playing russian roulette with your personal data.

 

Hey, that's pretty funny; leopold99 admits he visited a "crack" site, which infected and attacked his system, but he thinks YOU'RE crazy...

I don't have a problem with what you're doing; a knowledgeable user with a slow dial-up connection is MUCH safer than ANYONE who knowingly visits crack sites. You're not much of a target, because you have such a low profile. As a general rule, only the people who play with snakes get bitten, so you're probably a LOT safer than the type of folks who visit crack sites...

 

if ur pc works fine and does the job for u, then u have nothing to worry about, however there will always be secret intrusions on your computer from trojan ports and hackers if ur not using a good firewall program, so users with ur current set-up wont enjoy a eternity of stable system. A good AV however heals virus infection without having to re-format ur pc same with anti spyware, deleting spywares. many gamers really find these programs lag with their playtime so many skip AV's and firewalls but some run anti spyware manually when not playing, but if ur willing to upgrade (hardware modification) your system to a level wherein ur pc can accomodate these programs without hindering your game time, then why not.

 

HALO wrote :

What is that mean ???

I am using P2P for two years and never catch anything.....

Downloading T.V

 

HALO

Where i live it's legal to use P2P (CANADA). Even copyright material you can download all you want even music, software,and others.

But there is a copyright bill that is coming Bill C-60 that will change all that
so for now i continue to download T.V only no software or music.

I uses emule 47a.

I think in the U.K you can't NOT do that and in the U.S.A and others country...

So when this bill will pass i will STOP downloading..... in a few weeks...

Hope this clear everything

 

I can tell you that my hardware is not the problem. It's my connection that they ruin while playing my games. This is my rig as it stands:

P4 2.4ghz processor
1024mbs of PC2700 DDR Ram
Geforce 6600GT 128mb Video card
Soundblaster Live! 24-bit Soundcard
US Robotics 5610b hardware modem

My hardware isn't the problem, its the AV and firewall doing whatever they do with teh packets being sent and received that's the issue. Not much I can do about my connection as broadband isn't available here and the phone company (Verizon), will not take me off the pair-gain as they say that's the reason I am even able to connect, so I should consdier myself lucky.


Halo, I have installed Spyware blaster, but my wife is alrady pitching a fit, Apparently on some of her picture taking sites, Fujimugs, Outdoor Eyes and the like aren't remembering her passwords. I should say, our computer isn't remembering them since installing Spyware Blaster.

 

My wife does, yes. Not so much anymore though. Her Fuji Finepix 3800 doesn;t work well anymore and this past Febuary with our tax refunds, she bought a Konica Minolta which is supposed to be better Problem is, there isn't really a true manual focus mode, so it's always going in and out of focus as the camera moves ever so slightly. So she has been hesitant on taking pictures, unless it's the kids at a sports function or something.

She has been thinking about selling it on Ebay and using the money that she gets and buying another Finepix 3800 or one that I found for her, a Fuji Finepix S5200. It looks a little better then the 3800.

If you want, you can check out the pictures she takes on picture trail. I am going to IM you with the link as I am leary about everyone having that link as her pictures have been used before without her permission.

As for SpywareBlaster, no worries on that. I am still using it and see if maybe it was just a glitch or something.

edit: forgot to mention, I do use CCleaner, but I have the option for cookies disabled as far as I know.