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Stop Christmas-Gift PCs From Feeding Worms

Posted by timothy on from the cognitive-dissonance dept.

An Anonymous Reader writes "If you recently set up a new PC with Windows XP, or if you had the pleasure to do a 'reinstall from scratch,' you probably found that many XP systems as they are shipped today are not patched against common issues like Blaster. Given that these worms are still going strong, it doesn't take long for a new system to be infected. In particular, if you have to connect it to the Internet to download all the patches. Well, help is in sight. The SANS Institute released a paper entitled Windows XP: Surviving the First Day." (Read on below.) Update: 12/24 17:59 GMT by T : Thanks for reader Bill Curnow for the updated link. Update: 12/24 19:15 GMT by T : Besides the workaround suggested below, Roblimo has a good suggestion on avoiding the first-day-of-Windows altogether.

"With many screen shots, it will walk you through the procedure to enable the XP firewall and downloading the patches without getting infected while doing so. This could be the (free) stocking stuffer that may save Christmas for your folks ;-). Given that its probably to late now to start downloading your favorite Linux distro."

But if you do have the time and bandwidth, and you're stuck on Windows, a nice live-CD distro like Knoppix or Mepis means you can download patches without racing the worms, and install your patches while offline. (And if you have time to download 50MB, you have time to grab Damn Small Linux.)

2 of 416 comments (clear)

  1. I feel for the home user... by aml666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My systems are behind a Hardware Proxy and a software firewall. I feel safe and have not been compromised... yet.

    Those poor home users who are not technically savvy are pretty screwed. They won't be able to figure out *nix and don't want to pay the bucks for Apple.

    Microsoft should offer (no not MSN) a method for new Windows machines to dial direct for patches before connecting to the Internet.

    This method should be over ridable for the safer crowd.

    --
    www.thejulingtoncreekplantaion.com
  2. The Best Christmas Present by teamhasnoi · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You can give someone is a Mac. Mom got one a while ago, and I have made two troubleshooting calls. One was due to my Dyn-dns client I had installed to reach the box ( the mac hadn't been on for a bout a month), and the other was when I got an email saying, "I can't send email". Classic.

    Compare that to a godawful dialup VNC session on a home shopping network XP box where I needed to fix blaster and the person didn't know how to get to system settings.

    I sold a mac that day with "Guess what, buy a mac and you will never have to deal with this again."

    (and I won't either, to myself) That's why it is the best Christmas present you can give yourself, if you are the designated "computer-guy". Not having to deal with other people's XP is worth its weight in Half-Life Gold, Al Franken, and Myth II: Soulblighter.