How to secure Windows XP, by Computeruser.

Part Three.

(13) Get a sniffer/logger (CommView, Ethereal, LinkLogger, WallWatcher, etc, etc.) and start to understand the traffic knocking at your door. Maybe someone you know well is trying to hack into your system.

(14) Email: Find and install PC Magazine's MailCall. This is a little daemon that sits in the system tray checking for mail. With it, you can see headers and view the text portion of email on the server before popping it down to your email application.

If you don't understand the email or it looks like one of the obviously social engineered virus/trojans going around, delete it from the server and don't download it. Make sure your Anti-Virus application is configured to check inbound and outbound email, and inbound and outbound diskettes. Do not open any suspicious email or attachment.

(15) Remote Access: Turn it off unless you need it, and unless you are really certain about your passwords and other security. You can only really secure remote access to your PC with a VPN connection. Any freely available internet connection is inherently less secure.

I turned off my home PC from remote access even though it would be nice when I am away from home. Someday I will put in a VPN connection, but VPN boxes that can stay up with dynamic IP's are still a bit expensive for home use.

(16) Licensing: Five years of Linux support is more costly than a Windows XP Pro license (especially if OEM'd on a new computer). My point here is not the Linux debate, but rather that you should purchase, license, register and activate XP Pro.

Then you can apply any and all security fixes and service packs. If and when a future service pack for XP makes my system a terminal server that is permanently tied to Microsoft, I will deal with that then. That is not today's reality, troubling as it is.

I think I have covered most of the basics. Cheers.

Computeruser is an Independant computer consultant operating out of Toronto.

He is a long time and respected contributer to Astalavista.net, where this article first appeared.

Securing XP - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |