The Good, Bad, and Indifferent About SP-2/Internet Security

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INDIFFERENT ABOUT SP-2 AND SECURITY

First With Regards to Norton:

I know that Norton is a system hog. It gets hungry and eats memory, probably more than we would like it to. My free memory resources range from about 25%-55% depending on the appications that I am using. I have 512 megs of Ram, a 3 gig processor, and 80 gibabyte hard drive. My boot up is pretty fast, Way faster than my old Windows 98!

I will probably keep renewing my Internet Security til I can't anymore. Than I can decide to whether to keep or dump Norton. I want to say a couple of things:

1.) There is no one size fits all and there are pros and cons to every OS, hardware, software, security program. Look at the polarized opionions that have been generated with SP-2 as a whole.

2) I think that it is great that Microsoft has indeed added some security features to SP-2. You got your firewall, your pop-up blocker. OK fine. I will go a step further and say that because Jane and Joe six-pack who own a computer just turn on their systems, think everything is automatic, and don't update or maintain them, I can see where SP-2 can be helpful BUT: (AND HERE IS WHERE PEOPLE ARE GONNA DISAGREE WITH ME)

If I have a good updated virus protection program, If I have a quality firewall protection and if I have a pop-up blocker, I am waiting for the evidence that says SP-2 WILL PROTECT ME BETTER THAN THE UPDATED SECOND AND THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE VENDERS THAT I ALREADY HAVE ON MY COMPUTER. Sure, if you don't have these security things, SP-2 can help you, but if you already have them, I just don't see any evidence that SP-2 is gonna make your computer run faster or more secure.

Right now, that's my apprehension with SP-2. Kudos to all of you that are running it with no problems! That's great! But, with this upgrade let's look at exactly what we are getting:

A POP UP BLOCKER: You can already get that from Norton IS. If you don't want that many system resources used, you can get one through Google or Yahoo's toolbar companion with system resources at next to nothing.

A NEW FIREWALL: Well again if you have Norton or Macafee, or Black Ice you already have your firewall. SP-2 even recommends keeping your existing second and third party firewall instead of using its own.

THE SECURITY CENTER: I really don't know what this is or does. It seems to be little more than a reminder of what applications you are running on your computer and if you need to update them. (Based on several users that I talked to.) People tell me it's a cool interface, but how exactly is it protecting you?

LET'S LOOK AT WHAT YOU DON'T GET IN WINDOWS XP SP-2 (at least not yet.)

ANTI-VIRUS PROTECTION: Microsoft is coming out with Anti-Virus software of its own later this year. There are so many choices in Virus protection! You have AVG which is free, you have McAfee, you have Norton

SPAM GUARD: TWO OF THE BEST PROGRAMS Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware are free and do a FANTASTIC job at removing the nasties from your system.

If you have all of these things and take care of your computer, I just don't think you need SP-2. Yea, if it gets to the point that you have virus protection built in and spamguard. Than you could REALLY have something here. But right now, all I see is a 75-200megabyte update for a firewall that you are asked to disable and a pop-up blocker. All of these things are already taken care of by the proper update of third-party programs. Anyway, just my opinion.

Jack