danielowen.com

This came out of a discussion on the NLUG list about making sure that Windows boxes are not infected with malware. This goes beyond that and tries to look at what technologies are out there to protect and monitor your machines. It is somewhat Windows centered but the concepts are the same for any OS (OS X, Linux, *BSD etc). I’ll throw in here my regular comment about OS security. All operating systems have bugs. Some have less than others but any OS must be regularly patched or you will be vulnerable.

This is aimed toward the business market but many of the concepts still hold true for the home user.

Much like much of what is called "safe sex" would be more accurately called safer sex, I will call this safer computing.

This is in some sort of order but I will not promise order of importance because it is all important.

The intention of the guide is to give a quick and easy to read guide to the pros and cons of three different approached to firewalling your home or small office. This is far from a complete guide but it will get you started in the right direction to figure out exactly what you need in order to protect yourself. This particular guide comes out of my desire to provide a quick and easy comparison for a friend who had a small business and was trying to decide what to use for protection. If you are looking for specific reviews of products I recommend the Home PC Firewall Guide.