Rodent Regatta

Some of you have asked me what I’m doing about security of my own PC’s and networks. First, I use Norton’s Antivirus products. For servers, you have to use their Corporate Edition. I prefer Norton’s products to those of McAfee for pure virus protection.

Second, my networks sit behind a firewall. I currently run Microsoft Windows Server 2000, but I’ll be upgrading to Windows Server 2003 fairly soon. PC’s run Windows XP Professional. All versions of Windows have all service packs, critical updates and recommended updates installed.

Third, I use Google’s toolbar 2.0 to block all popup ads while browsing the Internet.

Fourth, I recently switched to Ella for managing spam at PC’s. Ella trains on the front end by having you point to 10 or 15 examples of spam, 10 or 15 examples of ”newsletter” emails that you want, but you want to read later and 10 to 15 examples of normal, safe Inbox email. I’ve been impressed with the way it works so far.

I run Microsoft Office 2003 (beta) and Ella is working fine with it.

Finally, I have an array of backup procedures. Most are automated. Several are ad hoc backups that I run to CD’s periodically. Veritas Backup Exec is my preferred method for tape backups.