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Sheila asked me several questions in a PM that I thought I would share here along with my answers for everyone's benefit:

[quote="Sheila"]

I wanted to tell you I made a limited account to surf the web, not that I'm using it now Rolling Eyes

.

A couple of questions...

When I go into safe mode; Do I use the Administrator account or my Owner/Administrator Account , when I defrag or scan?

Use the Administrator account.

As far as my firewall...Can I disable ICMP ...I think those are the correct letters. I was reading a post Samantha put up about disabling this.

If you have a router, you can disable ICMP in the router firewall. I have been unsuccessful in disabling it in Windows firewall, perhaps because I have a network and have File and Print Sharing enabled. Here’s what you can try in Windows Firewall since you are still using it until you get a router:

1. Open Windows Firewall (Right-click on the Security Center Shield in your system tray and select Open Security Center.
2. On the General Tab, check “Don’t allow Exceptions.” This could cause some programs not to run correctly, or it may not bother you at all. To check it, do what you normally do and see if things are all working ok and you can still access sites that you normally access and do the same things there. If so, check to see whether ICMP has been disabled by going to the following site:
a. http://www.grc.com
b. Click on ShieldsUP! on the webpage that appears.
c. Scroll down the next page that appears until you see a link that says “ShieldsUP!” (about ½ way down under the title Hot Spots) and select that link.
d. On the page that appears, scroll down slowly until you see a button in the middle of the page named “Proceed.” Click on that button.
e. A page will appear with a blue panel on it labeled “ShieldsUP! Services.” Select the button that says “All Service Ports.” The test will begin and will take a minute or 2 to complete.
f. When the test is complete, you should see a bunch of green squares in a large block on your screen. If they are not all green, then you have a potential vulnerability. You should also receive the following message:

“Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet.”

This message tells you that your system did not respond to Pings. If it does not tell you that, then your system ICMP is not disabled.

If the above fails, then there are a couple of other things you can try short of buying a router, but I doubt they will work since they didn’t on my computer. That would be to deselect ICMP if checked in the lists under the Advanced tab in 2 places:

1. Under ICMP > Settings Button (if it will let you, which I haven’t been able to do).
2. Under Network Connection Settings >Settings Button.

I don’t hold much hope for the above working, but you can try it, and then rerun the test at grc.com and see what the test tells you. The best thing for you to do is to go and get a router/firewall and install it. If you get a Linksys router/firewall, here are the instructions for disabling the ICMP protocol:

1. Login to your router, go to Setup, look for Port Forwarding, and you should see a table with one or more protocols listed.
2. ICMP should be listed as one of the protocols, and there should be a button to “Disable” it.
3. Click the Disable button and then click Apply to make the Disable take affect. Now, your computer will not respond to ICMP pings from any source.

I still have windows but want to install Zone Alarm. I'm a little unsure on how to go do this. I don't know what to enable or disable.

Install ZoneAlarm, update it immediately and go through the instructions for the initial settings. Then, turn off Windows Firewall. I don’t remember if there is a way to disable ICMP in ZoneAlarm Free, or if it comes set that way as a default. Again, the best defense is to have a layered defense of software and hardware firewalls. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security with just a software firewall. Get that router today and disable the ICMP protocol in it!

One more question How do I get my favorites to my limited account?

1. Log into your Owner account.
2. Click on My Computer and select the following path:

C:\documents and settings\”your Owner account username”\Favorites

3. Click on the “Favorites” folder to open it. Hover your cursor over the first item in the folder to highlight it. Then, while pressing down the Shift Key, scroll down the page to the last item and place your cursor over it. The entire list should now be highlighted.
4. With your cursor still on the last highlighted item, release the Shift Key and right-click your mouse and select “Copy” from the popup menu that appears.
5. Now, click on My Computer and select the following path:
C:\documents and settings\”your Limited User account username”\Favorites

6. Right-click on the “Favorites” folder and select “Paste” from the popup menu that appears. Reply “Yes” to any popup window that appears asking you if you want to overwrite a file or folder with the same name as the file or folder being copied into Favorites.

Your favorites from your Owner account are now copied into your Limited User account.

Hope all this helps.
_________________
Repa

Older than dirt!