home network security

 just another thing the xp machine has the usual plethora of apps (hence the little resources) for security, I just figured that with linux boxes sharing the local network I didn't worry nearly as much about a virus or worm, since they shouldn't able to replicate and infect the windows box. if I had other win machines on the net, I would have installed something, but it's an old k6. plus, though it's used for e-mail checking, it's understood the perils of opening unknown e-mail, plus I have nod 32 on the system, ad-aware, spybot, hijack this,...I let the router's firewall handle that part of the security, it does have a firewall.

In truth yes and no!
Any computer connected to the internet is vulnerable. From what I gather you have 3 pc's connected via the router. So basically you have three internet facing machines. The Linksys firewall will make things difficult as  long as you have set it up correctly. As for the 2 linux boxes they are fairly bullet proof to windows attacks (if using wine maybe install clamav) The windows box is your weak link so to speak. I would seriously recommend you remove any apps that are no longer needed from add and remove software. Check your msconfig to see what programs are starting at boot ( http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html ) but at least make sure the updates are current and the windows firewall is too. Then head here and read this http://www.auditmypc.com/free-firewalls.asp That should make you as safe as possible without adding any other programs. As for the safty of the xp box this will depend on how visible it is to the internet. So make sure you have your router setup correctly. Then all you need to do is explain to your wife that WindowsXP end of life is approaching and once the updates stop you'll need to rethink it's use.
Hope that helps.
Tux :D

 Thanks Tux,

  The router is set up correctly, the problem lies in that the xp machine had comodo, but it was just way too sluggish, and like a fool I left the xp internal firewall off this was only for about two hours, as I went through startup and shut down all the unnecessary entries in startup and tracked down all the running processes. As anyone remembers me from the old Vir@s site, I am pretty much a nut when it comes to security.  It's just that I have relaxed so much since leaving windows when microsoft dropped support for 98. Nod32 is pretty much the best antivirus I have run across, and it's light on the resources, stops eicar test files in it's tracks, you have to shut it down to download a zip and hide it. the spyware apps don't run in the background.  and as far as my linux boxes are concerned, since I don't actually communicate with the xp box via the other computers nor sharing any files, I haven't used an AV on them since 10.1. 

  I am worried that during that period when the XP box was without a firewall,  a remote host who was connected to my linux computer could "see" the vulnarable XP system. Unfortunately, I checked the linksys firmware afterword and it seems that it had been outdated for at least a year and if I remember correctly there was once a flash vulnarabilty which allowed an attacker to get a hold of a router, maybe I am mistaken. anyway I updated the firmware (anyone have to go through that hideous cisco systems registration? talk about an invasion of privacy!)

well the xp box now has zonealarm on it, seems to be lighter than comodo and it seems the culprits for the sluggishness was comodo in conjuction with apple software updater ,adobe updater, MySql (this one had me worried, having port 80 visable when another pc was surfing the net) plus  temp files taking up a good 17% of the 10gb hard drive. (gives you an idea of how ancient this thing is when my linux box is close to a terabyte.) I also used sophos rookit app and rootkit revealer, plust zonealarm's antispyware, ad-aware, spybot and Nod32 scanners all showed a clean system.  The registry is also cleaned out of old apps which have been uninstalled, but it's been a long time since I have had to root around looking for the odd registry key.

 I guess it's the old microsoft paranoia creeping in, back in the day, whenever I had a doubt I would backup my important files and reinstall, and with 98 that was pretty painless, I never trusted apps to "clean" a system just hopefully prevent drive-bys and such. I shudder to think of having to reinstall xp on this thing, I don't want to spend the better part of a day doing that and then setting it up just the way she had it.  I love Linux, keep it updated and pretty much no worries, as long as your not an inexperienced user running your first server.

I would say you are fairly safe as long as you keep the machine behind the linksys.  Seems that the chances of someone writing a virus/worm that effects linux machines just to sniff the network for an open windows machine is very low.

Another option for you might be to install XP to a virtual machine for your wife to use.

Hmm... Unprotected XP box? Sorta a redundancy. I understand there are these pop up adds that will fix that for you. At the same time you can improve your relationships and be able to buy pharmaceuticals direct at discount prices. With all the things you can gain, why does anyone worry about protection?

Plus you can play a part in the cure for poverty by being part of a distributed computing environment that allows many deserving Sub-humans to earn a meager living. Yes, keep these folks off the street and on the Internet. Virtual muggings are a lot less painfull.