Windows Me

Hi. Could someone tell me which Firewall (free edition) i could use before getting broadband as my computer is rather old, Windows Me and i cant seem to see anyone recommended that would apply to Windows Me.
Thank you

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is intended to protect personal computers with the
following operating systems:
Windows 98 SE
Windows ME
Windows NT Workstation SP6a
Windows 2000 Professional SP4 + Security Rollup Pack
Windows XP Professional SP2
Windows XP Home SP2
Windows Vista

My mistake Avg free does not include the firewall.

See here for example:

[broken link removed]

You should also see about configuring/enabling any firewall built into the router that you get from your ISP. If you don't know how to do this then get assistance from somebody with the necessary expertise.

To be honest I would not continue to run Windows Me since it is no longer supported and no (?) security or other updates are issued for it any longer as far as I know. This (and its slowness on the old low spec PC in question - Pentium II 350MHz) was one of the reasons I recently reinstalled my mother's PC with Xubuntu which is more than enough for her needs (web browser, basic office capabilities, digital camera connectivity etc.) and runs like a dream.

Xubuntu is Linux and has a much steeper learning curve than running XP so it may not be that suitable. Regardless of how easy it is to use when its running right and has been installed. For example ClubMan mother didn't install it herself.

But Windows Me is no longer supported by secuirty patches so is insecure, worring about the firewall is only part of the problem. As ClubMan says a hardware firewall is a good option. Though you really need a better OS.

aircobra19 said:

Xubuntu is Linux and has a much steeper learning curve than running XP so it may not be that suitable. Regardless of how easy it is to use when its running right and has been installed. For example ClubMan mother didn't install it herself.

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In my opinion anybody who can install Windows can probably just as easily install [X]Ubuntu. In fact the Windows installer asks more questions and needs more input as far as I recall. In any case people can try it out by downloading and burning a live bootable CD and booting off that without changing anything on their PC.

We'll agree to disagree. I never had much fun installing linux. Usually theres something fails to pickup, display adapater, wide screen screen res, wifi etc. Then you have to drop down into linux to reconfig it, or find the right driver etc.

aircobra19 said:

We'll agree to disagree. I never had much fun installing linux. Usually theres something fails to pickup, display adapater, wide screen screen res, wifi etc. Then you have to drop down into linux to reconfig it, or find the right driver etc.

Click to expand...

Maybe true in the old days (I remember having problems installing Debian one time). Installing ubuntu and its variants is a breeze, and they're easy to use too.

I agree with michaelm - I reckon that many people could benefit from continuing to use their old hardware with something like Ubuntu rather than running out to buy a new high spec machine just to run the likes of Vista. At the very least it's another option and one that I personally am using for myself and some others that I deal with.

michaelm said:

Maybe true in the old days (I remember having problems installing Debian one time). Installing ubuntu and its variants is a breeze, and they're easy to use too.

Click to expand...

Only last year one our college tutors tried to impress on us how easy it was to set up and got everyone in the class to instal Mandrake and [SIZE=-1]Fedora on about 20 laptops and desktops in the class. Only a handful had no problems. For me it was the WiFi card on a Vaio and the WiFi, GMA950 and bluetooth on some Dells.

[/SIZE]XP when tweaked runs justs aswell on a low end PC. Any Modern GUI system is pretty demanding on Hardware, be it OS X, Linux or XP. I dunno about Vista I'm still working out what I can turn off on the machine I have that installed on. However if you are getting [SIZE=-1]technophobs and non-IT literate users to setup Linux, and maintain it themselves I take my hat off. I run into enough Linux problems myself. [/SIZE]

Thank you all very much for your advice.