which firewall for a 87 old?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MightyKitten
  • Start date Start date
My granny (87!) goes internet.
The provider gave a cablemodem without a decent firewall,
so I will have to instal one on her computer

I want the firewall to be compleetly invisible for het while doing its work.
This means it should not bother her with'information, alerts and such. it
should just do its work and be quiet.

Though I want the best firewall for her, i will trade of some secuity for
absolute silence. This is very essential, as she does not know any english,
it not interested in the technique behind it at all and just van to email
her sister in canada, look at the website of us grandkids, and chat though
MSN messenger.

It also has to allow a couple of tcp ports to be opened (needed for remote
support)

I have thought of Zonealarm and Kerio but I don't know who is the most
quiet. But maybe there is another firewall who fits my needs.

MightyKitten
Click to expand...

I don't think she needs a firewall. Just teach her not to click on
anything suspicious, not to hit "OK" to everything and click on the x
button on popups, or the cancel button if no x... not to open
attachments until she contacts who sent it, and so on for other stuff.
You can set some safety instructions next to the computer. Oh, and
don't have her use anything Microsoft. Linux would be good for her.

Practice safe hex.
 
I must say I've also considered FireFox and Mozilla for e-mail and browser,
but she had senior computer lessons with outlook express and IE. Since
changing these things can become quite confusing, I'd rather leave her with
the microsoft applications. It is something she is a bit familliar with
(quite important on that age :-) )
Click to expand...

Ugh... they even send the microsoft lawyers to terrorize seniors!
(just kidding... was remembering some star trek short story where the
captain Picard grimaces with pity as the Borg get attacked by Microsoft
lawyers)
 
Linux would be good for her.

Possibly a live CD version of Linux. I've tried a few and they are
amazing. Put in the CD, push the on switch, after the screen comes up
click on the browser, bam your on the Internet. Nothing to configure.
Try a few, some work better than others on specific hardware. My
favorite is PCLinux.
 
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