during a simming session?This was raised in another thread but no clear answer was provided. I confess this is an area I'm very unsure about and would like some definitive advice.Up to December last year I was on Dialup and before starting each simming session I used EnditAll and disabled Norton A/V. Norton Personal Firewall continued to run and I encountered no attacks from outside. Perhaps I have been lucky but this approach was used over several years without any problems. I know, I know, just because it hasn't happened in the past does not necessarily mean it could not happen in the future.Now, my situation is a little different. I'm now 'Broadbanded' and it's luverly :) Before Ken Salter's brilliant FSAutostart I continued to use EnditAll, disabled Norton A/V and no problems. I've now started to use FSAutostart routinely but have been careful to ensure that a firewall is in place all the time as Broadband is an 'always on connection' and potentially is far more vulnerable to attack. I access the Internet via BT's Home Network 1200 Router and this has a built in 'industrial/professional strength' firewall which protects both mine and my wife's computer from outside intrusion.It was suggested that the act of periodically downloading weather data during a simming session, where an A/V program has been disabled, could expose you to potential problems were viruses transmitted on the back of such data. I'm not sure that this is necessarily true, due to the nature of the data, but would appreciate some clarification. On the other hand the clever VPN facility that was introduced via the kneeboard recently might represent another ballgame entirely since its application is much wider. Again some clarification would be greatly appreciated.Thanks,Mike

I do. I figure I'm not installing anything while I'm simming, I'm not running any new apps, I'm not downloading anything but weather, and I'm not surfing any websites outside of avsim, vpn, etc. and I'm not opening any email, I should be safe. I immediately restart the PC after simming to get the AV running again...and I full scan every couple of weeks.I think the virus thing is a bit overhyped any way - kind of a "bowling for columbine" deal. Sure, viruses are out there - I've had a ton of them. You not going to immediatly get infected if you shut down your AV for a few hours, or even a few days - unless your on an infested network, and are sharing files or printers, or download files from sites of "uncertain character". ;)Best,sg

Personally I do also. I sit behind a hardware firewall..so I have a reasonable assumption of safety.The internet access I use during a flight sim session is to get weather. These files that are downloaded are not executables, but text files. The probability of contracting a virus from this is pretty low IMHO.Of course, nothing is 100% guarenteed. If you don't feel comfortable, then by all means leave it running.

Hi, Mike. The way I do it is run the machine lean to the minimum, by going into msconfig, using Selective Startup, disabling System.ini, Win.ini, Startup items, plus disabling non-Microsoft services under the Services tab of msconfig (this tip was kindly offered in this forum a few days back by a gentleman whose name I forgot; Thanks!).I then restart and fly. No viruses so far, plus I know that FS2004 is running all by itself (or so it seems :))

I do most of my flying online nowadays with Vatsim and keep AV/Firewall off at all times but do a full scan about twice a week.It only takes 20 mins and is worth doing. I don't believe there is any risk(or minimal risk) when you are just d/ling weather,and connected to the Vatsim servers etc.So far (fingers crossed - touch wood etc etc),in 4 years online ( not all flying),first with dial up but the last 18 months with broadband I'vehad only one virus- and that was two years ago and easily eliminatedI do take certain safeguards mainly with Email. I don't open any Email unless I know who it's from - or if I don't know the sender the Email must have a subject line that clearly indicates that it is to do with my website or something such as Avsim etc.In addition my ISP is AOL who run a pretty good antivirus watch on all Email.I do keep the AV files up to date and try to avoid going to "disreputable" site- tho the danger there isn't so much viruses as Spyware and other nasty little addons that they try to d/l to your PC.I do believe ,as said in the post above that the virus threat is often overstated and that very often , home PC users put problems down to viruses that are in fact due to other causes (see Spyware etc).There was a post, not on this forum , about the MSBlast virus a few months ago-poster saying that he had just formatted his drive ,installed Windows and found he had MSBlast straight away- before even going online - this obviously is pretty unlikely but all the publicity makes people panic and jump to conclusions which are often wrong.All that said - I think we should always be aware that the threat is out there and be careful but also be reasonable about it.Dave

Hi Najii,"using Selective Startup, disabling System.ini, Win.ini, Startup items, plus disabling non-Microsoft services under the Services tab of msconfig"......the trouble with this approach is having to restart msconfig, re-enable all the above and reboot your machine before continuing with anything else after a simming session. Mine is a general purpose PC and is not dedicated solely for the purposes of simming. And that's why I am finding Ken's solution to be so attractive :)Appreciate your input.Mike

Do yourself a favor. Hunt for the utility "enditall". I use it before my FS9 sessions, no re-booting necessary, it just shuts down all the background stuff. Anti-virus you still have to shut down manually. I of course keep my DSL alive for real weather.Lee

Actually Ken from the forums have released a utility called Fsautostart that pretty much do what enditall do.

Mike,I've been with BT Broadband for over 2 years (Internet user for 9 years) and in all that time I've never been infected by a virus of any kind and I use a freeware firewall (ZoneAlarm). I NEVER run my freeware anti-virus program (AVG) when flying -it will impose a serious performance hit.Of course I've had a couple via e-mail but my anti-virus software takes care of that. BT now checks my e-mail for further safety and as a last resort I check my mail on the server with an excellent donationware program called MailWasher before downloading it.I download weather data via FSMeteo. I believe it's currently impossible for a virus to piggy-back on text data so feel completely secure.I would also recommend EndItAll v2 to you and one final thing which significantly improves smoothness ... disable your screensaver and any any other type of power saver.Cheers,

"BT now checks my e-mail for further safety and as a last resort I check my mail on the server with an excellent donationware program called MailWasher before downloading it.I download weather data via FSMeteo. I believe it's currently impossible for a virus to piggy-back on text data so feel completely secure.I would also recommend EndItAll v2 to you and one final thing which significantly improves smoothness ... disable your screensaver and any any other type of power saver."......Hey Ray, we must be kindrid spirits! As my original post stated, I've been using EnditAll (V2 for the past year) for years. Like you I wouldn't be without MailWasher either and, again like you, I use BT's mail filtering services (including their spam filter which seems quite efficient). Some still get through, however, although can be easily got rid of using MailWasher.I routinely use MailWasher to intercept all my mail at server level. This gives me a chance to delete or bounce anything remotely suspicious before processing my mail in Outlook Express. As you know it also offers the ability, without risk, to look at any mail you're not sure of by viewing only the text content. I would recommend it too anyone.It must be well over a year since I last encountered a virus. Symantec are excellent at sending notifications about any threats.I'd prefer not to be running A/V software while FS is active and usually don't. On the occasions I have, however, I haven't noticed a significant performance hit other than during the weekly automated full system scan on Fridays at 6.00pm. Takes approx. an hour and a half for it to complete, but it's easy enough to defer to a more convenient time.Screensavers and Power Savers are all under manual control - I prefer it that way.On the subject of screensavers, have you come across Nasa's Mars Exploration Rovers screensaver? Provides images of the day from both Spirit and Opportunity - really quite cool!:-beerchugMike

Hi Mike.I disable my Norton Antivirus auto-protect and I leave my ZoneAlarm basic firewall running.I have an ADSL eithernet gateway modem which provides some additional protection from the outside world.I have no performance hit with zonealarm running but I did with the anti-virus running.To date, I have had NO viruses infect my system when using COF and Activesky to download current weather with most of my "defense" programs disabled.Of course, I guess there is always some risk when you are not using an anti-virus program or firewall with broadband internet, so just be sure that you have your critical files backed up and be sure to TURN OFF the file-sharing feature using the TCP/IP protocal, and you should be ok for the most part.Scott :-)ATP/CFII - KCOS

I agree with the others here that it is safe to disable your A/V programs while simming. I also sit behind a router and that provides a lot of security, in fact Zone Alarm on all of the PC's I have on this router have not detected a single attack since I installed the router. I would think that as long as you scan your PC for virus's at least weekly and run an anti-spyware program on a regular basis that everything will be fine. The majority of virus's are picked up via email and I am sure that you are not going to get one from downloading weather unless you are getting it from a seedy source. At first I had my doubts about disabling my A/V service as well as Zone Alarm but after a lot of investigation I found that it is perfectly safe if you are behind a hardware firewall as long as you do your weekly house keeping chores. AT one point to test my system to make sure that my thoughts were correct I had a friend try to hack my system, he is an IT security specialist and knows his stuff, and he could not touch me, at all. Over a weeks period he tried various ways to get me, he sent worms and viruses via email (ones he created or tweaked so as not to expose my system to anything dangerous)and my A/V program caught them all. His attempts to get to my computers behind the router all failed no matter what I was doing on my system at the time. That made me feel a lot more comfortable about security. As long as you keep your Windows up to date, your A/V up to date, scan your system with A/V and anti-spyware software and have a good firewall preferably hardware you should not have any problems. I will say that I am not sure about changes made to the kneeboard since I have not made any changes to it. I would say that it should be safe as long as you follow some rules as to the safety of the sites and connections you make with it while your A/V is disabled. Hope this all helped!Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

my AV software and firewall are always on, with no discernable performance hit.Just have to get the right one, which is Panda Platinum.I've tuned it to run at a lower priority, which means it won't gobble up the CPU while checking things.Stuff running in the background using files get a bit slower but that's all.

Hi Mike,Glad to hear we're on the same levels :-) On the subject of screensavers I have mixed feelings. I figure if I'm away from the screen then it doesn't matter how good the saver is - I'm not going to see it. My PC is upstairs and the telly is downstairs. If I'm not in front of the telly then I'm either at work or in front of the PC! Great life eh? :-lolStill, if you're recommending it then it's worth taking a look - thanks.Cheers,

A lot of sense spoken in this thread I think.If you were to believe the advice of various firewall/anti virus sellers, you'd think that there were 100's of hackers waiting to attack YOUR pc the moment your back is turned. That is just not true. Yes, you should have firewall/anti virus software installed (many of us buy household insurance but it is very unlikely that our homes will burn down)but it is easy to get paranoid. Yes, there are hackers out there. Yes, there are viruses (although, touch wood, I've never received one in 6 years of surfing). However, it should all be put into perspective. There's always a risk but there's a risk when you cross the road. How many of us never cross a road in case we get run over?