Virtual PC - Firewall - Virus Protection

[grrr223]

I am looking for other's opinions on how to protect my Windows XP Virtual PC 6.1 installation.

I currently am using Virtual PC to connect to my company's VPN through "Shared Networking" and I was wondering what is actually necessary to protect Windows from the outside world.

Anti-virus
It looks like it makes sense to install virus software in Windows as any Mac anti-virus software wouldn't see any of those files.

Firewall
Does the Firewall in Panther protect my Virtual PC installation because I'm using Shared Networking? Would there be any benefit to using a firewall in Windows also? Are there any specific ports I need to open up to allow my vpn to continue to connect?

Thanks.

[AHunter3]

1) Backup your VPC virtual hard drive OFTEN. In fact, if you keep it up and running a good portion of the time, keep something akin to a week's worth of independent backups (Backup of Monday, Backup of Tuesday, etc) plus two months' worth of Mondays. You won't always know right away when you've been hit, and being able to do a simple rollback beats hell out of trying to bash a PC virus into submission. Those things range from nasty and mean to downright end-of-life-as-we-know-it destructive.

2) Yes, you need PC antivirus. And you need to keep it current. And you need to remember that shared folders (i.e., pieces of your Macintosh universe) are vulnerable to PC virus assaults, although your MacOS is safe unless you share root or /System or /Library. And you need to keep in mind that tomorrow's lethal virus won't be stopped by today's PC virus software, therefore the suggestion of 1) above.

3) I would think that the firewall used by MacOS X should filter/protect the entire VPC environment, insofar as it is just another process sharing the MacOS X network connection. Nevertheless, you may wish to experiment with a PC environment firewall (especially if you're running a MS OS system that comes with one built in) to see if the overhead trammels your performance badly. If not, you might as well run it, can't hurt.

[sparvey]

so what antivirus? i just installed vpc, and tried to put norton av on it, and it wouldn't download, symantec told me they don't support their product in emulations? so which antivirus does anyone recommend?

[AHunter3]

The may not officially "support" it but most PC antivirus software packages would have no way of knowing they are being installed into an emulated environment.

[CAlvarez]

Norton is absolutely horrible. Try the free product from grisoft.com.

[chinarut]

I am looking for other's opinions on how to protect my Windows XP Virtual PC 6.1 installation.

I currently am using Virtual PC to connect to my company's VPN through "Shared Networking" and I was wondering what is actually necessary to protect Windows from the outside world.

Anti-virus
It looks like it makes sense to install virus software in Windows as any Mac anti-virus software wouldn't see any of those files.

Firewall
Does the Firewall in Panther protect my Virtual PC installation because I'm using Shared Networking? Would there be any benefit to using a firewall in Windows also? Are there any specific ports I need to open up to allow my vpn to continue to connect?


I'm looking for the answer to this question as well and found this thread.

I thought I'd post a link to this MSDN blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/09/26/473890.aspx

while the article does mention it's for the Windows version, the comments are sufficiently generic enough to apply to the Mac VPC IMHO...

Provided you are using "Sharing Networking" (as you mention through your VPN), you get as much protection (he uses the word "modicum (http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A%20modicum)...") as any NAT system can provide.

On the other had, if you are using the "Virtual Switch" feature - you definitely need a firewall as you are connecting at a lower network layer.

[themacnut]

Let me second CAlvarez's antivirus recommendation for the free AVG from Grisoft (http://free.grisoft.com). Also, I would recommend a firewall like Zone Alarm (http://www.zonelabs.com) (free version) or Window's XP's built in firewall if you're running XP.

You also might want to consider an anti-spyware app like Spybot or Ad-Aware if you do a lot of web-surfing in your VPC environment, especially if you use Internet Explorer to do that surfing.

[cwtnospam]

I don't use any antivirus on my VPC, since it isn't exactly a speed demon as it is. Instead, I only use vpc for things that I absolutely must. These would have to be "trusted" sources. Even then, I ALWAYS ask about a Mac equivalent. If there isn't one, I'm not shy about asking for one every few months. The result is that I rarely use VPC and only to go to the same one or two sites. I'm connected to the internet through a router, so that gives some protection.

I haven't had a problem yet, but if I did, I don't store any important data on the PC anyway. Honestly, I think that connecting a Windoze PC of any kind, protected or not, to the internet is just asking for trouble, so it makes sense to keep your important data elsewhere.

[styrafome]

I don't use any antivirus on VPC either, because I heard Norton didn't work and it would slow VPC down even more. I use a combination of the NAT that comes with VPC Shared Networking, and Spybot. If a virus were to strike and I caught it in time, I'd close the session without saving changes, otherwise I'd revert to an old pre-virus backup of the virtual machine