Linux substitute for Zonelabs and Spybot?
 

On WinXP, I rely (too heavily) on Zonelabs, Spybot and Norton Antivirus to help keep the machine and software secure and running okay.

What's a comparable package of software and/or strategy in Linux. I don't want the machine to be too vulnerable during my *steep* learning curve.

Linux uses IPTables as it's firewall, there are many frontends to this - GuardDog, Smoothwall and Firestarter are very popular and easy to configure.

There are both free and commercial anti-virus packages for Linux - F-Prot and Clam Antivirus are 2 which spring to mind. Linux is much less prone to virus infection than Windows (there are only a small handful of viruses for Linux).

Asfar as Spyware goes, I don't think that there is any syware for Linux or anti-spyware tools. Mozilla and Galeon both have anti popup options inbuilt.

The most basic info I can give you is "do not login as root". Most viruses need to have the installation rights provided by the root account. If you only log in as a normal user, those install rights will not be there.

Also, if you are interested, go to the Linux-Security forum and read unSpawn's Howto - I think it is the second one down.

Ya, if you want to be secure there are some steps you can take..

First off, don't run telnet, or any other network servers that you don't need or that aren't secure.

When you download a package to install check the MD5 sums to make sure they match what they are suppose to befor you install it as root.

Install each daemon in a seperate user (not root). For example, if you run apache install apache with the user apache in it's own group. If you install proftpd install that with user proftpd and it's own group. This way if there is a security leak in apache they can't use it to get root access to your machine, or screw up proftpd as well.

Never run anything your not sure about as the root user. If you are not a root user you can't take the system down, you won't have the permissions to do so.

http://firestarter.sourceforge.net would be the gui equivalent of zonelabs