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Hi,
I had just started using Ubuntu after fed up from Windows due to continuous malware. I have a laptop which I use most on the hotspots. Windows is not so secure on the basis of virus protection. I had installed Ubuntu on a different partition making a dual book system. I want some information on the firewall protection, antivirus support and spyware protection on Ubuntu.
With the default installation, Ubuntu does not have any open port, which is very safe. The risk is very low. You should not need a firewall . In most of the cases Ubuntu is much secure than Windows. Here you just need to know about the proper security settings. Now the newer version of Windows are much easier to use and configure. I will not recommend a antivirus protection for single machine.
I am using Firestarter Firewall on my Linux system just in case of any unwanted incomings. Firestarter is actually a graphical interface that allows to control the integrated firewall in Linux. Firestarter is available in most Linux distributions. It is a little ZoneAlarm of Linux. It also simplifies the sharing of Internet connection by setting everything necessary for you.
When you configure Ubuntu on your system then there is no actual need of a firewall. The firewall is built into the system. There are graphical interfaces to configure, such as Firestarter or guarddog. There are other protection tools also. If you do a little research on firewall you can see the results in Synaptic. I never quite understood the usefulness of having a firewall when you say a single machine connected directly to network.
The most new improvements of Ubuntu OS is a simpler management of the firewall. It is a powerful tool to ensure the safety of a machine. It allows you to filter trade networks between your computer / server and the rest of the LAN / Internet. But the settings to the command line are not trivial without a solid knowledge of iptables. On GNU / Linux Ubuntu to configure the firewall, the FireStarter GUI was a good choice for a novice user.
Now this situation is common with a laptop. Fortunately Gufw is a graphics application available in Ubuntu 8.10. It is a wrapper for the CLI utility ufw, available soon Ubuntu 8.04. This tool allows you to easily create a rule set and applied to all interfaces. Even if they are not activated at this time. And of course, these rules are activated each time the operating system.