[coolbrain]

Hi! everyone.Im a noobie with linux.(oh! no not a noob )and Im trying to find out what would be the safest live cd,or install for credit card transactions,paypal transactions.Im trying to find out if its safer just to run a live cd without an Os on my harddrive,or is it safer to install a linux distro?What would be the safest way for a noob to accommplish this task?I have a dlink router with firewall if that helps?Just need some very good advice to save my butt.

Thanks!

[jiml8]

If you run a CD, you can't save any information. If you do configure a hard drive partition to let you save info, then your data is no safer than the host operating system makes it.

[coolbrain]

Is there a live cd that you recommend that has strong security,yet user friendly?Ive got a couple of live cd`s allready example: Knoppix,mandrake,mepis,and Anonym.There is so many distro`s,but I`m not a linux expert to distinguish which distro is tight on security,firewall ect.?I did a google search and I have spent hours,and hours on research,but I cant find anything concrete to help me decide.I also read that with the live cd with no Os on the harddrive that you have to configure the internet firewall,so I tried with goole to find how to properly configure a live cd firewall for net surfing.

[jiml8]

Why do you keep insisting on a live CD? Any Linux distro can be made very, very secure. But with a live CD, you can't save any data on your HD; the live CD is specifically intended to NOT write to any hard drives in your system. Even if you set up a firewall on a live CD, the setup will not survive a reboot; you will have to set it up again the next time you boot.

For what you want to do, if I understand you correctly, you want to install a linux distro on your HD and just run it. Then you can secure it to your heart's content. The security in any Linux distro is far, far greater than that of Windows; there is no difference distro to distro because the security is implemented at the kernel level - as is the iptables firewall facility.

[coolbrain]

Insisting?no,just confused thats all.All I want to do is recieve money into paypal,credit card,check important emails.Online business.I didnt want to have to worry about spyware,viruses.trojans, finding there way into the harddrive and comprimizing my info on the harddrive.I thought I could use the live cd to check email,check credit card,check paypal,when money is recieved,or paying for something.Thats why im a little worried.I have a windows xp machine,but thats another security story.im not an expert on how to properly configure a linux distro for the net.

[dpak]

If you're going to be running a webserver, I'd recommend paying someone else (a hosting company) to host the website. If you go with one of the better companies, your data will be much more secure than if you're new to Linux and try to set it up yourself.

If you're not running a webserver or another type of internet server, and all you want to do is use a webbrowser and check your email, you can pretty much pick any of the Linux distributions (Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, etc.) and they will be secure enough for what you need. There are hardly any viruses or spyware packages for Linux, so just using Linux will (for the most part) protect you from that kind of stuff.