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Thread ID: 95546 2008-12-10 01:24:00 Good, free, No-fuss firewall. esayolay (13857) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
727264 2008-12-10 01:24:00 Preferably not comodo as it is always nagging at you about what to do
:thanks
esayolay (13857)
727265 2008-12-10 01:26:00 Preferably not comodo as it is always nagging at you about what to do
:thanks

I'm using Zone Alarm 5.9 on XP. Goes fine, not much fuss once it is setup.
rumpty (2863)
727266 2008-12-10 01:28:00 I'm using the free Windows XP or Vista one on all my machines.
Never had a problem with anything :cool:
CYaBro (73)
727267 2008-12-10 01:29:00 I'm using sygate personal firewall
Its quite old, but unlike antivirus, they don't need to be updated with definitions.
Sygate doesn't bloat the computer and it only asks you when programs attempt to access the internet.

In my experience, the XP firewall doesn't ask you if things should access the internet, it just lets them. Which is a bit useless...
utopian201 (6245)
727268 2008-12-10 01:35:00 Don't take this as professional gospel, but I don't (and never have done) use a software firewall, and I've never had a virus/spyware infection.

If you have a good A/V and spyware apps on your PC, all the firewall options enabled on your router, and maybe a virtual PC for the times when you need to find fonts, look at porn, or download *cough* apps *cough* (or perhaps do all three at the same time).

I also don't use p2p software, and I lock down any bittorrent software I'm using to restrict access to my machine.
nofam (9009)
727269 2008-12-10 01:40:00 A firewall blocks things coming in, and just as importantly, blocks things going out. A firewall is the only surefire way of blocking a trojan. Antivirus and spyware rely on heuristics and signatures and if the trojan has been smartly coded, it will get around those. But it will have to access the internet at some point, which is where your firewall comes in.

What do you mean by 'lock down' bit torrent software?
utopian201 (6245)
727270 2008-12-10 01:59:00 A firewall blocks things coming in, and just as importantly, blocks things going out. A firewall is the only surefire way of blocking a trojan. Antivirus and spyware rely on heuristics and signatures and if the trojan has been smartly coded, it will get around those. But it will have to access the internet at some point, which is where your firewall comes in.

What do you mean by 'lock down' bit torrent software?

I guess what I'm getting at is that a firewall suffers from the same inherent flaw as Vista's UAC - most people get sick of answering endless popups about allowing access, and a large percentage of people wouldn't understand what they mean anyway. As a result they just blindly click 'Allow', and before you know it, they're pretty much rolled out the red carpet to trojans etc. A good A/V app will intercept things before they're downloaded, and not allow you to download them (or at least warn you they're infected). And Kaspersky's detection of in-the-wild virus's is pretty good.

Like I said, it's not my professional opinion, just what works for me.
nofam (9009)
727271 2008-12-10 02:21:00 Online Armour. pctek (84)
727272 2008-12-10 03:13:00 Your router firewall should be sufficient, make sure thats enabled.
Whats this stuff about Comodo nagging you?
Blam (54)
727273 2008-12-10 03:21:00 If it didnt nag, it wouldnt be a firewall

Thats why its called a firewall. If it didnt ask, you wouldnt know
Speedy Gonzales (78)
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