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| Thread ID: 62671 | 2005-10-15 06:32:00 | Firewall Advice | Annanz (3044) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 396492 | 2005-10-17 05:08:00 | i completly disagre It comes down to what your trying to protect. If its a home PC with nothing really important other than used for browsing a and a few games, then I think the SP firewall is fine WITH good antivirus. Good AV will prevent the try hard hackers/phreakers from getting access with a mianstream trojan etc (SP2 firewall will stop/ and or warn on many of these also). A REAL hacker that can bypass the SP2 firewall fairly easily , has better things to do with his time than access your home computer. If you have a business PC or something important to protect then a 3rd party firewall is the way to go but they are more hassle for the end user. |
Battleneter (60) | ||
| 396493 | 2005-10-17 05:09:00 | XP SP2's firewall is probably "good enough" for the basic home user, and it is certainly better than nothing. The major problem is that it only blocks inbound traffic. If you had a trojan/virus onboard it would have free rein back out into the internet. A third party firewall will alert you that a new program/process is trying to access the internet. If this process/program is unfamiliar it is supposed to alert the user something is not quite right. Does not stop the user still clicking OK blindly to grant it access to stop the annoying wee alert popping up all the time :rolleyes: | Jen (38) | ||
| 396494 | 2005-10-17 05:11:00 | Windows Firewall with XP SP2 its good enough, security is so overrated/ every person i know that has every said that has very quickly changed their tune after being infected. the only people who think security is overrated have their heads buried in the sand :badpc: A REAL hacker that can bypass the SP2 firewall fairly easily , has better things to do with his time than access your home computer. bollocks. home pc's are comman targets either for dos attacks or simply a route to hide behind. those with broadband connections are often more sort after but dailup can be used. |
tweak'e (69) | ||
| 396495 | 2005-10-17 05:29:00 | I've been using ZoneAlarm for about 6 years and works fine . Don't know about the P2P issue because I never do that anyway . For your "average home user " it's fine . Though the "AHU" (average home user) might well be one of the most vulnerable categories of users because not only not being very tech-savvy they might also be the ones who spend time surfing the *ahem* sites on the net . And that's asking for it . |
mark c (247) | ||
| 396496 | 2005-10-17 05:34:00 | every person i know that has every said that has very quickly changed their tune after being infected . the only people who think security is overrated have their heads buried in the sand :badpc: bollocks . home pc's are comman targets either for dos attacks or simply a route to hide behind . those with broadband connections are often more sort after but dailup can be used . You must live on another planet with a different version of XP, because I am the opposite, every pesron I know has no problem as long as they are running decent AV . SP2 blocks Dos attacks what the heck are you talking about ! |
Battleneter (60) | ||
| 396497 | 2005-10-17 05:44:00 | I've been using ZoneAlarm for about 6 years and works fine . Don't know about the P2P issue because I never do that anyway . For your "average home user " it's fine . Though the "AHU" (average home user) might well be one of the most vulnerable categories of users because not only not being very tech-savvy they might also be the ones who spend time surfing the *ahem* sites on the net . And that's asking for it . As for ZA you can keep it . It semi blocks P2P programs "such as limits search results and speeds" and there is no way to set up a manual port forward, which is what I found a few weeks ago when giving it another chance . Many of the sites say "if your having problems with ZA get a better firewall" lol and I am NOT jokeing . ZA is Garbage, Sygate is light years better for example . Also many end user's worry about every alert thinking that they are under attack constantly, even though most alerts are legit network traffic . That and they have huge amounts of trouble setting up manual port forwards and often don't know how to answer when promted for program access . So there is a BIG flip side to your argument . In many cases I would prefer to take my chances with SP2 doing the work for them, (no offence to the more technically challenged) . |
Battleneter (60) | ||
| 396498 | 2005-10-17 06:52:00 | I have been with ZoneAlarm for a number of years and don't know any other . Most of the time ZoneAlarm does a fine job but since moving to Windows XP find that every so often I have to disable it to access email and the web . Because I can access email and the web after disabling (when even a reboot will not work) then I have to assume that it is this firewall which is getting overenthusiatic . Not much consistency ! I must get around to trying Kerio or one of the others . :nerd: cheers Misty |
Misty (368) | ||
| 396499 | 2005-10-17 07:45:00 | I have been with ZoneAlarm for a number of years and don't know any other . Most of the time ZoneAlarm does a fine job but since moving to Windows XP find that every so often I have to disable it to access email and the web . Because I can access email and the web after disabling (when even a reboot will not work) then I have to assume that it is this firewall which is getting overenthusiatic . Not much consistency ! I must get around to trying Kerio or one of the others . :nerd: cheers Misty Um with respect, having to do that means ZA is not fine, you should not have to ever dissable your firewall . Once you disable your firewall for even a short time its much worse than running the SP2 firewall by iteslf, you have kind of proven what I have been saying without realising it . I find ZA flakey like that too, sometimes it allows access to resources NP at all, others times it interfares . If you must run a 3rd party firewall ditch ZA and download Sygate personal firewall, you won't regret it, as easy to use and fully configurable . |
Battleneter (60) | ||
| 396500 | 2005-10-17 07:58:00 | www.download.com free to try 30 bucks to buy forgive me if I have become accustomed to freebies but ZA works hunky dory and costs nothing (so you've gotta work at it a bit more, so what have you got a comp for?) |
mark c (247) | ||
| 396501 | 2005-10-17 08:30:00 | Norton Internet Security is fine most of the time, but I agree, it is a bit of a resource pig. I had 256MB of Ram (Recommended) and upon startup, took about 5 minutes to load fully. Now that I have upgraded to 1GB Ram, it's just a matter of seconds before the Norton Symbol appears in my taskbar. Norton has an excellent firewall, which notifies of all inbound and outbond traffic that can cause harm to your computer. I'll stick with Norton Internet Security for the time being. 9/10 | subatomicguy (9077) | ||
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