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Thread ID: 62671	2005-10-15 06:32:00	Firewall Advice	Annanz (3044)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
396502	2005-10-17 08:41:00	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?) Um, did you not read the line down the bottom of the page saying Sygate is free for personal use? I have used Sygate on all three computers for about three years after giving Zone Alarm the big heaveho for being utterly pestilential, and vastly prefer Sygate to ZA. I upgraded to Sygate Personal Firewall Pro, but frankly I wouldn't bother - the free version is good enough for most users. I have checked my computers with www.grc.com, and they come up as Stealth on all ports. I haven't tried the other two mentioned (Kerio or Agnitum Outpost), but I have heard good reports of the former.	John H (8)
396503	2005-10-17 08:51:00	Damn. No i didn't see that. Thanks.	mark c (247)
396504	2005-10-17 08:59:00	Windows Firewall IS good enough, yes i understand it only monitors inbound connections, however if you have good antivirus protection, you should be fine. (I use McAfee). Obviously im talking about home users, buisness users should stay well away And security is commonly overrated. Ive had people on this forum and others recommend having 2 firewalls and 3 different anti-spyware programs. It's more important to be careful when using a computer and not visiting dodgy sites, downloading random files (i.e. movie files on p2p are never going to be 300kbs), and opening random emails, or ParisHiltonNaked!.png from you're MSN buddies. Doing so is a much more smarter way to be safe - and it doesn't hog your resources. My advice: Use Mozilla Firefox, Windows Firewall, a reasonable anti-virus program (AVG might be good enough - never used it, so maybe someone else can offer their opinion) and ocassionally scan for spyware. You'll be fine.	imarubberducky (7230)
396505	2005-10-18 08:54:00	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 ! SP2 firewall dosn't stop dos attacks, what planet are you on ! ! ! ROFLMAO the sp2 update brought in connection limiting which slows it down a bit but thats all . it certainly dosn't give the user any indication that they are being used for attacking someone . Windows Firewall IS good enough what good is a firewall that dosn't help you control what your pc does on the net? however if you have good antivirus protection, you should be fine all of you seem to be assuming that an AV actually works all of the time . news flash ! they don't always work ! for eg this everning i did a quick cleanup of cuzzies pc . AV caught a few things but the firewall told me there was more . i got rid of 5 others and that was only a very quick look at it . also AV's do not pickup or stop legit progams from sucking away your rather exspencive broadband or hogging your dailup . for eg the keyboard driver that kept checking for updates every few seconds . its legit, not malicous in any way but it is well know to cost you a fair bit in wasted data useage . a good firewall is a very handy tool which can save your butt . . . . . . well more like your bank acc, MS firewall isn't going to stop that trojen from sending out your banking passwords and Av's don't always pick it up either . a good firewall will give the user an opportunity to save themselves . however what the user does with that opportunity is up to them .	tweak'e (69)
396506	2005-10-18 19:44:00	I had a long discussion in days and weeks past with people over this same issue . . "this is better than that . . . and my dog is bigger than yours" stuff . Actually, there are very few "rules" as to firewalls and their use . . . but there are a few axioms to observe . I was writing to a friend who got a bunch of freebees and they totally messed up his puter . XP-Pro hadda be full reinstalled and then all the other stuff he likes had to be brought back too . In telling him what not to do, he was concerned with finding his Windows Firewall turned off all the time . . . the info other than that might interest the original questioner here: Well . . . . there are things that go bump in the night inside your computer, but turning off the MS firewall is not one of them . Actually . . . here's the real poop: 1) YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE SOFTWARE FIREWALL RUNNING AT A TIME 2) YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE HARDWARE FIREWALL RUNNING AT THE SAME TIME AS #1 ABOVE . So . . . in an act of kindness, ZA turned off M$'s firewall . . . that's a good thing . . or not . If you have more than one software firewall running, they will collide with each other and you won't get online at all . . too much confusion! I heartily recommend the following: The best thing is to have a router and a firewall . Routers ( . linksys . com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1115416832116&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper" target="_blank">www . linksys . com) (decent ones, and this is the one I use) have a dynamic IP address generator and a static one that keeps most any drive-by hackers and trojans out of your system . I personally feel that if a person has a router with a physical firewall, then they have a lot going for them in the first place . Adding another software firewall is just a lot better in the long run . Any dissention over that here? :stare:	SurferJoe46 (51)
396507	2005-10-18 22:02:00	Well . . . . there are things that go bump in the night inside your computer, but turning off the MS firewall is not one of them . [/B] [B]Actually . . . here's the real poop: 1) YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE SOFTWARE FIREWALL RUNNING AT A TIME 2) YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE HARDWARE FIREWALL RUNNING AT THE SAME TIME AS #1 ABOVE . If you have more than one software firewall running, they will collide with each other and you won't get online at all . . too much confusion! I heartily recommend the following: The best thing is to have a router and a firewall . I personally feel that if a person has a router with a physical firewall, then they have a lot going for them in the first place . Adding another software firewall is just a lot better in the long run . Any dissention over that here? :stare: roughly right . with hardware firewalls it dosn't really matter how many you have, its just wasted dollars to have more than one hardware firewall . also what is a hardware firewall? hardware (ie pc) running software firewall . so why not just leave out the extra hardware and use a software firewall ? (mind you external adsl modems work far better than internal/usb ones so the firewall is a bonus) correct with multi software firewalls, more than one can cause problems and some will ask for the others to be removed before it can be installed .	tweak'e (69)
396508	2005-10-18 23:23:00	Hey tweak'e: this leaves me with another question, and as you seem to be up on this stuff, I heard that one can use another puter as a firewall too . It seems to me it said that you can use one between the DSL router and the puter you are going to use online . What's your take on this? What software would it need to perform that service? I know they both need NIC's, but is that about all the hardware they need? Will the cpu speed on the middle puter need to be equal to or greater than the speed of the other one? Would a CAT5e cable be sufficient for the data transfer?	SurferJoe46 (51)
396509	2005-10-18 23:52:00	I have to chime in here. My recomendation is as follows; 1) Lock down the users who access the web. i.e. do not surf as an administrator. (NOTE: Default setting for a single user install of Windows XP) The administrator has full access to the registry, windows system files, etc. Not an access level to be used lightly. 2) Use a good stand-alone free firewall. (not one with heaps of extra's like pop blockers, antivirus, phishing protection etc.) 3) Use a good anti-virus program without a firewall included (e.g. Avast, AVG, etc.) 4) Use Firefox, with adblock 5) Use Processguard to stop any rogue programs and trojans, who have not yet being detected by the Anti-Virus vendors and the signatures have not being updated.	KiwiTT_NZ (233)
396510	2005-10-19 04:39:00	I heard that one can use another puter as a firewall too . It seems to me it said that you can use one between the DSL router and the puter you are going to use online . That is correct, and you can also use it on dialup as well, not just with DSL . These firewalls usually have Linux as their OS and are dedicated to firewall use only, ie you can't use them to surf the internet, play music, etc . They don't have to be high-speced, in fact it is one use that an old computer can be put to when it has "retired" from general use due to becoming too slow . Some of the firewalls that I am aware of are Smoothwall, m0n0wall, Firestarter and Debian firewalls . Information on all can be found on Google . These firewalls are very good at what they do and are especially useful on a network of computers . The only drawback is that they do not monitor and control outgoing traffic which to many, including me and obviously tweak'e, is as important as controlling incoming traffic . This means that if one requires outgoing traffic control then a software firewall will also need to be used on each computer which then becomes a bit of an overkill . Information on the hardware specifications the computers required for these dedicated firewall machines can be found at each of the firewalls' websites but as I said before, it is a good use for an old retired machine . And yes, they obviously need NICs . I am not sure about what type of cable they require but I believe it would be CAT5 .	FoxyMX (5)
396511	2005-10-19 04:45:00	There's no reason why a Linux based firewall can't stop outgoing traffic. It's just a matter of making the appropriate rules. The hardware needed is minimal. I think there's one which can be loaded from one floppy. You should have either two Ethernet cards or one Ethernet card and a modem depending on what your internet access is.	Graham L (2)
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