Firewall

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob Bennett
  • Start date Start date
B

Bob Bennett

I am using Microsoft Windows XP Internet Connection
Firewall. Is this adequate?? OR
do I need Norton or McAfee Firewall??

BB
 
Not good enough. You can download free personal firewall from Zone Labs or
Sygate. Choose onky one for your PC.

--
Hoa
(e-mail address removed).

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"
Benjamin Franklin
 
XP's firewall is only good for protecting your PC from incoming traffic.
Some malware may be installed on your machine that wants to "call home' and
report your personal information. To prevent that from happening, you need a
firewall that protects both incoming and outgoing traffic on your machine.

I use ZoneAlarm "free", and have been using it for several years. Here is
the link for it.
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

HTH, JAX
 
Bob Bennett said:
I am using Microsoft Windows XP Internet Connection
Firewall. Is this adequate?? OR
do I need Norton or McAfee Firewall?? >BB
Click to expand...

Hoa said:
Not good enough. You can download free personal firewall from Zone Labs or
Sygate. Choose onky one for your PC.
Click to expand...

I had Norton Personal firewall. It worked. With the SP2 upgrade I ended
up deleting it because I noticed page loads much faster on cable without
it engaged. Whether that was happening with XP & Service pack 1 I
couldn't say for sure or not.

As mentioned, you are not informed of outgoing crap you might have picked
up. But I really haven't "picked up" anything in a long time - what
wanted to get out was legit. The XP firewall will work fine. If you are
using a router on a home network or something, they are also usually a
firewall - a hardware firewall - same deal, you will not be informed if
something is trying to get out onto the Internet. Look - I use a freeware
program called "NetMeter". It is a reporting program, it lets me know
what speeds my uploads and downloads are moving at. Even low rates - like
I know how fast Yahoo messenger goes when I am talking & receiving voice
(not that much bandwidth, really). So if ever I did happen to pick up
something I didn't want, I'd know if an upload was in progress. Then I
guess I could check the task manager to see what was going on.

So, other will argue my point, but in your situation I say go ahead and
use the XP firewall that came with SP2. & download Netmeter. It is
highly configurable. I have it shrunk down to a very small window & put
up top out of the way. It disappears if no transfers are on progress, and
you can make it semi-transparent for when it is on, & can click through it
too. Make sure it is "NetMeter" and not "Net Meter" you go for. "Net
Meter" costs and I don't know what it does.

...D.
 
xp firewall will only protect you from both of bill gates
worms that scan the net for unpatched computers.
oh and use spybot safer-networking.org to check your
system for bugs.
 
Bob Bennett said:
I am using Microsoft Windows XP Internet Connection
Firewall. Is this adequate?? OR
do I need Norton or McAfee Firewall??

BB
Click to expand...

Here are some better ones and as a bonus there free!
I like Sygate myself.

Free Firewalls
ZoneAlarm (Free and up)
http://snipurl.com/6ohg

Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) (Free and up)
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html

Outpost Firewall from Agnitum (Free and up)
http://www.agnitum.com/download/

Sygate Personal Firewall (Free and up)
http://smb.sygate.com/buy/download_buy.htm
 
Bob said:
I am using Microsoft Windows XP Internet Connection
Firewall. Is this adequate?? OR
do I need Norton or McAfee Firewall??

BB
Click to expand...


WinXP's built-in firewall is adequate at stopping incoming attacks,
and hiding your ports from probes. What WinXP SP2's firewall does not
do, is protect you from any Trojans or spyware that you (or someone
else using your computer) might download and install inadvertently.
It doesn't monitor out-going traffic at all, other than to check for
IP-spoofing, much less block (or at even ask you about) the bad or the
questionable out-going signals. It assumes that any application you
have on your hard drive is there because you want it there, and
therefore has your "permission" to access the Internet. Further,
because the Windows Firewall is a "stateful" firewall, it will also
assume that any incoming traffic that's a direct response to a
Trojan's or spyware's out-going signal is also authorized.

ZoneAlarm, Kerio, or Sygate are all much better than WinXP's
built-in firewall, and are much more easily configured, and there are
free versions of each readily available. Even the commercially
available Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall is superior by far,
although it does take a heavier toll of system performance then do
ZoneAlarm or Sygate.

--

Bruce Chambers

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