which firewall for a 87 old?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MightyKitten
  • Start date Start date
M

MightyKitten

My granny (87!) goes internet.
The provider gave a cablemodem without a decent firewall,
so I will have to instal one on her computer

I want the firewall to be compleetly invisible for het while doing its work.
This means it should not bother her with'information, alerts and such. it
should just do its work and be quiet.

Though I want the best firewall for her, i will tradeof some secuity for
absolute silence. This is very essential, as she does not know any english,
it not interested in the technique behind it at all and just van to email
her sister in canada, look at the website of us grandkids, and chat though
MSN messenger.

It also has to allow a couple of tcp ports to be opened (needed for remote
support)

I have thought of Zonealarm and Kerio but I don't know who is the most
quiet. But maybe there is another firewall who fits my needs.

MightyKitten

--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with ping or the antispam monster will eat it.
 
MightyKitten said:
My granny (87!) goes internet.
The provider gave a cablemodem without a decent firewall,
so I will have to instal one on her computer

I want the firewall to be compleetly invisible for het while doing its
work.
This means it should not bother her with'information, alerts and such. it
should just do its work and be quiet.

Though I want the best firewall for her, i will tradeof some secuity for
absolute silence. This is very essential, as she does not know any
english,
it not interested in the technique behind it at all and just van to email
her sister in canada, look at the website of us grandkids, and chat though
MSN messenger.

It also has to allow a couple of tcp ports to be opened (needed for remote
support)

I have thought of Zonealarm and Kerio but I don't know who is the most
quiet. But maybe there is another firewall who fits my needs.

MightyKitten

--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with ping or the antispam monster will eat it.
Click to expand...

Even though it is not yet generally available, I would update Grannies' PC
to Windows XP SP2 Beta (the consumer version should be out this summer) and
use the built-in IE/OE security, as well as the firewall. It passes the GRC
tests and works silently. If you add Free-AVG anti-virus software to the
setup, you will have a very secure PC. I've used all of the freeware
anti-virus and firewall software (and even paid for some "dogs"), at one
time or another, and the Microsoft/AVG setup is the best--at least in my
humble opinion. If you just want to use the vanilla Windows XP firewall,
add Google Toolbar to stop pop-ups and Spy-Bot Search & Destroy to clean it
up and keep it cleaned up. You also could add CCleaner and Safe XP for your
own maintenance use. I'm sure to get flames, but as I said before, it works
for me and my PC has been clean through 2 cable vendors.

Cheers,

Del Ferguson
 
Shar (and Del) Ferguson said:
Even though it is not yet generally available, I would update
Grannies' PC to Windows XP SP2 Beta (the consumer version should be
out this summer) and use the built-in IE/OE security, as well as the
firewall. It passes the GRC tests and works silently. If you add
Free-AVG anti-virus software to the setup, you will have a very
secure PC. I've used all of the freeware anti-virus and firewall
software (and even paid for some "dogs"), at one time or another, and
the Microsoft/AVG setup is the best--at least in my humble opinion.
If you just want to use the vanilla Windows XP firewall, add Google
Toolbar to stop pop-ups and Spy-Bot Search & Destroy to clean it up
and keep it cleaned up. You also could add CCleaner and Safe XP for
your own maintenance use. I'm sure to get flames, but as I said
before, it works for me and my PC has been clean through 2 cable
vendors.

Cheers,

Del Ferguson
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice,
Del, but unfortunately, XP is not an option for several reasons.
- It is a no budget PC
- XP home NL illegally is not to easy to get (well, the CD is, but the crack
isn't. I also heard rumors of the crack being worthless for sr2. I also like
to keep things legal.
- some games (also very important) do not run on xp.
- I just installed it with W2K + all software. So I'd be realy pissed to do
this again ;-)


I have
- W2K pro Up to date with licence of my old PC (RIP)
- spampall taking care of spam
- AVG against viruses,
- Freeserver for pop-ups
- A squared 2 for trojan detection
- Adaware for ad killing
- System Security Suite for start-up and BHO info

It is quite secure now, except for a firewall..

So again thanks for the imput, but I will await some other replys (if any)

MightyKitten

--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with *ping* or the antispam monster will eat it.
 
MightyKitten said:
I have thought of Zonealarm and Kerio but I don't know who is the most
quiet. But maybe there is another firewall who fits my needs.
Click to expand...

Sygate should do what you want.
 
MightyKitten said:
My granny (87!) goes internet.
The provider gave a cablemodem without a decent firewall,
so I will have to instal one on her computer

I want the firewall to be compleetly invisible for het while doing its work.
This means it should not bother her with'information, alerts and such. it
should just do its work and be quiet.

Though I want the best firewall for her, i will tradeof some secuity for
absolute silence. This is very essential, as she does not know any english,
it not interested in the technique behind it at all and just van to email
her sister in canada, look at the website of us grandkids, and chat though
MSN messenger.

It also has to allow a couple of tcp ports to be opened (needed for remote
support)

I have thought of Zonealarm and Kerio but I don't know who is the most
quiet. But maybe there is another firewall who fits my needs.

MightyKitten
Click to expand...

God bless her. My 55-year old brother-in-law is afraid of computers and
the internet, but your 87-year old granny obviously refuses to let the
future pass her by.

I'm only familiar with Zone Alarm, but it really should do what you want.
Alerts can be shut off, and when you set things up for her you can set ZA
to allow MSN Messenger and all her other apps internet access. I've used
earlier versions of the freeware ZA for years and now use ZA Pro, and once
they are set up to allow trusted apps internet access; with alerts
disabled, it really is an unobtrusive- invisible even, firewall. And
you'll be able to set ZA to allow access by the remote assistance software
when you install it for your beloved granny.

I assume that you'll be the one providing that remote assistance? That
makes you a good grandkitten.

Regards,
Ian.
 
God bless her. My 55-year old brother-in-law is afraid of computers
and the internet, but your 87-year old granny obviously refuses to
let the future pass her by.

I'm only familiar with Zone Alarm, but it really should do what you
want. Alerts can be shut off, and when you set things up for her you
can set ZA to allow MSN Messenger and all her other apps internet
access. I've used earlier versions of the freeware ZA for years and
now use ZA Pro, and once they are set up to allow trusted apps
internet access; with alerts disabled, it really is an unobtrusive-
invisible even, firewall. And you'll be able to set ZA to allow
access by the remote assistance software when you install it for your
beloved granny.

I assume that you'll be the one providing that remote assistance?
That makes you a good grandkitten.

Regards,
Ian.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your answer & kind words,
Yes, it is quite remarkable, I have to say...
I was surprised when I heard her wish for a computer, and that cold day in
hell was when she wanted internet :-) I would have never believed it, if she
didn't ask for it herself

And you brother-in-law should meet my mother. If an electrical device has
more as, well... 4 buttons, she wil not use it. Ever.

Yes, I'll be the remotesupportkitten. Just tested it, and works fine on a
lan, tomorrow (it is night here) will will take the field test :-)

For a firewall I've chosen Sygate.
It is somewhat less demanding as Zonealarm (I've supported sygate for
several so I feel realy stupid for not having thought of it before).

I've used Zonealarm my self for several years with much joy (especialy when
the analyse tools were still in the freeware packages). Is will be my
nack-up choise If I somehow get into troubles with Sygate.

Mighty(Support)Kitten

--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with ping or the antispam monster will eat it.
 
MightyKitten said:
of course!

I compleetly forgot about good old sygate. Stupid me...

Thanks, I gonna try!


Mighty Kitten
Click to expand...

Stupid me! What do I know of Microsoft legalities in Europe? LOL! I agree
with the reply you received from another e-mailer. Of my 3 favorites
(Kerio, Outpost [you might want to look at this software], and Sygate), the
nicest and cleanest interface is Sygate--again, in my own humble opinion.
Next to Zone Alarm, it is the most popular on CNET, but don't get me
started on Zone Alarm. I've had the Pro and the Free versions running at
one time or another and had major operational problems. The problem with
most of them is the pop-ups asking you what you want to do with certain
programs--incoming and outgoing. Once they settle down, and you don't add
anything else, all is well--generally. When I was running Windows 95/98/Me,
the favorite 3 worked just fine; however, now I don't want to bother with
stopping ordinary outgoing stuff. If you keep your PC clean, there
shouldn't be any problems--even going to game sites--Bingo, Pogo, etc. Now
if Granny decides to go to porn sites, all bets are off. Although, at 87,
she is entitled to do anything she wants.

Cheers,

Del Ferguson
 
My granny (87!) goes internet.
The provider gave a cablemodem without a decent firewall,
so I will have to instal one on her computer

I want the firewall to be compleetly invisible for het while doing its work.
This means it should not bother her with'information, alerts and such. it
should just do its work and be quiet.
Click to expand...

well... you are describng a NAT router, not quite a firewall, but
almost there ( does not respond to foreign requests) I like the dlink
604 (cheaeaaaaaap) but there are hundreds of others.

And... unless you try really hard, you cannot screw it up
 
Shar (and Del) Ferguson said:
Stupid me! What do I know of Microsoft legalities in Europe? LOL!
I agree with the reply you received from another e-mailer. Of my 3
favorites (Kerio, Outpost [you might want to look at this software],
and Sygate), the nicest and cleanest interface is Sygate--again, in
my own humble opinion. Next to Zone Alarm, it is the most popular on
CNET, but don't get me started on Zone Alarm. I've had the Pro and
the Free versions running at one time or another and had major
operational problems. The problem with most of them is the pop-ups
asking you what you want to do with certain programs--incoming and
outgoing. Once they settle down, and you don't add anything else,
all is well--generally. When I was running Windows 95/98/Me, the
favorite 3 worked just fine; however, now I don't want to bother with
stopping ordinary outgoing stuff. If you keep your PC clean, there
shouldn't be any problems--even going to game sites--Bingo, Pogo,
etc. Now if Granny decides to go to porn sites, all bets are off.
Although, at 87, she is entitled to do anything she wants.

Cheers,

Del Ferguson
Click to expand...

I have had all internet asking software configured for passing through. If
she'll see a pop-up window, she will probabbly phone me (witch is exactly
what I want)


Well, the PC will be reasonably clean:

Oulook E-mail
MSN Messenger (Only family allowed)
Inetnet Explorer
Some games (mostly card games, some bord games, crossword, scrabble, ect...)
Some anti mal-ware utils
Remote Control software

At least it is cleaner as my PC (though mine has less games :-S )


Mostly she use the PC for cardgames, e-mail to family in Canada, and soem
more cardgames, scrabble, some card games, crosswords, ands even more card
games :-)

MightyKitten

--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with ping or the antispam monster will eat it.
 
Hello said:
well... you are describng a NAT router, not quite a firewall, but
almost there ( does not respond to foreign requests) I like the dlink
604 (cheaeaaaaaap) but there are hundreds of others.

And... unless you try really hard, you cannot screw it up
Click to expand...

Yup, I've thought of buying a hardware device. But as said it is a next to
zeroinvestment solution I seek. Maybe in the future if I have some cash to
sapre again. Besides i've to buy a nat firewal that allows Mac adres
spoofing, or at least pc name spoofing (Cable ISP request)


I'm used to Edimax routers (sold a dozen or 5 for my old employer). I have
to say that my experience with the D-link brand is not that good.

And about that screwing up: I'd recon I've enough knowledge to be able to
screw it up. ;-)


MightyKitten


--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with ping or the antispam monster will eat it.
 
Somtime near Tue, 27 Jul 2004 23:50:44 +0200, "MightyKitten"
Yup, I've thought of buying a hardware device. But as said it is a next to
zeroinvestment solution I seek. Maybe in the future if I have some cash to
sapre again. Besides i've to buy a nat firewal that allows Mac adres
spoofing, or at least pc name spoofing (Cable ISP request)


I'm used to Edimax routers (sold a dozen or 5 for my old employer). I have
to say that my experience with the D-link brand is not that good.

And about that screwing up: I'd recon I've enough knowledge to be able to
screw it up. ;-)


MightyKitten
Click to expand...
(OT, but in reply to the NAT Router hardware device comment)

Network Everywhere's Cable / Internet Router (see
http://www.networkeverywhere.com/products/nr041.asp ) is a very
inexpensive NAAT router with added features - you can administer it
from the LAN, including setting passwords, and it also allows for SNMP
management, remote management, MAC Address spoofing (which is how I
got it to work with my Cable Service) and a lot more.

I purchased it retail for 49.95 USD, but I have not seen it as low as
29.95 USD.
 
- some games (also very important) do not run on xp.
Click to expand...

I rather like the idea of this 87 year old granny who must play computer
games. Good for her, say I!

I thought that I was rather long in the tooth for those, but I still play
them, and have no problems in this respect with SP. Still, I expect she
wants to play *very* old hand-knitted games. They might be a problem I
suppose. :-)

Cheers,

Roy
 
I have
- W2K pro Up to date with licence of my old PC (RIP)
- spampall taking care of spam
- AVG against viruses,
- Freeserver for pop-ups
- A squared 2 for trojan detection
- Adaware for ad killing
- System Security Suite for start-up and BHO info

It is quite secure now, except for a firewall..
Click to expand...

Disabling unnecessary services should reduce the need for a firewall.
You could take a look at
http://www.blackviper.com/WIN2K/servicecfg.htm
 
Shar (and Del) Ferguson said:
Stupid me! What do I know of Microsoft legalities in
Europe? LOL! I agree with the reply you received from
another e-mailer. Of my 3 favorites (Kerio, Outpost [you
might want to look at this software], and Sygate), the
nicest and cleanest interface is Sygate--again, in my own
humble opinion. Next to Zone Alarm, it is the most popular
on CNET, but don't get me started on Zone Alarm. I've
had the Pro and the Free versions running at one time or
another and had major operational problems. The problem
with most of them is the pop-ups asking you what you want
to do with certain programs--incoming and outgoing. Once
they settle down, and you don't add anything else, all is
well--generally. When I was running Windows 95/98/Me, the
favorite 3 worked just fine; however, now I don't want to
bother with stopping ordinary outgoing stuff. If you keep
your PC clean, there shouldn't be any problems--even going
to game sites--Bingo, Pogo, etc. Now if Granny decides to
go to porn sites, all bets are off. Although, at 87, she
is entitled to do anything she wants.
Click to expand...


I have had all internet asking software configured for
passing through. If she'll see a pop-up window, she will
probabbly phone me (witch is exactly what I want)


Well, the PC will be reasonably clean:

Oulook E-mail
MSN Messenger (Only family allowed)
Inetnet Explorer
Some games (mostly card games, some bord games, crossword,
scrabble, ect...) Some anti mal-ware utils
Remote Control software

At least it is cleaner as my PC (though mine has less games
:-S )


Mostly she use the PC for cardgames, e-mail to family in
Canada, and soem more cardgames, scrabble, some card games,
crosswords, ands even more card games :-)

MightyKitten
Click to expand...

Conincidentally, I just has the same problem with a friend of
mine who does not really know much about computer. I just
today put SG (to replace Outpost) on her PC and I am indeed
quite happy with it (I see that SG can also send email alert
to the "adminstrator", and this would be helpful, too).

btw, based on my experience with my friend who is very similar
to your granny, I would also advice to switch to Firefox and
Thunderbird down the road completely (if the computer has
sufficient memory to support it). The reason was that my
friend, the same as almost any average users, constantly are
getting spyware just by *very* innociently surfing. On the
other hand, you cannot put a strong ad filter for them because
they will complain that that some pages does work as expected
(what if they *like* to have all the nice images on the pages
:-( )

Yes, I had Outpost, Spybot, Adaware on her PC to block bad
things, but then she doesn't know how to update everything and
patch her own PC. Yes, the spyware got "blocked" by the
firewall and perhaps some other security policy, but then
everytime I went there the scanning and cleaning are just
annoying and time consuming.

After almost two year of helping her (and her family) cleaning
up, I finally got so tired and sick of it and move everything
away from IE and OE and I even renamed the IE.exe file!! I
will never regret that I made the Firefox decision for this
one :-)






--
RL
Unofficial Adaware Updater (+other goodies)
http://home.earthlink.net/~ringomei/page2.html
********************************
Pricelessware voting annual results and information:
http://www.pricelessware.org,
http://www.pricelesswarehome.org,
http://www.earths-ocular.com/mirror/www.pricelesswarehome.org/
 
MightyKitten said:
My granny (87!) goes internet.
The provider gave a cablemodem without a decent firewall,
so I will have to instal one on her computer

I want the firewall to be compleetly invisible for het while doing its work.
This means it should not bother her with'information, alerts and such. it
should just do its work and be quiet.
Click to expand...
MK.

MK.

My opinion FWIW.

I have sygate running on one PC after ruling out ZoneAlarm (too hard to
configure) and Kerio (way too hard to configure). Sygate is nice,
alarms can be turned off, or you can tell Grandma to read and click on
the alerts so that SG can "learn" where she goes. They'll go away over
time.

The other option I am running is EZarmor. AFAIK it's free, has firewall
(with preconfigured exceptions), an antivirus client, spyware blaster,
and popup killer. It self-updates so no need to worry about updating
multiple products. I'm liking it so far. (set virus alerting to "work
silently" though).


John H. E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
Website: John's Best of FreeWare: WWW:Jhoodsoft.org
 
C:\> DELTREE /Y MightyKitten:
I have thought of Zonealarm and Kerio but I don't know who is the most
quiet. But maybe there is another firewall who fits my needs.
Click to expand...

Kerio with settings set just to (whatever programs are used/whatever ports are
used) access Internet, and the rest set to Deny.

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Brazil. REPLY TO GROUP!
MSN: (e-mail address removed) http://marreka.no-ip.com
"When a person turns to wrong, is it a want to be, belong?
Part of things at any cost, at what price a life is lost?"
Mozilla for Brazilians: http://www.mozilla.org.br
 
Thanks for all your help and kind words,

As said, I've chosen Sygate for now. I've launched some attacks on it, and
it holds on quite nicly: I did not notice a thing on the 'granny pc' and my
own mailbox has been flooded full with intruder alerts. That's the way I
like it. :-)

I'll seriously consider a hardware firewall as she will use the internet
more and more, but for now, software will do.

I must say I've also considered FireFox and Mozilla for e-mail and browser,
but she had senior computer lessons with outlook express and IE. Since
changing these things can become quite confusing, I'd rather leave her with
the microsoft applications. It is something she is a bit familliar with
(quite important on that age :-) )

Anyway, i'm proud of granny and hope she'll terrorise the internet for a
long time.


Mighty(grand)kitten
 
MightyKitten said:
I have had all internet asking software configured for passing through. If
she'll see a pop-up window, she will probabbly phone me (witch is exactly
what I want)
Click to expand...

I thought you wanted alerts turned off?
 
jo said:
I thought you wanted alerts turned off?
Click to expand...

Yup, and under normal circumstances, there would be no alarm triggered. even
if attacked. But a system can never be 100% secure *AND* usefull, so there
might be some rare cases that alerts might show themselves. in that case,
Granny should call me inmediately, as this means something bad is going on,
and MightyKitten will have to go on a ] S&D quest for the attacker.

That is all.


MightyKitten

--

http://www.it-hulp.nl/
http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

gmx.net is the mailserver of mightykitten
start subject with ping or the antispam monster will eat it.
 
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