Best Firewall Options

[dew7]

A user should have both a hardware firewall and a software firewall.  These days even a dial-up connection should have a firewall.  Which firewalls are best and why?  Thanks in advance for any comments.

[Say]

Zone Alarm!

that's the one I use at least, and I've kept this one for like... erm... 2 years by now, it's worked great for me and having Zone Alarm with Norton installed is wonderfully , really, I had before another but I can hardly remember which one it was   fact is that we switched to ZA and we stayed with it

[dew7]

I also like ZoneAlarm and use ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5 with a hardware firewall built into my router which provides me with fast cable internet.  :>

[Grundy]

I have a hardware firewall in my ADSL router, and I use Norton Internet Security.
 

[dew7]

It sounds like your computer is pretty well protected.  :>

[Louisiana Night]

I don't have to worry about viruses. My computer is in too bad of shape now, a virus couldn't make it much worse. I also have everything I want to keep, backed-up.

[dew7]

LN. are you going to format and start over by reinstalling what you need especially since you have your information backed up?

[Louisiana Night]

I'll probably reformat my hardrive this weekend. That also means that I probably won't be on the forums this weekend.  

[dew7]

LN, let this forum know if you have any questions and hopefully we can solve them here for you before your computer is formatted.  If you get stuck after your computer is formatted then connect with another computer to the Internet and check this forum for help in getting your computer going again.  I hope the procedure is smooth and relatively painless. (IMO, computer cleaning is never fully painless)  LOL  

[Louisiana Night]

There is no other solution. Thanks for the offer, but I think I can handle this myself.

[Drunken Chinchilla]

The only firewall I use is the windows one in network connections. Full blown ones they tend to totally screw up anything fun on the internet

[dew7]

For XP home and pro, the included Microsoft firewall is fine.  I suggest a built in firewall if you have a router.  This is what I have and I also use ZoneAlarm Pro. but it is more for advanced users because you have to decide which programs to allow for internet access and which programs to block and so you must know about all the programs that you need.  This includes lines like run32.dll -- you must know if this is good or bad and research it --- this is a shortcoming of ZoneAlarm but in my opinion it is fine for techies.  BTW, the Symantec Norton Suite suffered severe critical problems recently according to eeye.com and fortunately they are now fixed but I still do not trust it as much as ZoneAlarm for security needs.

[Grundy]

I would fear for my computers safety if all it had was the inbuilt XP firewall!

It's only a low level firewall without any advanced options... also for example, it wont block any of the latest viruses including Sasser.... etc...

Just be careful hey, because in the end, Norton and ZA are much more secure options than the standard XP firewall. ( and with norton, no webpages screw around, and there's no loss of experience on the web. Also, a lot of setting up in ZA can acheive the same results... ))

[Drunken Chinchilla]

Lol I don't often fear for my 'puters safety, it just comes down to common sense in the end, you dont download attachments you dont know and dont download any dodgy stuff before scanning!

[Grundy]

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
There are many odd people out there, aswell as some viruses, that scan ISP's, IP's and various networks for open ports, and possible backdoors into systems.

If you installed a REAL firewall program and watched the LOG of blocked connection attempts, you will quickly learn that you are getting atleast 100-200 attempts per day. ( Especially when using broadband.)

And like I said, this includes viruses that users don't know are on their systems. These programs automatically scan for vunerable systems and this is where the majority of blocked connection attempts come from.

With norton, you can scan the IP address of the 'attacker' and get an image of where the attack came from. ( A world map image, then zooms to location when it's found... )
And I've had attempts from all around the world, Korea, China, Germany, South America... etc...
There's millions of computers out there that are infected and scanning the internet for vunerable systems...

It's not just 'attachments' , which are actually taken care of by 'Virus Scanners' not Firewalls.

 

[Drunken Chinchilla]

Yeah I used to be really bothered about security and virus' but it just seems like too much trouble to me. I'm not saying it IS too much trouble, just my lazyness really. At the end of the day anything thats remotely important to me is backed up and if someone wants to look at the files on my PC then go straight ahead lol. Just seems sad for people to actually WANT to see whats on my PC, I pity them.

[Jeysie]

It's more than just reading files, although that's what gets the most "news time". Hackers can also use your computer for things like Denial of Service attacks against servers, etc.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[dew7]

Exactly, Jeysie and those DDOS attacks cause small websites like the one for CWShredder and Spybot -- Search and Destroy to be shut down.  The hackers probably are working with the spyware people to have lots of spyware on people's computers.  A perfect example would be a keylogger that could be used to steal someone's credit card number and expiration date and then the attacker may be able to make a false card with the data.  Some people want money and power and identity theft which is the number one crime in the US is growing fast.  The U.S. needs to adopt the European's Unions tougher stance on protecting individual's identity.  Just my two cents.

[racx_00]

I dont have any Firewalls and i doubt i will get any

[Johnmichael]

My DSL comes with a firewall but i usally have it disabled so i can host games.