Firewalls

[mrstuff68]

I need to install a firewall on my system i would like to know which firewall is the best from stopping intruders.

Thanks

[Gimlin]

Norton FireWall ($$$) or ZoneAlarm (Free)

[chrisjk]

Zonealarm, good, free

www.zonelabs.com

[Gimlin]

Technically the best firewall is, never connecting to the internet.

[mrstuff68]

Ok i will try ZoneAlarm first and see how that works.

thanks

[sail3005]

never use blackice. i have heard that it is as worthless as not even having a firewall

[Wynd]

Basically. All it does is tell you things are connecting to you (or vice versa).

[sail3005]

speaking of firewalls, does anyone know if the firewall that comes with winXP is any good?

[Gimlin]

Originally posted by sail3005
speaking of firewalls, does anyone know if the firewall that comes with winXP is any good?

I heard it doesnt really block incoming connections, but uses some stealth technology to help hide your PC.

[sail3005]

and i'm sure it allows all the microsoft spyware stuff to go through

[Gimlin]

its not spyware its silent upgrades and useful marketing information, to help the consumer.

[Tygur]

I hate ZoneAlarm, but everyone else seems to like it, so whatever...

I'd like to suggest Tiny Personal Firewall. But if ZoneAlarm is good enough for you, I guess you should probably stick with it.

[sail3005]

whats wrong with zonealarm?

[Tygur]

The last time someone asked me that (on these forums somewhere), I'm not sure I gave a good enough explanation.

Earlier versions would cut off all internet access when it asked you whether you want to let a not-yet-authorized program connect to the internet. That meant that if a trojan tried to connect to the internet while doing its thing, it wouldn't succeed, but it would successfully interupt your access to the internet, anyway.

While that has been fixed, I still very much dislike the interface. It hides too much from the user, in my opinion, and it doesn't allow enough flexibility when you're trying to set up what should be allowed and disallowed.

Other than that, I just generally find it to be a pain in the butt.

I stumbled upon its MailSafe feature a while ago, and promptly disabled it. It basically renames email attachments that it doesn't like. It's more of an annoyance than an actual helpful feature. Anyone who knows anything about PC's (hopefully everyone here) ought to be smart enough not to just run any attachment that comes along.

The only reason why ZoneAlarm is running here at all is because of my dad. I'm trying to convince him that Tiny Personal Firewall is much better, but he's too paranoid and insists that ZoneAlarm is good enough, and he says he doesn't trust any other firewall. The only way I could convince him to even consider it is by pointing him to grc.com and showing him what Steve Gibson has to say about it.

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by Tygur
The only reason why ZoneAlarm is running here at all is because of my dad. I'm trying to convince him that Tiny Personal Firewall is much better, but he's too paranoid and insists that ZoneAlarm is good enough, and he says he doesn't trust any other firewall. The only way I could convince him to even consider it is by pointing him to grc.com and showing him what Steve Gibson has to say about it.

he says ZA is good to go http://grc.com/zonealarm.htm

[sail3005]

Yeah, as far as i remember steve said that zonealarm was the best

[JoshT]

Blackice does seem to do what it was originally created to do (stop inbound attempts) well, although, like everything else, it has had security holes found in it.

Some people seem to think ZoneAlarm has some kind of spyware built into it and that's how they can afford to give it away for free. Besides that, in my experience, it can be unstable.

Anyway, I personally prefer hardware devices as firewalls - or a dedicated firewall computer running Linux or MS ISA Server.

[Tygur]

Originally posted by chrisjk
he says ZA is good to go http://grc.com/zonealarm.htm

ZoneAlarm does work. I won't deny that. But I still don't like the interface, and I still think it's not flexible enough.

Originally posted by JoshT
Besides that, in my experience, it can be unstable.

I agree with you on that.

[mastermind94]

i'm using proxy+, it is great and free for 2 users.

[Tygur]

Originally posted by mastermind94
i'm using proxy+, it is great and free for 2 users.

umm..Proxy+ isn't a firewall..