Firewall (provided with)XP

[Mack]

I am running WinXP(Pro) and followed recent instructions
as to how to enable Firewall included in Win XP. Is
this all the Firewall protection I need? or do I need to
purchase additional Firewall protection from McAfee or
Symantec (since I use their Virus protection already)?

 

[Marco]

At home I use the built-in firewall and I am pretty pleased with it. The
firewall+av combination should be sufficient . but then again the built-in
firewall only checks incoming traffic and cannot alert when a rogue (?)
process tries to connect from your computer to the outside. The AV should,
in principle (most of the times ...) detect the rogue process .. most of the
times.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

WinXP's built-in firewall is fine at stopping incoming attacks, and
hiding your ports from probes. It doesn't give you any alarms to tell
you that it is working, though. What WinXP also does not do, is
protect you from any Trojans or spyware that you might download and
install inadvertently. It doesn't monitor out-going traffic at all,
much less block (or at least ask you about) the bad or the
questionable out-going packets.

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


Bruce Chambers

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