NIS and Windows Firewall

[JD]

I've been running Norton Internet Security on a cable connection since early
August, and have become accustomed to receiving two or three "security
alerts" per hour, as NIS informs me of an attempted intrusion by a trojan
horse.
About a week ago I turned on the Windows firewall ON TOP OF Norton, and I
haven't had a security alert since. I suspect, of course, that the Windows
firewall is intercepting these attempted intrusions before they get to
Norton.
I've read sneering remarks in these pages about the inadequacy of the
Windows firewall, but maybe it's not so bad?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

When using a third-party firewall program, you need to
turn-off XP's firewall to avoid conflicts. Having two
firewalls running may negate both.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| I've been running Norton Internet Security on a cable connection since early
| August, and have become accustomed to receiving two or three "security
| alerts" per hour, as NIS informs me of an attempted intrusion by a trojan
| horse.
| About a week ago I turned on the Windows firewall ON TOP OF Norton, and I
| haven't had a security alert since. I suspect, of course, that the Windows
| firewall is intercepting these attempted intrusions before they get to
| Norton.
| I've read sneering remarks in these pages about the inadequacy of the
| Windows firewall, but maybe it's not so bad?

 

[JD]

I might have thought so too, but I read on the Symantec site that using
Windows firewall did not cause a conflict, though they suggested that the
Windows firewall only be turned on after the Norton firewall was set up.

 

[Tom Swift]

Carey's advice was correct. There is nothing gained by having more than one
firewall application running, and doing this can compromise the
effectiveness of the firewall.

Tom Swift

 

[Don]

If you check Symantec's website and do a search for the
name of the Trojan Horse Attack, you will probably come up
with the solution. If it's the same one that I was
getting, it will explain to you that it is a program on
your own computer that is causing this and it is of no
harm. The solution is to go to your firewell settings,
click advanced, and under Trojan Horses, look for the one
that is causing this and change its setting. The security
alerts will stop. Hope this helps.

 

[JD]

FWIW, this from the Symantec Website:
Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall and Windows XP
You are running Windows XP Home or Professional Edition, and you want to
know whether it is safe to use Norton Internet Security (NIS) or Norton
Personal Firewall (NPF).
The following NIS and NPF versions are compatible with Windows XP Home and
Professional Editions.
Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2003
Norton Personal Firewall (NPF) 2003
Norton Internet Security 2003 Professional Edition (NIS Pro)
Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2002
Norton Personal Firewall (NPF) 2002
Norton Internet Security 2002 Professional Edition (NIS Pro)
All previous versions of NIS and NPF are not compatible or supported with
any build or release of Windows XP. If you want to use NIS or NPF with
Windows XP, you must upgrade to NIS or NPF 2002 or later.
NIS and NPF do not support Windows XP 64-bit Edition and Windows XP Server
versions.
Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall
Symantec recommends that the Windows XP (Home and Professional Editions)
Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) feature be disabled before installing NIS
or NPF. After the installation, the Windows XP firewall feature can be
enabled and will work with NIS and NPF.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...ws 2000/Me/98/XP&src=sg&pcode=nis&svy=&csm=no

Carey's advice was correct. There is nothing gained by having more than one
firewall application running, and doing this can compromise the
effectiveness of the firewall.

Tom Swift

I might have thought so too, but I read on the Symantec site that using
Windows firewall did not cause a conflict, though they suggested that the
Windows firewall only be turned on after the Norton firewall was set up.

When using a third-party firewall program, you need to
turn-off XP's firewall to avoid conflicts. Having two
firewalls running may negate both.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- since
early

| August, and have become accustomed to receiving two or three "security
| alerts" per hour, as NIS informs me of an attempted intrusion by a trojan
| horse.
| About a week ago I turned on the Windows firewall ON TOP OF Norton,

and

I
| haven't had a security alert since. I suspect, of course, that the Windows
| firewall is intercepting these attempted intrusions before they get to
| Norton.
| I've read sneering remarks in these pages about the inadequacy of the
| Windows firewall, but maybe it's not so bad?

 

[JD]

I'm not sure what you mean by "change its settings." I did follow up on a
number of these attempted intrusions and they came from all over the globe.
Most recently from Germany and France.

 

[Paul B T Hodges]

One of the issues people have with the MS firewall is to do with outgoing
traffic.
It allows holes automatically for ms software, windows messenger for example
to access the internet.

If you disable the messenger ports in icf they just reappear. Running a 3rd
party firewall allows control over what you're pc is sending out onto the
net.

Paul

 

[JD]

I'm not sure I understand the point here. It is or is not a good idea to run
Windows firewall on top of a third party firewall?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

When using a third-party firewall program, you need to
turn-off XP's firewall to avoid conflicts. Having two
firewalls running may negate both.

Do not run two (2) different firewall programs simultaneously.

 

[Don]

JD - The specific Trojan Horse that I am refereing to is
the NetSpy Trojan Horse. What I mean by change its
settings is to "uncheck" the box which refers to this
Trojan Horse in NIS firewall settings, ADVANCED tab,
Trojan Horses. Nonetheless, whatever the name of the
Trojan Horse is, type its name under SEARCH on the
Symantec WebSite, and it will give you all the information
that you need.

 

[Paul B T Hodges]

If you look at the relative location of my response in the thread hierarchy,
I was responding to your origninal post which put the question

"I've read sneering remarks in these pages about the inadequacy of the
Windows firewall, but maybe it's not so bad?"

Paul