- WinXP ICF vs Zone Alarm?

[The Cerebral Ass ©]

Those of you who've been following my adventures know that a friend of mine
is suspected of having contracted the Blaster worm, and since the computer
is only a week old, we thought we'd just reformat it.

That being said, I was wondering... I am used to turning off the WinXP
firewall and replacing it with ZoneAlarm... and no one will convince me of
doing otherwise on my own computer... but for her... since she's not really
a "power user", and basically just surfs the web all night long... is Zone
Alarm really necessary?

Could I just let her be with the internal WinXP firewall and sleep easy?

 

[Nicholas]

XP's firewall is very basic. I suggest installing one
that is virtually bullet-proof and is comprehensive:

Norton Internet Security 2003
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe/

-- Includes Norton AntiVirus 2003
-- Includes Norton Personal Firewall
-- Includes prevention of annoying web pop-ups
-- Includes Parental Controls
-- All in one, easy-to-install package

Note: Always disable XP's built-in firewall if using
a third-party firewall program (to eliminate any conflicts).


Essential Security Tools for Home Office Users
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...l=/technet/columns/security/5min/5min-105.asp


--
Nicholas

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


| Those of you who've been following my adventures know that a friend of mine
| is suspected of having contracted the Blaster worm, and since the computer
| is only a week old, we thought we'd just reformat it.
|
| That being said, I was wondering... I am used to turning off the WinXP
| firewall and replacing it with ZoneAlarm... and no one will convince me of
| doing otherwise on my own computer... but for her... since she's not really
| a "power user", and basically just surfs the web all night long... is Zone
| Alarm really necessary?
|
| Could I just let her be with the internal WinXP firewall and sleep easy?
|
|

 

[Nicholas]

XP's ICF does NOT block outgoing traffic. It only monitors traffic one way.
A potential hacker or any Trojan which may have slipped onto your system can
easily send info from your computer without any interference from ICF.

ZoneAlarm is a good firewall. What I like best about Norton's firewall
program is it does a much better job of configuring and updating itself.
It's smart enough to know which ports should be open for programs
and which should not. ZoneAlarm requires you to manually guess what
ports should be open. For the novice user, Norton is a better choice.


--
Nicholas

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


| Thanks, but that is also expensive. We're trying to look at free firewall
| options... hence the ICF vs Zone Alarm question.
|
| Is the ICF the equivalent to ZA, or is ZA still ahead of the ICF with its
| regular updates?
|
| | XP's firewall is very basic. I suggest installing one
| that is virtually bullet-proof and is comprehensive:
|
| Norton Internet Security 2003
| http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe/
|
| -- Includes Norton AntiVirus 2003
| -- Includes Norton Personal Firewall
| -- Includes prevention of annoying web pop-ups
| -- Includes Parental Controls
| -- All in one, easy-to-install package
|
| Note: Always disable XP's built-in firewall if using
| a third-party firewall program (to eliminate any conflicts).
|
|
| Essential Security Tools for Home Office Users
| http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...l=/technet/columns/security/5min/5min-105.asp
|
|
| --
| Nicholas
|
|

 

[Alex Nichol]

ZoneAlarm is a good firewall. What I like best about Norton's firewall
program is it does a much better job of configuring and updating itself.
It's smart enough to know which ports should be open for programs
and which should not. ZoneAlarm requires you to manually guess what
ports should be open.

Zone Alarm does *not* . For the novice it is quite nice. When a
program first tries to access the net, it asks if this should be
allowed, and has a check box to say 'assume the answer (yes or no)'
Every time. You do *not* have even to know what ports are.

And it is free. As is AVG - a quite adequate antivirus, and an AV
running real-time is essential for a novice at present.

On a new machine though I would activate the ICF before ever going on
the net. Then get the update against the Blaster worm and its friends
(http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;824146#WinXP) and then if
you install a separate firewall to handle outgoing 'phone home' as well,
consider turning ICF off,

 

[Don Thomson]

For a Single User,at home the ICF will probably do just fine as long as your
Virus Protection is up to date and is working. If it's more than 1 week old
and doesn't check for updates automatically at least every day then you may
as well just leave your front door open and put out a sign - attack me.

I don't use software firewalls and I don't let any of my clients use them
either. For about $40-50 you can get a NAT Router/Firewall that will
protect you much better than any software firewall. If you are on a network
(home or office) you definitely want a hardware fire wall. It is cheap (less
a service call to fix a screwed up
pc) and it won't interfere with all your programs. It is unaffected by
viruses that you may inadvertently may get (the first thing they try do is
to bypass your software firewall and turn off you virus scan software.)

It's great to get free stuff but if you want to protect your system - be
smart - either install a hardware firewall (linksys, d-link, gnet - any of
them) or unplug you PC from the internet and don't reconnect it.

ZoneAlarm is a good firewall. What I like best about Norton's firewall
program is it does a much better job of configuring and updating itself.
It's smart enough to know which ports should be open for programs
and which should not. ZoneAlarm requires you to manually guess what
ports should be open.

Zone Alarm does *not* . For the novice it is quite nice. When a
program first tries to access the net, it asks if this should be
allowed, and has a check box to say 'assume the answer (yes or no)'
Every time. You do *not* have even to know what ports are.

And it is free. As is AVG - a quite adequate antivirus, and an AV
running real-time is essential for a novice at present.

On a new machine though I would activate the ICF before ever going on
the net. Then get the update against the Blaster worm and its friends
(http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;824146#WinXP) and then if
you install a separate firewall to handle outgoing 'phone home' as well,
consider turning ICF off,

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

A NAT router is often better than a software product, at least to
block unwanted incoming traffic.

However, even good hardware firewalls do nothing to protect the
user from him/herself, or his/her uninformed children/spouse/parent.
Almost all spyware and many Trojans and worms are downloaded and
installed deliberately (albeit unknowingly) by the user. So a
software firewall that can detect and warn the user of unauthorized
out-going traffic is an important element of protecting one's privacy
and security.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[nukemed]

Semi-related question:
Can the linksys cable router's firewal functionality block IE6 from
connecting to certain sites?
I have 2 sites I can't get to via Comcast cable, zonelabs.com and
Kellys Korner, which both worked fine before.

This now happens on both the XP laptop and the W98 desktop.
I've never visited Kellys site on the W98DT.

Comcast support says it's not them, I uninstalled
Zonealarm and Adaware, still no luck.

Did a sysrestore to the day after I hooked up the router and NW'd the
2 machines, nogood.

Did a repair reinstall of XP, no luck.

Only thing left to try is pulling out the router and going cable
direct to the computer again, but this problem did not start
immediateley after the router hookuo, all was well for a couple of
weeks.

FWIW, 1st I only used the router to have both machines online, a week
later I NW'd to pull files off the DT to the laptop.

So the weird thing is the weird behavior transferred from the laptop
XP to the W98DT

 

[Unnamed]

Semi-related question:
Can the linksys cable router's firewal functionality block IE6 from
connecting to certain sites?

If you are talking about certain sites, not all, check this out:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article04-107