Firewall Choices

[Marek Williams]

I hvae McAfee firewall on my Windows 2000 computer. It was free for
the first year for Comcast users.

However, I can't stand it. It is riddled with adware, popups, and it
has become so annoying that I have no choice but to uninstall it. Just
to give you an idea of how insidious this thing is, to shut down all
its popups you have to block internet access to all its components.
Plus, it has a scheduled task to check for updates, and you have to
disable that too. Well, today I had to restart the computer after
installing Acrobat, and when I restarted it, McAfee firewall had reset
all the settings I had disabled, including the scheduled task.

I simply cannot tolerate the arrogance of a company that thinks it has
the right to do that to my computer. Frankly, I'd rather have a virus.

I am behind a simple router, but the router has no hardware firewall.
I don't need antivirus or anything else, just a firewall. Are there
any firewall choices besides McAfee?

 

[DavieC]

ZoneAlarm

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/appli...atalogHome&&zl_catalog_view_id=201&lid=nav_ho

(link may wrap) is good. Gives good protection out-the-box and I thought it
was reasonably priced. Or maybe Tiny Software's Personal Firewall:

http://www.tinysoftware.com/home/tiny2?s=3195360034090785883A0&offer=standard&pg=tpf5_home

(link may wrap)

DavieC

 

[DL]

The free version of ZoneAlarm is reccomended by many

 

[Dan Seur]

I use both ZA (the freebie version) and Tiny Pers Firewall. Both are
very easy to install and configure, non-interfering after a short period
of use after installation as access rules are automatically established
via Q&A popups, and are very effective. Of the two I actually prefer
TPF; in certain circumstances I'll shut ZA down to speed traffic.

Occasional use of the "ShieldsUp" function at www.grc.com ensures that
all my "unnecessary" W2k ports are and remain completely unresponsive
and invisible to network port-scanning robots.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Personally, I'd pick up a cheap hardware firewall. You can get a NetGear
FR114P for about $84 from CDW. No resource load on your computer at all.

 

[Marek Williams]

I use both ZA (the freebie version) and Tiny Pers Firewall. Both are
very easy to install and configure, non-interfering after a short period
of use after installation as access rules are automatically established
via Q&A popups, and are very effective. Of the two I actually prefer
TPF; in certain circumstances I'll shut ZA down to speed traffic.

Thanks for the response.

I had ZoneAlarm once quite a while ago before going to cable. It was a
pain. At least once every couple of weeks suddenly Pegasus or Opera
was unable to access the internet. No change in my settings in
ZoneAlarm -- but it just took it upon itself to block them for no
reason apparently. Had to shut down the computer and restart it to get
things back to normal. Eventually I gave up and uninstalled it. For
all its annoyances, at least when I tell McAfee that a program has
permission it lets it through without problems.

Would like to try Tiny, but couldn't find the answer to a couple
questions on their website --

1) Is the $49.95 for a single user a permanent fee or an annual fee?

2) Does it automatically update itself? If so, can I turn it off
without sending it into conniptions? I mean, this is my computer. I
paid for it. I'll decide when and if something gets updated.

TIA

 

[Phil]

I wewnt through Norton, McAfee and the combo ZoneAlarm with PC-Cillin for my
Linksys Network Devices. All seemed to have troubles leting me get to the
internet or blocking ports used by trojans. I use Sygate Personal Firewall
Pro with the free AVG6 antivirus. Sygate has a test site that will evaluate
if your system is still open to attacks through your firewall (that's why I
got rid of the others they were open on a lot of ports) check out the site
and see if your firewall is good enough. http://scan.sygate.com/