Firewall shopping.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg
  • Start date Start date
G

Greg

Just a quick question regarding firewalls. I am sensing a lot of dislike
for Symantec products and I was wondering why. I find Symantec firewall to
be pretty good. Care to offfer some insight why I should be leary?

TIA
 
Symantec products are bigtime resource hogs... I was using Zone Alarm SS but now I have Vista there
firewall is very good, I use Avast pro along with it.

Paul

btw, I know they are resource hogs because I have removed them from other people's systems. They
seem to come as third party in many preinstalled OSs... my Vista did too... ha-ha, that was gone it
2 sec!

Do a Google search "best firewall" and you will get a lot of information... Comodo is excellent and
free.
 
Thanks for your feedback....You are indeed correct about resources but that
isn't really an issue in my case. I was more concerned with seucrity
benefits. It appears thight as hell. (Maybe too tight unless tweaked).

Thanks again for your feedback
 
Greg said:
Just a quick question regarding firewalls. I am sensing a lot of dislike
for Symantec products and I was wondering why. I find Symantec firewall
to be pretty good. Care to offfer some insight why I should be leary?

TIA

TIA,

You can choose to heed the warnings about Norton/Symantec products or
you can choose to ignore them. The choice is yours. Read the articles and
make your own decision.
I preferred the free Comodo firewall, which in my opinion is one of the
best available. I used Comodo with my Vista until January of this year.
However, I was forced to uninstall it due to the continuous problems it
caused with the installation of Windows updates, and to the best of my
knowledge these issues have not yet been addressed by Comodo. I will no
longer recommend that people use Comodo, but then again, I won't trash their
product either. I am now using the Windows firewall embedded in my Vista
Ultimate and in my opinion it is sufficient.
I would stay away from anything ZoneAlarm, Norton/Symantec, McAfee and
TrendMicro. In my opinion they are all bloated applications and incompatible
with Vista. They all cause many more problems than they solve, especially
regarding email and internet connections. Many people will disagree with me
and that is their right. My opinions are based solely on my personal
experience with all these products. They all worked fine with my XP
computers but that was then and this is now.

C.B.
 
Just a quick question regarding firewalls. I am sensing a lot of dislike
for Symantec products and I was wondering why. I find Symantec firewall to
be pretty good. Care to offfer some insight why I should be leary?

Uninstall it using Norton's own uninstall tool
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
and get a refund :)
As suggested on the site, you may wish to print out the directions before
proceeding.
Or
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html

If the Norton removal tool doesn't work satisfactory use this:
Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Remove unwanted programs and traces easily
http://www.revouninstaller.com/
and/or
RegSeeker
http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm
RegSeeker will remove all associated detritus (registry keys,files and
folders) from any application. I found this application user friendly and
very effective but suggest *not* to use the 'Clean the Registry' option.
Click onto 'Find in registry' and in the 'Search for' box type *Norton*;
The pertinent registry keys can then be safely deleted (just in case,
ensure that the 'Backup before deletion' is checked). Repeat the task by
typing in the Search for' box *Symantec*. You can then go on search and
remove associated files as well.
Then use NTREGOPT to compact the registry; Follow instructions.
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt

You are not going to find anything better than the Vista FW and Vista in
itself due to the advanced features the FW and Vista are using.

"Personal Firewalls" are mostly snake-oil.
http://www.samspade.org/d/firewalls.html

Jesper's Blogs-
At Least This Snake Oil Is Free.
http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2007/07/19/at-least-this-snake-oil-is-free.aspx
Windows Firewall: the best new security feature in Vista?
http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2006/05/01/426921.aspx

Exploring The Windows Firewall.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/06/VistaFirewall/default.aspx
"If you try to block outbound connections from a computer that’s already
compromised, how can you be sure that the computer is really doing what you
ask? The answer: you can’t. Outbound protection is security theater—it’s a
gimmick that only gives the impression of improving your security without
doing anything that actually does improve your security. This is why
outbound protection didn’t exist in the Windows XP firewall and why it
doesn’t exist in the Windows Vista™ firewall."

Tap into the Vista firewall's advanced configuration features
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6098592.html
"...once you discover the secret of accessing its advanced configuration
settings via the MMC snap-in, you'll find it to be far more configurable
and functional. At last, Windows comes with a sophisticated personal
firewall that can be used to set up outbound rules as well as inbound, with
the ability to customize rules to fit your precise needs."
Or
Configure Vista Firewall to support outbound packet filtering
http://searchwindowssecurity.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid45_gci1247138,00.html
Or
Vista Firewall Control (Free versions available).
Protects your applications from undesirable network incoming and outgoing
activity, controls applications internet access.
http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/
 
Just a quick question regarding firewalls. I am sensing a lot of dislike
for Symantec products and I was wondering why. I find Symantec firewall to
be pretty good. Care to offfer some insight why I should be leary?

Uninstall it using Norton's own uninstall tool
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
and get a refund :)
As suggested on the site, you may wish to print out the directions before
proceeding.
Or
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html

If the Norton removal tool doesn't work satisfactory use this:
Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Remove unwanted programs and traces easily
http://www.revouninstaller.com/
and/or
RegSeeker
http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm
RegSeeker will remove all associated detritus (registry keys,files and
folders) from any application. I found this application user friendly and
very effective but suggest *not* to use the 'Clean the Registry' option.
Click onto 'Find in registry' and in the 'Search for' box type *Norton*;
The pertinent registry keys can then be safely deleted (just in case,
ensure that the 'Backup before deletion' is checked). Repeat the task by
typing in the Search for' box *Symantec*. You can then go on search and
remove associated files as well.
Then use NTREGOPT to compact the registry; Follow instructions.
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt

You are not going to find anything better than the Vista FW and Vista in
itself due to the advanced features the FW and Vista are using.

"Personal Firewalls" are mostly snake-oil.
http://www.samspade.org/d/firewalls.html

Jesper's Blogs-
At Least This Snake Oil Is Free.
http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2007/07/19/at-least-this-snake-oil-is-free.aspx
Windows Firewall: the best new security feature in Vista?
http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2006/05/01/426921.aspx

Exploring The Windows Firewall.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/06/VistaFirewall/default.aspx
"If you try to block outbound connections from a computer that’s already
compromised, how can you be sure that the computer is really doing what you
ask? The answer: you can’t. Outbound protection is security theater—it’s a
gimmick that only gives the impression of improving your security without
doing anything that actually does improve your security. This is why
outbound protection didn’t exist in the Windows XP firewall and why it
doesn’t exist in the Windows Vista™ firewall."

Tap into the Vista firewall's advanced configuration features
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6098592.html
"...once you discover the secret of accessing its advanced configuration
settings via the MMC snap-in, you'll find it to be far more configurable
and functional. At last, Windows comes with a sophisticated personal
firewall that can be used to set up outbound rules as well as inbound, with
the ability to customize rules to fit your precise needs."
Or
Configure Vista Firewall to support outbound packet filtering
http://searchwindowssecurity.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid45_gci1247138,00.html
Or
Vista Firewall Control (Free versions available).
Protects your applications from undesirable network incoming and outgoing
activity, controls applications internet access.
http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/
 
Just a quick question regarding firewalls. I am sensing a lot of dislike
for Symantec products and I was wondering why. I find Symantec firewall to
be pretty good. Care to offfer some insight why I should be leary?

Uninstall it using Norton's own uninstall tool
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
and get a refund :)
As suggested on the site, you may wish to print out the directions before
proceeding.
Or
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html

If the Norton removal tool doesn't work satisfactory use this:
Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Remove unwanted programs and traces easily
http://www.revouninstaller.com/
and/or
RegSeeker
http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm
RegSeeker will remove all associated detritus (registry keys,files and
folders) from any application. I found this application user friendly and
very effective but suggest *not* to use the 'Clean the Registry' option.
Click onto 'Find in registry' and in the 'Search for' box type *Norton*;
The pertinent registry keys can then be safely deleted (just in case,
ensure that the 'Backup before deletion' is checked). Repeat the task by
typing in the Search for' box *Symantec*. You can then go on search and
remove associated files as well.
Then use NTREGOPT to compact the registry; Follow instructions.
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt

You are not going to find anything better than the Vista FW and Vista in
itself due to the advanced features the FW and Vista are using.

"Personal Firewalls" are mostly snake-oil.
http://www.samspade.org/d/firewalls.html

Jesper's Blogs-
At Least This Snake Oil Is Free.
http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2007/07/19/at-least-this-snake-oil-is-free.aspx
Windows Firewall: the best new security feature in Vista?
http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2006/05/01/426921.aspx

Exploring The Windows Firewall.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/06/VistaFirewall/default.aspx
"If you try to block outbound connections from a computer that’s already
compromised, how can you be sure that the computer is really doing what you
ask? The answer: you can’t. Outbound protection is security theater—it’s a
gimmick that only gives the impression of improving your security without
doing anything that actually does improve your security. This is why
outbound protection didn’t exist in the Windows XP firewall and why it
doesn’t exist in the Windows Vista™ firewall."

Tap into the Vista firewall's advanced configuration features
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6098592.html
"...once you discover the secret of accessing its advanced configuration
settings via the MMC snap-in, you'll find it to be far more configurable
and functional. At last, Windows comes with a sophisticated personal
firewall that can be used to set up outbound rules as well as inbound, with
the ability to customize rules to fit your precise needs."
Or
Configure Vista Firewall to support outbound packet filtering
http://searchwindowssecurity.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid45_gci1247138,00.html
Or
Vista Firewall Control (Free versions available).
Protects your applications from undesirable network incoming and outgoing
activity, controls applications internet access.
http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/
 
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