Firewalls

[bodhi]

Hi Guys,

About to install broadband onto a laptop with Win98SE. 98 doesnt have a built in firewall like XP, so i was wondering, is it best to install a firewall, and whats the best free one you can download. OH, and is it easy to configure it?

Cheers.

 

[Techy]

Kerio!

and there's always zone alarm, but that doesn't do it for me!

 

[Reefsmoka]

I'm a Zone Alarm man meself, its served me well so far, and i have friends that have been usining it for years (so it must be doing something right).

 

[muckshifter]

ALWAYS USE A FIREWALL

Just install ALL the programs in my sig' ... if ZA is not to your taste, there are other equally as good firewalls on the market ... free is good, paid for programs usually offer more configuration.

 

[ChristopherP]

I, since SP2, just use the standard windows XP firewall. Blocks all pop-ups and stops any nast stuff like rogue programs that come up in your task bar etc etc. Its discreet so its out of my way and just does its job perfectly.

Seems good.

 

[muckshifter]

Hi Guys,

About to install broadband onto a laptop with Win98SE. 98 doesnt have a built in firewall like XP, so i was wondering, is it best to install a firewall, and whats the best free one you can download. OH, and is it easy to configure it?

Cheers.

christopher ... you really should put your reading glasses on.

 

[Shorty]

Id recommend Sygate as I find it a little more intuitive to use than Kerio.

Although Kerio is a great firewall (I use it on my own PC), it does require a little more indepth understanding of firewall and network technology than Sygate does

ZoneAlarm.. sorry but for me it's yeuck. (but that's just my opinion).

 

[bodhi]

Had a look, albeit a quick look, at zone alarm and kerio. Looks like you get 30 days free and then you have to pay? IS that the case with them all, or are there some that you can just download and away you go?

 

[ChristopherP]

yessssss i know that mucks i was just saying

 

[Reefsmoka]

ole mucks dont miss a thing!

 

[ChristopherP]

your right there...

 

[Techy]

i prefer software that lets me configure as much as possible, software that makes life easy, in my experience is not as good.

if you don't understand how to use/configure a firewall then read up on it and learn, won't do you any harm. most people that go out and buy firewall's aren't even sure what they do, they've just heard off a "mate" that they need one.

being a "techy" i like to know how things work, that way you can make an educated decision on whether something is necessary.

the rule at the mo seems to be that you HAVE GOT TO HAVE AND WOULD BE MAD NOT TO HAVE antivirus, spyware and firewall software, although this maybe true, do you not find your self in a battle between performance and security???

personally i think that installing AV s/w is a must, spyware scanners can be run periodically and do not need to be running constantly and XP's inbuilt firewall is sufficent as long as it is run alongside a hardware firewall ie a router with firewall.

again personally, (i'm a very personal person! ) all the recent hype about viruses and worms is over the top, keep up to date with windows updates and thats half the job done!

don't line the pockets of Mr Symantec and Mr McAfee any more than you have to!

interested in opinions on this, the way i see it is that the built in firewall in XP SP2 offers equivelent if not higher protection against attacks than kerio and zonealarm, the original XP firewall was a joke, we all know that, but has microsoft got this one right??? i think so.

J

 

[bodhi]

Well, i think my home pc is fine as i have adaware which i do run periodically, AVX anti virus which again i run frequently and the XP firewall aswell as an inbuilt firewall in my BT wireless broadband router. So that should be me pretty safe. However, the original question was whether i should put a firewall on a friends laptop who is running win98SE which doesnt have in-built firewall protection. The owner of the laptop is getting BT broadband on tuesday, but not with a hardware firewall, just the cheap BT USB modem.

Have been reading up on it techy, just a lot of conflicting opinions, as you say, security V's performance. But anyway, may the arguments begin...........

 

[muckshifter]

We don't (normally) have 'arguments' here at PCR, just differences of opinions.

I consider this an asset ... I have never taken the 'word' of one person but always sought other opinions. I think we have a verity of knowledgeable people here that offer a complimentary 'voice' of opinions.

It's 'my' opinion that any system that connects to the internet using broadband should also install a firewall. With most broadband, there are exceptions, connection are "on" all the time the computer is turned on.

One of the biggest reasons I would want you to install a firewall is not just off the 'protection' it can offer you, but also the protection it offers to me. I don't want to find out I'm being targeted via an unprotected computer, and the owner doesn’t even know it.

Actually, it's been some time since I had a "software firewall" installed on 3 of my systems, I've relied heavily on my router to defend my 'network' (along with the usual additional programs) against outside attack ... Smacks of do as I say & not as I do ... My excuse, if you can call it that, is the lack of understanding of 'how a firewall works' ... or to be more precise, 'how to configure' a firewall to work over a network. At last I've found one that, well, just works ... XPs very own.

Whether you install a Free or Paid for Firewall is up to you. There are swings 'n roundabouts to both. My choice would be ZoneAlarm free, or Norton Internet Security ... they both have their own problems, it's for you to decide, but please, please for the sake of others on the Internet, install a Firewall.

 

[ChristopherP]

The reason i chose XP's was because i wanted optimal performance out of my machine and didnt want to be bothered by any programs such as Norton (which i had used for years previously) and i only stopped using it sine the release of SP2. That coupled with the NAT in my router i think makes me PC fairly secure - i also run adaware every so often to see whats getting through and not much actually does...

Bodhi - your friend would need a firewall for broadband. I would reccomend the "Norton Internet Security" suite if he is willing to pay some money as this comes with Norton Anti Virus 2004 as well as the very sfe, popular firewall that is widely used today and updated almost on a daily basis for max protection. Personally, i hated zone alarm - it doesn't seem as professional as Norton but then again, its probably cheaper + you can download it and have 30 days free.

Its up to him really - whether he wants the best and goes out and buys Norton or whether he just wants a free one.

At the end of the day, i expect they will all do the job similary so i dont think there will be TOO much difference...

 

[GDrew]

hi do you have any problems with your maxtor hard drive like it suddenly saying it isn't formatted?

gdrew

 

[newbuilder]

As regard to Bodhi's question on the 13th, zonelalarm is totally free of charge but they might try to plug you ZoneAlarm Pro, just click on ZoneAlarm when the options come up see http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/comparison.jsp?lid=ho_za

 

[Thermaltke]

just took someones advice, and clicked to download zone alarm, within 5 mins it was up and running, exellent highly reccomended and yes you definately need one. it protects agains viruses already on the comp too so it will wipe those nasty bugs grrrrr.

166 intrusions have been stopped since install.
7 of which were high risk!

installed about 5 hour ago, and this comp was a hackers playground, but not no more

 

[Techy]

it protects agains viruses already on the comp too so it will wipe those nasty bugs grrrrr.

zonealarm won't do anything about viruses. that would be anti virus software not firewall.

 

[muckshifter]

zonealarm won't do anything about viruses. that would be anti virus software not firewall.

And that's just the "mistake" people can make.



We NEED a firewall, we NEED an AV program we also NEED a couple of other programmes to assist with the other "nasties" that can 'infect' our PCs ... namely a "Trojan scanner", such as http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/a2 squared (Free) and or http://www.trojanhunter.com/Trojan Hunter and Ad-Aware and or SpybotSD AND SpywareBlaster ... and Critical Updates from MS, still the little buggers find a way in through those defences.

We can but try.