Vista firewall

[Smirnoff]

My son has just bought his first PC (Vista), he is not yet online.

He has asked me to help him set it up. I run XP.

My first thoughts were to download a decent firewall and AV.

Reading some threads in this NG gives me the impression that Vista's
firewall is an improvement over XP's in that it blocks both incoming AND
outgoing attempts.

Is it still recommended to run a third party firewall with Vista? I run
Comodo on my XP machine.

 

[carl feredeck]

download avast home antivirus (free) and use the built in Vista firewall

I don't use a third party firewall on XP either, if you are afraid of
TRANSMITTING viruses then you don't need a better firewall
you need a better antivirus!

Comondo sucks by the way...

 

[Smirnoff]

Thanks for the reply. However, regarding firewalls, I'm not afraid of
transmitting viruses, I'm afraid of transmitting information.

Regarding AV's, I use AVG on my XP machine and will download it to my
son's machine as well.

 

[fered carleck]

I'm afraid of transmitting information.

Then unplug your internet cable...

As for Vista? It will be transmitting again and again to MS that you can
"Trust" because they are benevolent

Good luck with the worse OS ever made

Avast is better than AVG.

 

[Smirnoff]

Then unplug your internet cable...

Do you know how a firewall works? You seem to be the only person that I
know who relies solely on XP's firewall.

When I said "I'm afraid of transmitting information", I assumed you
would realise I meant 'unsolicited' info sent by a malicious program
that could do the job if a virus/trojan managed to get by AV protection
(and occasionally, they do).

As for Vista? It will be transmitting again and again to MS that you
can
"Trust" because they are benevolent

Good luck with the worse OS ever made

Avast is better than AVG.

It seems you have total faith in Avast if you run a firewall without any
outgoing protection. Good luck.

 

[Alias]

My son has just bought his first PC (Vista), he is not yet online.

He has asked me to help him set it up. I run XP.

My first thoughts were to download a decent firewall and AV.

Reading some threads in this NG gives me the impression that Vista's
firewall is an improvement over XP's in that it blocks both incoming AND
outgoing attempts.

Is it still recommended to run a third party firewall with Vista? I run
Comodo on my XP machine.

I recommend not using *anything* from Microsoft to protect you from the
Internet. Use Comodo and either AVG or Avast. I prefer Avast and I
particularly like the boot scan it does.

Alias

 

[Smirnoff]

I recommend not using *anything* from Microsoft to protect you from
the Internet. Use Comodo and either AVG or Avast. I prefer Avast and I
particularly like the boot scan it does.

Alias

I see, thanks.

 

[Ron]

You seem to be the only person that I know who relies solely on XP's

firewall.

You must live on a remote island with your dog skippy.
Not many people to meet and know there huh?

 

[Smirnoff]

You must live on a remote island with your dog skippy.
Not many people to meet and know there huh?

Well, I should have said I don't know any sensible people that rely
solely on XP's firewall.

What gets me is the poster seems paranoiac about MS:

"As for Vista? It will be transmitting again and again to MS that you
can
"Trust" because they are benevolent" (sic).

"I don't use a third party firewall on XP either, if you are afraid of
TRANSMITTING viruses then you don't need a better firewall you need a
better antivirus!"

So, he's paranoiac about MS yet he uses a firewall designed and shipped
with an MS OS.

Sheesh!

 

[Ron]

I dont understand your complaints, he is correct about everything he said.

 

[Smirnoff]

I don't understand your post.

I dont understand your complaints, he is correct about everything he
said.

 

[john sumner]

Then unplug your internet cable...

As for Vista? It will be transmitting again and again to MS that you
can "Trust" because they are benevolent

Good luck with the worse OS ever made

Avast is better than AVG.

Hey genious please bottom post.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Do you know how a firewall works? You seem to be the only person that I
know who relies solely on XP's firewall.

No firewall that runs on your computer can be relied upon to stop outgoing
traffic. Once your computer is owned by malware the malware can go around
the firewall or disable the firewall. Relying on a firewall to warn you
about outgoing malicious traffic gives you a false sense of security. The
fact that some 3rd party firewalls warn you about some malicious outgoing
traffic only enforces this perception. A firewall is an important layer of
your security but don't rely on it to do something it can't. I don't use XP
any more but most of the computers I support run XP. I use the XP firewall
on them but I don't rely solely on the firewall. The firewall is the second
layer of the inbound defense. It is only one of many layers. For most users
the Windows firewall (both XP and Vista) is more than good enough.

 

[Smirnoff]

No firewall that runs on your computer can be relied upon to stop
outgoing traffic. Once your computer is owned by malware the malware
can go around the firewall or disable the firewall. Relying on a
firewall to warn you about outgoing malicious traffic gives you a
false sense of security. The fact that some 3rd party firewalls warn
you about some malicious outgoing traffic only enforces this
perception. A firewall is an important layer of your security but
don't rely on it to do something it can't. I don't use XP any more but
most of the computers I support run XP. I use the XP firewall on them
but I don't rely solely on the firewall. The firewall is the second
layer of the inbound defense. It is only one of many layers. For most
users the Windows firewall (both XP and Vista) is more than good
enough.

--

Yes, I certainly don't rely on a firewall alone (Comodo). I have all the
usual programs in place - AVG, Ad-Aware, SuperAntispyware, Spybot S&D,
Windows Defender etc.

I run XP but the question was about my son's Vista machine. My original
question was:

"Reading some threads in this NG gives me the impression that Vista's
firewall is an improvement over XP's in that it blocks both incoming AND
outgoing attempts.

Is it still recommended to run a third party firewall with Vista? I run
Comodo on my XP machine".

I then got involved with some stupid posts.

It is obvious that you think Vista's firewall is adequate (with
associated anti-nasty programs). Fair enough, thank you.

As regards XP's firewall, I take your point about third party firewalls
not necessarily being able to stop outgoing traffic when the machine is
infected but at least some (unlike XP's) are designed to at least try.