WinXP Firewall (Home Edition)

[Steve]

The best thing you could do is get a network firewall
such as a Linksys instead of using the windows firewall.
The reason I say this is to stop the traffic before it
gets to your network instead of letting the computer
decide what to do with the packets. They run about $40-
$50 at any computer retailer.

-----Original Message-----
Hello

I've enabled the WinXP firewall. I have a Blueyonder

Broadband Connection and am confused when it comes to the
advanced parameter options of the firewall in the
advanced section, from the firewall settings window.
Please could you guide me through the parameters that I
require to be enabled! I read the article
at "http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/ex
pert/bowman_november12.mspx" where I learnt to set my
parameters of the firewall to enable file sharing over
Messenger. By the way - does this also work for MSN
messenger? I would like to know whether there are any
other programs of popular use e.g. For Windows Media
Player streaming media, E-Mail programs, etc where
parameters of the included WinXP firewall need to be
amended.

One thing I have noted that regularly occurs regarding

my ISP, is hat I keep receiving 'Anti-Virus Protection'
mails. They attach an E-Mail that was sent to me with an
attachment specified by the sender. Therefore, all mail
with attachments that are sent to me are automatically
received in this way in my inbox. Is this the work of the
firewall? I have enabled attachments to be opened in
Outlook Express options, so I'm not sure if it's the
firewall or just my ISP settings somewhere.

 

[Star Fleet Admiral Q]

Best practice nowadays is to run both soft and hardware
firewalls - especially with a home network - hardware can protect you
from most internet attacks, but does nothing for internal network
attacks. And hardware firewalls don't detect unauthorized outgoing
packets, like Trojans always phoning home, not to mention software
firewalls can interface directly with your AV software, and save your
bacon from an infected PC within your internal network.
The problem, people don't want to take the time to properly
configure the software firewall to work with shared access to internal
network resources - it is work, time and effort to accomplish both,
unauthorized external access, but authorized internal access.