XP firewall working

[wheat66]

I recently enabled the XP firewall. In Network
Connections, my dial-up connection shows as "firewalled".
The \Windows\pfirewall.log has entries it (I clicked the
box to log "dropped packets"). But I see no indication
the firewall is doing anything; no messages,no system tray
icon; nothing. When I was using the ZoneAlarm firewall, I
frequently saw messages from the firewall. The ZoneAlarm
firewall is been completely removed from my machine.

What should I be seeing?

 

[David Candy]

Should be seeing nothing. It's a firewall and doesn't need to popup dialogs.

 

[Tom Lake]

I recently enabled the XP firewall. In Network

Connections, my dial-up connection shows as "firewalled".
The \Windows\pfirewall.log has entries it (I clicked the
box to log "dropped packets"). But I see no indication
the firewall is doing anything; no messages,no system tray
icon; nothing. When I was using the ZoneAlarm firewall, I
frequently saw messages from the firewall. The ZoneAlarm
firewall is been completely removed from my machine.

What should I be seeing?

Nothing. The XP firewall just makes your PC invisible to other
computers on the Net. It doesn't monitor traffic and intercept it
the way third party firewalls do. To be sure your firewall is
working, go to

http://www.symantec.com/index.htm

and click on Symantec Security Check in the lower left corner.
That will test your firewall. It turns out the XP firewall is actually a
very
good one. I use that and AntiVir virus scanner and have never had a
virus, trojan or worm so far.

Tom Lake

 

[Guest]

It's working. Only indication will be the "Firewalled" status on the network connection.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

You're seeing exactly what you should see.

Well, WinXP's built-in ICF is certainly better than nothing, but
it's no substitute for a real firewall.

WinXP's built-in firewall is _adequate_ at stopping incoming
attacks, and hiding your ports from probes. It doesn't give you any
alarms, or any other kind of indication, to tell you that it is
working, though. Nor is it very easily configurable. What WinXP also
does not do, is protect you from any Trojans or spyware that you (or
someone else using your computer) might download and install
inadvertently. It doesn't monitor out-going traffic at all, other
than to check for IP-spoofing, much less block (or at even ask you
about) the bad or the questionable out-going signals. It assumes that
any application you have on your hard drive is there because you want
it there, and therefore has your "permission" to access the Internet.
Further, because the ICF is a "stateful" firewall, it will also assume
that any incoming traffic that's a direct response to a Trojan's or
spyware's out-going signal is also authorized.

ZoneAlarm, Kerio, or Sygate are all much better than WinXP's
built-in firewall, and are much more easily configured, and there are
free versions of each readily available. Even Symantec's Norton
Personal Firewall is superior by far, although it does take a heavier
toll of system performance then do ZoneAlarm or Sygate.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

There is no comparison between the Windows firewall and ZoneAlarm. The
windows firewall is a basic inbound firewall, while ZoneAlarm is a full
fledged stateful firewall. The windows firewall does not inspect any
outbound traffic.

Bobby

 

[Peter Scott]

Wait till you see the SP2 firewall. That is noticeable. Good though
definitely a must have, but then I have it and you don't yet.

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

The firewall in SP2 is still very rudimentary. Better than not having one,
but not as good a real software firewall such as ZoneAlarm or Norton
Personal Firewall. Zonealarm has a free version, and I fully recommend it
over even the basic SP2 firewall (I am running the BETA SP2 on my machines
here...).

Bobby

 

[Unknown]

Yhere is no need to check outbound if all inbound is checked.

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

Completely wrong....

Websites that you visit can leave cookies on your machine that will forward
info...
Trojans and keyloggers can infect you machine because many antivirus
programs do not detect these....I won't go on because you are obviously too
stupid to understand...

If you are going to spew garbage, please do so at your local dump and not on
these newsgroups...


Bobby

 

[Unknown]

Absolute BS.

Completely wrong....

Websites that you visit can leave cookies on your machine that will forward
info...
Trojans and keyloggers can infect you machine because many antivirus
programs do not detect these....I won't go on because you are obviously too
stupid to understand...

If you are going to spew garbage, please do so at your local dump and not on
these newsgroups...


Bobby