Windows Firewall vs. Other desktop firewalls

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Circus-Killer

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I was just curious at to which is the better option, if there is such a thing. Whether Windows Firewall is good enough or if something like ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall would be better.

Windows Firewall only blocks incoming connections, but allows pretty much all outgoing connections, which if you have some form of malware on your pc, it has free reign on your connection. However, with Sygate you can block both incoming and outgoing, although when setting rules, i was wondering how unsecure those would be.

Essentially, I have a sneaking suspicion that an alternative desktop firewall is the better choice, however, more "complicated" if you want to fine tune it. (i put complicated in inverted commas cos really aint complicated at all, even when setting advanced rules). However, Windows Firewall does not give much control over rules, but is easier to use (especially for your average end-user).
 
They are all useful to a degree, offering some protection from "nasties"
I use Zonealarm, with the firewall portion switched off and just set to check for programs "phoning home"

That, in conjunction with a hardware firewall like a router or a PC configured as a dedicated firewall, is about the safest option.
 
Thanks for the reply bb_matt, just one q, you say you switched off the firewall portion of zonealarm, in otherwords you carried on using windows firewall and just (as you said) leave it to check for phoning home. did i get that right?
 
I use both ... a linux based router to block unsolicted inbound and a software firewall from Tiny that blocks unsolicited outbound connections.
 
Circus-Killer said:
I was just curious at to which is the better option, if there is such a thing. Whether Windows Firewall is good enough or if something like ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall would be better.
Click to expand...

Hi Cirus-Killer
Been running Satellite/dialup for a number of years and relied completely on Zone Alarm and AVG-Pro to keep the nasties at bay.
Also kept XP OS’s and Office packages up to date with the patches etc.
Have disabled Windows Messenger on all of the systems.
In conjunction with the above, Spybot - Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware completed the arsenal. - never had any problems.


With DSL, invested in a DSL Modem/Router that had its own firewall. Zone Alarm is still up and running, but only for monitoring outgoing traffic.

To check settings use https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Keep Well

mac
 
Circus-Killer said:
Thanks for the reply bb_matt, just one q, you say you switched off the firewall portion of zonealarm, in otherwords you carried on using windows firewall and just (as you said) leave it to check for phoning home. did i get that right?
Click to expand...

No - no windows firewall BS.
The last thing I want to do is trust microsoft with network security, they have proven so far damn useless at it compared with Unix/Linux.

I have a hardware firewall solution - a dedicated Linux based box - IPCop. (www.ipcop.org)

All ZoneAlarm does for me is to detect programs trying to "call home"

I also use Netlimiter (http://www.netlimiter.com/) to control program access - for instance, to limit an FTP download to 10k per second so I can still stream audio.
 
bb_matt said:
No - no windows firewall BS.
The last thing I want to do is trust microsoft with network security,
Click to expand...

Circus-Killer, bb_matt is correct.
SP1's firewall was useless.
SP2 attempted to correct is but brought a whole lot of other issues on board.
Stick to the tried and tested (:

Keep Well

mac
 
I hate the idea of running useless applications that just waste valuable system resources, I have been using a linux firewall since my dialup days. ;)
 
The problem is that rogue software can punch a hole through the XP firewall.

It is actually very easy to request an open port fro the XP firewall by sending it a administrator privillige level command request.

The problem is offcourse that Windows home users run all as Administrator user.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I would set up a linux box as a firewall, just need the actual machine :P
But yah, thanks again, was just curious on everyones thoughts and opinions, tryna figure out what to do until i get me another box.
 
As said before on a few threads, I ignored MS' attempts at firewall software, and went through ZoneAlarm Free and a few others before settling on Sygate Free and Avast Free A/V. No problems since.
 
Yeh,but how many users of XP actually have passwords setup on the admin account,not many.
Job done.
 
Zone Alarm and router firewall with Avast 4 home edition . XP firewall absolutly useless. Also dont ever use "patches/fixes".
 
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