personal firewall
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Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
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Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
The built-in firewall in WindowsXP SP2 will only filter incoming traffic. It does that task reasonably well. In my opinion1, it is essential to filter outbound traffic also so that your machine cannot unknowingly be used for nefarious purposes [generally know as a zombie to launch DOS attacks, spam mailing campaigns, etc.]. No firewall is a 100% guarantee of protection because you have to train them to filter the things you feel uneasy with, which is a very subjective process. I am reluctant to give product endorsements because my choice of a firewall product is subjective also. Take a look at this site for links to firewall product reviews http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm [footnote] 1. As I have stated this is my opinion so no hate mail please. If you have a differing opinion respond to the original post so Kim0618 [the original poster] will be notified and sure to read your opinion also. [/footnote] Information wants to be free. JimmyRopes
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The built-in firewall in WindowsXP SP2 will only filter incoming traffic. It does that task reasonably well. In my opinion1, it is essential to filter outbound traffic also so that your machine cannot unknowingly be used for nefarious purposes [generally know as a zombie to launch DOS attacks, spam mailing campaigns, etc.]. No firewall is a 100% guarantee of protection because you have to train them to filter the things you feel uneasy with, which is a very subjective process. I am reluctant to give product endorsements because my choice of a firewall product is subjective also. Take a look at this site for links to firewall product reviews http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm [footnote] 1. As I have stated this is my opinion so no hate mail please. If you have a differing opinion respond to the original post so Kim0618 [the original poster] will be notified and sure to read your opinion also. [/footnote] Information wants to be free. JimmyRopes
JimmyRopes wrote:
In my opinion1, it is essential to filter outbound traffic also so that your machine cannot unknowingly be used for nefarious purposes
That would be good, but loads of the newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, using IE automation and other nasty tricks. Good enough to stop realplayer, but not a serious trojan. Ryan
O fools, awake! The rites you sacred hold Are but a cheat contrived by men of old, Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust And died in baseness—and their law is dust. al-Ma'arri (973-1057)
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Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
you might try this site too Shields Up[^] Norton (Symantec.com) also has a page that checks security...you have to look around to find it though
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JimmyRopes wrote:
In my opinion1, it is essential to filter outbound traffic also so that your machine cannot unknowingly be used for nefarious purposes
That would be good, but loads of the newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, using IE automation and other nasty tricks. Good enough to stop realplayer, but not a serious trojan. Ryan
O fools, awake! The rites you sacred hold Are but a cheat contrived by men of old, Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust And died in baseness—and their law is dust. al-Ma'arri (973-1057)
Ryan saod; "newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, using IE automation and other nasty tricks" I agree, but who that takes security seriously would use IE in the first place? I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes
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Ryan saod; "newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, using IE automation and other nasty tricks" I agree, but who that takes security seriously would use IE in the first place? I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes
When I last reinstalled Windows, instead of letting the firewall (Kerio 2.1.5) prompt me each time something wanted to connect out, I just blocked everything and enabled things as I needed them. I still haven't unblocked IE.
"Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug."
- John Lithgow -
Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
I use a hardware firewall. MS's history regarding security doesn't give me a warm-n-fuzzy about their security software. In fact, I would recommend setting up a computer with a Linux-based firewall configuration installed. It might cost a bit more at the outset (for the hardware), but it can be easily updated to address new security threats. ------- sig starts "I've heard some drivers saying, 'We're going too fast here...'. If you're not here to race, go the hell home - don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Why don't you tie a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -- modified at 11:46 Monday 13th February, 2006
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Thanks But dont quite understand. Since the reference you provided sells personal firewall products, why they provide a test that prove the window xp build-in firewall being good enough ? (then no one will buy their products)
They just provide it to test your pc, period. Windows firewall has some limitations but it does its job quite well. Their firewall is supposed to be better but it's not free. You just use their software to verify one way or the other and decide what solution will work better for you. I am using build-in firewall for about 4 months and never had any problems.
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Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
I use Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite[^] and have only had one problem with it (an issue with VS2005 when it was first released, and Zone Labs had it patched that month). I find it to be an excellent product, that's very reliable, and always scores the highest "rating" when testing via Shields Up[^]. This product allows you complete control over what programs/processes have access to your "Trusted Zone" (Local network) and the Internet. You can control if they have access to act as a server in either zone as well. Good-luck with your decision.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |Development Blogging|Viksoe.dk's Site -
When I last reinstalled Windows, instead of letting the firewall (Kerio 2.1.5) prompt me each time something wanted to connect out, I just blocked everything and enabled things as I needed them. I still haven't unblocked IE.
"Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug."
- John LithgowBruce said; "I still haven't unblocked IE" Good thinking! :~ I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes
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JimmyRopes wrote:
In my opinion1, it is essential to filter outbound traffic also so that your machine cannot unknowingly be used for nefarious purposes
That would be good, but loads of the newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, using IE automation and other nasty tricks. Good enough to stop realplayer, but not a serious trojan. Ryan
O fools, awake! The rites you sacred hold Are but a cheat contrived by men of old, Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust And died in baseness—and their law is dust. al-Ma'arri (973-1057)
> That would be good, but loads of the newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, I'd think that would be true for only poorly written firewalls. Any decent firewall should refuse passage to processes running as the normal (limited) user, at least without querying interactively the logged in user. Of course, if the user is silly enough to be running as Administrator, then they're opening themselves up to trojans anyway, right?
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Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
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> That would be good, but loads of the newer trojans can get round personal firewalls, I'd think that would be true for only poorly written firewalls. Any decent firewall should refuse passage to processes running as the normal (limited) user, at least without querying interactively the logged in user. Of course, if the user is silly enough to be running as Administrator, then they're opening themselves up to trojans anyway, right?
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I use a hardware firewall. MS's history regarding security doesn't give me a warm-n-fuzzy about their security software. In fact, I would recommend setting up a computer with a Linux-based firewall configuration installed. It might cost a bit more at the outset (for the hardware), but it can be easily updated to address new security threats. ------- sig starts "I've heard some drivers saying, 'We're going too fast here...'. If you're not here to race, go the hell home - don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Why don't you tie a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -- modified at 11:46 Monday 13th February, 2006
John said; " I would recommend setting up a computer with a Linux-based firewall configuration installed." I strongly agree. Long live ipcahins! The only drawback is that you have to be an administrator to set up the firewall. This is countercultural for the casual windows user. Are you trying to say that it is not a toaster I am using? Next you will probably try to tell me that my telephone is not a telephone! I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes
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Hi, Is the built-in window xp firewall sufficient enough to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities ? If not, any personal firewall products recommended ? Thanks
Hi, Really, there is no firewall that is 100% sufficient enought to stop the personal pc from hackers' activities. XP firewall is the worst in the scene. This is not a conjecture. During my research in traffic content filtering I happened to read an article (http://www.vigilantminds.com/files/defeating\_windows\_personal\_firewalls.pdf) Look at the result of so called top 6 commercial firewalls urself. I haven't tried Tiny Desktop Personal Firewall myself. I used ZoneAlarm Pro but price I had to pay was relatively slower traffic (needs some tweaks). But these guys have done a greate NDIS hook driver development (dynamic instead of boot loading). TrueVector is truly a great system. (Still XP firewall was able to defeat some DoS attacks I tested); .::Dhilung::.
