[ivman]

I am running Win98SE with Gape's latest unofficial service pack. For virus protection I use Antivir Personal Edition and keep it updated. I use iProtectYou for content filtering, which filters advertisement and takes care of a lot of garbage that way. I use Maxthon for my browser for it's popup blocking and ad filters - seems to work *much* better for that than Firefox where *lots* of popups end up opening, no matter how I set the settings!

In addition to all that I use ZoneAlarm 5.5.094.000 as my firewall. Do I really need a firewall?

ivman

[Chozo4]

That depends on your level of paranoia. A firewall is a great thing to use as it can restrict most 'hacker'\'viral' attempts to gain access to your pc. However, it can slow down your connecton once in a while due to that it has to filter through the packets as they come through.

Just you might have to disable it when playing some games online because it could restrict you from connecting to some servers or hosting a server.


Firewalls - It's like asking yourself if you'd like to leave your front door locked or unlocked in a crime-infested town.

[trickytwista]

yep a firewall is always wise to be on safe side....unless your a gambler...lol

[twig123]

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but is there a link or ISO that I could download 98SYL ed. from? that would be great.

Thank You In Advance,
Dave

[trickytwista]

I HOPE you not asking for a warez download link? if so heres the link http://www.msfn.org/...showtopic=18408 if not asking for one then please explain what you asking for....cheers

[twig123]

Sry, no... not looking for Warez...
also, i accidently posted in the wrong thread

Thanks though

[Chozo4]

Tricky, he was talking about 'syl' meaning "seven years later" edition. Most likely the unattended cd project in another thread

[Jlo555]

Even though this sounds like it should be the other way aroud, I believe that if you are on a network with broadband connection, you don't need a firewall. If you are on an insecure dialup connection, you do. I'm only saying this because I have had broadband for about 2 years now, and I (not to my knowledge) have not had any hacks, and no viruses. I also haven't had a firewall for 2 years because my router apparently already has 2 built in network firewalls. When I was using 26.4k dialup in 2002, my friend hacked me 4 times. I had a really crappy firewall called BlackIce (though, I'm sure Zone Alarm is better.) For dialup, I'd recommend a firewall, for broadband, I don't think it's necessary, based off of my experience.

[wizardofwindows]

iam stuck in a rural area only dailup i dont run a firewall and run about 7 hrs aday online overnite downloads etc and no hacks yet.even on 98se beside theres nothing on my pc worth hacking .got a nlite unattented plus 98se unattented so no biggy/

[Eck]

See, you used a router and that made all the difference. A router usually has a built in firewall.

Most broadband connections for home users, whether DSL or Cable, have no router but only the cable line into the cable modem, then that is connected with an ethernet cable to the ethernet card in the PCI slot in the pc.

This has no protection. Anyone can hack the pc freely this way, so it is certainly suggested that a software firewall be used that offers both inbound and outbound protection. The built in XP firewall is only inbound protection, so firewall's like ZoneAlarm are desireable as they work both in and out.

[John O]

We have two PCs, a Dell with XP and the older HP Pavillion with W98SE and they both get cable via a router I bought. I used to have ZoneAlert but it caused some headaches so I got rid of it. I downloaded the free McAfee from Comcast and I am wondering if IT's firewall is any good.

[Crash&Burn]

There was an interesting discussion about this on Total Commander's forum:
http://ghisler.ch/bo...opic.php?t=8780
I don't necessarily agree with what was said, (Balderstrom there).
But a good read for anyone interested.

Whether or not its necessary I just can't trust Windows enough to run w/o one.
As such I use a dated one I suppose, Kerio 2.1.5
And am behind a router as well...

[iCEhOT]

I would say it's best to be safe, software firewalls can help if you accidently run a trojan or something. I have a router with built in SPI+NAT firewall, plus DoS protection. However for some of the things I do, certain ports need forwarding to my internal network, also I let upnp configure some ports on the router as well. So although my router blocks 99.9% of incoming stuff, there's still a little bit that can get through, which is then caught by my software firewall, which monitors both outgoing and incoming, and can be far better configured to make those open ports very secure.