[mouvda]

look'n'stop is a pretty good firewall, i think.

[sylvianorth]

Used to use Zone Alarm, but then I realised that I didn't need any firewall...
Turned it off a year ago and still no problems.

[Jeremy]

If you're behind a router and know of the following:

Don't open unknown e-mails/attachments
Don't surf pr0n/warez with IE
Don't download archives/EXEs from p2p programs, if you do, scan them with good anti-virus (Kaspersky, NOD32, AntiVir, www.av-comparatives.org
Don't accept everything and anything over MSN
Use harddrive imaging software (Ghost, True Image) or Deep Freeze on public workstations

then you don't really need a software firewall. Zxian and myself have been without one for a while and no problems.

[nitroshift]

At home I was running NOD32 and Outpost Firewall for a while, then decided to see what happens if I get rid of them. For almost a month now, I'm still virus and malware free. (Reinstalled NOD32 yesterday for a scan and found nothing. NOTHING!). I'm behind a DSL router and using common sense.

[Zxian]

@nitroshift - That's been my viewpoint for a while now. Security software should be there for the times when the user makes a mistake. I remember clicking on a picture link on MSN once, and then going "oh crap...". At the time, I had NOD32 installed, and the big red virus alert showed up. It's the only time that I've seen that window.

Security should be primarily up to the user, and secondarily up to the security software.

[RaUl.4eVeR]

thanks man for this tobic

[Lost Soul]

i like outpost myself i find most others to be resource hogs

[jcarle]

I like riding the internet bareback.

So I'm DMZed through my router and I have no firewall. Haven't for years, never been hacked because I a) keep windows up to date and use secure passwords on all routable services (FTP, Remote Desktop).

[Lost Soul]

jcarle, on Nov 11 2006, 11:04 AM, said:

I like riding the internet bareback.

So I'm DMZed through my router and I have no firewall. Haven't for years, never been hacked because I a) keep windows up to date and use secure passwords on all routable services (FTP, Remote Desktop).

jcarle im getting ready to buy a router and use its ability to firewall, and then do away with software fire walls, may i ask,, on your router do you have its firewall enabled,, or is it a truely unfire walled system ? and just for reference would you mind telling us what your router is make and model..

thanks

[jcarle]

Lost Soul, on Nov 11 2006, 10:26 AM, said:

jcarle im getting ready to buy a router and use its ability to firewall, and then do away with software fire walls, may i ask,, on your router do you have its firewall enabled,, or is it a truely unfire walled system ? and just for reference would you mind telling us what your router is make and model..

thanks

I have a Linksys WRT54GS using the Thibor15c firmware. I'm not using the firewall of the router, I'm completely raw to the internet. However, it does have an internal firewall of it's own.

The firewall in the router supports blocking Anonymous Internet Requests, filtering of Multicast, filtering of Internet NAT Redirection and filtering of IDENT (Port 113).

The thibor firmware also additionally supports filtering of Proxy, Java Applets, Portscans, Cookies, ActiveX and P2P applications.

Personally, I don't think there's a better router then Linksys routers.

[Jeremy]

@Jcarle, yeah Zxian recommended that to me as well. I think I'll add that to my Christmas list and sell my D-Link DI-604 for $20 or so, probably to a co-worker.

This post has been edited by Jeremy: 13 November 2006 - 09:17 PM

[Jeremy]

I just tested the latest ZoneAlarm in VMware, and I advise all to stay far away from it.
It killed my connection virtually and locally. I closed VMware, still no connection. I rebooted, still nothing. I tried to renew my IP address, but it failed. It wasn't until I physically unplugged and reocnnected my router that my connection was revived.
Also, it has a GUI that looks like it was made by designers on esctasy.
It has anti-virus, anti-spyware, and pop-up/ad blocking as well, which makes it more of an All-In-One than just a firewall.
Outpost dominates this as far as flexibility, adaptability, GUI and memory usage go.

[noguru]

Jeremy, on Nov 25 2006, 08:47 AM, said:

I just tested the latest ZoneAlarm in VMware, and I advise all to stay far away from it.
It killed my connection virtually and locally. I closed VMware, still no connection. I rebooted, still nothing. I tried to renew my IP address, but it failed. It wasn't until I physically unplugged and reocnnected my router that my connection was revived.
Also, it has a GUI that looks like it was made by designers on esctasy.
It has anti-virus, anti-spyware, and pop-up/ad blocking as well, which makes it more of an All-In-One than just a firewall.
Outpost dominates this as far as flexibility, adaptability, GUI and memory usage go.

Mmmm, according to this poll 1 out of 4 voters uses Zonealarm. I can't imagine that they all have the same problem otherwise it would not be 26%. I use Zonealarm for many years and I like it because it does it work by itself without bothering me. Yes it eats about 30-40 Mb RAM, a lot. But I think it works ok and stable too.
But when I renew my IP I also lose my internet connection. I have to quit and restart Zonealarm to restore the connection. Did you try that?
Perhaps VMware and Zonealarm don't go together, I really don't know, but that's no reason to advise everybody to stay away from it.

About the GUI, when made under XTC influence it would be beautifull right? And it's is certainly ugly, but there is no need to look at it. Zonealarm does it's work by itself.

[jcarle]

I concur about VMware. Software cannot be said to be at fault until tested in a production environment. All you have to do is look at the bug fixes in the release notes of VMware at each new build. As good as VMware is, it is after all, still an emulator.

This post has been edited by jcarle: 13 December 2006 - 12:59 PM

[glocK_94]

I've used Zonealarm for years on 98 and XP (I prefer the old versions though [v2.x]). Never had one problem on every PC it was installed (many). Your ports become stealthy and it gives you total control over outgoing connections. So basically, it does a perfect firewall job. Nothing ever went throught without permission.

@Jeremy: Virtual Machines and net can cause problems so no reason to accuse ZA for that.

It's hard to believe so many people don't use a firewall at all while there are so many good ones (this topic proves it!!). I mean, even if you're "safe" from the outside, you don't know what's connecting from the inside. And most software (not only viruses/trojans but almost everything) send data to unknow places if you don't stop them...

[neo]

BIT DEFENDER

[Tarun]

I've been using Outpost for years, but I'm highly considering switching to Comodo once they fix some issues with it.

[oddbasket]

Tarun, on Dec 13 2006, 03:37 PM, said:

I've been using Outpost for years, but I'm highly considering switching to Comodo once they fix some issues with it.

I've switch from NIS->Kerio->ZA->Comodo 2.3

Other than the annoying popups, it's very good. I've seen an increase in my significant torrent downloads as well. Don't bother trying thr beta version, it crashes everytime I open IE7.

I read this before deciding to try it.

This post has been edited by oddbasket: 15 December 2006 - 02:55 AM

[Lost Soul]

Tarun, on Dec 13 2006, 04:37 PM, said:

I've been using Outpost for years, but I'm highly considering switching to Comodo once they fix some issues with it.

what issues with comodo, and also what would pull you towards it over outpost ? im just curious on your reasons because im using outpost and have been it for years also,

[eyeball]

blinkdt, on Apr 23 2006, 11:50 PM, said:

Pick up a good NAT Router on eBay for less than $15 delivered to your door. Done and done.

let me ask, you have only this hardware firewall? do you have port forwarding configured? do you have any other devices on your LAN? this to me sounds so unsecure its unreal, maybe your ports are stealthed but lets suppose someone finds out they are not, then what? straight through from the public internet to your pc with no firewall on?
for the sake of an extra process running on my machine, i would rather run a hardware and software firewall together.
just my 2 cents