Shenan
Thu May 06 05:17:58 CDT 2004
Shannon wrote:
>> I've been using the McAfee Personal Firewall since I
>> bought my pc about a year and a half ago. I was also
>> running McAfee Viruscan up until this past weekend but
>> decided to get Norton (again) since it seems to run
>> better on my pc. I just uninstalled the firewall and
>> enabled the XP firewall. Is the XP firewall any good?
>> Will I get the same (or good enough) protection from it
>> that I was getting from McAfee?
>>
>> Now I know with McAfee and other firewalls you can change
>> the programs that have access to the "outside world",
>> which came in handy every now and then. Is it possible to
>> view and change the programs or settings with the XP
>> firewall?
>>
>> I DID run a hacker test from the Norton website and it
>> said that I was protected from all threats but I'm still
>> kinda "iffy".
>>
>> My pc is just used at home, not for anything important
>> but playing blackjack, paying bills, reservations, dirty
>> pictures... the basic home user stuff. I just wanna make
>> sure that I'm safe.
zz wrote:
> Until Service Pack 2 is released the Windows firewall only blocks
> incoming packets, if you are infected (spyware, trojans etc) you never
> see the outgoing programs so get a real firewall. Zone Alarm has a
> free version so there is no excuse.
There's always an excuse.
If you keep your machine clean of spyware/adware diligently as well as have
a good antivirus software, then the Windows XP ICF is fine pre-SP2 for most
home users and if most home users had actually been using it, then we
wouldn't have seen as many posts about SASSER or BLASTER before it.
Look around, compare, learn. Don't base your decision strictly on a
question asked once in a newsgroup and a half-dozen answers. Use Google to
research on your own!
ZoneAlarm (FREE and up)
Basic PC protection for the home user
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
Windows XP ICF (comes with Windows XP)
got windows xp? - you have this one if you do
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/using/howto/networking/icf.asp
Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) (FREE and up)
builds a barrier between your personal computer and the Internet
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html
Outpost Firewall from Agnitum (FREE and up)
basic protection solution for casual web surfers and low budget systems
http://www.agnitum.com/download/
Sygate Personal Firewall (FREE and up)
the most user-friendly PC firewall and personal desktop security solution
http://smb.sygate.com/buy/download_buy.htm
Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall (~$25 and up)
keeps hackers out and personal data in
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf/
BlackICE PC Protection ($39.95 and up)
intrusion detection system and a personal firewall for a one-two punch of
protection
http://blackice.iss.net/
Tiny Personal Firewall (~$49.00 and up)
turn your pc into the fortress
http://www.tinysoftware.com/
That should get you started!
--
<- Shenan ->
--