What firewall do you use?

What firewall do you use?

[ April 16, 2002, 03:45 AM: Message edited by: DanielS25 ]

 

I meant to add Tiny to the list, but forgot. Internet security is one oft ignored aspect of internet use by many average users. It is really a shame, because often times firewalls can be used to prevent trojans and other manipulative remote uses of a user's machine and block a potential cracker from gathering important port info. Even dialup users are not impervious to these attacks. My personal recommendations include a hardware firewall with Sygate Pro. Tiny is another good one though. Firewalls are it must be remembered preventive measures they cannot be used to remove viruses and the cautious user should also maintain an up to date virus scan software on their computer. My recommendation is a free antivirus program provided at antivir . There are other many good antivirus programs out there though and its important to review all of the choices available.

 

I don't recommend Zone Alarm or Black Ice because they are not fully comprehensive in prevention of possible attacks. It is also important for the user to stay informed though of different types of possible attacks.

 

Hardware firewalls are the best when it comes to security. I'm not going to make any recommendations at this point on one brand. A good idea is to also put on a software firewall like Sygate or Tiny as well.

 

Good point rsr. To Katie, if you aren't sure if you have a firewall on your computer. The answer is you probably don't. I really recommend a good firewall. You can go to cnet.com and type in the search box tiny personal firewall and it will bring up a link where you can download the free tiny personal firewall which is good and requires little manual configuration. I will say this though, you may want to read up on it though off of the web, because it will ask you if you want to permit different things like say your isp is sending you a packet of some sort to allow you to connect, you would want to permit that, but then you see another box come up asking if you want to allow an ICMP from someone in Saudi Arabia. The answer would be to deny that. That is what firewalls are designed to block outside users from gaining info or remote access to your machine. Say they gain remote access to your machine and use it download illegal material and then use it as a server to send out to other people. Well that is only one thing that can and does happen. That is why I recommend a firewall for everyone. If you have an always on connection like cable or dsl then its a must have. If you have dial up, I would recommend it as well, but dial up users are less targeted to some extent, because dial up is not an always on connection. I may provide some links shortly to sites that provide info on what a firewall is and does.

 

What I meant when I said good point rsr is this that if you have a hardware firewall then it matters somewhat less what software firewall you choose, but I still recommend installing them both.

 

I would say so Doc, I get port scans from all over the world. You might start by installing tiny personal firewall on your system and if you have an always on connection, leave your computer on all night sometime and see who was trying to visit with your computer. It can prove to be interesting sometimes. Especially if you get a program that tracks the ip of the person scanning your ports. What is usually done by crackers who use port scanning techniques for malicious purposes is to see in what ways they can use the machine from a remote location for the purposes of acting as a server or what have you where they download illegal material store it on your hard drive and have access to it pretty much when they want. Those who are most vulnerable for those types of probing are people who have always on connections through cable or dsl. Cable is great. I have it, but it comes with an acceptance of some responsibility when it comes to securing your computer from outside attacks. We live in information age, but sometimes the information gets ahead of us when we need to be ahead of it.