Re: Firewalls

[scuzzy]

I don't know what to say, other than I couldn't agree more. I'm using the free version of ZoneAlarm, and I for one would not be without it. Every computer should have a firewall, regardless of whether it has an "always on" connection, or dial-up. However, it is even more important to have a firewall for an always on connection. If not, then you are begging for trouble, and you *will* get it.


Alex Garcia

[BlueIce]

I was hit over 500 times in 15 min

in one day last week all from the same guy

i traced him and came up with a dead end

 i cant imagine what might have happend if i didnt have zone alarm  



Very good read patman





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[Neon]

Steve Gibson, who runs grc.com, has recommended ZoneAlarm above all others for several months now. He states that he can't believe that they offer it for free. I had been paying $40/yr for BlackIce Defender, but in Gibson's tests (you can read about them at his site), it did not quite measure up to ZoneAlarm because it allows a hostile program to masquerade as a ligitimate program that has permission to send out connection requests (phone home). ZoneAlarm stops this by asking you to set permissions for each executable that tries to connect out, and then cryptographically certifying them. The folks at BlackIce only said that the scenario was not a valid test. That was enough to convince me to change over to ZoneAlarm. No regrets here.



By the way, Gibson also recommends Tiny Personal firewall (which is also free), Symantec/Norton, and McAfee firewall. Most of the others out there are junk, hyped up by clowns in business suits.



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[pat]

Thanks, to a who responded.

Does anyone use the pro version of zonealarm?

Pros-cons?



Pat



 

[darksilence]

until i got cable internet, i never used a firewall. and now i realize how important it is to use one, dail-up, cable, dsl, etc.. So to anyone reading this that doesn't have a firewall - get one!



 

[Pete]

Yeah Pat,

 I used all the free versions of ZA until I purchased ZAP back in Aug 2000 ($29.95)

Worked fine together with Norton Internet Cecurity and Tauscan..until...

they started the  patches and upgrades and this caused many problems BSOD'hangs,etc,etc for manyfolks.



Some had these problems and some did not..Unfortunately I was one jof the ones who had the baddies,



Then came the upgrade to 2.6.88 which was supposed to fix all problems.

I'm sure it did for many but not for the few who still found it incompatible with NIS .



I found that I could not access the net with both running at same time. Fix was to disable one then go for it....Couplea patches later and still no joy.



I couldn't see the need to keep ZAP if I had to deisble NIS to log on the net.

Remember this is only me and some others as ZA Tch says its puter specific..which really is a cop out, as I have talked with others who have the exact Dell configuration as mine and some do and some do not have thie problems.



Soooooo..I have removed ZAP 5 July (expiration was in Aug so no great loss)  and use only NIS 2000 and Tauscan, and so far baddies are blocked by NIS, who actually did this first,even with ZAP installed.



Per gcr all ports are stealthed,5 repeat runs.



I may try the free ZA later, but not again purchase.

HTH





Pete

[n/a]

I'm using an older, non-updated version of ZAPro, and the only problem I've had is occasional interference with file downloads or uploads. I usually disable it before trying to FTP. The free version I tried wouldn't stay configured for some reason, but it may have been a corrupted download.



Other than that it's a good program, and the free version is fine for most users. There's really not that much difference between the two versions as I remember.



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[QQQ]

I use ZAPro v1.0 and have had no problems using a dial-up connection, FTP uploading and/ or downloading.  The only problem I have encountered is running Evidence Eliminator in any mode other than "test," as it wipes out all of the settings in ZAPro.





 

[scuzzy]

As requested by patman, this thread was moved to the Software Review.



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Alex Garcia