beat firewall

[Fire58Mech]

I'm just curious what firewall you all use. I used zone alarm until it screwed up my system. now I'm looking for somethig else. I've use to have sygate at one time loved it, tryed zone alarm, tryed to go back to sygate and crashed my system. I'm wonder what I should try next and what has worked for you all.

[Tazon]

i just installed zonealarm and it works great apparently. it definitely fixed a problem with some worm trying to connect to my pc. what complains do you have about it?

[trip0d]

i have outpost pro

[Tazon]

it would be good to clarify if suggestions are free or paid.

[{PMS}fishy]

I use a hardware firewall and NAT. Software firewalls are a huge PIA and not worth it if you ask me. Protect the connection, not each device, thats my thinking.

[hkgonra]

Originally posted by {PMS}fishy
I use a hardware firewall and NAT. Software firewalls are a huge PIA and not worth it if you ask me. Protect the connection, not each device, thats my thinking.


I use both hardware (sonicwall ) and software ( zonealarm ) .

Belt and suspenders that is my thinking. ;)

[don256us]

I use Zone Alarm Pro with my ICS. Costs some $$$ but I like it.

[Tazon]

doesnt a hardware firewall get old or something? why is it so much better than a software firewall?

[hkgonra]

A true hardware firewall will have firmware upgrades that keep it fairly current for a little while. They do cost around $1000 though for a good one.

[ccb056]

I dont use any software firewalls, just my linksys router. (http://short-circuit.zapto.org)

[fiji]

i use iptables, its great


highly configurable

[Avg]

Norton firewall, well I'm still here ain't I.

[hkgonra]

Hey, did you get your name from the virus scanner ?

[coin]

Smoothwall, hardware firewall, free and it gets regular upgrades and according to the companies website, is yet to me broken through :D

[XWRed1]

Originally posted by hkgonra
A true hardware firewall will have firmware upgrades that keep it fairly current for a little while. They do cost around $1000 though for a good one.

Although you are likely being "firewalled" by virtue of nat, so there is no point in trying to "stay current". Noone can touch your computer or penetrate nat in the first place, unless you start forwarding ports.

[Avg]

No actually I looked at the stickers on my computer and it went like this.
AMD
eVGA
Gigabyte

AVG I didn't even know there was a avg antivirus.

[hkgonra]

Originally posted by Avg
No actually I looked at the stickers on my computer and it went like this.
AMD
eVGA
Gigabyte

AVG I didn't even know there was a avg antivirus.

there is and I love it !!!

Great virus scanner , I average 3 updates a week, and they have a free version.

www.grisoft.com

[don256us]

I use AVG too. It's free for home use and compliments my firewall to keep me protected.

[ataturk]

I have a d-link nat router. Perfect in blocking inbound traffic.

[Magneto]

I use ipcop as the main network hardware firewall (old P2 350Mhz) and kerio personal on my computer, they're great and free too! :D

[VaTechHokies]

I use NAT on my linksys router and norton firewall on my pc's. Norton is kind of a pain sometimes, but its pretty easy to configure.

[Heat]

Those with ZoneAlarm - have you been able to set up shared folders and printers with other computers on the network? It only seems to work if I turn off the firewall.

[hkgonra]

I always have to shut down zonealarm to share files. I think Pro will do it but not the free version. Then again I haven't really tried hard with it.

[cmcquistion]

I'm a Sys Admin and have a firewall at home and several at work (for different networks and different needs.)

I use Smoothwall (www.smoothwall.org) some, IPCop (www.ipcop.org) some, and ClarkConnect (www.clarkconnect.org) some. All of them are fantastic, but have different features. Smoothwall is by far the easiest and best for a simple firewall router. ClarkConnect lets you add lots of other features to your firewall (like a Samba server, web server, email server, print server, etc). IPCop is based off Smoothwall and not quite as slick, but it has a lot of user-submitted Mods that are really easy to install (like content filtering, for instance.)

Hardware Firewalls are the best of the best. They take the load off your PC, for one, and they are more secure. By the time a software firewall can detect something wrong, the attacker has already made it through the NIC, through the OSI layer, and into the OS (and let's face it, Windows is not particularly secure.)

With a hardware firewall, no one even gets close to your PC. The firewall keeps them from getting into your network. No firewall is perfect, of course, but those I mentioned above are far better than any software firewall ever could be. To make them more attractive, they are completely free and really easy to use (even for a Linux noob like me) and you can install them on any really old computer (486 and 16 MB RAM or better.) There are even some Linux distros that run off a floppy disk and don't even require a hard drive (like Coyote.)

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Linux die-hard. I'm not even very good with Linux, but even I can install and use all the Linux Firewall Distros I listed above. If you have an old computer lying in a closet, somewhere, or you can put one together from spare parts, I highly recommend you give one of those distributions a try.

[don256us]

Originally posted by Heat
Those with ZoneAlarm - have you been able to set up shared folders and printers with other computers on the network? It only seems to work if I turn off the firewall.

The free version does not support ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). You should be able to share files/printers. You may have to tell Zone Alarm (ZA) which machines to allow. It's easier to do if you set static IPs.

[Fire58Mech]

WOW!!!! lots of posts. Thanks for all the info. keep them coming.
tazon--
After I installed the free version of zone alarm everthing started to get buggy. setting's would randimly change and things qould suddenly disapear.
Quistion--
What is a hardware fire wall. And what diffrence does it have from a software firewall?

By the way I'm running windows xp pro. norton ati virus won't work as a firewall for it. Something about conflicting with windows. works though for scanning for viruss

[captain_sHiFTy]

Sygate Personal Firewall. theres a free home version and a 20 dollar "pro" version.

the home version is better, duznt have any of those annoying extra features that get in your way.

http://smb.sygate.com.

[cmcquistion]

Originally posted by Fire58Mech
Quistion--
What is a hardware fire wall. And what diffrence does it have from a software firewall?


A hardware firewall is a hardware device that is hooked up to your Internet connection, before it comes into your computer. Hardware routers, like Linksys routers, are one example of a hardware firewall. Another example, like everything I mentioned in my previous post, is having a hardware (computer) firewall. This is generally a stripped down system with two network cards and running some kind of Linux Operating System, or something. In this case, you have your Cable Modem (for example) plugged into the Linux Router, then your desktop computer, plugged into the other network card in the Linux router. All requests go through the Linux router. Anything evil on the Internet, that wants to get into your computer, has to get past the Linux Firewall/Router, first. This is more secure than a Software Firewall.

A Software Firewall is something like ZoneAlarm, which gets installed on your desktop computer. It detects evil stuff coming in or going out and can block it, based on the rules you set up.

Generally, a software firewall is not as good as a hardware firewall. I mentioned this in my previous post. There are many, many, more knowledgable and in-depth explanations of hardware and software firewalls. There are probably some in the stickies in this forum, as a matter of fact.

[jajmon]

Originally posted by Heat
Those with ZoneAlarm - have you been able to set up shared folders and printers with other computers on the network? It only seems to work if I turn off the firewall.

It works just fine - you just have to set up trusted networks, read the help file or go to their website.

[dkdgbroyles]

I use sygate, works great with my network.Free home version and u need to tell it which rig is sharing the connection for it to work, but it works perfect.

[Tango57]

i've used zone alarm for the longest time. i think it's an ok firewall. i'm using norton now. it's easy to configure and has more options.

[itshondo]

I prefer sygate Personal Firewall.