what is the best firewall????

I think black ice is easily the worst firewall that there is on the market.

Thing is, for 99.9999999999999% of home users any half-way decent firewall will do.

The best firewall is one in a router.

After that it's a matter of preference.

I prefer windows XPs built in firewall. For inbound dangers it's perfect. I'm not as worried about leaks.

Zone Alarm is pretty good, but they are bloatware and I only use it when testing the ways to cut through it.

There are many others but for all intents and purposes any of them will do for you.

Any firewall posted on this thread would have prevented you from getting blaster.

The real secret is to keep your OS up to date and your virus definitions as well.

Backup the files you care about.

Take those three steps and computer use is a breeze.

I can tunnel ZA in 90 seconds black ice is right there with it, Sygate Pro isn't bad for software but your best bet is a D-Link broadband router, I like the wireless router, DI-614+, it has a hardware firewall built it. If you buy the refurbished one at overstock.com, including ground shipping, it's $58. I've bought and installed 5 of them (6 new ones previously) at friends/customers. Turn off ping response from WAN, and you'll be about as secure as you can easily make yourself. The interface is pretty simple, too, if you need to enable any ports. I talked to some D-Link engineers and they told me that their chips had some integrated circuitry, and basically, it was cheaper to just use the same mid-range ASIC that goes in their mid-range business firewall than produce something for the low-end. Since it was there, why not just leave it enabled in the web-based GUI? So, there you have it. A broadband router, 4-port switch, wireless router and hardware firewall for $60 maybe cheaper.

safe,

What exploit are you doing on Zone? I've been exploited once with Zone Alarm a few years back.

theres alot of em, the 1 most likely used on you a few years back was due to the flawed core design. It is using ShellExecute as the expoit. It is also known that in ZA 2.1.10 and 2.0.26 if the attacker is specifying a special port number in the source port part of the TCP or UDP packet he can scan the host as if there is no firewall. there are more http://www.securiteam.com/ is a good source for info on them although they do not list them all.

Which one did you use in the 90 second test?

haha 1 that has not been realeased and I am not willing to be the 1 who makes it known as some ppl may take advantage of it.

Ok, so if I have a DSL conx, which is best for me?

Hi lil'k,
All advice given so far applies to DSL. A router firewall would be best, but not needed in your situation. Windows XP's built-in software firewall wouldn't require you to download anything, while many recommend the free versions of Sygate or ZoneAlarm.

Where do you gt the free version of Sygate - (just had a quick look at Sygate Homepage).

Does the average li'l home PC really need one?

I don't have a lot of memory left as it is...

Free Sygate
Howdy d:

You can get it from here..

http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160.html

Murray

I just attempted to download and I got a warning saying that the code I was attempting to download had maliscious content!

it probably said it may have maliscious content. That is a standard warning when downloading any programs. No need to worry 'bout Murray's link.

oops, yup, I missed the"if". Sorry for being a spaz.

Thanks all!

Thankee, Murray S!

(What's maliscious? heeheeh - saucy pedantic wretch I be!)

Any comments on the "need" for a firewall, for such a non-ranging, non-techie user as I?

Yeah you should have one running Deb. Its most important tasks are keeping hackers and viruses like Blaster out of your 'puter.

edit: Just note that for home users a firewall wouldn't be nearly as important as keeping your virus definitions and Windows updates current.

Thanks, Monger.

Ok! Should I allow access to microstoft RSVP 1.0? Crikey - now I'll have to make decisions. My sister had someone at work allow the balster into her hard drive by waiving it through her firewall.

Thanks Murray!

{doing a happy computer dance}

Hi Lil'k,
RSVP is something designed to clear paths for audio and video traffic that helps eliminate skips and such. It won't be a problem to allow it.
Keep in mind that if you block something you think looks suspicious you can always go back and give it Internet access later if you need to.