What FireWall does Avast people Recommend?

[sded]

secure-sg.imrworldwide.com  probably goes out as a secure https request on port 443 and isn't seen by avast!   I don't do anything special to Sygate to work with avast!-haven't found anything without more undesirable side effects.  Virus/trojan scanning generally seems more worthwhile than alerts from Sygate.  Other things to do are to look at the Sygate traffic log once in a while, and be aware of the avast! ball spinning without knowing why.  And nag Sygate on their forum-they have been promising a fix there  since 2003.  Or switch to Kerio 4, which also has some nice features.

[Hopismum]

Im using Sygate with Win XP Home and without Webshield installed and it works well.   (Im not that worried about not using Webshield)

I was using Zone Alarm and was happy with it but upon upgrading to XP Home Ive been unable to get ZA to work properly with this system.   Would  constantly lose the ability to browse.   Threw hands up and switched to Sygate and so far so good on this machine and on a Win98SE machine as well.

[kenwong]

secure-sg.imrworldwide.com  probably goes out as a secure https request on port 443 and isn't seen by avast!

Sygate recorded that it went out thru firefox.exe, remote port 80 local port 2036.  What does this mean?

I don't do anything special to Sygate to work with avast!-haven't found anything without more undesirable side effects.  Virus/trojan scanning generally seems more worthwhile than alerts from Sygate.  Other things to do are to look at the Sygate traffic log once in a while, and be aware of the avast! ball spinning without knowing why.

With Sygate's loopback problem, Is it that the only risk with Sygate and avast's WebShield is the bad thing sent outgoing without anybody's notice?  In other words, my machine is still well guarded from bad things outside?

And nag Sygate on their forum-they have been promising a fix there  since 2003.  Or switch to Kerio 4, which also has some nice features.

Kerio 4 - is it free?  Will there be any problems with Kerio 4, avast, Firefox, Win 98 (NOT 2nd edition) running?

[sded]

1) Don't know why it didn't go out through webshield then.
2) Yes, loopback is an outbound issue.  But the traffic outbound via http is connection requests.  Any inbound data will still be scanned by Webshield.  Problems would be things like a trojan on your machine participating in actions like DDOS attacks by sending high volume connection requests to a website through Webshield without being seen by Sygate or Avast!  But watch that ball spin and look at your logs to see it.  Other things a sophisticated trojan might do with more in-depth understanding of Avast! and Sygate to exploit the loopback issue?
3) Yes; Kerio 4.1.2 is free.  I am using it on a machine now.  Has some nice features and an interesting connection display.  Also, I think it is another product of the Czech Republic, like Avast!  Haven't tried it with Windows 98, but have heard that future editions will only support W2000 and XP-true?

[Jarmo P]

kenwong, Firefox, if set to ask , sygate will ask you from other ports mostly. That is how it should be. You have only allowed webshield HTTP 80 traffic, though there might be some other ports, but most other by firefox

As to realplayer, in my experienced you will get asked or if it was a new application, the First time, if set to ask. Then if you play another video or sound broadcast, while FF is still running, maybe not so.
Even if it is in another web page video.

So If realplayer was an unknown trojan   you would get asked, and there is also the Sygate traffic log.

There is no big issue here.

As to web connections with a firewall, what ever you use. Once you have allowed an outbound connection, what happens next is both outgoing and incoming traffic in browsers.

But with Sygate firewall you are really not compromising your security with Sygate firewall running Webshield. Especially if not configuring IE to that manual proxy 12080 localhost setting. Be calm in that.

[Chuck58]

Visnetic 2.2.6 here. Yes, it only covers inbound. I also have Winsonar (free) installed and set to kill unknown processes from starting.

Visnetic, from Deerfield.com isn't cheap, but I think it's an excellent firewall that is very low on resource useage (5.6MB). Add something like Winsonar or Process Guard and I think you're pretty well covered.

[kenwong]

kenwong, Firefox, if set to ask , sygate will ask you from other ports mostly. That is how it should be. You have only allowed webshield HTTP 80 traffic, though there might be some other ports, but most other by firefox

As to realplayer, in my experienced you will get asked or if it was a new application, the First time, if set to ask. Then if you play another video or sound broadcast, while FF is still running, maybe not so.
Even if it is in another web page video.

So If realplayer was an unknown trojan   you would get asked, and there is also the Sygate traffic log.


There is no big issue here.

Before I did the tests, I removed Firefox and RealPlayer in Sygate's Applications.  It turned out that they didn't ask me!

As to web connections with a firewall, what ever you use. Once you have allowed an outbound connection, what happens next is both outgoing and incoming traffic in browsers.

But with Sygate firewall you are really not compromising your security with Sygate firewall running Webshield. Especially if not configuring IE to that manual proxy 12080 localhost setting. Be calm in that.

You distinguished IE from Firefox here?  What are the reasons?

[Jarmo P]

Before I did the tests, I removed Firefox and RealPlayer in Sygate's Applications.  It turned out that they didn't ask me!

opps, I have no idea why realplayer did not get asked by SPF 
With me it does.

You distinguished IE from Firefox here?  What are the reasons?

None other than I believe that once you have allowed a browser, it might maybe be "hijacked" by another app and malware is most restricted to IE. No other reason.

[Jarmo P]

Try this test kenwong:
http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

Sygate should prompt you and answer no, and it should not pass.
The test is trying to pass tcp 80 port.

And I do get Sygate asking me though even if a video for Realplayer is in a web page. Just close your browsers first before trying to check realplayer's behaviour. there might be "memory". 

[dld]

I want to thank you Frank for this link.  Everything worked as described in the quoted excerpt.  The only minor change to the excerpt is that one has to go to Administration, Advanced, Microsoft Networking.  I initially kept Windows Firewall activated during the installation of KPF, installed KPF, made the recommended changes to Microsoft Networking, then turned off Windows Firewall.  I can now share files and printers with only KPF turned on.

dld

See the link below:

Everything you need to know about selecting and installing a firewall for your PC or network.

-Working With Windows Networks

http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,112920,00.asp

(instructions for setting up four free firewalls- Kerio, ZA, Outpost and Sygate).

Quote:

"Kerio: By default, this firewall disables Windows networking because enabling it would allow other PCs on the local Windows network to access your shared folders and printers only after you entered their IP addresses. To allow access to a particular PC, right-click Kerio's system-tray icon and...."

[FreewheelinFrank]

Glad you found what you needed there!

[dld]

It looks like I'm in trouble again.  The version of Kerio I downloaded was from a link in the PC World article, and is an outdated version of Kerio (2 MB).  When I downloaded the latest version (7 MB), I can no longer follow the instructions given in the quoted excerpt.  Specifically, I don't know where or how to input my isp address.  Can anyone on this forum help me out?  At the moment I can only share files and printers on my network if I disable Kerio, and reactivate Windows Firewall.

[sded]

If you already set up the old version you can supposedly import the settings under overview/ preferences.  And in system security there is a line to permit microsoft file and printer sharing, plus a trusted area tab for dealing with IP addresses.  Don't use mf&ps myself, though-probably the Kerio forum could provide better answers or be worth a search.

[dld]

I'll stick with Kerio version 2.1.4 (2 MB), which is working fine for me.   I removed Kerio version 4.1.2 from my computer.

[bob3160]

Shouldn't this thread be in the General Forum since it really has nothing to do with avast! ??
I believe the avast users recommended firewall is the one you pick and feel comfortable with
provided it keeps your computer safe.