Firewall

[wilbur]

 
Excuse me for my language,
Question : Avast 4.1 home edition is an Firewall ?
Can I desactive the standard Firewall of Windows xp ?
Thankyou

[MFB]

No, Avast! is not a firewall, If you don't have any firewall, I recommend not to deactivate Windows Firewall.

[xistenz]

avast is an antivirus program.

If you want a firewall, look for Sygate, Zone Alarm or Outpost. All three have free versions for home use.

[YLAP]

Or Kerio, but due to its system security module, I reccomend it to a more advanced user. But it can be turned off, so its now your choise! 

http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

[lukor]

If you don't know what firewall is, I recommend to let the Windows XP firewall turned on. It will do its job pretty well.

[szc]

Welcome to forums !

...and also... it says in it's name... avast! antivirus, so it means it's an antivirus, not a firewall. It is also good thing to install a firewall too to help your computer security.

No, it is not a good thing if you disable Windows XP built-in firewall, especially because you don't have any other firewall product installed. avast! works great with all those "external" firewalls, as well as with Windows XP firewall.

[Jarmo P]

Can I desactive the standard Firewall of Windows xp ?

Windows XP2 firewall is just nice.

If needing another software fw, it depends on your paranoia.
I use Sygate, but not cause it is really better than XP's one, just need to know stuff going out. Interested.

You are propably fine with XP fw, it is really OK.

[Lisandro]

Windows XP2 firewall is just nice. If needing another software fw, it depends on your paranoia.

If you don't know what firewall is, I recommend to let the Windows XP firewall turned on. It will do its job pretty well.

Sorry, Windows XP Firewall is just for inbound attacks.
The outbound connections is really necessary for security/privacy and, for other user, to show spyware outbound connections (dialers, downloaders trojans, etc.).
Windows XP Firewall is very limited in features...  :'(

[szc]

True Tech, but if he has nothign else installed on his system as we all can see, he doesn't have... then it's much better if he leaves Windows XP firewall enabled... anyway, much better to have it enabled than have no other firewall installed and XP firewall disabled... this way, he will be at least much better protected than without it...

[kamulko]

Dear Technical, this week Computer Build (deutsch magazine) has confirmed the results of the PC Magazine test about the most known firewalls: ALL firewalls have no defense versus outgoing malicious connections. Some firewalls were totally dismantled by virus attacks and DNS floods attack. The only 2 not totally dismantled was McAfee Personal Firewall Plus and Kaspersky Anti Hacker firewall. I repeat: ALL firewalls failed in checking and stopping outgoing hidden connections and DNS attacks.
ADDED: I have spent a lot of money for my McAfee :'(... next time I will not buy another useless software like these firewalls. 

[YLAP]

That's the reason I'm using Kerio. It's free, and i don't makes my pockets empty! 

[MFB]

Dear Technical, this week Computer Build (deutsch magazine) has confirmed the results of the PC Magazine test about the most known firewalls: ALL firewalls have no defense versus outgoing malicious connections. Some firewalls were totally dismantled by virus attacks and DNS floods attack. The only 2 not totally dismantled was McAfee Personal Firewall Plus and Kaspersky Anti Hacker firewall. I repeat: ALL firewalls failed in checking and stopping outgoing hidden connections and DNS attacks.
ADDED: I have spent a lot of money for my McAfee :'(... next time I will not buy another useless software like these firewalls. 

I got McAfee Personal Firewall for free when I order my DSL.  So theres no firewall that is safe from outbound attacks?  Gosh this makes think smore complicated for me now.   

[kamulko]

If you don't know what firewall is, I recommend to let the Windows XP firewall turned on. It will do its job pretty well.

Lukor said this...

[DavidR]

Dear Technical, this week Computer Build (deutsch magazine) has confirmed the results of the PC Magazine test about the most known firewalls: ALL firewalls have no defense versus outgoing malicious connections. Some firewalls were totally dismantled by virus attacks and DNS floods attack. The only 2 not totally dismantled was McAfee Personal Firewall Plus and Kaspersky Anti Hacker firewall. I repeat: ALL firewalls failed in checking and stopping outgoing hidden connections and DNS attacks.
ADDED: I have spent a lot of money for my McAfee :'(... next time I will not buy another useless software like these firewalls.

Do you have a link for the on-line report.

I would be interested to see which firewalls thay tested and what they tested because, "ALL firewalls failed in checking and stopping outgoing hidden connections and DNS attacks." all is not something I would believe.

Nor would I believe "ALL firewalls have no defense versus outgoing malicious connections." without knowing which firewalls were tested and what was tested.

There are many firewall leak test sites and Outpost Pro has passed all these.
http://www.google.com/search?q=firewall%20leak%20test

[kamulko]

Hi, David... I have the paper magazines not the link. If you want, I can scan some pages and post here. Maybe there are some problems because the size of the images, I think. If you want, I can scan and send you the pages at your mailbox.
(If you send me your email address, obviously)
Ciao!

ADDED: Be sure, I don't like to say lies on this argument. Is not my preferred hobby. All the readers of these magazines can say if I'm wrong or not. PC Magazine is the Italian version of PC Magazine USA; Computer Bild is the Italian translation of Computer Bild Deutschland.