Firewall

[J J]

Currently i am using windows firewall, but i have been told that i should use a better one for example comodo. Is windows firewall good enough or should i change? Personally i'm happy with windows firewall but i would like some views on the subject before i make a final decision.

[neal62]

This question has been asked and addressed many times here in the forum. 
If you use the search function the forum has here, type in "firewall" you will get quite a few opinions that may answer your question. 

[Mastertech]

That is a Myth. The XP SP2 firewall is excellent: XP Myths

[bob3160]

Unfortunately it's not a myth that the Windows Firewall only protects incoming traffic unless
you're already using Vista.

[CharleyO]

***

Hi JJ,

Please read my post at the link below for a better understanding of why you need a firewall with both inbound & outbound control.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20921.msg175125#msg175125

Unfortunately, Windows XP firewall only gives inbound control. There are several ways for a computer to get infected. Inbound from the Internet is only one of those ways.


***

[hlecter]

JJ;

You always have ZA Free which I use and have always used with no problems. 

Light on resources, too. This is true for my version which is not the last one.

[Mastertech]

It is impossible to guarantee outbound protection on any Windows XP computer. One a file has administrative access it can get around any "outbound" protection at will.

Windows Firewall: the best new security feature in Vista?

Promoting that users need outbound protection so they do not get infected is nothing but FUD.

[FreewheelinFrank]

It is impossible to guarantee outbound protection on any Windows XP computer. One a file has administrative access it can get around any "outbound" protection at will.

That depends on the sophistication of the firewall, and how well it protects itself and blocks outbound connections. Modern third party firewalls attempt to do both. Empirical results show some success:

An interesting point from the recent review of anti-virus software. One AV running with Windows firewall missed a Trojan which was able to disable the firewall:

It ignored several Trojans, one of which successfully disabled the Windows firewall, allowing potential attackers remote control of the system.

http://www.computershopper.co.uk/labs/220/anti-virus-exposed/products.html

Zone Alarm AV also missed some Trojans, but as it includes ZA firewall the story was different:

The anti-virus scanner missed four of our Trojans. But when one tried to contact the internet the firewall stopped it.

http://www.computershopper.co.uk/labs/220/anti-virus-exposed/products.html

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20986.msg176258#msg176258

Windows firewall makes no attempt to protect itself, storing settings in the registry where they are easily altered by malware:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/archives/2005/oct27.php#winfirewall

There is no guarantee that a third party firewall will guarantee outbound protection. However there is a 100% guarantee that Windows firewall won't protect from outbound protection.

Promoting that users need outbound protection so they do not get infected is nothing but FUD.

Ha! This from the FUD Meister himself.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fud+mastertech&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

[hlecter]

It is impossible to guarantee outbound protection on any Windows XP computer. One a file has administrative access it can get around any "outbound" protection at will.

Agreed, but that's no reason for not using outbound protection.

Analogy is using an antivirus, it's no guarantee againt viruses at all.

This is another layer of defence and the most impotant tool is still your brain.  

I regularly take a 'known to be good' image of C to another partition.
In addition I hide that partition from me and windows. Yes, I have imaged back
a lot of times to completely undo things I have done.

But guarantee... no, just another level of protection.

[Mastertech]

You are doing people a disservice irrationally recommending a Firewall with "outbound" protection. Once you are infected you are infected and a well written virus or malware can circumvent ANY Firewall on XP running as an administrator. That is an irrefutable FACT. No matter how much you want to believe that your "outbound" protection is keeping you safe it is NOT!

People need REAL security advice like making sure all Windows Security Updates are applied and they are running an updated Anti-Virus program and Anti-Spyware program.

I have been doing this for over 15 years and deal with this daily, outbound protection hasn't protected anybody from anything. Don't get me wrong power users may enjoy the application control and advanced logging but the average user doesn't need anything more than the built-in Firewall.

[PigDog]

There is a lot of poorly written and unsophisticated malware out there and a good firewall will offer protection against that.

My car seatbelt won't save my life if I drive my car off a cliff, but it will help me in most fender-bending situations so I still wear it.

[Mastertech]

How does the outbound protection help you here? You are already infected! Windows Defender is a better solution for "poorly" written Spyware by PREVENTING you from getting infected in the first place!

[bob3160]

Unfortunately, there isn't any software out there that will totally prevent you from
getting infected. Since the cure is always written after a new malware appears, protection or
prevention always lags behind a new outbreak.
All the user can really do is to plan ahead by creating a reliable recovery strategy and by practicing safe surfing
in the first place. IMHO

[J J]

If i was to download another firewall like zone alarm would i have to uninstall the windows one?

[PigDog]

Mastertech is right or course - I'm going to uninstall my firewall immediately.

I'm also going to stop taking the antibiotics that have been fighting my chest infection.  It was irrational of my doctor to suggest that they could at least stop the infection getting any worse.

Are Microsoft moving into healthcare anytime soon?