Windows Vista firewall - Is it a firewall?

[polonus]

Hi malware fighters,

The Windows Vista firewall is better than no firewall, but that is all there is to it.
See what some have to say about it:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6690672.html?part=rss&subj=edfeat&tag=Windows+Vista%27s+half-cocked+firewall

polonus

[DavidR]

Well there is a slight difference to the XP firewall in that there is limited outbound protection, but previously I thought this outbound protection is off by default. It turns out that I was wrong, well sort of, it is on by default but no rules are assigned to block outbound connection only to allow.

Outbound protection is…where?
In an e-mail, Rowan Trollope, Vice President of Consumer Engineering at Symantec, offered this interpretation: "We have discovered that though Vista's outbound firewall is 'on' by default, all outbound connects that do not match a rule are allowed. In the default configuration, there are no outbound 'block' rules, only allow rules. In other words, even though [the Windows Firewall outbound protection is] on, it is not doing anything."

I don't think this was ever going to be a full blown firewall as the anti-trust, monopoly, law suits would still be flying round.

[drhayden1]

even though i don't have vista...and probably won't for a while...i won't feel secure with the firewall they are offering in vista

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0106.mspx

[Marc57]

I'm of two minds on this, For security conscious people(like the regulars on this board) I think inbound protection is enough. We know what's on our computers and what not to do(open e-mail attachments, click on links in e-mails etc.).

We also have our security settings tighter, run A/V and antispyware scans regularly and make sure that we have all updates and patches. But, for the average user, outbound protection is a must as most don't know(or care) what they download or install on their systems.

My step children are a perfect example of this, I'm always getting calls like," I downloaded a new screensaver and now my computer is acting up".