Firewalls?

“Do y'all use Firewalls for your computers? If so, which do you use and are you happy with 'em? Do you use other products to maintain privacy or security?

I've been using McAfee's VirusScan Online - and its found quite a few nasties in my email and on my computer - I'm begining to wonder if I should have more. I do shop on line sometimes.”

“I use the McAfee Firewall. It was annoying when I had it set up to pop up everytime it blocked access, now it is ok. I don't have a clue what most of those IP addresses were, but there were many, many trying to access my computer.

The privacy service drove my family crazy, I had to take it off.”

“I use norton firewall, and really like it. Very easy to setup, no huge configuration time. I do get a lot of stopped attempts from hackers. Sometimes I wonder if they really are attempts to hack into my computer or if it is something else. Norton has a great online utility where you can trace the intruder.”

“I use Norton. Have been happy with it. I too have had a number of attempts from hackers that were stopped. Usually happened when I was connected on line, but temporarily doing something on my desk top in MS Office.”

“I use Norton too and it seems to work well. My computer geek friend is pushing me to get a router to use as a hard-wired firewall.”

“another advertisment for linux thread... :P”

“yeah, I have a router now for almost 8 month laying in the office, but did not install it yet. do it! they spose to really keep everyone out!”

“http://www.detritus.org/spam/skit.html" target="_blank"> Spam, spam, spam, spam and spam”

“oops wrong thread! But thanks for the feedback on Firewalls.”

“Yep.... gotta say go with the router. I've run a couple different tests online, since putting my Linksys in, and they say my home network is in total 'stealth mode', behind the router.

It's especially important, with 'alway on' internet connections”

“I use a LinkSys router *and* Norton's Internet Security firewall at home.

Gemini...I'd be interested in learning more about the online utility to trace via Norton.

Would you e-mail me any info you have on it to the acct. in my profile here?”

“skiracer, it comes with the norton firewall. Once you have a hack attempt you are able to trace it online on the norton website. It does tell you from what city the attempt comes from, so as what ISP, and how owns it. It's pretty cool if you want to get into the details. I still think not all "attacks" are attempts to hack into my computer, but hey, it did not hurt me so far. I am able a access anything I want. I heard Norton has a new version out too (not sure if that's true though, I will have to check into this).

Anyway, if you really want to be protected I would go with the router. While you install yours, come over here to help me install mine. It's not a big problem, but I am worried that I mess up everythign and I wont be able to access my biz email account. (then I would be in big trouble)”

“oops, I forgot. You already have the router and the firewall. Check your program. it will tell you how to trace the hacker online. (I don't know it right now because I am on the kids computer, and I always have a hard time finding it anyway)”

“One word:

ZoneAlarm


It's free and good.”

“Staples has a Belkin 4-Port Cable/DSL Router for $30 after rebates. I picked one up and set it up in about 5 minutes (simple).

Me to hackers: nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah.”

“Might want to take a look here.

I wouldn't leave it on all day.”

“Phaed: I ended up taking your advice on ZoneAlarm after a one month free trial of McAfee's firewall. I gots no complaints about ZA... and, like you said, the price is right.”

“Anyone have advice on pop ups. All of a sudden, I am inundated with them like never before. I have a free trial program I downloaded that gets rid of most of them, but doesn't allow me access to some of the things I want, so I want to get rid of it and opt for something else. Any suggestions?”

“I've heard good things about the Google tool bar (http://toolbar.google.com/) which includes a pop-up blocker. I don't use one because I can't access my free email service if I block ads. Have you removed spyware from your machine with ad-aware or spybot? - a lot of pop-ups is an indication that you are being tracked by marketers.”

“We use popupstopper from panicware. It does the job.”

“I use ZA Pro, the $35 version, and have a couple routers for other purposes, so I usually have the software firewall on the proxy server in the DMZ and a hardware packet filter (deny all, except...) in between the DMZ and most of my other boxes.

A hardware firewall is nice to have. Remember that software firewalls can never be any safer than the OS they live on top of, and since all the software firewalls mentioned here live in them Winders machines....

ZAP's privacy feature is nice if you take the time to configure it correctly. There are three parts to it, cookie control, ad blocking and mobile code control, you can use one or all. Additionally you can set individual filters and subsettings for each website you visit regularly. One caveat, there are a very few sites that I have to manually shut off all privacy to visit and have them work right. One is a security site and the other is a financial institution connected with the US government. Both are likely to be running something above ordinary code, which probably explains why they fight with the privacy feature of the ZA firewall.

ZAP also stops the pop-ups by effectively shutting Java down, (mobile code control and/or ad blocking) so be aware you will have to either manually configure each Java website you visit and need to use or else live without Java/ActiveX most of the time (my preferable option).

If your firewall is protecting more than just the box it lives on, there are some IP addressing tricks you can use to hide the other machines. E-mail if you need more details.

Finally, this outfit does a pretty good job hitting your screens from the outside to show you if they're doing their job or not.

http://www.pcflank.com/index.htm

If you run their tests, Symantec's and the ones at GRC, you ought to be safer than 99% of the computers online. Between that and regular backups, ones where you test a backed up file by actually opening it, you ought to be able to sleep soundly at night.”

“Anyone know what this is? Every time I get online my firewall catches it. It's try to access system32/svchost. When I punch time.windows.com into the address bar, it's forbidden access.”

“"Svchost" is an amorphous blob of code that performs vital services for the kernal that nobody can list or understands. Generally everyone I've talked to lets it do what it wants or else renders the box unservicable.

The error you get when you plug in the address is simply telling you that you aren't allowed to see a directory listing for the root directory on the machine time.windows.com . The hostname resolves to 207.46.130.100 .

A trace to that IP address drops off the backbone in Seattle, then hits what appears to be a round robin director called six.hotmail.net . That machine then tries several boxes on the Class B subnet 207.46.xxx.yyy, none of which respond to the pings, making me think that they are behind a firewall.

Adding all this up...svchost's benign history, Seattle, time.windows.com, and a Class B namespace....I'm guessing you are seeing some "ET phone home" code from the kernal itself or closely associated with the core of the OS.

Won't rule out malware, but my gut says no.”

“403 error!


8|”

“I run spybot and ad aware both regularly. Neither picks it up as malware. But thanks for checking into it so thoroughly. Next time it pops up I may let the firewall allow it and see what happens.”

“Sygate Personal Firewall Pro. Highly recommended.

http://www.sygate.com

”

“Since I installed that Belkin router, my software firewall hasn't alerted me to any attempted attacks. I was getting several BackDoor.Subseven Trojan attacks every week.

Of course since I bought it, I have found it muuch cheaper elsewhere. amazon.com has it for $9.99 after rebates.”

“I use Zone Alarm and after Microsoft released their patches yesterday, no internet access.

Finally got the service provider on the phone and the first question was "what firewall are you using"?

They immediately said to disable it and see if I could get access and of course, I did.

So, I just deleted the patch download and I am back in business.

Damn microsoft.”

“well, you were probably very very well protected when you had the firewall enabled!”

“Demand Media is a virus.”

“You could always get a hardware firewall rather than a software firewall and you wouldn't have this problem. Still, a software firewall is better than no firewall, provided you know how to secure it and keep yourself protected.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9108298&source=rss_news10

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2221169/zonealarm-workarounds-microsoft

Google search "Microsoft patches Zone Alarm problem"”

“I am a little different than your average home user. I run my business from a home office. I own a company that specializes in Computer and Network Security. I am a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Microsoft Small Business Specialist and a Certified SonicWALL Systems Administraor.

I've switched my network at home from the Linksys wireless router and Norton Internet Security to a hardware firewall. I use a SonicWALL TZ 180W, which is also provides secure wireless, VPN, Gateway Anti-Virus, and other security features. I run OS Enhanced on the SonicWALL device.



I use Trend Micro's Client Server Messaging Suite to provide Anti-Virus and Spam filtering for my Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Exchange) and all of my workstations (2 Windows Vista and 2 Windows XP).

A Linksys, Belkin, Netgear or D-Link router (wireless or not) will provide Network Address Translation (NAT), but does not provide a firewall. NAT just mean that people from outside your network cannot effectively "see" your internal network if you use a non-routable IP address range. This is better than nothing, but is not firewall protection.

The worst possible case would be to connect your computer's NIC card (where the ethernet cable plugs in) directly to a device that does not provide NAT.
last edited: 7/09/08 4:28:15 PM”

“Seeing as how I running the free version of ZoneAlarm, the hardware firewall will probably not get much support from my checkbook.”

“LOL. Yup, they're a little pricey, but provide the best protection available. Hardware firewalls are not for the computer-faint-of-heart as installation can be a tad complicated to install beyond the basics.”

“Here is a link to the patch for the problems you experienced (supposedly).

http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html”