Windows firewall good??

[beavereater]

My work computer is behind a router with NAT...I guess. Anyway, I recently formated but didnt install the SP1 because I was worried I would have the same connections problems I had a while back...and since everyone seems to be avoiding Zone Alarm, I wonder...is the firewall that XP has gonna do the job...or should I get something else!?

[Conquest10]

Use something else. Its good enough, but still. Who and why are they avoiding ZA? You really should install SP1, BTW.

[bunyip]

That's an odd statement about ZoneAlarm, check out the recent poll that was held here at
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=219730

ZA is the most used by those who use a software firewall.

On Windows Firewall - it's very basic and even Microsoft recommend you use another product for full protection.

[4smiley20]

The firewall on your router is probably enough protection however running a software firewall in addition is not gonna hurt anything.

The reason zonealarm has been getting bad mouthed so much lately is cause of their newest release 50.590.015. Its absolutely terrible and has been discussed on here before. I rolled back to a previous version of zonealarm myself while some people opted to go with kerio. Heres the topic:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=223175

[beavereater]

Use something else. Its good enough, but still. Who and why are they avoiding ZA? You really should install SP1, BTW.

When I changed from ADSL to cable...I decided to first connect direct to the internet without the router (I share with my girls PC) and was fine. Then I hooked up the router, but found that with certain things, the router was slowing me down. SO when I want to go without the router, I installed ZA...and it crashed a couple apps, and wouldn't let me connect when I hooked up my router as well...so I uninstalled ZA and everything worked fine. I heard others having probs with the latest edition as well...

[thecoalman]

Running ZA 4.5.594.000 behind a lynksys router on a cable modem with absolutley no trouble. I never upgraded after reading the posts here and elsewhere about the upgrade. I never upgrade anything until it's been well tested by other guniea pigs with the exception of MS critical updates.

BTW if you were running the windows firewall (on by default) and ZA at the same time they can cause conflicts. Also when you connected directly to the internet through the modem if you did so without MS updates installed and no firewall you probably have a virus. I saw a unprotected machine get infected in less than 15 minutes and that was on dial-up, your much more vulnerable on broadband.

[tekkieman]

I'm running ZA version 5.0.590.015 with a Netgear router, and the only thing I've noticed is that I occasionally lose my internet connection. I haven't done any testing yet to see if ZA is the problem or not, but it has not affected any of my apps, or my online speeds.

You should absolutely be running SP1 with XP though.

[DVD_Ripper]

I'm on a dial up and Baldrick, in a thread about 3 weeks ago, denoted that ZA was problematic in that it turns off the page compression for data xfer (if I'm saying that right)... where Kerio does not. Since I'm running on a dial up I noticed this first hand. Kerio is nice and does not degrade my xfer rate. I switched from ZA 5.x

[Treebeard]

To answer the original question ask this.

How often do you hear "Windows" and "good" in the same sentance especially when your talking about security.

[BJ_M]

i like OUTPOST , there are also a tonne of plug-ins for it


http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/

they also have a chart comparing all firewalls

http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/compare.html

[tekkieman]

Well, sorry to report that I have now confirmed that it was indeed ZA version 5.0.590.015 causing me to intermittently lose my internet connection.

[miksu]

Microsoft recommends you to use something else than included firewall, if you can. Maybe that's enough solid statement about it's capabilities