Help on firewalls?

Question

Which is the best free firewall I can get for windows?Where can I download it?

Answer 1

★★ FIREWALLS ★★

◙ What is a firewall? This is a program that protects you from the dangers of the internet. It helps to stop adware, back doors, cookies, dialers, hijackers, key loggers, spyware, thiefware, trojan horses, viruses, worms, and zombie pcs and a host of other nasties getting into your computer. There are two types of firewalls. There are one-way and two-way firewalls. The one-way type stops most things from getting in. The two-way type stops things from getting in and stops the few that slipped through from reporting back to their owners.

◙ The firewall that comes with Windows XP is a one-way. But it's better than nothing at all. To turn it on click the Start Menu > Control Panel > Windows Firewall. But I suggest that you don't use it. Instead do the following.

◙ Every computer that is connected to the internet should be behind two firewalls. You should have both a hardware firewall (a router with a firewall built into it) and a software firewall.

◙ Even if you never plan to network your home PC you should still use a router. The most common way for hackers to get into your computer is by using a port scanner program. It sends packets of data to your ip number and reports back to the owner if there are any vulnerable ports in your computer. Look for a router with a firewall with both SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) and NAT (Network Address Translation). Most modern routers have this but be sure when you buy it. This type of router will slam the door on port scanners.

◙ A really good two-way software firewall is Zonealarm http://www.zonelabs.com/ . The problem is that it will drive you insane for awhile until it figures out what programs are supposed to automatically "phone home" over the internet and which ones aren't. Let's say it asks you if it's ok to allow AcroRD32.exe to communicate over the internet. Unless you know that AcroRD32.exe is Adobe's Acrobat Reader looking to update itself over the net you will be left unsure of what to do. But with everything you have to start somewhere. You'll catch on after awhile. BE SURE TO READ THE HELP PAGES AT ZONELABS' SITE.

◙ Another thing about Zonealarm to is that if you install any new software that updates itself you'll have to put up with this all over again. But only for that one program. Not all of the others all over again. :)

◙ Every firewall has an "Exceptions" section. This is where you allow certain programs to be ignored by the firewall. One such program would be Yahoo Messenger etc. The more "Exceptions" you select the more vulnerable your system will become. You have to decide between lots of cool programs that update themselves or TIGHT SECURITY!

◙ Here are two cool security places on Yahoo to checkout. These areas are good for more than just being safe at Yahoo. They will show you tricks that will work everywhere on the internet.

☞ http://family.yahoo.com/
☞ http://security.yahoo.com/

★★ TEST YOUR FIREWALL ★★

◙ Firewalls just sit there on your hard drive in the background doing what they do. It's hard to know if they are really doing their job. Below are some sites that will check it for you.

◙ DO NOT TRY THIS ON A NETWORKED COMPUTER! THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR MIGHT SEE IT AS AN ATTACK AND PULL THE PLUG! THEN THEY WILL COME POUNDING ON YOUR DOOR ASKING WHAT KIND OF AN IDIOT ARE YOU! YOU DON"T WANT THIS KIND OF VISIT! ONLY DO THIS ON YOUR OWN HOME COMPUTER! I'm sorry for the caps but you can't bold text in Yahoo Answers. So this was the next best thing.

◙ Here are some sites that will send zillions of packets of info to your computer's ip address to see if your firewall is working. They will then list whatever vulerablities exist if any. Try them all to see which one works the best for you.

☞ http://www.grc.com/
☞ http://scan.sygate.com/
☞ http://www.hackercheck.com/
☞ http://www.planet-security.net/

◙ The source of this information was "PCs, The Missing Manual". If you have Windows XP you really need to buy this wonderful book. It is worth every penny they are charging for it.

☞ http://www.missingmanuals.com/

Answer 2

Less costly is an old machine with an iptables firewall (eg. a Linux distro like IPcop). Which is better is arguable. I lean towards the Linux machine, primarily because it is generally easier to patch in the event that a vulnerability is discovered and usually such patches are available sooner than most proprietary hardware solutions. Additionally, it is more useful and configurable (has almost unlimited features) and you aren't stuck with waiting on a company to keep up to date. Some prefer hardware firewalls as they may be a little simpler to implement. One could argue that a proprietary hardware solution is more secure because the source code is secret, but this is highly debated or has been. A hardware firewall may be more suitable for high bandwidth applications as it can support higher throughput depending on its design and what computer it's compared to. A firewall should be a separate machine in any case. A desktop firewall or just running iptables or the like on the same machine used as a server or desktop is not as secure and should only be done in addition to a dedicated firewall. Edit: Most consumer routers do not contain firewalls, at best several could be consider pseudo-firewalls. Also, it is possible to attack a private network that sits behind a NAT router.

Answer 3

If your platform is Windows XP Prof., you want to go into your setting and control panel and shut down their firewall. The reason is their firewall only supports you with incoming traffice. No firewall is any good unless you are supported from rogue traffice coming into your pc and protecting your privacy by not allowing private information to leave your pc. You must have incoming/outgoing protection.

I have used for years "ZoneAlarm". (Their free version). Because you don't want any software that performs as a firewall, an also antivirus/spyware. (This is not good. You want seperate software for each process that you want to use it for).

http://www.zonealarm.com They are out of San Francisco, U.S.A. Plus they will give you automatic updates to their firewall daily if warranted. An all new version they will advise you via automatic notice to download the new version. You never have to remove the old version as this is done with their wizard.

When you do get a new version it is always best when they ask you permission to perform a clean install, say yes, because you don't want the software to have to remember all the updates and services that you gave permisison to enter your pc.

Always best to start all over again. ZoneAlarm will only ask you once for permission on any incoming traffic, if you check off the box where it will say "remember", for each pop-up. After you have educated your firewall, you will never see anymore pop up unless you have something new. Plus you can always open thier "Control Center", and see how many rogue ports tried to send you rouge packets of data.

Clinical Psychiatrist, France.

Excuse my english please

Answer 4

Windows XP has its own firewall but its crap if you are looking for free you can get Zonealarm.
If you want to take security further look into getting a hardware firewall like a linksys router or something similar

Answer 5

I use ZoneAlarm by Zone labs at www.zonealarm.com. Go to"special offers and trials". Clink on it. Go to the exreme right and you will see the free download. Whatever you choose be sure that the firewall checks outgoing as well as incoming traffic.Also Zone Alarm is highly rated by most major mags and internet sources. At first it will drive you nutz, as pop-ups asking you if you want to accept the source ( if yes, check the remember my answer box.) Remember, it will ask you if you accept or not everything that tries to go in or out of your computer. This is for your protection. But once you check "remember my answer", it wont bug you again about that source. It also gives a description of the source so that you may evaluate whether or not you want to accept the source. And a lot more goodies. Go for it!

Answer 6

Zone Alarm is crap and Windows firewall only blocks incoming packets. Every other firewall filters both incoming and outgoing packets.

Comodo is both free and an excellent choice:
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Passes firewall leaktests that the others can't.

Answer 7

Just so you know there are two types of firewalls. Hardware and software.

Free Software Firewalls:
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/trial_zaFamily/trial_zaFamily.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en&lid=zaskulist_trial
http://www.comodogroup.com/products/personalfirewall.html
Window XP SP2 Firewall Builtin

Not-Free Hardware Firewalls:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps1018/index.html
http://www.watchguard.com/products/

Answer 8

The best I have used is Zone Alarm. I don't use to keep people out that is what my router is for. I mainly use it to keep programs and spyware access on the outgoing. The firewall tells me when something is trying to access the internet. Then i see what it is and if it should be going to the internet and then either allow or disallow and click always and it will never ask for to allow or disallow for the particular program..thanks

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Windows XP SP2 has a built-in firewall. But if you are looking for another, try ZoneLabs (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en)