Which firewall do you use?

Originally posted by fister
[b]Without being a brat, I have used...
1) free ZA
2) Sygate 5.0 (*cough*serial*cough*)
3)Norton
4)Mcafee
5)Keiro

The one I use now is the free ZA. It seems to do the job and it killed the sygate 5.0 someho

-when the sygate is dead,lol?

ZA not heavy but it has some difficulty in settings ...
n often it does to slow down the loading...very often

[Fister]

dont know old bean, the sygate just packed up one day and stopped working, I liked how it stealth cloaked port 80 and it also didnt respond to any pings it stayed silent. As for the built in whois IP search for the sygate...

You get ambiguity if you use that built in whois for sygate... Sad but true, you need to use one thats posted on the net or use visual route, or whois-ip both are really good...

in Sygate pf5 there are 2 options in security :
-enable port scan detection
-enable intrusion detection

n others options like anti ip spoofing ,etc...

umnnn the only difficulty exist when in a classic p2p like blubster, if these options are on,those users do -show shared songs encounters a wall because
the pf signals an attack
In a first time i believed those were really attacks n thanx to option backtrace n whois,after, i got the -criminal- ip of the lamer(lol)... n the ip is really of this user...
So i must to uncheck these options ...

N more, an option like anti ip spoofing cause damage in mp3s when it is in dl

However i think the old comand netstat n the brave -Nmap ,those are still the best or an utility like Ethereal or Sniffer pro if we want to go heavy ...

I use a personalized Win2k Advanced server sercurity policy (woot)...I'v tried Norton, BlackIce, McAffee, Tiny, and ZoneAlarm and found them all annoying as hell (all though I liked Norton the best and will still sometime use it). But really they all get the job done, so what ever floats your boat. Oh and by the way, BlackIce gets REALLY annoying

[S!aaps]

I'm not in the habit of telling ppl what Fw I use as all can be got past (I promise you) and if you know what is there it is much easier to get past it.
I cant believe in this age that anybody who spends more that a few minutes a day on line hasn't got a Fw,
It IS Needed.
I think a rule based is the way to go and spend time carefully making the rules up,
I have mine screwed down so tight but still get at least 10 odd ports probed an hour, and that is with the ones I dont have rules made up for (I have bin hit twice while typing this) and I have more than 400 rules and no hit on my resources that I can see it,
blocks Java, active X keeps my cookies in check, blocks ads tells me the IP and port of any incoming stuff all ports are stealth and has some wicked bolt on goodies that ppl have written for it.
Shame it got taken over and skrewed right up and is hard to get hold of now.

Of coarse if you have an old 486 box with Linux doing the do in it you can use it as a gateway and I feel are going the right way.

and by the way I dont think BlackIce is a real Fw like the XP one it lets anything out of your box as it only blocks incomming packets.

check www.GRC.com to see how yours is doing.

S!

[kevogod]

I believe firewalls only hamper the way you do things on your computer. They are too much fuss and for what?? I can see why people like DKChip and Unite need them because I'm sure they would be good targets to hack. As for myself and many others, the risk factor of being hacked is near null as long as you run a trojan scanner or virus scanner. Most hackers use trojans to gain access to your computer. Also make sure your IE has higher security settings (or just don't use it . I have never used a firewall and never been hacked.. or at least if I was I never noticed .

[AlienChld7]

i can't give you a compelling argument right now, so i'll just say this:

claiming that firewalls are unnecessary cause ur not a target is like saying spyware is okay cause you have nothing to hide

[kevogod]

Spyware is like a trojan, so just eliminate it! :p

Even if you were hacked.. what would they want?? I have nothing I really care about so why bother with a firewall?

[Roadblock]

I am far from an expert on this issue, but from what I understand, Even if you have nothing in particular to hide, a hacker can potentially use your computer to launch attacks on others. To me that is enough reason to run a firewall. It boils down to personal preference I suppose. Just yesterday, I switched from ZA free to Agnitum's Outpost firewall. So far I am loving it!

[the hunter]

:computer: Sorry Kev I usually agree with you, but after losing control of this machine, and watching it being used to hit other addresses, I have to say that when I do a format, and reinstall the first thing I do is install a firewall. The antivirus can wait, but seeing someone else use this comp was a bit wierd.

[AlienChld7]

here's another example:

would you let anyone just walk through your house? even if you had nothing of value or anything that someone would want to steal, why would you leave your doors unlocked? i think that example is better related to a person connecting to your computer and looking around. if this still doesn't satisfy you, i'll come up with another example tomorrow

[S!aaps]

I agree with The Hunter the first thing I do with a re-install is the Firewalls, anti virus IMHO is not that important, if you are careful (I shouldn't say this) but I have bin very lucky in that I have only had 3 or 4 virii get hold of my box in as many years.
But ppl using unprotected boxes for DOS & DDOS is happening more and more and in these days of cable and ADSL if you have a 'always on' connection the Fw is the most important thing you can install.
Until you run a Fw you have know idea what is 'phoning home' or nicking your BW.

S!